By Richard H. Mak
Bernard Li of Charisma Audio has always managed to bring in new products for display year after year, and his room often looks completely different from one year to the next. This year, he partnered up with Jonathan Badov and Edgar Balian of Sonic Artistry to showcase a number of new products.
The Döhmann Helix 1 Turnable was shown for the first time in Canada. The Helix 1 is designed by Mark Döhmann, who earned is fame with the US$ 120,000 Continuum Caliburn Table. The Helix 1 employs a complex advanced “Micro Signal Architecture” (MSA) technology which was covered extensively in our 2015 RMAF show report. The Helix 1 list at CAD$ 52,000.
Also new to the Canada is the Schroder CB tonearm which comes in 9″ (CAD$ 5,200) or 12″ (CAD $5,720). Except for the carbon graphite armwand, it is nearly identical to the Frank Schroder designed Artemis Lab TA-1 tonearm which I reviewed for Dagogo.com back in 2012. The setup was connected to a Devialet 200 Expert Integrated amplifier (CAD$ 9,955), and a pair of tear drop shaped Davone Solo loudspeaker (CAD$ 9,995), imported from Denmark.
I sat in the room for about half an hour, and listened to one side of the Incredible String Band album, “Liquid Acrobat As Regards The Air”, folksy tunes came across as warm, musical and somewhat rounded. These are at the opposite end of the spectrum versus Magico or Wilson, surely they do not carry the “punch” on the bottom end, but they sound natural, and free of listener fatigue. A perfect pair of speakers for the post modernly decorated home.
