Specs & Pricing

Manufacturers Comments
Bardaudio Wireless Audio System
One thing to clarify is that the user can have as many receivers as he
wishes “listening” to one transmitter transmitting on any one of
the eight channels. So there are no limits to the number of rooms,
other than the size of the house. Also, and particularly in the case of the
USB-based system, the sound quality is defined by the DAC at the receiving
end, i.e., the BardThree or the BardOne Rx. It is also governed by the
source material—16-bit/44.1kHz uncompressed WAVs are best. As implied
in the review the products are designed to rival similarly priced, wired hi-fi
products. More high-end (and hence more expensive) products are in the
Sonneteer pipeline.
Chapter Electronics Précis
Integrated Amplifier
Haider Bahrani
Managing Director
I
would like to thank Neil for providing an extremely accurate description
of our product. Neil makes reference to what Jonathan Valin calls top-end
compression in Class D amplifiers; whilst I am aware of what Jonathan
describes, this is not entirely accurate in the case of the Précis. All of our
amplifiers use exactly the same amplifier circuit and the effect described is not
present in our award-winning stereo unit, the Chapter Couplet. The difference
is caused by power supply alone. The Précis uses a standard Linear PSU,
whereas the Couplet uses a high-frequency power-factor-corrected PSU using
spread-spectrum techniques to provide virtually limitless instantaneous power.
This technology is, however, very expensive and thus sets aside our higher-end
units by its use there. This effect can also be greatly affected by the choice of
power cable, which is why we have introduced a complete range of cables to
accompany our products. These cables also protect and shield further against
the RF interference so prevalent in our industry today.
Duncan Shrimpton, Technical Director
Chapter Electronics Limited
Clearaudio Ambient Turntable
We are pleased that Jim Hannon enjoyed our Ambient turntable
system’s look and sound, noting it retains the sonic strengths
of our previous products and now adds enhanced musicality,
naturalness, and lifelike qualities. Jon Valin has already mentioned (in his
Clearaudio Titanium cartridge review) how the improved generator design
of our new “super-class” cartridges contributes to this evolution. [With the
Ambient ‘table] we feel it is important to talk more about the Panzerholz
material. It is an extremely hard multilaminated material manufactured
from beech veneers and synthetic resins under high pressure and heat. It
combines metal-like hardness and mechanical strength with the advantages
of accurate workability. It has a particularly favorable strength-to-weight
ratio, low sonic resonance, low electrical conductivity, and antimagnetic
properties, and works at ambient temperatures from -320 to +203 degrees
Fahrenheit. It wasn’t that last spec which led to our naming the table, it was
as Jim notes “one gorgeous looking product.”
Garth Leerer, Musical Surroundings
Robert Suchy, Clearaudio
Kharma Mini Exquisite
Loudspeaker
Kharma and I would like to thank Wayne for his wonderful review.
The Exquisite family of speakers is the “super models” of Kharma’s
outstanding, standard-setting Reference Ceramique Line. Specifically,
the Mini builds upon and improves the performance of the CRM3.2FE. We
like to think of it as the best speaker in the world for a small-to-mediumsized
room, and would like to point out that the when the ceramic driver is
mounted in its basket and surround, short of being poked and prodded by
foreign objects, it is no more fragile than a paper cone.
Wayne hints—and we would like to drive this point home—that this worldclass
speaker does benefit from being played with the finest equipment available,
and will perform up to the level of the other components in the system.
Bill Parish
GTT Audio & Video, USA/Canada Kharma Importer
Kuzma Stabi XL/Airline
Turntable and Arm
Thank you for the opportunity to have our Kuzma Stabi XL/Airline
turntable and arm reviewed in TAS. While we feel that JV has done an
admirable job in his review, there are a few points that we would like
to clarify and expand upon.
First, I want to focus on pricing. JV discusses in his review that the Kuzma
unit, as supplied, retails for $28,500.00. While this is correct for the unit as he
auditioned it, we provided JV with the adjustable VTA tower; if the consumer
wants to have a dedicated tower for just the Airline arm, it is available for
$1500 less. There is also the issue of the stand needed: We recommend that a
finely-adjustable solid stand (such as Walker’s or Kuzma’s own) be used rather
than a Vibraplane or other rather more pliant air platform, in order to control
the “set” of the platform more precisely.
Lastly, there is the issue of the wiring used for the tables: The Kuzma is
hard-wired with 1.5M of copper Cardas tonearm cable to the Eichmann RCA
bullet plugs, while the Walker, with its separate female RCA jacks, allows the
owner to use interconnects of his/her choice (in this instance JV elected to use
the [admittedly superb] TARA Labs Zeros). We feel that this may well be an
advantage to Walker, and we plan to have this feature available for the Airline
in the near future.
Scot Markwell and Peder Beckman, Elite AudioVideo Distribution
Rega System
We appreciate Barry Willis’ review of our all British Music System. We are
happy that he was surprised by the R3 speakers, the unsung heroes of
the line. Like all Rega products, they are made in England and include
real wood veneers and Rega’s own mid and bass drivers. The R3 is designed to sit
close to the wall, preserving the square footage of your home. The electronics share
the same extruded aluminum chassis, which makes for superior performance over
folded metal boxes at reasonable prices. For the headphone enthusiast, Rega offers
a headphone amp called the Ear. The limitations Barry noted are based more on
usage than the components themselves. For the hardcore rocker, such as Barry, Rega
offers both larger speakers and amps to get your SPLs on.
Chad Harper
Rega USA Distributor, The Sound Organisation
124 December 2006 The Absolute Sound