HE2003 -- Day Three
By Wes Phillips

We were also very impressed by the nifty Lotus Elite Signature loudspeakers ($8000/pair) from Alon by Acarian Systems. These dual-woofered floorstanding three-ways made beautiful music in conjunction with a pair of DeHavilland Aries 845-G 30W SET monoblocks and a DeHavilland Super-Verve Octal Tube preamp ($3000), fed by a Sony SCD-777ES SACD player and strung together with Prana wire. Coherent and cohesive, this small (by Alon's standards, at least) speaker delivered the music in spades.

[...]

Which brings us to our last room in this "Silk Class" category of sound whose overriding attribute, as a group, was mellifluousness: The Alon by Acarian/DeHavilland display.

One of the principals of De Havilland

Open-backed Alons

In a room far smaller than either of the previous entrants but cleverly maximized via a diagonal setup, the overall scale of the presentation was naturally reduced, and the far more modest front-end of the $2,500 Sony SCD-777ES and $1,500 CAL Alpha 24/96 DAC not quite as refined and transcendental as the Meitner and RingDAC units. Still, the essential quality of raw silk was palpable, with a free-floating diaphanous soundstage and excellent low-level ambience retrieval. Amplification was by DeHavilland Electric Amplifier Company whose George Kielczymski sits in front of their $3,000 SuperVerve Octal Tube Preamplifier and the $6,000 Aries 845-G SET monos. Loudspeakers were Carl Marchisotto's Alon by Acarian $8,000 Lotus Elite Signature with Alnico magnets, the latter an expensive boon of distinction said to be particularly well suited to bring out the best in triode amplification. That's certainly what it sounded like. Chrome-dome Wes Phillips [right] entered a few minutes later and looked so slimmed down that Mrs. Marchisotto barely recognized him. Wes' large pirate's earring put my little turquoise jobbie to shame and could have caused undue attention in the city's active Castro district. Is membership in that club indicated by the left or right ear? Darn, I could be in trouble if I don't sort this out soon. But judging from Wes' happy facial expression during a female vocal track he'd brought, I gather he enjoyed this presentation as much as I did.

I'd be remiss not to mention PranaWire Cable System's contribution to the outstanding results here. Still, a look at the final tally ($42,500 for the complete system, $21,500 for the cables alone) makes me question how many consumers would be apt to spend 50% of their budget on the wiring alone. I appreciate how Prana's Joe Cohen wanted to show off his best efforts. Still, I prefer to keep things in perspective. Assemble a system whose financial balance reflects the pervasive logic of the real world.

This concludes my special-attention picks in the Silk category. To be sure, separating sound into distinct classes is an exercise in lunacy (and thus perfectly legit on the 6 moons). Still, it's a useful metaphor to hint at the tacit flavors that distinguished certain presentations. It's also a convenient means whereby to separate between certain personal favorites. Men, as you know, like to have their cake and eat it, too. Multiple choice. We're such floozies ...

I've spent over 25 years of producing live jazz concerts and spinning discs in radio studios. Over that time, I've heard music under the worst and best of conditions. Last weekend in San Francisco at Home Entertainment Show 2003, I stumbled into the deHavilland/Pranawire/Alon room and discovered a system that raised the bar for high end audio performance.

Regardless of what it was asked to do, the deHavilland Aries connected to the Alon Lotus Signatures by Pranawire Cosmos wire delivered a fabulous presentation of pure music that bordered on holographic. All music got the same great treatment -- it materialized as "live" in the room.

This is the end-product of inspired engineers who love music and make their products by hand, one at a time. Like all hand-made goods, this system is not cheap, but for what it delivers it's worth is measured in much more than money.

The listening experience was emotionally arresting... and pure joy.

Jim Luce
Planet Jazz Magazine
Producer, Caramoor Jazz Festival
Executive Producer, The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong, National Public Radio

Alon by Acarian teamed up with deHavilland and Prana Wire to showcase Alon's Lotus Elite Signature ($7,999/pr.). The speaker features all Alnico drivers and an external passive crossover. The system survived my Rush 2112 torture test with great dynamics and no congestion even at fairly high volumes. It also did classical and jazz very well too.

The system featured deHavilland's Aries 845-G 30 WPC Single Ended Triode ($6,000/pr.), and Ultraverve preamp ($3,000). Cables were provided by Prana Wire - made up of silver ribbons wrapped with 26 layers of insulation.