AXPONA 2010 Coverage

March 8, 2010

The Music Hall Room

Roy Hall was there, single-malt scotch at the ready, to ply his wares. Virtually his whole line line was on display. First up is the MMF 2.2 LE turntable and Goldring ELAN cartridge ($499), a tempting price point for the vinyl ingenue.

Remember from CES that he had a CD player with tape over the name and model. It is still a prototype so its designation is still under wraps. That’s the updated PH25.2 headphone amp ($399) on top. It has two analog inputs and can be used as a preamp as well.

Also new were the Ferrari red $700 Aktimate Mini powered speakers with iPod dock. They have a composite video output to get video from your iPod to your display, and one analog input on RCAs and another on a 3.5mm jack to get audio in from your TV or computer.

The main system was a Music Hall MMF 7.1 turntable, Creek components and the top-of-the-line Epos M22i loudspeakers ($2,595).

Creek needs to update the CD player so it has blue LEDs to match the new integrated.

A Wadia i70 iPod digital transport ($379) and updated Music Hall 25.2 USB DAC ($595) graced the bottom rack. The Creek OBH-15 ($450) phono preamp provided gain for the Goldring GL 2400 cartridge which is included in the cost of the MMF 7.1 turntable.