With our ears still fresh, Linda and I returned to Pierre Gabriel's large room. After omitting them from a show or two, once again Pierre showcased his huge Grand Master tower loudspeakers.  They are basically a two-way design with a ribbon tweeter between six mid-woofers, dressed in a stunning veneer of unobtainium wood on the sides. There is only single wire capability due to Pierre's exclusive crossover network. As impressive as they appear to the eye, they are really gentle giants with 95dB sensitivity, capable of being driven with as few as five watts. Being based near Montreal, Pierre was able to bring many of the "big guns" from Jadis that were too difficult to take to CES. Although it was a two-channel stereo presentation, the entire floor between and behind the loudspeakers was filled with gleaming Jadis components accented with gold plate. Each piece had its own separate power supply — CD player, preamplifier, and each monoblock.

Everything was on its own special platform, and the cabling was by Pierre Gabriel although it is marketed under the Jadis name in Europe. In an effort to impress us with the speed and dynamics of this $200K system, Pierre played a drum cut that virtually put our heads inside the drum. If it had not sounded so good, I would have left the room. Obviously he was using a lot more than five watts. On other musical passages at more normal volume the sound was superb. The system was perfectly matched to the size of the large room, wanting for neither more power nor more space. Once again, Pierre had put it together with excellence. Around the perimeter of the room were grouped other Jadis components with other Pierre Gabriel loudspeakers. Each of the three groups represented appropriately priced CD players, integrated amplifiers and loudspeakers. The Jadis line was finally starting to make sense to me now. One thing is for sure, with their gleaming polished metalwork, presentation is as important as sound quality for Jadis. Pierre drew my attention to several new introductions in the line including the DA 50 Signature integrated amplifier at $8K with 30 watts per channel in pure Class A that can utilize a number of tube types. Also new was the DA 88 Signature at $13.5K. And it goes up from there with their separate pre and power amplifiers. Once again, Pierre had put together one of the Best Rooms at the show, not only for music this time, but for presentation as well.