Mark Fleischmann

PSB Imagines a Better-Sounding Future for You
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 05, 2008
PSB's Paul Barton shows off his new Imagine line to showgoers. With trickle-down technology from the bleeding-edge Synchrony line, it's a great-sounding family of speakers, as I discovered at a recent demo in New York. Put it on your short list of must-hears.
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Dynaudio Celebrates 30th Birthday in Style
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 05, 2008
The Dynaudio Sapphire is a one-thousand-unit limited edition that made its debut at CES 2008 and is shipping now. It costs $16,500/pair but, hey, just listening to it couldn't do you any harm, right?
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Check Out Our Sister Pub's KEF Reference Review
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 05, 2008
I haven't heard the KEF Reference 201/2 but Wes Phillips of Stereophile has. I leave you in his capable hands.
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Sirius and XM Jointly Exhibit as New Company
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 05, 2008
With this merger I do thee wed.
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Yamaha Stokes Fires of Class Prejudice
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 05, 2008
ONLY .00001 PERCENT OF THE U.S. POPULATION WILL OWN ONE, says Yamaha of its top-line RX-Z11 receiver. What Yamaha does not mention is that the other 99 point something percent are getting ready to slit their throats and steal the receiver.
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Pro-Ject Thinks Inside and Outside the Box
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 05, 2008
Pro-Ject's Design Box Series includes an iPod dock, USB phono preamp, stereo amp, mono amp, tube amp, etc. And if you buy four of them, you can keep them in this attractive box, which also comes in red and other colors. And if you flip the box over, you'll find a cutout that accommodates the iPod dock, were that one of your choices.
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Sonus Faber Toys with Your Affections
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 05, 2008
Sonus Faber calls this leather-clad mini-monitor the Toy. It includes a ring radiator tweeter and 5.25-inch paper cone woofer for $1495.
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Pioneer and Jones Make Killer In-Walls
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 05, 2008
The fruitful collaboration between Pioneer and speaker designer extraordinaire Andrew Jones continues with the EX Series Reference Class Architectural Loudspeakers. Demoed without sub, they produced tight, fast, strong bass with the kind of silky midrange Pioneer EX speaker fans have come to love. In fact, they are in the running for best sound of show. Murderously brilliant in-walls. Go figure. Drivers borrowed from Pioneer's more conventional EX speaker models include ceramic graphic tweeters, magnesium mids, and aramid/carbon composite woofers. Pioneer also added two receivers to the line. The more noteworthy one is the SC-07 ($2200) which uses the same digital amplification found in the top-line monster SC-09. If you'd prefer THX to digital amps, try the VSX-03TXH ($1000) which is Select2-certified. Both include HDMI jitter-reduction circuits and are shipping now.
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McIntosh Gorges on Tweeters and Mids
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 05, 2008
Though better known for its gorgeous and high-performing amps, McIntosh also does speakers, such as the new XR200 floorstander. With seven tweeters, a dozen midrange drivers, and eight 8-inch woofers, each backed with a 12-pound motor, it's not likely to compress with any signal known to humankind. The demo sounded good. Also new from McIntosh are the MDLP2 DLP projector, MPC1500 power controller, and MC303 three-channel amp (pictured with extremely cheerful showgoer in upper left).
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Snell's Got Joe Fulltime and It Shows
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 05, 2008
Yesterday's photo opportunity missed a big piece of Snell news: Legendary designer Joe D'Appolito is now on staff fulltime. It's already paying dividends with three new lines, all of which repurpose the same driver array for different applications. The Signature Elegant Series comes in good-looking veneered enclosures. The Signature Hidden Series comes in plain-vanilla MDF for use in cabinetry. And the Signature Invisible is, as you'd guess, for in-wall use and supplement other non-Signature in-wall and in-ceiling models. Some of the in-ceilings got an actual 5.1-channel movie demo to demonstrate that surround can live in your ceiling. Finally, who could resist another beauty shot, this time of the $50k Illusion floorstander, a seventh-generation reiteration of the history-making Snell A Reference. It's dual 10-inch, offers bass down to 27Hz, and threatens output of 112dB. The pretty amps are from fellow D&M stablemate Marantz.
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