Confessions of a Part-Time Audiophile covers Lampizator at AXPONA 2014

I’d heard that Vapor Audio‘s new $7,600/pair Derecho loudspeakers were new, as in, “completed the day before the show”, which was pretty much a great reason to leave this room till late on Saturday in order to give them at least a little time to get warmed up and just some playing time on them. Whether that mattered or not is moot, because when I finally did make it through, the sound was just excellent.

The Derecho features a RAAL 70-20XR ribbon tweeter topping the curved-sidwall cabinet, with a carbon-fiber/paper blend midrange driver and a pair of 8″ bass drivers. The speaker is front-ported, 93dB, 4Ω, and good for 38Hz-39kHz frequency response.

Purity Audio Design was showing their new $26k/pair PSE300B 18W mono blocks and the $35k Silver Statement preamplifier.

The $9,650 LampizatOr Level 7 DAC handled the digital conversions from the Lampi transport.

Verastarr’s signature ribbon-style cabling was used throughout.

This is one of those rooms that it doesn’t pay to dissect — too much audio goodness was going on in here. I’ve heard a few of the Vapor loudspeakers, and this Derecho looks really well turned out and sounds like a very competitive product. I’m surprised by the output numbers, actually — I would have thought they were going solidly lower.

The Purity amps are just massive. I’ve been a fan of the 300b for years, and it’s a rare speaker that can’t be driven absurdly well with two in parallel. And in case you missed it, that preamp has enough silver wire in it to pay for several years of college. It’s sick.

I’ve been a fan of LampizatOr for several years now, and all I can say is that the brand is getting better with each iteration. Given that high starting place, you might think that I’m saying that they’re some of the best DACs you can buy, and if you thought I thought that, well, you’d be right.

This room was packed all weekend. You’d think these brands have some kind of cult following or something. Ahem. Anyway, on the one occasion that I was able to elbow my way in for photos and a front-row seat, I was very taken with the rich textures and full sound.

Definitely a highlight of the show.