deHavilland, PranaWire, Redpoint

John Crossett was fortunate enough to stop by after Sound Fusion Luna SF-70 speakers were brought into the room. They were paired with deHavilland Aries GM-70 monoblocks ($9950/pair) and Mercury II preamplifier ($3995). Sources were either the Redpoint Audio Design Series D turntable (from $16,000) with both the Ikeda IT450 and IT345 tonearms and Ortofon SPU Royal and Ikeda 9C3 cartridges, or a Sony SCD777ES SACD player used as a transport into a Metronome C20 DAC ($4995). All cabling was from PranaWire -- Cosmos ($3995/meter) and Deva ($1295/meter) interconnects, Vajra phono cable ($2950/ meter), Cosmos speaker cables ($4750/meter), and Samadhi power cords ($2950/meter). The sound was alive with detail -- thanks in no small part to the speakers' ribbon tweeters -- and showed excellent tonal balance.

Complete reort can be found athttp://www.shows.soundstagelive.com/shows/ces2006/standout_dehavilland.shtml