Harry Pearson in the Critical Intersection

Source: The Absolute Sound June/July 2005

In short, HP elaborated in "HP's Workshop" that while auditioning some new components over the past few months, he firmly believes that we have reached a turning point in recreating an absolute sound. Furthermore, he stated that improvements we are going to witness in coming months in sound re-production are such that "... we had reached the limits of the descriptive vocabulary that has served audio writers so well for a generation." Then he really got cryptic: "... we shall face an experience that would be a "hyper" reality, like no experience heretofore. Thus we are at an intersection that could take us to "the outside edge" of what we know." And evidently he is talking about two-channel sound.

Now if that was cryptic, then how about this: "There definitely is a revolutionary product on the horizon." He went on describing that on his watch as a reviewer, there has been only one "revolution", "... and that came with the QRS-1D, a hybrid enclosureless speaker system of planar and true ribbon and planar-like ribbon units." So evidently HP has recently been introduced to some kind of product, which has left him puzzled. Quote: "... recently came into my hands what I consider to be the second revolutionary audio product during my days at play. And both its sound and one of the ways it goes about achieving its result have prompted me to rethink some fundamentals and will, no doubt, rattle the audio reptiles, perhaps into a state of denial. I have been so shaken that I deferred writing about it too soon."

I know, the text above describing the mystery component sounds like coming from UFO related magazine, and here am I putting more gasoline into fire. HP confessed that this component has presented itself in the context of the latest state-of-the-art analog and digital gear in his listening room(s), and later on he presented some of these equipments in his revised Super Components List. Some components are already known, like Antique Sound Labs Hurricane monoblocks, some are new additions like Spectral DM-360 monoblocks, Lector Zoe pre-amp (review in same issue), and Zingali M-215 hybrid horn/cone system (review in the previous issue).

Viewpoint: I've read TAS some 8 years, and have to confess that I've never seen HP writing in a way he did in this issue's "HP's Workshop".

But the mystery remains, there is a new component in HP's radar screen he believes will "rattle the audio reptiles" - and will be revealed in the months to come. You Read It Here First - after TAS, of course ;)

I just wonder what comes next?