T.H.E. Show (Las Vegas) 2012 Coverage

January 15, 2012

The PBN Audio Room

PBN, in addition to exhibiting with Quintessence Acoustics, also had a room devoted exclusively to its products. It chose to feature its Montana WAS2 loudspeakers ($55,000/pair). They have two 15″ woofers each driven by an internal DSP controllable 1000 watt ICE power amplifier. Powering the other drivers were a pair of Olympia AX monoblocks ($44,000/pair) decked out with a patriotic paint job. The analog source was the PBN Groovemaster ($7500), with the gain for the cartridge courtesy of an Olympia PX phono preamplifier ($20,000), and an Olympia LX preamplifier ($20,000) handling source selection and volume control. PBN relied on a Cary Audio 306 SACD player, and audio files were played back by an Olympia DX DAC with USB input ($17,500). If the WAS2 loudspeakers are too large for your listening room, PBN has lots of other models to choose from.