Filed Under: Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix.
Classic Audio has been bringing the big Hartsfield homage speakers, like the T3.4 ($45k) shown here, in one iteration or another for longer than I’ve been “into” high-end audio. And for good reason — this is a crazy-good transducer. Did I mention it uses a field coil system to “energize” the drivers? No? Well, it does. There’s a beryllium compression driver deep inside that Tractrix horn, and another beryllium driver, here used as a super-tweeter to carry the response up to 45kHz. For the other end of the spectrum, there are two 15″ drivers, one front-facing and one down-facing. All told, this is a full-range, dynamic and high-sensitivity design that is about the size of a refrigerator.
Driven, as per usual, by some updated Novacron amplifiers from Atma-Sphere, an Atma-Sphere pre, and tunes spinning off a Kuzma turntable with a Triplanar tonearm, the sound was airy and effortless.
Jim Aud from Purist Audio Design was running the room on my stop through, and I asked him about his new Luminist “revision” of audio cables, which were in use and also laid out on a static display, off to the side. The new revision, which essentially refers to the core design tech common to all the cables in each of the various price-points, is radically easier to bend and manipulate over the old Praesto revision. Jim tells me that customers can enjoy better detail and a tonally more neutral presentation with the new line — I’m looking forward to seeing and hearing more on this front, soon.
So Scot, how did they sound and how much are they? Love the look..
I think the T3.4 (not the 1.4, as I noted above) are $45k.