AKFest 2010 Coverage

May 3, 2010

The Korato and Fritz Speakers Room

I was not familiar with either Korato components or Fritz speakers, so I did not know what to expect when I entered the room. What I found were well crafted components from both companies with little to fault on sonics. Fritz Speakers is an internet-based custom made speaker manufacturer who sells through his website and a storefront on Audiogon, and has a satisfied following both there and on several audio forums. The Fritz Carbon 7 monitor speakers ($2300) on demo utilitze a Scanspeak 7″ carbon graphite fiber/paper pulp composite cone woofer from and a Scanspeak D2905/9500 1.1″ hand-coated textile soft dome tweeter, both premium quality drivers. They are down 3db at 39Hz. The cabinets were beautifully made.

Korato is a Serbian company whose products are distributed in the United States by BSP Audio out of Wildwood, Missouri. The Korato Anniversary power amplifier ($5,000) supplied is a dual mono (including dual 800VA toroidal transformers) 180 watts/channel Class A/B bipolar design. The first 40 watts are Class A. The dual chassis KVP-10 tube preamplifier ($2000) is also of dual mono design. Both received a very favorable review from Positive Feedback online.

The source was the ubiquitous Oppo BDP-83, this example modified by ASi Technologies with an upgraded power supply, clock and two-channel analog output stage.

The Jolida and mbl Room

Jolida showed off its electronics with speakers from mbl and Nola. The main system, shown below, included the mbl 121 ($12,580) compact omni-directional speakers. This is the first time I have auditioned the mbl speakers where they actually drew attention to themselves rather than disappeared. The room obviously needed treatment.

The Jolida components on the rack (top to bottom) were the JD 1000RC integrated tube amp ($2400), the JD 3000B tube preamp ($1000), the JD 100 tube CD player ($950) and the Glass FX10 12 watts/channel integrated amp with USB input ($450).

Jolida also showed a second system with a Jolida JD100 CD player ($900), FX10 integrated amplifier with USB input ($450) and a funky pair of Nola pyramid-shaped speakers ($199). The system was not being auditioned when I was there.

Also present was Jolida’s Glass FX Mini DAC ($110) which uses a BurrBrown PCM2702 DAC direct output DAC chip. It is limited to 16-bits and 44.1kHz/48kHz sampling rates.

The Dynaudio, Octave and Wadia Room 1

Dynaudio and Wadia showed a very affordable system comprised of a Wadia 170i iPod dock ($379) (top shelf), a 25 watts/channel Wadia 151 amplifier with USB DAC ($1199) (second shelf), and a pair of Dynaudio Excite X12 mini-monitors ($1200), which would be perfect for a student or small apartment dweller. It is a high quality system for well under $3000, including cables and stands. The component on the third shelf is a power conditioner put in a Wadia chassis for a uniform look. It is a one-off product for demo purposes only.

I’m not sure why they had the German made Octave V40 SE integrated amp on on the bottom shelf.

The Dynaudio, Octave and Wadia Room 2

Next door, Dynaudio had a second room set up showcasing its Confidence C1 ($7000). I thought the speakers were forward sounding, and at this price point I preferred the Joseph Audio Pulsars mentioned above.

The digital source was Wadias new-ish 57i CD player. Wadia products are built like tanks. They were using an Octave V80 integrated ($9800) as a preamp driving a pair of Octave MRE 130 monoblocks ($16,000) capable of 130 watts/channel using either four 6550s or KT88s.