I made some time today to visit our local hifi shop to see what's new. Well it was a trip worth while. Music For Pleasure is our local Dynaudio dealer and out of 1,000 30th anniversary pairs of Sapphires being built, guess who had a pair on display. You guessed it. http://www.dynaudio.com/eng/systems/.../sapphire2.php

In the system were all new components to me, and what an incredible system it was. Front end was a T+A SACD player into one of their preamps. I believe the sales rep said it was a tube preamp, maybe a B10 but don't hold me to it. The amps were two Clayton Audio, Class A, 300 watt monoblocks driving the Sapphires. The price quoted for the Sapphires were $16.5k and the amps $14k a pair. I don't know how accurate the prices are because they were given off the top of the guys head. Yeah, these are big price tags but I've heard a few pair of Krell monoblocks and the Dynaudio, Evidence Flagship and Temptations, comparatively the system I heard today was outstanding and I'd consider a good value in ultra high end gear and sound. Especially when you consider the Sapphires are a limited edition of only 1,000 pair being made. The overall sound was excellent but one of the things that really impressed me was the bass response. The Sapphires have the same drivers as the Evidence series and these have to be the world's best 8" driver. And, can you imagine 300 watts Class A? I'm sure this also had a big contribution to the bass response. The sales person told me to go ahead and turn it up some, so I did. It was amazing, the sound was high but held together just as good as it did at the lower volume, the Clayton's were power defined. The SPL was loud enough you couldn't hear some one next to you talk but it didn't seem that loud, the music was still clean and clear like the Clayton's had plenty of throddle left and the Sapphires just sang. The bass line was clean and defined. The speakers played so low you thought there might have been a sub hidden some where. I'm talking floor shaking feel it in your gizard low. Midrange was nice with natural sounding voices with ease and plenty of air. The highs were nice but I hate to say too much in this area as it's not really what captured my attention, maybe if I had more time to listen. Needless to say I was impressed, I won't bore you by going on and on.

They also carry NAD which is a new addition since I last visited. I took the time to look in on the Master series HT processor & 7 channel power amp. It wasn't fair to hear the NAD after hearing the Sapphire system first. They also was playing an Eric Clapton concert. Nothing against Eric, I was just hoping to hear a movie to judge sound effects and clarity. The concert was in 5.1 though and I can assure you the clarity was fine. The system was using Dyn mains and center, not sure which. To my surprise the surrounds were in wall. The guy walked out and I didn't remember to ask what they were, they were very good though. It's difficult to critique a system like this from a couple tracks off a concert DVD but I did hear enough to know if I were looking for a processor the NAD would be on my list. I wanted to hear an integrated but didn't want to wear out my welcome.

On the way out I did stop to hear the Martin Logan Purity. http://www.us.martinlogan.com/speaker_intro/purity.html

This is a very interesting speaker in the fact that it is fully amplified. It CAN be hooked to flat panel TV's or even computers, although my thought is $3k is a bit much to hook to these types of devices but who knows. Just think though a pair of Puritys with a nice preamp and you are set. When I heard them today the Purity was hooked to an Arcam Solo. If you know me then you know that I am a ML "fanboy" and the Purity did not disappoint. The electrostatic panels, as in all the ML's I've heard, are able to give an erie sense of presence or whatever that is that makes you feel like the person is there in the room. The intensity of this feeling is dependent on the electronics driving them though. The Solo paired with the Purity did a remarkable job. I really really want to bring a pair of these home to play with.