February 2010, Newsletter
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View from Treasure Island Hotel 21st Floor
C.E.S. 2010
Brilliant Reception for The Lotus Group Granada CES Launch!
"...one of the finest systems I've ever heard, and not JUST at a show."
"It was just spectacular sound, relaxed, laidback, and alive, dripping with harmonic richness, full of musical detail, and coherent from top to bottom. This is, without question, one of the finest systems I've ever heard, and not JUST at a show."
Greg Weaver, Positive-Feedback.com Issue 47
"...the sound was the best I have ever heard in a demo room. Detail extraction, soundstaging, 3D imaging, naturalness, and conveyance of emotion - no matter what audiophile attribute I listened for it was absolutely superb. No matter what type of music I played - complex orchestral, heavy metal, bombastic soundtracks, violin sonatas, acoustic guitar, and female vocals - the system delivered incredible natural and realistic sound. No, it was not the same as attending a live performance, but close enough that if I could have that sound in my listening room I would be tempted to not renew my season tickets for the symphony."
Roger Gordon - Positive-Feedback Online Issue 47 |
"As it was at CES, the Lotus Group Granada was a model of neutrality. Even though it was digitizing analog sources via its DSP crossover (which not only crosses over the woofers to the Feastrex via fourth-order slopes but also eq's each driver and provides sophisticated room correction), it still managed to reproduce Joan Baez's voice and guitar on "Gospel Ship" with exceptionally natural timbre. Oh, maybe it was subtracting a little bit of the most delicate tremolo from Joanie's soprano, but it wasn't subtracting anything else. What it was doing that so many other speakers weren't was sounding flat, uncolored, and utterly coherent. This essentially three-driver two-way speaker ...needs a review in TAS. Robert named it "Best of Show" at RMAF (and I named it a runner-up), and it was a strong contender again at CES." Jonathan Valin - AVguide January 12, 2010
"I just wanted to send a follow-up note to thank you again for the opportunity to join you, as it were, for the last bit of the show. I am extremely pleased that you enjoyed the VRE-1 preamp, and I must say that I was terrifically impressed with your Granada speaker. I heard some qualities in that system ...that I am not used to hearing in almost any system, regardless of price. The system was able to transcend the whole "Hi-Fi" genre to some degree, and began to suggest actual live music! That is quite an accomplishment, and I am delighted to have been able to contribute to it."
Steve McCormack - SMc
"Best Sound - The room of The Lotus Group, featuring the new Granada
loudspeaker, bewitched me with its complete sense of ease and "un-hi-fi" sound."
Robert Harley, Editor, The Absolute Sound - AVguide.com, October, 2009
"...the Lotus room literally had grown men crying..."
Robert Schult - Ridge Street Audio Designs
Our show reference system showcased premium Lotus Group brands including:
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Hanss Acoustics T-60 Turntable
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Hanss Acoustics PA-60 Phono Preamplifier
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Hanss Acoustics CD-20 Upsampling CD player
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Prana Wire Cabling
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Acoustic Revive cables and accessories
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Audio Replas Accessories
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Spike Sound Will Magnetic Levitation Devices
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All power cables use Oyaide power connectors
The Lotus Group Granada Loudspeaker is wired with Acrolink 6 nines (99.99997%)
pure stress-free 10 gauge copper wire, and Oyaide PCOCC-A hookup wire. |
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Oyaide SS-47 RoHS Compliant Solder
Word is coming back to us from users that not only is
Oyaide SS-47 High Silver content solder the smoothest flowing
RoHS compliant solder they have used, but the best sounding.
Acrolink 6N-A2400 II Interconnect
Looking for a medium priced cable that performs like a true top
end cable? The Acrolink 6N-A2400 has transparency and rightness of
tonality to rival much more expensive cables. A true bargain in today's audio market.
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Imports and Distributes
these fine products:
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Dear Contact First Name
As usual...
...Las Vegas extracts its pound of flesh. Setting up, running and tearing down these shows is always an exercise in self sacrifice. Sure this is part of what is required of us anyway, but it is definitely in the pursuit of the best possible sound that we stay up late successive nights, calibrating and tweaking, changing out equipment - evaluating and re-evaluating. We condense into a few nights, work that can otherwise take months.
This was the first show where we took full advantage of the Granada's DSP crossover. Our engineer, Manny LaCarrubba, took careful measurements and spent quite a lot of time calibrating the speaker to the room. We were quite pleased with the result.
The preamp we had intended to use turned out to be not available so we had to borrow one at last minute. What seemed like misfortune at the outset, turned into great good fortune, as we had a chance to audition several highly rated preamplifiers and were able to identify by the third day of the show one that is clearly in a class by itself in terms of absolute realism, impact and slam, tonal balance, solidity and overall musicality - the SMc VRE-1.
Steve McCormack brought this preamp to us on Saturday evening, and by Sunday morning after a night of burn in, it brought all of our efforts into focus. A further revelation was to be had when Mr. Teramoto, designer and builder of the Feastrex drivers, brought his personal prototype upgraded power supply for the field coil drivers for us to try out. The results were ineffible! How does one describe such an improvement in quality, especially when the starting point was already at the cutting edge? The foundation had already been laid by the Granada itself in combination with the VRE-1, The Hanss T-60 Turntable and PA-60 Phono Preamplifier along with their CD-20 CD player, PranaWire cabling and the illustrious Pass Labs XA 30.5 amplifiers, Oyaide plugs and receptacles, Acoustic Revive cables and accessories, Audio Replas accessories and Spike Sound Will magnetic levitation devices. Each element in the system had its role to play in establishing a ground of reference. The upgraded power supply taught us not to be complacent, but to reach for the ultimate, as it demonstrated that it is attainable. I will venture to say that those who had the opportunity to hear this were left shaking their heads and stuttering to find the words to describe what they were hearing. I know I was.
Hanss Acoustics T-60 Turntable
Origin Live
The Lotus Group has been granted the right to distribute Origin Live tonearms. This means that when you order your Hanss Acoustics turntable you can order an arm that is a perfect fit. Origin live has a range of super high quality tonearms from the superior cost effective to ultimate world class. An added benefit is that all Origin Live arms come with a full length phono cable attached which saves on the expense of an added cable.
Sold only with Hanss Acoustics Turntables.
Coming Soon
The Hanss Acoustics T-10 Turntable
Our Sales Manager
In our last newsletter we announced the appointment of Ben Goldman as our new Sales Manager.  We feel it important to mention it again, in case you missed it last time. Ben brings a whole host of skills and many long term relationships with him including stints at Harman Specialty Group as International Sales Manager (Mark Levinson, Lexicon, Revel) and U.S. Western Regional Manager for Mark Levinson, Business Development Manager at Linn, Inc. and Business Development Manager at HI-I, LLC. His expertise includes not only high end audio but pro audio and the field of a/v installation as well.
The Acoustic Revive RTP-2 AC is a unique version of the standard RTP-2 with a 2 meter Acoustic Revive Power Reference cable hard wired directly into the custom Oyaide R-1 outlet affording a superior, more direct connection. We have extended the sale price on this incomparable device, normally $2895, to be $2495 retail until the end of February.
PranaWire
All PranaWire cables are hand built by us in the USA and are highly labor intensive creations. For example, our Cosmos speaker cable is built around a 7 gauge pure silver ribbon that is extensively treated for vibration control and then hand wrapped in 13 individual layers of insulating materials including 2 copper foil shields. We laminate a flat, pure silver spade lug to the inner conductor so that it (the inner conductor) has direct contact with the binding posts.
We invite you to compare our Cosmos and Avatar cables with anything costing anything.
New pricing is now in effect. Please contact us or your PranaWire dealer for further information.
"...they are the most compelling and musically honest cables I've ever had the pleasure of listening to, bar none. They consistently got out of their own way in a manner I've never encountered before and delivered unfailingly musical and utterly involving sound, upstream equipment and recording permitting. While I would love to point to their shortcomings, these ears found no apparent failings on which to comment. If my budget would permit, they would never have left my music system to make their way back to their gifted creator in Novato. Without any reservation, they have garnered my highest recommendation." Greg Weaver - Positive Feedback.com Issue 25
Daria
Some of you know my wife Daria sings with Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks, but may not know that she is a consumate jazz vocalist in her own right (Go to her MySpace page to hear complete tunes: www.myspace.com/dariajazz, and visit her web site here www.dariajazz.com for more information and to sign up for her newsletter.)
"Her voice is clear and flavorful, like a prized Zinfandel."
Positive-Feedback Magazine
Thank you to all who visited our room in Las Vegas. Those who weren't able to make it, I invite you to take the opportunity to hear the Granada Loudspeaker as we feel that it brings something new and unique into the world of High End High Fidelity.
All best thoughts,
Joe Cohen
The Lotus Group
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