Germany's Behold (whose parent company is Ballmann Electronica) used Ascendo speakers with their electronics, and the result was an ear-opening demo. On the electronics side was a rack full of Behold's "digital" electronics. These included the APU768 preamplifier with the ADP192 processor option (featured in our May 26 Daily Coverage), a CDP768 CD player, and a pair of BPA768-484 stereo power amplifiers biamping a set of Ascendo System M speakers. Behold employed its room-correction technology through the ADP192 to adjust for frequency-response anomalies.

The sound was first-class -- bold, rich, and exquisitely detailed. We were also impressed with the expansive soundstage and hyper-precise imaging -- things we've heard often from systems using Ascendo's time-aligned speaker designs. All in all, this was a technical tour de force high-end system, but one in which all the technology contributed to the inherent emotion of the musical outcome.

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Standout Demo

Germany's Behold intrigued us last year with an assortment of digital electronics. The company showed the APU768 preamplifier that only inputs and outputs digital signals (volume attenuation is performed in the BPA768-484 power amplifier). This year Behold showed the ADP192 processor (above right is the complete processor, while on the left is the board contained inside), which does room correction. In a nutshell, the speakers' in-room frequency response is read with an analyzer, dumped down to a computer where it is shown and the correction is done, and then the data is transferred to the ADP192.

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Highlights

Clement Perry