“In our last issue we profiled one of the less expensive Sony SACD players, and here we offer a look and listen to the big kahuna, the Sony with no baloney, the ES statement in SACD multichannel. The single-disc SCD-XA777ES, like our reference Pioneer Elite DV-AX10, has 6 independent DACs rather than the single or double chips found in many DVD or SACD players…”

“The first series of cartridges named after a Bach theme, that of the Contrapunctus XIX where the composer’s name appears in the upper voice at one point, the Kontrapunkt a and b kartridges (If Linn can do it, so can I!) are based on the previous Jubilee series of more expensive models, and before that the MC-3000 to MC-7500 top models…”

Bill Low, AudioQuest’s president and founder, must have a thing for snakes, something not entirely inappropriate for someone who spends most of their time making audio cable. The Viper is fourth from the top in AudioQuest’s interconnect hierarchy behind the Amazon, Anaconda, and Python.

“Athena started out as a research project headed by the NRC (National Research Council) into speaker performance in which Audio Products International (API) was heavily involved, along with other Canadian speaker manufacturers. I guess it seemed logical for Ian Paisley, research head at the company to name its new brand thusly…”

“So much for entry level. With a combined price approaching seven grand, not to mention 7.1 surround channels on tap, “small” was no longer part of the equation. Now I needed speakers. Lots of speakers, as it turned out. Ever since hearing that Edge Audio was one of the first adopters of the Diaural crossover developed by Kimber Kable I’d wanted to review their speakers. A trip to their website revealed two things: First, that they had changed their name to Aperion Audio, and second that they had packaged systems ranging up to 7.1 channels: Just what the doctor ordered…”

“Amphion is a speaker line from Finland that has now entered the Canadian market, with some stylish models that claim to be “phase linear throughout the whole hearing range”, with “perfectly aligned voice coils”. They also are designed for “controlled directivity for minimizing room reflections. The Athene is a D’Appolito-configured 2-way system in a tall slim cabinet using a 4″ polypropylene woofer/midrange driver pair and a titanium tweeter, which is contained within a circular lens in the front baffle which helps even and control dispersion…”

“I first encountered this DVD-A player at an all-day Audio Engineering Society Toronto chapter seminar on the new digital audio formats near the end of May. It was used for DVD Audio playback in demonstrations of the new format, as was a Pioneer DV-38A review sample that I provided…”

“We’ve already looked at Arcam’s FMJ DVD player (Almanac 02), and here we have their best offering for 2-channel folks, the CD23 and the A32. Both are cleanly styled in silver and grey, with a long thin remote with a lot of small buttons that are grey on grey. In fact there are two, one for each component, that for the player also able to operate the DV27…”

“Marantz is unique, as far as I know, in offering both SACD and DVD-A players, the DV-12S1 and the SA-12S1. Both play video DVDs, but unlike Pioneer’s Elite DV-47a neither will play both digital audio formats. Instead of a universal player, here we have not-quite-identical twins..”

Highlights Include: Ortofon Kontrapunkt B Moving Coil Cartridge, Sony SCD-777ES Multichannel SACD Player, Musical Fidelity NuVista 3D CD Player, Sony Wega KV32XBR450 HD-Ready TV, Simaudio Moon Stellar DVD Player, Anthem AVM 20 Home Theatre Processor, Aperion Audio 7.1 Home Theatre SpeakerSystem, Kimber Palladian PK 10 AC Cable, Arcam FMJ CD 23 CD Player, Amphion Athene Loudspeaker, Athena Technologies Point 5 Home Theater System, Marantz DV-12S1 DVD-A Player & SR8200 A/V Receiver, Bryston 6B ST 3 Channel Power Amplifier, and more…