CAF 2013: Two from Triode Wire Labs, Charles Rollo Audio, GT Audio Works, Kanso Furniture (new pics)

Splitting two rooms, Triode Wire Labs, Charles Rollo Audio (formerly Swap Meet Audio), and GT Audio Works were clearly having a fine time of it.

Triode Wire Labs was showing off his brand new “American Speaker Cable” ($499/pair). Formerly a power-cord only operation, Pete is branching out (I hope to get a new pair of his cables soon!). The new cables feature an integrated “Ground Plane Technology”, he says is “purely passive noise reduction technology”, helping to remove EMI/RFI interference. A variety of Cardas connectors are available, and all the cables are “deep cryoed”. Jumpers are also available for $200 for a set of four at 12″ each.

Greg Takesh’s GTA 2 hybrid planar speakers were the talk of the show. The GTA 2, shown here at $6,495/pair, is a total rework of his original design, now all in hardwoods and each cabinet now sports an integrated 8″ sub powered by a 250w plate amp. Two 8″ sealed mid/bass drivers hand things off to the planar which in turn hands off to the ribbon. There’s no crossover up there, per se, just a single inductor. All told, this model represents a huge advance in sound quality. We just need to get these bad boys some room to breathe!

All the electronics sat on a rack and platforms from Kanso Furniture. ATS Acoustics panels helped to tame an untame-able room.

A pair of Arion HS500 hybrid amps matched 6H30 tubes on the input to a 500wpc Class D output stage, coupled with Dueland CAST output capacitors. Price is $7,500/pair.

A Dodd Audio battery-operated pre, also sporting 6H30 tubes ($1,750) connected a Miracle Audio Phonatic phono preamp ($4,999) and a Plinius CD 101 player ($3,300).

A pair of Pi Audio Uberbuss power conditioners ($1,095 each) delivered the power.

As for analog, LPs were played on a Kuzma Stobi turntable with a 12″ Stogi tonearm ($6,800 for the set) and a Goldenote Boboli MkII cartridge ($950).

Room Two!

In the second collaboration, a much smaller GT Audio Works GTA1 hybrid ribbon/planar loudspeaker dropped the powered subwoofers and much of the price ($2,695/pair), though there were subwoofers in the room from an unusual arrangement of in-wall small-driver rigs from B&G, called the Radia ($950 each). Amplifiers were, again, the Arions, with another Dodd Audio battery pre. Pi Audio, Triode Wire, ATS and Kanso Furniture filled the usual roles, with a TEAC 3000 CDP ($2,995) filling in as a source.