DECEMBER 2022
Almost two years since I wrote something here...horribly unforgivable. No excuse. So much has happened within and around Audiofreaks over the past 20 months...mostly good, rewarding and inspiring. Inspiration is not that easy to find these days, especially during and since the "Covid Era".
Rather than reflect just on the past 12 months of 2022, let me try and furnish an abbreviated and fastest possible account of the recent history of my time. While Audiofreaks has not adopted any new brands since the arrival of the wonderful Rockna Audio and Audiobyte streaming (and overall digital playback) solutions, a plethora of exciting and musically rewarding changes and events took place around my living reference audio system...
It all started with the inclusion of the very latest (2nd) generation finite elemente Master Reference Edition equipment supports (aka 'racks'). Luis Fernandes pushed all boundaries even further after many years, and I could not believe the sound of his supports could be improved to such an extent - be it with standard (new design) honeycomb maple shelves, or the optional ones dressed in pure and genuine carbon fibre surround.
It was an unplanned happenstance that the new supports were installed just a few months before a major upgrade took place within my long standing reference LP playback system. While true that Audiofreaks no longer officially represented Kuzma products in the UK, there was never ever a question of my continued dedication and loyalty to Franc Kuzma, one of the oldest and closest friends I ever had in and out of the audio world. So, my Stabi XL DC finally got it's very best and most crucial upgrade ever (so far) - an air bearing! Yes, you heard right - the XL DC became an XL DC AIR. Almost 30kg of added mass under the main platter, plus a whole new assembly that kept it all going virtually frictionless at just under 5 bar of smooth and quiet air pressure. And, yes, the sonic improvement was dramatic in every imaginable sense. The intersonic silence got so much more 'black' - meaning: so much more music suddenly became audible!
I did not want a single air compressor to feel lonely. So, a second component in need of same type of 'fuel' was added - the latest (2021) incarnation of the fabulous AirLine parallel tracking air bearing tonearm. I continued to use the flagship Kuzma cartridge CAR60 in the 4Point14 arm and added a Hana Umami Red into the AirLine as a somewhat more "emotionally beguiling jazz alternative".
With Summer 2021 approaching, a project in association with the Hifi+_magazine inadvertently lent a hand to another, totally unexpected and very major development. As it transpired, it had a huge consequence on my audio life forever after. As some of you may know, Audiofreaks had no long-term loudspeaker brand in its portfolio ever since association with Avalon Acoustics stopped after 13 years of respectable achievements. A relatively brief episode with excellent sounding Vienna Acoustics designs convinced me even more there was no point searching for another speaker make that would do all what I already used to have and endorse, let alone hoping for more. Especially (not) with far too many speaker brands having already flooded the ever diminishing global (and UK in particular) market. I do accept a fact that any distributor's portfolio without a loudspeaker is incomplete and lacking, but I also maintain it is better to be without, than with something or anything just for the sake of it. After all, hot water and rubber tyre have been invented a hell of a long time ago. Besides, what already existed as the best of the best, was already here and not easily to be de-throned or improved upon as a matter of course.
My dear colleagues and friends from Absolute Sounds Ltd kindly assisted the aforementioned project by providing a pair of Wilson Audio Sasha DAW dynamic loudspeakers. Yes, WILSON AUDIO! A brand of loudspeakers I have known inside out for decades and never ever before considered to be producing a sound I would even remotely be able to tolerate, let alone embrace and live with in the same room! I had an enormous respect for David Wilson and his work from the earliest days as a reviewer for Harry Pearson of The Absolute Sound, and into his journey as a loudspeaker designer and manufacturer. Not to forget his comprehensive understanding of classical music and a number of stupendously good recordings he made for his own record label. However, the Wilson Sound - as it was for many years - was simply not my cup of tea. I found it lacking some fundamental properties (or, better say, virtues) required for a natural and sophisticated enough recreation of live, unamplified, music.
I was, of course, aware of the fact that Daryl Wilson (one of DW's four children) gradually took over the running of Wilson Audio Specialties business as his father's health progressively deteriorated. That included a substantial personal input into the design of new models for the next generation of WA loudspeakers. After a warm reception og the entry level model Sabrina X, the first, utterly serious fruit of Daryl's hard work was the Sasha DAW - a relatively compact, floor standing, 3-way system which I was about to learn and end up discovering and enjoying more than I could have ever imagined! The 'new' sound of Wilson Audio speaker was SO much more of everything I ever wanted a loudspeaker to be and do - broad musical midrange with very low distortion and almost electrostatically ethereal subtlety and natural transparency, ultra-fast treble, and bottom end with true extension and control without any overload or emphasis in any of the usual wrong places. Gorgeous 3D holography was making the speakers disappear in the room completely! After some weeks of learning the Sasha DAW, I acquired a pair for my own use and they joined the main system in September 2021. That was IT! Partnered with the Kuzma LP front end, Zanden Audio Systems and Rockna Audio CD playback solutions, Karan Acoustics Master Collection/KA M2000 electronics and Cardas Audio Clear Beyond cables throughout, I was finally at least as close to music playback heaven as I was ever before and moving fast into something much, much better. Small music, big music, it did not matter. Driven by the KAM's 3kW into 4 Ohm load, Sasha DAW just played everything and anything beautifully and remained undisturbed to the slightest, no matter what may have been thrown at them.
There you go, after 35 years in the high-end audio industry, Audiofreaks and Yours Truly adopting and endorsing somebody else's product? Not done before I believe, but it has been done now and with full credit where due. Amen to that.
Here I will take a pause and leave further events leading into 2022 for another instalment of this, catch up, story. As a teaser, let me just say that, at that time, there were still no Karan Acoustics Master Collection big mono amplifiers, or the ultimate PHONOa preamplifier from the same family. There were no finite elmente supports made completely out of carbon fibre. Further, there was no sign of the Kuzma SAFIR9 tonearm. And there was absolutely no sign of...????? All this and much more made my audio 2022 even more exciting and rewarding. In spite of life in general and so much else turning into a completely opposite (wrong) direction, my old slogan "For The Love Of Music" became somehow a true raison d'etre for so much where Audiofreaks is now and will remain for some time to come...
With our heartfelt thanks and gratitude for your continued support in these, most difficult, times, I wish you, first and formost, plenty of good health in the New Year 2023. Followed by a stable mindset, happiness and joy. And, of course, lots of good music to enjoy, both live and recorded.
Happy New Year!
Branko Bozic
