HighEnd kan med stolthet bringe følgende nyhet fra USA til alle genuine High-End entusiaster i Norden:
Den allerede kritikerroste MONTANA KAS og den nyutviklede PBN OLYMPIA AX poweramp fra PBN Audio har nylig blitt utropt til den kanskje mest høythengende klassifiseringen som finnes i verdens audiopresse:
Bound For Sound's 'COMPONENTS OF MERITS' liste.
Bound For Sound er blant mange regnet som det mest anerkjente audiomagasin som overhodet publiseres.
Nedenfor følger karakteristikken til Bound For Sound fra mars 2005.
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Med vennlig hilsen,
HighEnd
Nordic Distributor of
MONTANA Loudspeakers
PBN OLYMPIA Pre- & Poweramps
GRAND PRIX AUDIO Isolation Systems
www.highend.no
www.pbnaudio.com
www.grandprixaudio.com
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BOUND FOR SOUND, March, 2005
New addition to the 'Components of Merits' List
"PBN Montana KAS seven driver 4-way floorstanding dynamic: $27,500 (+ Sales Tax)
A power speaker capable of delivering the total listening experience – and I mean the total experience. From the 16Hz tones of Shinjuku Thief, through the grinding guitars of Dream Theater, to the sky high treble of “Sir John Alot”, the KAS spanned the full range of the musical experience in all dimensions.
With a speaker this large (over 400 lbs) one expects dynamic bliss; but it was also able to deliver the intimacy of female folk, as well as the busy atmosphere of a live jazz setting. Solo vocals recorded in small spaces were especially well reproduced.
Still, I can’t forget the way this speaker ignited my listening room with a brawny 1,000 wpc! Recorded guitar chords so energized the room that I was strongly reminded of a concert experience with ZZ Top… power chords were at last truly powerful, they shook my person as if at a live rock event.
In a subjective sense this is the “best” sounding speaker that I know of, and the finest overall speaker in this listing. Hey, this has to be a great speaker to make it this far (Component’s of Merit) while costing as much as it does. If they only cost a little less…
(2) PBN Audio 'Olympia AX' stereo/mono solid state power amplifier: $20,000 (+ Sales Tax)
Over two hundred pounds of power amp in a single chassis. It all starts with a single 4 kVA (!!!) transformer with 400,000 uf of power supply filtering and storage, and it finishes with 40 Toshiba MOSFET output devices. It’s a beast to say the least!
Though only rated a 180 wpc, a figure eclipsed by many of the amps reviewed here over the years, the PBN was the obvious “King of the Hill” when it came to power on demand into any load. I think of this kind of power as locomotive-like… don’t get in its way.
But this brute strength comes on without detriment to the sonics. I’ve never had any amplifier play as delicately and as sweetly, while still having the power in reserve to explode sweetly, while still having the power in reserve to explode with any crescendo found on tape, needle disc and CD.
I’ve also never had a power amp before that so completely made my speakers totally disappear. It was as if the music coalesced at the far end of the room and then flowered out toward the listening position. It’s a step toward free form imaging; imaging from a system without audible ties to the speakers that create it.
Having heard this, you can take your 3 wpc girly amps, with their total lack of head room, and give them a pitch right out the door. It’s this kind of power with a speaker with efficiency in the lower 90s that gives life to music. No matter what one thinks of low watt amps with high efficiency speakers, bass isn’t cheap no matter what you think. It takes power to generate a room filling bottom octave, whether it be classical or rock. Th |
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Posted - 2005/04/22 : 00:38:35
