Jacob Heilbrunn from AVGuide has written about his 20.7 First Listen experience at the Magnepan Factory.

“But here’s the skinny: no other speaker at this price will offer even remotely similar lifelike performance, and it should—no, will—scare the bejeezus out of most of its competitors. It’s no accident that Audio Research, which I also got to visit, has 3.7 loudspeakers as part of its reference system. So go ahead. Search for another loudspeaker. But I can only wish you good luck. I defy you to find one at up to five times the cost with the scale and realism of the 20.7.”

Here is a link to the full commentary:
AVGuide Magnepan 20.7 First Listen

We don’t have a ship time from Magnepan but will update you HERE as soon as we know more! Our best guess is Q1 of 2012.

In the meantime, we do have the new Magnepan 1.7 and 3.7 for you to enjoy!

Have you ever wondered how a Magnepan Works?
See our Ming The Merciless Builds a Magnepan article.

Happy New Year!,

John, Russ, Tara & Devin.

The new Linn Majik DS-M, the first of Linn’s new range of DSM Systems, has arrived at Pearl Audio.

Available at Klimax, Akurate and Majik level, DSM Systems make anything you listen to sound better.

Anything you listen to

From MP3 to Studio Master, from music to movies and games, everything sounds better with Linn and it’s easier than ever to enjoy great sound anywhere in your home.

There are options to connect your Blu-ray or DVD player, digital or satellite TV, so you’ll hear the difference Linn makes to your viewing pleasure.

 Anything you listen to on a PC or Mac can be enjoyed in higher quality through a DSM System. If you’re using a computer to listen to iTunes, MOG, iPlayer, YouTube, internet radio or streamed concerts, then you can send it over the network with Songcast and listen on your Linn.

Now imagine a friend comes to your home and wants to play their music collection from their mobile — they can, by sending music straight from their phone or tablet to a DSM System wirelessly.
Anywhere in your home

With Songcast able to share any audio anywhere, you can stream music, soundtracks and live concerts from one room to another, and enjoy great sound throughout your home.

Linn’s new DSM Systems are built for the whole household — you can have shared or separate music libraries and everyone can choose music using their preferred app, whether that’s iTunes or Linn’s own Kinsky app. Listen to different music in different rooms, or have the whole house dancing to the same beat.

Browse your music library using an iPad for the best experience, choosing albums by cover and creating playlists with your favourite songs or tracks. Get instant access to new music via internet radio and listen to any online music services on a music player which puts quality first.

With analogue and digital inputs, you can also connect any movie, games or audio source and make it sound incredible.

Any sources you connect to your DSM System via HDMI will sound better as they will benefit from the superior DAC and custom Linn up-sampling of the audio. Any video content on the HDMI signal will be passed through to the TV or output device connected via the HDMI out. Audio content will also be automatically passed through if the DSM is in Sleep mode.

With HDMI inputs, you can now play back SACD (Super Audio CD) and DVD-A (DVD Audio) discs by connecting the disc player to your DSM System. SACD content will be down-sampled to 176.4 K or 88.2 k and multi-channel audio down-mixed to stereo but this does allow high-quality playback of discs which cannot currently be ripped for streaming.

Signal paths have been reduced to a minimum by providing separate volume controls for analogue and digital sources. Analogue sources follow a pure analogue path through a conventional high-quality analogue volume control. Digital sources use a digital volume control that provides optimum performance over a wide range of volume settings thanks to its exceptionally low noise floor.

Akurate DSM excels with any digital music, reproducing your favorite albums with exceptional dynamic range and musical detail. Choose your preferred phone or tablet to control your music and select from high quality internet radio stations and the latest online music services.

Housed in a stunning precision-engineered enclosure, Akurate DSM brings a level of elegance to your living area that matches the audio performance. With enough analogue and digital inputs to connect any audio source, it will also bring your movies, tv and games to life like never before.

Any sources you connect to your DSM System via HDMI will sound better as they will benefit from the superior DAC and custom Linn up-sampling of the audio. Any video content on the HDMI signal will be passed through to the TV or output device connected via the HDMI out. Audio content will also be automatically passed through if the DSM is in Sleep mode.

With HDMI inputs, you can now play back SACD (Super Audio CD) and DVD-A (DVD Audio) discs by connecting the disc player to your DSM System. SACD content will be down-sampled to 176.4 K or 88.2 k and multi-channel audio down-mixed to stereo but this does allow high-quality playback of discs which cannot currently be ripped for streaming.

Signal paths have been reduced to a minimum by providing separate volume controls for analogue and digital sources. Analogue sources follow a pure analogue path through a conventional high-quality analogue volume control. Digital sources use a hybrid volume control that combines the best aspects of digital and analogue technology to maintain optimum performance even at low volume levels.

We have the original box, manual and accessories for this. Originally sold by our store and traded back into us.  This is a one-owner unit that we and installed and later picked up from the owner’s home. (at upgrade time!)

Following on the heels of the successful Alpha DAC Series 1, Berkeley Audio Design has announced a new Series 2 Alpha DAC.

The Alpha DAC Series 2 builds on the strengths of the previous Series 1 using new clocking and isolation technology resulting from research done while engineering the new Berkeley USB interface. How good was the Alpha DAC Series 1 ? Check out the Berkeley Alpha DAC Series 1 and Berkeley Alpha USB reviews by Chris Connacker in Computer Audiophile.

The appearance, controls and operating functionality of the Alpha series 2 is identical to the Alpha DAC 1 except for the addition of a Series 2 label on the rear panel.

From a performance perspective, according to Michael Ritter of Berkeley Audio Design, the new Alpha DAC Series 2 has greater imaging precision, timbral purity, and resolution as compared to the Series 1.

We at Pearl Audio first discovered the Alpha DAC when we heard the amazing sound at the Magico* room at CES one year.

They were playing some of the most beautiful Reference Recordings classical recordings I’ve ever heard. They were 24/188khz digital files being played off of a custom built computer (that had no cd drawer I noticed!) into a DAC I had never seen before. I talked to Alon Magico-Man Wolf and he said it was a Pacific Microsonics DAC. It was GOOOOD Digital! Wow! So we started to check these guys out and found that Pacific Microsonics had reformed into a new company called Berkeley Audio Design which sells the new and improved Berkeley Alpha DAC.   Pacific Microsonics invented the digital format HDCD, so the name Berkeley Audio Design serves to differentiate them.  They’re BAD.

Two years, and several impossibly positive ‘best of’ reviews later, we finally brought  in the mighty Alpha. Much to our delight, our Alpha is one of the first production run of the new Series 2 Alphas!

We invite you to come in an hear this incredible digital vunderkind with our big rig Magnepan 3.7 system.

This is a one owner table and was kept in meticulous condition and perfectly set up.

Cartridge is a Linn MC Klyde. It’s old and should be replaced soon.

This is an in-store sale item only as we do not have the original box.

Great minimalist design tube Preamplifier from McIntosh audio. This unit was sold new locally and comes to us from the original buyer who upgraded to a C2300. We have the box, manual, remote, power cord for this great piece.

This is a single strand of 0.5 Cardas Quadlink interconnect. It is perfect if you happen to be that rare air bird who needs a top shelf interconnect to connect up your center channel to your home theater processor.

Cardas Quadlink has a wonderful, warm, bass heavy sound works wonders to smooth out electronics. An all time classic and the longest running model in Cardas’s lineup.

These were originally sold New by us to a local customer who later upgraded. Excellent condition with Nordost Vidar burn in. About a year old. These have original factory terminations with banana on amplier and biwire banana on speaker end. Awesome cables. Excellent deal on one of our favorite speaker cables here in the store.

The Heimdall loudspeaker cable consists of twenty-four 24 AWG solid OFC conductors with an extruded silver surface, in a flat array arrangement. It is the most affordable speaker cable in the Nordost range that employs our proprietary, state of the art micro mono-filament technology which reduces insulation contact with the conductors by more than 80%. This means that current signals traveling above the surface of the conductor are virtually unimpeded by the insulation material. With an effective dielectric constant of 1.12 Heimdall loudspeaker cables transfer signals more efficiently and at extremely high speeds. You can easily hear this in the Heimdall’s fabulous transient detail, superb imaging and magical sonic performance. A system fully-wired with Heimdall offers tremendous performance and value for money.