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ROCKY MOUNTAIN AUDIO FEST 2013

מאת Jonathan Valin



In the past I have not been wild about Rockport Technologies’ four-driver (two carbon-fiber woofers, one carbon-fiber midrange, one beryllium tweeter), three-way, $29.5k Avior floorstander. For that matter, on the one occasion I heard them at a show I wasn’t all that crazy about Absolare’s electronics (although I did hear them sound great in Robert’s room with the Magico Q7s). However, in the XactAudio room, where the Avior was mated with Absolare’s Passion Signature monoblock amps and Passion Signature preamp, The Beat table with Schroder LT ’arm, a Lyra Atlas cartridge, and Echole cords and cables, what hadn’t impressed me in the past turned into a strong contender for Best of Show. The Avior/Absolare combo provided simply wonderful texture and tone color with an unusually open soundfield and genuinely realistic power-range weight, richness, and body. Lt Kije was almost as good as I hear it sound at home. Janis Joplin was phenomenal. This was far and away the best sound I’d yet heard at RMAF (and I’d heard some good sound)—full and smooth without loss of resolution, fast without aggressiveness, rich and sweet without being syrupy. In other words, a great stereo system. The only thing missing was that last octave of bass that I hear at home