High Water Sound 2023

A reliable first cease for any present attendee, Jeffrey Catalano’s High Water Sound room obtained right down to enterprise and fast. Offering the same system to final 12 months’s however with new Cessaro Horn Acoustics’ Wagner II Horn Speakers ($65,000/pair), the system had appreciable soar and power paired to a liquid midrange and completely clear, almost medicinal, actually soul-enriching highs.

Playing an OG copy of Joe Henderson and Alice Coltrane’s The Elements, the varied devices have been fantastically layered each horizontally and vertically, in a miraculously deep stage that stretched all the best way again to Manhattan. Playing music with equal power and beauty, Woody Shaw’s Blackstone Legacy (one other OG vinyl) startled with bone-cracking power and head-pinning slam, horns layered above my head, and Lenny White’s shambolic drums each mind soothing and nerve rattling beneath.

The remainder of this once-in-a-lifetime system consisted of TW-Acustic Raven LS-3 Copper turntable ($24,000), Raven 12" tonearm ($6500), Raven 10.5" tonearm ($6000), Raven Phono Stage ($25,000), Raven Line Stage ($25,000), and Raven 300B monoblocks ($35,000/pair). Cartridges included the Miyajima Infinity Mono MC ($3475) and Fuuga MC ($10,000). Cables have been by Stein Music, with racks, isolation, and tuning by Codia Acoustic Design, Silent Running Audio, Stein Music, and Dalby Audio Design. The Dalby Audio Design Pireuta Extreme Stabilizer file weight & Pirueta Extreme file mat, wanting like a spinning Budda drizzled in chocolate sauce, additionally performed a component.