A listening impression of the Alsyvox/Pilium/Lampizator/Taiko Audio system at the Munich High End Show
When visiting on Sunday, I managed to obtain a front-row seat right away, which was a pleasant surprise given the popularity of the room.
In a word, the system sounded mightily impressive! With the Taiko Audio Extreme Music server at its core, along with the Taiko Audio Extreme Switch and DC Power Distributor, the system performed in a powerful, crisp, and well-textured, as well as articulate, fast, expressive, and dynamic manner, yet without any edge or unnatural hardness. The components were clearly playing in a hugely synergistic manner, providing coherence, precision, and transparency as well as a timbrally full-blooded rendition and instantly establishing an engaging musical and emotional connection. Of the full-range ribbon panels that I heard during the show, these were easily the most impactful and dynamic and just plain most realistic.
I heard some people say this system sounded lean but that’s not how I hear it, per se. Of course, full-range ribbon speakers do sound very different from typical dynamic cabinet speakers, and they are indeed relatively leaner. To a large extent, I feel this can be attributed to there being no cabinet-induced fullness or coloration, nor fat or bloom added to the sound. To my ears, this is, on many accounts, a lot like live music. If anything, more like the real thing in fact.
In any event, I’ve also heard the very same Alsyvox models before in the Taiko showroom in Oldenzaal and in that location, and with Atma-Sphere OTL amplifiers, they sounded remarkably robust and with well-defined, very deep-reaching bass.
Also shown were the Taiko Extreme Router, Extreme DC Power Distributor, and Extreme Switch, with more Taiko “Extremeness” going on behind the main racks. As Emile later unveiled, the new Extreme router was not used and neither was XDMS because of the ”large” number of “deejays” and we don’t currently have an XDMS remote for iPhones. What was used were 2 DC distributors/filters, one for the switch and one to “fix” the Fritz Box router provided by the MOC.
Christiaan Punter