California Audio Show 2014

garylkoh

WBF Technical Expert (Speakers & Audio Equipment)
Sep 6, 2010
5,599
225
1,190
Seattle, WA
www.genesisloudspeakers.com
The 5th Annual California Audio Show starts in about 3 weeks - Friday August 15th thru Sunday August 17th at the Westin San Francisco Airport.

Tickets available at http://caaudioshow.com/

Who is going to be there? Any interest in a get-together?
 

garylkoh

WBF Technical Expert (Speakers & Audio Equipment)
Sep 6, 2010
5,599
225
1,190
Seattle, WA
www.genesisloudspeakers.com
Genesis at the Aspen Ballroom

Because of a last-minute pull-out, the organizers offered us the Aspen Ballroom. This is the huge room to your right just as you walk in the hotel entrance. The first room you see when you enter the hotel - even before you can get your name-badges! So, either come visit us before you collect your badge, or remember to come back!!

The Aspen Ballroom is HUGE. It's is a little bit scarey to be showing in a 1,400 sq.ft. room - 25' x 56'. I wish that we had the time to get a pair of Dragons built, but we only confirmed the room less than 3 weeks ago!!

So, the biggest speaker we had in stock was the Genesis 2.2 Junior. Yes, the Junior in 1,400 sq.ft. I'm pretty confident that we'll be able to fill the space and sound great..... especially since I'm bringing my 1,440W monoblock amplifiers with me.

Come visit if you are in the area! As usual, Genesis will serve coffee, drinks and snacks - even if you'll never buy one of my loudspeakers :D
 

garylkoh

WBF Technical Expert (Speakers & Audio Equipment)
Sep 6, 2010
5,599
225
1,190
Seattle, WA
www.genesisloudspeakers.com
North American Debut of Vertere turntable and tonearm

If the cosmos align perfectly, I will have the Vertere SG-1 turntable and SG-1 tonearm to demo with.

SGrecordplayer02m.jpg

The arm will be the brand new (not $45,000) SG-1 tonearm with tri-point articulating bearing.

SGTAexp01s.jpg

The bearing point is captive under 3 Silicon Nitride balls.

SGTA22ws.jpg
 

garylkoh

WBF Technical Expert (Speakers & Audio Equipment)
Sep 6, 2010
5,599
225
1,190
Seattle, WA
www.genesisloudspeakers.com
North American Launch of Decca: Supreme Stereophonic Legacy

It is finally about to be launched - Winston Ma's legacy for music lovers worldwide - Decca: Supreme Stereophonic Legacy. 350page book with high-definition photographs featuring intimate stories of the Decca artists, producers, engineers and recording venues. 4 CDs with tracks carefully selected by Winston from Decca's 100 years of superlative albums remastered by Michael Bishop. With exceptional quality - in both production quality as well as sound - it is destined to be a collectible.

The official world-wide launch will be at the Hong Kong AV Show Aug 8th. The North American launch will be at the California Audio Show Aug 15th at the Aspen Ballroom hosted by Genesis Advanced Technologies, Inc.

I have been honored and privileged to sit and listen to many rounds of the test pressings in Winston's wonderful listening room over the past year or more, and will say that I think that it is truly a superb achievement! Winston is a perfectionist, and this is one of his best works to date. Mastered by Michael Bishop, it will be a collectable for sure. It is a collection of some of his favorite music from the Golden Age of Decca - and would make a fantastic introduction to someone new to Classical music.

Fim UHd 088 whole.jpg

Decca Tracks.jpg
 

asiufy

Industry Expert/VIP Donor
Jul 8, 2011
3,711
723
1,200
San Diego, CA
almaaudio.com
Cool!
Anyone else going?
I might be there... Trying to arrange flights etc...


alexandre
 

MtnHam

Industry Expert
Jan 12, 2014
275
50
335
Nothern California Wine Country
Sound Labs and Ultimate Audio will be demoing Sound Lab Majestic 945PX ESL speakers with the Consummate back plates in the Walnut Room on the main floor, a nice size room with a 15' ceiling.
Please stop by and say hello.
Tom
 

cjfrbw

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2010
3,309
1,293
1,730
Pleasanton, CA
All very tempting. I will have to see if I can get over this year.
 

LL21

Well-Known Member
Dec 26, 2010
14,376
2,497
1,398
Sound Labs Majestic 945 and Genesis 2's - how can you miss it??

battle of the titans...;) very cool. Gary - can you (again) record the Genesis 2s for those of us who wont be able to hear them? if so...thanks in advance!!!
 

astrotoy

VIP/Donor
May 24, 2010
1,546
1,015
1,715
SF Bay Area
Thanks, Gary. It was great working with Winston, writing the book and liner notes. Much of the information came from extensive interviews I did with old Decca staff in London last year. Elusive Disc has put it on a prerelease sale (coming out on August 15 in the US). Michael Bishop did the the mastering of the first two discs and his partner Robert Friedrich did the last two. Between them I think they have about 22 Grammys. The book debuts at the Hong Kong Audio show next week.

Larry


It is finally about to be launched - Winston Ma's legacy for music lovers worldwide - Decca: Supreme Stereophonic Legacy. 350page book with high-definition photographs featuring intimate stories of the Decca artists, producers, engineers and recording venues. 4 CDs with tracks carefully selected by Winston from Decca's 100 years of superlative albums remastered by Michael Bishop. With exceptional quality - in both production quality as well as sound - it is destined to be a collectible.

The official world-wide launch will be at the Hong Kong AV Show Aug 8th. The North American launch will be at the California Audio Show Aug 15th at the Aspen Ballroom hosted by Genesis Advanced Technologies, Inc.

I have been honored and privileged to sit and listen to many rounds of the test pressings in Winston's wonderful listening room over the past year or more, and will say that I think that it is truly a superb achievement! Winston is a perfectionist, and this is one of his best works to date. Mastered by Michael Bishop, it will be a collectable for sure. It is a collection of some of his favorite music from the Golden Age of Decca - and would make a fantastic introduction to someone new to Classical music.

View attachment 16692

View attachment 16694
 

garylkoh

WBF Technical Expert (Speakers & Audio Equipment)
Sep 6, 2010
5,599
225
1,190
Seattle, WA
www.genesisloudspeakers.com
Thanks, Gary. It was great working with Winston, writing the book and liner notes. Much of the information came from extensive interviews I did with old Decca staff in London last year. Elusive Disc has put it on a prerelease sale (coming out on August 15 in the US). Michael Bishop did the the mastering of the first two discs and his partner Robert Friedrich did the last two. Between them I think they have about 22 Grammys. The book debuts at the Hong Kong Audio show next week.

Larry

Larry, you did a fabulous job on the book. Well done!!!

I understand that Winston ended up not being very happy with Disc 3, and he had Michael re-master it. One of the many reasons why production is late. Will you be coming to the show? It would be great to meet.
 

astrotoy

VIP/Donor
May 24, 2010
1,546
1,015
1,715
SF Bay Area
Thanks, Gary. Unfortunately we are in LA helping with the birth of our grandson (happened at 3P today). We are taking care of his 3 yo sister.

Larry
 

MtnHam

Industry Expert
Jan 12, 2014
275
50
335
Nothern California Wine Country
Jason Victor Sernius writes in Stereophile about the upcoming California Audio Show:

"The 5th annual California Audio Show takes place August 15–17 in the four-star Westin SFO hotel in Millbrae, CA. Easily accessible via the freeway or BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), this smaller-scaled show showcases rarely encountered big speakers from Dynaudio, Genesis, JBL, and Sound Labs."
http://www.stereophile.com/content/california-audio-show-starts-friday-0
__________________
 

garylkoh

WBF Technical Expert (Speakers & Audio Equipment)
Sep 6, 2010
5,599
225
1,190
Seattle, WA
www.genesisloudspeakers.com
The attraction of this show to me is that there aren't too many rooms, so you can linger and may be stay for more than just a snippet of a track off an album. Hopefully, there will be some who will stay through an entire side!!

We've got the Genesis 2.2 Juniors in the Aspen Ballroom.

I can also confirm the North American debut of the Vertere SG-1 turntable and tonearm. It just arrived today, so it will definitely make it to the show on Thursday.
 

garylkoh

WBF Technical Expert (Speakers & Audio Equipment)
Sep 6, 2010
5,599
225
1,190
Seattle, WA
www.genesisloudspeakers.com
Hi Gary. Can you tell us more about the turntable and the arm?

So, the cosmos did align, and the turntable is in the USA. I don't have it, but it will be there at the show.

Here is a sneak peak from HiFi Plus: http://www.hifiplus.com/articles/sneak-peak-vertere-rg-1-turntable-and-sg-1-tonearm/

The review has already been published, and this is what Alan Sircom said about this deck

Good turntables make you play more records, really good turntables make you delve deeper into your record collection, but the exceptional ones make you rush out and buy more records. That is precisely what the Vertere RG-1/SG-1 combination does. You listen, you look at your record collection, and say to yourself “it’s not enough”. Pretty soon, you are ram-raiding your credit card through the doors of the nearest record store, buying up everything vinyl you hear of, and receiving hand-written birthday cards from Jeff Bezos of Amazon, thanking you for all the business

I haven't heard the Vertere SG-1 turntable and tonearm, and I am biased because Touraj is an old friend from school. However, I'll write about it (and the music I'm going to be demo-ing on it) throughout the show. Come join us!!
 

cjfrbw

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2010
3,309
1,293
1,730
Pleasanton, CA
I went to the CAS 2014 yesterday. I find this a very enjoyable show. it can be digested in a day. It seems to have been divided somewhat by the Newport show, but actually I like the manageable nature of the show. The "big monolith" rooms were somewhat absent with some of the usual suspects such as MBL and Vincent MIA, and Wilson had a modest Sasha II room. However, I think this show is great for the "midrange" audiophile who wants to hear impressive systems that are not necessarily in the audiophile stratosphere, and they won't waste a lot of time with the big kahuna systems when they can hear the others. There were a couple of larger systems, like Soundlab, Dynaudio, and Gary's Dragon Jr. and they were very nice, but just a few.

I also was impressed that at least 80 percent of the rooms I visited had really good sound. This is counter intuitive to show experience. I can't say there was a "best" because for show conditions, there were a lot of good ones, many of them different in topology and implementation. Maybe my powers of audio discrimination and bitchiness have diminished so that may be a factor, too, but who knows, I liked a lot of what I heard.

I'm going surfing now, and if I survive, I will post a bit of bad photography and gratuitous remarks when I get back as I go along.
 

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