Lansche Audio, Thrax Audio, Hachidori, Inc., Dyrholm Audio
This large system employed a reel-to-reel deck and a DAC for sources, abetted by a new product designation, at least for me, a combination tape/phono stage.
The Hachidori Fukami tape/phono stage ($75,000) with Fukami tubed power supply is made in Japan by Jonathan Knight as part of a collaboration with Hachidori (product and circuit design), Age Design (3D mechanical design), and Chubei (Wajimi nuri lacquer). A beautiful product, the stage features a tubed power supply.
The digital front end was a Thrax Maximus Mk2S DSP-controlled 32bit/384kHz DAC ($38,500) which fed either a Thrax Dionysos control amplifier ($23,000) or a Thrax Libra Differential Balanced 300B preamplifier (€57,000).
From there, the output went to two pairs of biamped monoblocks—the class-A, 100Wpc Thrax Heros Mono Amplifiers ($47,000/pair), and/or Thrax Phoenix Mono Amplifiers ($110,000/pair)—which drove a pair of Lansche Audio No 8.3 Loudspeakers ($210,000/pair).
The German company’s top of the line speaker, the No. 8.3 is a three-way bass-reflex system with a 1″ Lansche Audio Corona plasma tweeter, two 6.5″ “papyrus coated” midrange drivers, and six 9″ “aluminum coated” woofers. The No 8.3 has a specified sensitivity of 92dB/W/m and a nominal impedance of 8 ohms, a frequency range of 18Hz to 150kHz, and weighs 485lb each. Dyrholm Audio supplied cabling.
Playing Prokofiev’s Tale of the Stone Flower with Gennady Rozhdestvensky conducting the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra, the system produced a massive stage—no surprise. Though a little dry at the lower extreme, tonality was sweet and rich, and dynamics were fast and powerful.