September 10, 2009: Part 2
All prices in US dollars unless otherwise noted.

MartinLogan's Peter Soderberg holds up a speaker tentatively called the MCT123 (he assured me that the name will likely change) that is part of a new series that uses an Air Motion Transformer (AMT) tweeter and dynamic woofers. This series will consist of two satellites and two center-channels and has been designed with recessed binding posts on the backside so that you can mount the speakers on the wall. The MCT123 uses a 4" woofer, and the next model up uses a 5" driver. The estimated retail price of the MCT123 is $500 per pair, although Peter says they're aiming to get that price even lower. [www.martinlogan.com]

Revel introduced two new subwoofers that will begin shipping in 2010. According to Kevin Voecks, the lead designer at Revel, one of the goals of both subwoofer designs was to get distortion extremely low without the use of servo mechanisms. Above is the $4000 Performa B150 that uses a single 15" woofer and has a power amplifier that delivers 1200 real watts continuously (the company stresses "real watts" because nowadays it's common for companies to grossly exaggerate their power-amplifier ratings) and 2800W peaks. The other subwoofer is. . .

. . . the Rhythm2 that's part of Revel's upscale Ultima line. The Rhythm2 uses a massive 18" driver that has two windings on the voice coil, which allows each coil to be driven by its own amp. The Rhythm2's retail price is $10,000.

Bryston showed their new SP3 audio/video preamplifier-processor that they say will retail for $10,000. The SP3 has two layers of circuit boards. The top board contains the power supply as well as the switching circuitry, while the the bottom board does all the processing.

Cary Audio Design introduced the new CD 303T "Professional Version" SACD player that doesn't play just SACDs, but also HDCD-encoded CDs and, of course, Redbook CDs. It's increasingly rare to see an SACD player introduced these days given the format's decline, but the CD 303T also has something for the future: there are USB, optical and coaxial digital inputs on the back panel that allow you to hook it up to another transport or a computer. The company claims that all the digital inputs will accept signals up to 24-bit/192kHz. The price of the CD 303T is $6500.

Cary Audio Design also introduced two new solid-state power amplifiers. Shown above is the 1.600 mono amp that sells for $10,000 per pair and is said to deliver 600W into an 8-ohm load. Cary also introduced the 2.300 stereo amp that is rated to deliver 300Wpc into 8 ohms.