Click image for larger version

You couldn't come see Birdland Audio at HiFi'98 show in June? Not to worry, we'll tell you everything you missed about the French design / American made company right here.

That's right, we were a rare pioneer at the show to demonstrate 24bits/96kHz sound.. Probably the only ones to do it with an external, stand alone DAC.. and definitely the only one to have a 24/96 DAC with a 5^th order digital interpolation filter.

Our new Odéon-m1 external 24 bit DAC/Preamp was a big success but there was also the Pleyel 250, 2 channel 50 Watts amplifier which, although not new, was also displayed here for the first time.

Of course, it doesn't matter how much we tell you, it is difficult to convey what the system sounded like if you missed it. Let me tell you though, this was one of the best systems I have heard in terms of accuracy, detail, presence and dynamics.

The best demo was probably Classic Audio's 24/96 recording of the Rachmaninof Symphonic dances, thanks to its 24 bits resolution and, of course, our new DAC. The forte on measure 33 gives us a glimpse of the dynamics to come on measure 76 when the forte-fortissimo is laid. This blasted enough macro-dynamics in the room to make you leave with a bad hair day.. immediately followed by such details in a pianissimo section that reveals micro-dynamics like no regular 16 bits CD could have captured.

Other 24/96 demos we had included Art Davis, John Lee Hooker and Zoot Sims & Al Cohn from Classic Audio as well as the audio DVD sampler from Chesky. We also had a wide variety of regular CDs including some of yours! If you really want a name, I'd have to say Mozart's Die Zauberflöte from ex-label Philips classic productions.

We want to thank all our visitors for the major interest you showed at our first exhibit. Your interest and feedback is our best reward for providing you with our electronics. We hope to see you again at our next show.