In a show of true international cooperation, hi-fi manufacturers from six countries have joined forces to put together this extraordinary high-end hi-fi system here in Denver. The $300,000 set-up includes components from the USA, UK, South Korea, Greece, Germany and Poland.
Regular readers may recognise the Wilson Benesch Resolution speakers from the UK, which sell in the US for a shade under $70,000. The system's electronics come from Ypsilon in Greece, comprising the PST100 MkII valve preamp, a pair of Aelius II push-pull mono amps and the DAC 1000 valve digital-to-analogue converter. That little lot will set you back a cool $100,500.
Oh, and did we mention that the bespoke R1 Carbon modular kit racks, also supplied by Wilson Benesch, cost $8500 per tier?
Providing the music is the $22,000 Aurender W20SE music server from South Korea, and Germany's HB Design is responsible for the PowerSlave Marble MkII power distributor ($16,500).
Handling bass duties is the Wilson Benesch Torus and amp "infrasonic generator" ($12,900) – that's the circular black subwoofer on the floor at the front of the photo.
If you take a look around the back, you'll see interconnects and cables the thickness of a large python. US company Stage III has supplied all the interconnects, power cables and speaker cables – at a total cost of $67,700. Yup, that's just for the cables folks. Oh, and lets not forget the $15,000 worth of anti-vibration platforms from Stacore in Poland.
So how does it sound? Well pretty wonderful from the short demo we heard. US company Aaudio Imports, based in Colorado, was responsible for bringing the complete system to CEDIA Expo.
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