...Audiopax and Rethm not only had been on my list, they were showing together. The Saadhana speakers of Monaco dealer Soundgalleriesthat would be the real Grace Kelly Monacowere the actual pair I'd reviewed a while back. The amplifiers were much updated versions of the Model 88 I used to own in Arroyo Seco, New Mexico many years ago.
For my kind of music I thought the sound spectacular. And yes, Jacob George's Indian speakers sound best when driven from superior valve gear. Whilst my Nelson Pass SIT amps measure and behave very much like single-ended triodes indeedtheir circuit is actually simpler still and lacks an output transformersonically they didn't quite get the same magic from these 100dB widebanders with active isobaric bass systems when I wrote them up.
Spending some time with Silvio of Audiopax, I learnt that the company had weathered the passing of its gifted founder Eduardo de Lima and actually come up with original new circuits very much based on Eduardo's pioneering work. "We knew that for a year or two, everyone would sit and wait and watch whether we'd still be around or not. So we had to tighten our belts and hit raw survival mode. Now that we've stuck out the drought and proved our resilience, business has commenced again and we're quite positive about our future." Based on the sound here, I'd say they really deserve it.
Or as Jacob put it in an email back from India which arrived just whilst I was penning this page, "and yes, ideally I do agree with you. It would be so much better if the show was all under one roof at the MOC both for the visitors as well as for the exhibitors. There would be so much more traffic. However, the cost of one of the proper upstairs rooms is - well, substantial to say the least. But we talked about it and are hoping to move to the MOC next year if all goes well and both Silvio and I pick up some sales during the course of this year. Even he thinks that what is holding back companies like ours is the fact that we are manufactured in developing countries. It is not enough to be just 'as good' as the competition made in Germany or Japan or the USA but we actually have to be better if we are to be taken seriously. Just the way women have to work a lot harder to prove themselves in a male-dominated society."
