HiFi Plus

Home Entertainment 2001 New York

By Roy Gregory

Best sound at the show? Definitely the system put together by Soundstage of Westfield. Starting with a VPI TNT-5 Hot-Rod, they added the JMW 12.5 arm and a vdH Black Beauty Cartridge. This fed the phono stage of a VAC Signature pre-amplifier which then sent the signal via the more affordable VAC Renaissance Line Stage (showing uncharacteristic restraint if you ask me) to a pair of the VAC Signature stereo power-amps. End of the chain was a pair of the eight foot tall Pipedream speaker (that's 21 midrange and 42 tweeters per side}), complete with a pair of their cylindri-cal I8” sub-woofers drivers from an intelligent, self adjusting active crossover. This lot was all crammed into a regular hotel bedroom, and when you consider that every single piece of equipment in the system is on the extravagant side of large then it's amazing that there was room to sit down! But the sound was glorious, with effortless dynamic range at both ends of the spectrum, huge scale amid wonderful transparency. The confines of the room simply disappeared as the music unrolled before you, full of intimacy, subtlety and life, yet with speed and power aplenty on tap. The Classic Records 45RPM cut of the Bruch Scottish Fantasy was simply breath-taking, Heifetz' peerless grace and technique revealed in all its majesty I could get seriously lustful about this system, but with the speakers alone weighing in at $50000, I think ownership is a fair way off just yet. l shudder to think what it would do in a larger room with tile full complement of four subs. But then there's always the slightly smaller, full-range towers at a mere $10 K. I wonder.... (www. nearfieldacoustics.com) (www. vpiindustries.com)