Audio Imports is proud to announce that it has been appointed by Harman International, the sole distributor for South Africa for INFINITY loudspeakers, effective 1 January 1998.

Our first shipment should arrive in March 1998.

The CES is considered as the industry's largest show, worldwide. This year, as part of an Audio Imports/Harman International competition held with our appointed Harman Kardon dealers, Eleven South African retail dealers where invited to the CES.

Also from Cardas, a new phono cartridge, the Heart LO, based on the Benz-Micro Ruby, is now available.

Connected to the Omega amplifier was a disguised prototype of the Omega pre-amplifier, in a CP-60 box with two power supplies, the CDT-1 and DAC-1 digital front end, Cardas Golden Cross cables and a pair of Avalon loudspeakers.

As all Audiophiles know, new equipment has to run-in and while it is running in the sound quality goes up and down. Fortunately, as I went back several time to the Classe’ exhibit, I had the chance of hearing the system during one of those better moments. It was absolutely glorious.

On passive display were the new CDP .3 CD player, the CAP-150 integrated amplifier, Tuner-1 FM Stereo Balanced Tuner and the SSP-50 & 25 surround sound pre-amp/processors, as well as the complete line of amplifiers, pre-amplifiers and CD Players.

With a fairly large exhibit at the Hilton Convention Centre, Definitive Technology, were demonstrating an active surround system with their all new and awesome BP-3000 with built-in 1000 watts active 18" subwoofers, C/L/R 3000 centre channel and BP-X rears, as well as a stereo system with the ProTower 400 floor standing speakers, which also have an active built-in subwoofer (125 watts only). The ProCinema range to which the ProTower belongs has been augmented with the introduction pf the ProMonitor 200 and the ProCenter C2.

The PowerField subwoofers have been upgraded and had the letters T and L added to their model numbers.

The active displays included Nelson Pass amplifiers, Theta Casablanca, Theta Data III, Theta Jade and Kimber cable.

 

HARMAN INTERNATIONAL.

In view of their huge stand at the Berlin Hifi Fair in September 1997, Harman International had a very small and limited display at the L.V. convention centre. On the other hand, in one of the suites at the Hilton, the new Signature range, including a prototype of a DVD player, new surround receivers (AVR-85 and 75) and the Festival 60 and 80 compact systems were on active display.

Allan Scott of Harman International gave a very comprehensive lecture to all our dealers, going into the details of the set-up procedure of the Signature 2.0 pre-amp/processor, explained the reason behind certain choices and the design philosophy of the 2.0, the 1.5 and 2.1 power amplifiers.

The Festival compact system were also presented in great detail by Allan Scott.

After two hours or so of dealer training, we were all treated to a delicious diner at one of the LAS Vegas restaurants, where our dealers realised that huge tasty steaks are also available outside South Africa....., even bigger and tastier.

 

JEFF ROWLAND DESIGN GROUP.

The Model 8T and 9T have had the output stages completely redesigned and are now called 8Ti and 9Ti. This design change has been initiated with the new output transistors used in the Concentra integrated amplifier introduced last year, which proved so good, that Jeff Rowland could not resist to extend this technology to his range of amplifiers.

Having had the opportunity to compare a Model 8 Ti against a Model 9T at our premises, I can report that the differences between the 8Ti and the 9T are pretty small, demonstrating the sonic improvements of the Ti version. Quite an achievement, considering that the 8 Ti is approximately half the price of the Model 9T.

Upgrades for the Model 9T to 9Ti will be available during the course of 1998.

A new range of high end interconnects and speaker cable, named "Kimber Select" was introduced at the show. The range consist of three single ended analogue interconnect (KS 1010, KS 1020 & KS 1030), two balanced analogue interconnects (KS 1120 & KS 1130) one SP/DIF 75 ohm digital interconnect (KS 2020), one Digital AES/EBU Balanced Digital Interconnect (KS 2120), one I²S•e Digital interconnect (KS 2330), Three speaker cables (KS 3033, KS-3035 & KS 3038) and three Jumper cables for Bi-Wire purposes.

The differences between the various models is based on the type of material used, copper or copper and silver or silver, as the basic design is similar within the same type of cable.

The Select range of cables may be the best looking cables we have seen so far. If they sound as good as they look, we are in for a real treat!

Kimber Select, as its name suggest will only be available at selected Dealers and distributors who comply to certain criteria set out by Kimber Kable.

STRAIGHT WIRE.

During the course of 1997, Straight wire has been introducing a whole new range of interconnects, Chorus, Symphony, Sonata, Encore II, Rhapsody II, Maestro II, Solo and Virtuoso II.

The speaker line has also seen new additions such as Duo, Rhythm, Stage, Encore II, Rhapsody II, Maestro II, Virtuoso II and their super high end cable the Black Silk.

A prototype of the Black Silk interconnect, as well as a bright green un-named power cord were also on display.

Quite a few new interesting products were on display by Theta Digital. The Casa Nova, a smaller version of the Casablanca, based on the same up-gradable card principle, will be introduced in June 98 in South Africa, at a projected price around R. 20.000 to R 25.000 including an AC-3 card.

Also on display was a DVD player, named DaViD (!!!) (May 98)and a DVD/LD player, Voyager, which replaces the Data III. The long awaited, cost no object Digital to Analogue converter, the Precedent, was actively displayed in a very basic prototype form. This DAC should retail for R. 60000 to R. 70000 and be available towards the last quarter of 1998. Theta promises that this will knock everybody's socks off!

With the recent introduction of the Jade CD transport with a built in DSP, and the overwhelming response from dealers, distributors and clients, Theta used the DSP technology on the DaViD DVD Player and Voyager Multi Player, and will offer a separate unit, named the Jitter Jail, designed to be plugged in between any D/A converter and the lesser expensive Theta CD transport (Pearl) which will not incorporate this DSP technology due to its price, as well as older models such as the Data II, Data III and DataBasic II.

On the Casablanca front, a new card, Circle Surround, will be available in the very near future. This card is designed to synthetise stereo on the rear channels of Dolby Pro-Logic and 2 channel stereo (matrixed) material.

Also, for those who have a high end DAC, such as the DS Pro Generation Va, a card is now available, so that the Casablanca uses the external DAC for the main left and right front and the circuitry normally inside the Casablanca for those channels can be discarded.

Here too, we had very interesting, specially arranged South African Dealers’ meeting, led by Neil Sinclair himself. With all these new products and the uncertainty of DVD standards, region codes etc..., there was plenty to talk about.

The active system consisted of a DaVid DVD player, a Casablanca with a Precedent D/A converter, Ayre amplifiers, Wilson loudspeakers and subwoofer and the Hughes/JVC projector.

All agreed that this exhibit had by far the best picture quality. In fact, no one had ever seen such a picture quality in a domestic system. This means that DVD does have great potential. The sound was excellent, as long as you were sat in the first or the second row.

 

THIEL LOUDSPEAKERS.

Two new speakers were displayed by Thiel, the CS 7.2 and CS 2.3. For the first two day, the CS 7.2 was on active display and all I can say is that this is definitely the best speaker Thiel has ever designed with a breathtaking level of transparency, speed, dynamics, bass extension and detail.

The CS 2.3 was "activated" on the last two days. This speaker is a definite winner, with many of the qualities of the CS 6 & CS 7.2 and a very affordable price, in high end terms. Both the CS 7.2 and the CS 6 incorporate some very innovative and ingenious technologies.

Jim Thiel gave a very interesting presentation of the CS 7.2 and CS 2.3(Active) to our South African dealers, where they learned quite a few relevant things about speaker design, and practical implementation of such designs.

Also on display, but only in back room, was a prototype of a new, rather large centre channel speaker.

All in all this was a very interesting show, specially for us, considering the many new products we will be introducing during 1998. The noticeable fact however was the nearly non-existent attendance of representatives from Asia, which made this show, in comparison with last year, a bit empty.