Dehavilland Electric Amplifier Co. - Last year I picked the deHavilland room as "Best Sound of Show". I would do the same again this year, except that deHavilland had an unfair advantage. As their source, they had an Ampex 351-2 open reel tape recorder that had been modified by Kara Chaffee, deHavilland’s chief designer. The entire playback system consisted of the Ampex feeding a deHavilland Ultraverve preamp, deHavilland GM-70 SET amps, and Alon Lotus Elite Signature speakers all connected with Prana Wire cabling and power cords. Using prerecorded 4 track open reel tapes as the source, the sound was astounding. I was in the room two different times when a Columbia prerecorded tape of Mendelssohn’s 1^st Piano Concerto (Serkin/Ormandy/Philadelphia) was played. Both times at the end of the final movement the people in the room stood up and applauded, just as if they were in a concert hall. This is not normal CES behavior. In addition, the second time there were ten people in the room. All ten people sat through the entire three movements of the 1^st piano concerto without talking or getting up and leaving. To have ten CES attendees sit silently through an entire concerto is mind boggling as most attendees normally dash in and out of the rooms. What is even more amazing to me is that as I tried to analyze the sound that I was hearing I was not coming up with a list of superlatives. The soundstage was large, but not humongous. The resolution was detailed, but not incredibly so. The instruments were delineated in space, but not as well as some other systems that I had heard that day. Despite these short comings, what I was hearing was as close to a concert hall experience as I have ever come without being in a concert hall. Truly amazing.

Complete Report at     http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue11/ces04rg.htm