Exciting times for HiVi and TAI! I’ve just had the new M200MkII posted in the webstore.
This is quite an interesting new offering: The most popular and value-packed active desktop speaker highly upgraded with all new electronics.
The M200MkII is not yet stocked, but should be available in limited quantities by early-mid summer ’07. We’ll set the price at $299 for now and try as best we can to hold it.
Apropos of nothing much, I thought I’d post up a shot of HiVi’s anechoic chamber. As you can see, Diva was born here.
I thought you’d like to get a sense of where Diva gets its sonic pedigree, plus it’s a nice shade of deep yellow, wouldn’t you agree?
“John McLaughlin. Eric Clapton. Carlos Santana.” So begins a documentary I found just tonight on Jan Akkerman, former lead for the unforgettable 70′s Dutch art/metal/classical band FOCUS.
This superbly produced 16:9 documentary, presented almost entirely in Dutch, includes footage of Akkerman appearing with B.B. King, a bit of motorcycle footage in northern Holland — near Friesland, where my grandfather was from — some great guitar tech, and a few frames of some monster Akkerman stage work.
HiVi’s newest premium bookshelf monitor was just launched and TAI is receiving advance inventory very early this summer.
The D2.1SE literally uses HiVi’s best drive units and the nicest piano-grade veneers and finishes I’ve seen yet from them, which, in light of the Diva’s rosewood’s extraordinary quality, I think is really saying something. I hope you agree when you take an up close look at a pair — these are minature Steinways.
About those drive units, the D6.8 midbass and Q1 soft dome come right from the top of the extensive HiVi catalog; given which manufacturers use these drivers in the US and elsewhere — and how much they charge — it’s also safe to say that this stuff is definite high-end.
All in all, a very premium product from an experienced operation, all backed by the best design and engineering in their sector. Remember, they’re made by an ISO facility housing the largest test lab in their part of the world.
These are the real audiophile deal, not parts tossed into a box to hit a price point. Much more to come as we get nearer to launch.
Anybody have an idea what the world’s longest loudspeaker is? And where it’s located?
The answer is six hundred fifty feet, or two hundred meters! That’s the length of the planar-magnetic linesource array my dear friends from SONUS in Badan-baden Germany installed in the German Parliment building at the restoration of the former Reichstag. The Reichstag (from the German Reich and Tag) has its roots, as I understand it, in the Roman Empire.
SONUS’s Martin and Joachim fabricated this state-of-the-art monster overhead array composed of segments of planar magnetic drive elements made for them by BGC of Carson City, where I was based from ’94 thorough ’99.
These guys are the James Bonds of ultra-fi commercial audio. More about them and their amazing European adventures as the blog matures. I’ll have to blog from their office the next time I visit.
HiVi is shipping TAI a hundred early releases of their new S3W with digital amplification and a cool new desktop volume control and signal hub. The S3W plugs into any line-level signal source.
I give the HiVi team a ton of credit for developing something unique and extraordinary before wading into the popularly-priced market segment.
I especially like the miniature fullrange drivers. 
These carefully-crafted Japanese-style hard paper cones should have that razor-sharp definition and 3D imaging the design style is known for.
Click the headline to visit the S3W page in the TAI store.
I expect the first shipment to arrive around mid May for release before the first of June. The intro price is only $99 for the entire system. Yes, I’m taking reservations for this cool little go-anywhere active hifi system.
It’s alive.
The new Audio Insider webstore is live and features a host of new products. The Audio Insider is proud to announce our exclusive distribution of the Dana loudspeaker line from Denmark, as well as the new Acculine models, each featuring the fabulous BG planar tweeter.
The new store also includes new features:
We’d love to hear what you think, so please comment.
Watch this space for more from our guest editors too. If you’d like to add your considerable talents here (hopefully to offset my lack thereof ;o) let me know and we’ll see if we can fit you in.
