CES 2011 Coverage

January 10, 2011

Argento Audio - BALabo - Tidal

As you have probably gathered by now, I am really fond of Tidal speakers, in this case the Sunrays ($178,600 in black lacquer). I think it has something to do with ceramic drivers, because I also like loudspeakers by Marten, although I would give the nod to Tidal on performance. Tidal always partners with the German silver cable maker Argento Audio, and perhaps there is synergy there. If you’ve never seen Argento cables, you can’t imagine how insanely well made (and expensive) they are - and light and flexible to boot. Tidal also split the bill with BALabo for the show. Shown are the BC-1 Mk-II preamplifier ($59,500) and BP-1 Mk-II amplifier ($77,500) which JV includes among his ever increasing number of references. But don’t hold that against the BALabos. He attributes “signature darkness and timbral richness” to them, and triages them in his ill-conceived tripartite division of audiophiles over to the “as you like it” camp. Actually I think he was reminiscing fondly of his grade-school Latin days when he thought up his little schema, undoubtedly remembering that Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, and confused audiophiles with Gaul. It happens to the best of us.

I do think he is mistaken in his assignment though - the BALabo combo sounded pretty darn accurate to me. But, to be perfectly honest, neither of us really knows. We weren’t at the original performances so we don’t know if they reproduce ‘the absolute sound” nor did we hear the master tapes played back through the mastering engineer’s system so we don’t know if they exhibit “fidelity to the master tapes” (or, in his latest catch-phrase, are “transparent to sources.”) Even assuming we did, there’s the problem that there are some speakers between the components and our ears. At least I am honest about it. Anyway, the room sounded fantastic. Here are some photos: