Playhouse Serves Up Music
AXPONA 2011
April 17, 2011
By John Atkinson
The modest-looking system being demmed by Atlanta dealer Playhouse
Audio was my final stop on the first day of the Show but turned out to
be one of the highlights of that day. Nola's new three-way Contender
speaker ($3400/pair) was being driven by an Audia Flight FL2
integrated amplifier, with the source a Mach 2-modified Mac mini
feeding USB data to a Peachtree iNova that was being used as a
DAC. Cabling was all Harmonic Technology: Pro-10 speaker cable and
Magic 2 interconnects, as well as a Silver Oval interconnect from
Analysis Plus and a Platinum USB cable from Wireworld.
In one of those too-rare audiophile moments where one track
organically led to another to another to another. I listened to Dave
Grisman and Tony Rice ("Turn of the Century" from Tone Poems), Taj
Mahal and V.M. Bhatt ("Come On Over My House"), Herbie Hancock and
Luciana Souza ("Amelia" from River: the Joni Letters), but a discovery
for me among the music played was a live version of Nat King Cole's
"Nature Boy" by Swedish singer Lisa Ekdahl. Nice. Very nice.
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