Chicago Audio Society Newsletter, December, 2007 Meeting Notice-Sunday, December 16th, 2:00PM-5:00PM
Arlington Heights Historical Society 110 W. Fremont, Arlington Room Arlington Heights, IL

For directions go to:

http://www.chicagoaudio.org/directions.htm DECEMBER MEETING At the beginning of the meeting, Reed Rehorst may have a quick Powerpoint projection presentation highlighting the recent 2007 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. Our December holiday meeting will feature equipment designed by Larry Hepinstall of Ogre Systems from Batavia, IL supplied by our member Larry Musial. We wil have an Ogre Systems preamp and CD player with battery power supplies. Larry Hepinstall will be on hand to discuss his design philosophy and answer questions. We plan to have:
Ogre Systems single input preamp with battery option power supply Ogre Systems modded Marantz CD-67SE CD player with AC supply Ogre Systems modded Marantz CD-67SE CD player with battery option power supply Stan Warrens latest generation chip amp based on the LM4780 chip, with current dumper and snubber circuits Reality Cables (Gregg Straley) interconnects and speaker cables Marigo CD mat Marigo power cables Audio Physic Tempo III Loudspeakers (thanks to Gregg Straley) Panamax surge protector Please bring your favorite music finds for 2007, as well as interesting holiday music-all genres welcome! As usual we plan to have extra refreshments on hand in the spirit of the holidays. Any extra refreshments you may want to bring are welcome. See you there! NOVEMBER MEETING RECAP Ken Christianson and John Schwarz from Pro Musica (www.promusicaaudio.com) together with Chris West from Naim Audio (www.naim-audio.com) demonstrated the new Naim Supernait Reference Integrated Amplifier/DAC together with the new Quad 2805 Electrostatic Loudspeaker (http://www.quad-hifi.co.uk/index.php). We heard how the Supernait integrates with various analog and digital sources (including a computer). Ken Christianson discussed various Naim recording projects, his approach to doing the all-live Naim recordings and brought along his famous Nagra tape machine and some master tapes. The excellent pure sound we heard from the Quad/Naim system led to a number of Naim CD titles they brought along being sold out at the meeting. Our thanks to Ken, John, and Chris for a great listening experience and an educational meeting on music, recording, and components.
HOLIDAY GET TOGETHER This year as in past years, I will be sponsoring another home-to-home listening session on December 29th, (Saturday) @ 10:00 a.m. starting time. For vinyl fans, my system will be hooked up to some great sounding Marantz analog, like their TT-15 turntable and a Pro-Ject tube preamp. So, bring your LPs along. Im also looking for another volunteer to show their system. So please, I know youre out there, you show up at the meetings, dont you? Therefore, lets hear your systems, okay. Dont be so parsimonious and keep all that good sound to yourself let the rest of us in on it. You can contact me for instructions on how to get to my house at: Kevin Novak

Chicago Audio Society Newsletter, January, 2008 Meeting Notice-Sunday, January 20th, 2:00PM-5:00PM
Arlington Heights Historical Society 110 W. Fremont, Arlington Room Arlington Heights, IL

For directions go to:

http://www.chicagoaudio.org/directions.htm

2008 Dues

As we enter our 15th year (!) there has never been a dues increase and with your support we hope to keep it that way! Great meetings, great guests, great music, your fellow audiophiles, and free refreshments for about the cost of a gallon of gas per month! $40 Annual Dues : Please bring to the meeting or if you are unable to attend checks can be made out to Chicago Audio Society and mailed to: Chicago Audio Society P.O. Box 7281 Buffalo Grove, IL 60089 Thank you!

JANUARY MEETING

We start the new year with Paul Lawless, the local rep from Sjofn HiFi (www.sjofnhifi.com) who represents Scandinavian-made hifi and the Xindak line of Chinese electronics. These were well received at the recent Rocky Mountain Audio Fest and have already gotten the attention of Stereophile, specifically the Guru Audio QM-10 Loudspeakers which feature bass response to 30Hz in a cabinet about the size of a toaster oven! Paul will be demonstrating the speakers with both his entry level equipment from Xindak and Supra Cables and high-end equipment from Hegel and Supra Cables as follows: Guru QM 10 (Quality Manager) Studio Monitors http://www.guruproaudio.com/newguru/ http://www.sjofnhifi.com/ Xindak A06 Integrated Amplifier A06 CD player (Entry level system) http://www.xindak.com/english/ Hegel Music Systems H200 Integrated Amplifier 2 x 200 @ 8 ohms 2 x 350 @ 4 ohms
CDP2A Disc player Balanced multilevel 24 bit 192 kHz DA- converter with synchronous upsampling www.hegel.com Powered by Supra Cables Classic 2.5 speaker cable EFF-ISL Interconnects Sword Speaker Cables - bifilar wound litz conductors (Flagship) Sword Interconnects www.jenving.se Be sure to bring along your favorite music-new finds always welcome!

DECEMBER MEETING RECAP

Our December holiday meeting featured equipment designed by Larry Hepinstall of Ogre Systems from Batavia, IL supplied by our member Larry Musial. We had an Ogre Systems preamp and CD player with battery power supplies. Larry Hepinstall discussed his design philosophy heavily geared to eliminating and suppressing RF and answered questions. The system on hand included: Ogre Systems single input preamp with battery option power supply Ogre Systems modded Marantz CD-67SE CD player with AC supply Ogre Systems modded Marantz CD-67SE CD player with battery option power supply Stan Warrens latest generation chip amp based on the LM4780 chip, with current dumper and snubber circuits Reality Cables (Gregg Straley) interconnects and speaker cables Marigo CD mat Marigo power cables Audio Physic Tempo III Loudspeakers (thanks to Gregg Straley) Panamax surge protector In addition, Brian Walsh (www.essentialaudio.com) brought along 3 Acoustic Systems (http://www.avataracoustics.com/acousticsystem/resonators.php) resonators and a bass block for those who may not have heard them at the September '07 meeting. Again, very impressive and they made an already very good system sound even better. The Ogre electronics had a very low noise floor (battery power supplies) and delivered an excellent sound with the latest Stan Warren chip amp with the Audio Physics speakers. Larry Hepinstall uses Legacy Loudspeakers as a reference and was favorably impressed by the Audio Physics speakers with their small drivers embodying a different design philosophy. Our thanks to Larry, a local audiophile engineer designer, who describes Ogre Systems as a labor of love not even for "McDonald's money". He does not have a website, but can be reached at l.hepinstall@sbcglobal.net or by cell phone at 630-701-8845.