RED ROSE a new brand of high-end audio products with the highest musical sound from MR. MARK LEVINSON. Mr. Levinson has done it again. After Cello audio products, now comes The Red Rose R3 loudspeaker system and the M5 Integrated Tube Amplifiers, together they make music that's beyond their size and price range.

The R3 is a two-way loudspeaker with a ribbon tweeter protruding at the top on the front baffle. The R3 is stand mounted and its build quality is excellent. A bass reflex mini-monitor which can project sound well beyond its boundary.

The M5 is a 50watts dual mono integrated tube amplifier. The M5 aluminum finish casing is excellent and it has a useful biasing meter on the top of the amplifier. This makes checking the condition of the four power tube easy. The M5 matches perfectly with the R3 loudspeaker system.

The M5 and R3 reproduce sound that is beyond one's imagination especially when you take a look at its size and price. Their simplicity in design throws you off guard when you first hear the music being played. So musical is the sound and yet having a well balance top to bottom frequency response.

As the music goes on, the combination makes you wonder where the bass was coming from. How can a mini-monitor loudspeaker and an integrated tube amplifier give you such articulate bass response? Your ears can't believe your eyes.

The M5 integrated tube amplifier gives you high frequency details that rival solid state power amplifiers. You can say that the ribbon tweeters from the R3 loudspeaker have very extended highs but these highs are not highs from a tube amplifier and it doesn't seem to roll off.

The M5 / R3 combination gives a high-end sound quality of a top notch Class A amplifiers but with a wondrous midrange that only a high-end tube gear can give. There is no coloration in the midband area.

The overall sound quality is clean, lucid, detailed and very musical. You can listen to this combination for hours and hours. The M5 and R3 are perfect for each other but their only short fall is in the area of dynamics. Given their dimension and design, we could not fault the combination.

At normal listening volume, they are perfect and I think that very few components would even come close to them. At their price point, there are no corners to cut just the volume level.

The Red Rose R3 Loudspeaker System is going for S$6,500 and the M5 Dual Mono Tube Integrated Amplifier is S$14,000. A baby reference system that you can compare with anything at a given volume level.

The RED ROSE equipment is available at The Absolute Sound Equipment Pte Ltd in the Singapore Shopping Centre.

THE MINIPOD BASS STATION At last, a matching and a dedicated bass unit for the unique MINIPOD loudspeaker system. We can now hear the full potential of this beautiful loudspeaker system.	THE MINIPOD LOUDSPEAKER With the MINIPOD loudspeaker and its bass station, now you have a high-end loudspeaker system that looks as good as its sounds.
The MINIPOD is available at THE SOUNDROOM, 3rd level, The Adelphi.