California Audio Show 2014

cjfrbw

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The Burwell horn speaker/Raven room was another excellent sounding room. What do you do when they give you a room with nothing but a big corner to put your stuff in? Horns, of course. Lare imaging as is typical for the horny breed, some very nice female vocals when I was there. P1010798.jpg P1010799.jpg
 

cjfrbw

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Audio Note sounding good with paralleled 2A3 Amps, also with Trinagleart turntables. The top of the line Triangleart turntable has to be some kind of super high end bargain at it's price and it also can double as a reflecting light ball to point your lasers at if you want to dance.
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cjfrbw

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Eficon speakers and Plinius amps. I mainly remember that the sound was decent, but was mostly surprised to see Plinius amps, which don't seem to be very common for many years. P1010804.jpg P1010805.jpg P1010806.jpg
 

cjfrbw

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The Melody room with the 101D preamp that I would have liked to paired up with the Pass-Sony VFET amp. These small speakers punched above their weight class in this modest size room and sounded very good with the tubed amplification chain. P1010807.jpg P1010808.jpg P1010809.jpg
 

LL21

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Dec 26, 2010
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This is an absolute TON of work you are doing here...just wanted to say thanks. Really enjoying the photos and the commentary.
 

cjfrbw

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I guess they are running out of Greeky sounding names for new audio gear, I think this is Diraeus.

These are "all in one" active speakers with built in preamplifier (remote controlled), crossover, and class D amplifiers. Just hook up your source. They were in the 26K range and sounded very good as well. The cabinetry and fit and finish were also beautiful, is can be seen in the pictures. These are for the audiophile who wants great sound but little muss, fuss or bother with racks and cables. P1010811.jpg P1010812.jpg
 

Ron Party

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Apr 30, 2010
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Oakland, CA
What can you say about SoundLabs except WOW! If you have the gymnasium to house these guys you will get it all: dynamics from whisper soft to explosive, detail, speed, and subtlety.
The Ayre amplifiers were quite small aluminum blocks, but the vendor was a little hush hush about topology, couldn't say if they were D, AB etc. because I guess they are supposed to be proprietary hybrids. Sounded good, but maybe the old fashioned OTL amps generally used with stats might sound better.
I would add additional impressions, but I think Carl summed it up perfectly in one word: Wow! Now if I could only figure out how to get a dedicated room with at least 10 foot ceilings.
 

Ron Party

WBF Founding Member
Apr 30, 2010
2,457
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Oakland, CA
The Burwell horn speaker/Raven room was another excellent sounding room. What do you do when they give you a room with nothing but a big corner to put your stuff in? Horns, of course. Lare imaging as is typical for the horny breed, some very nice female vocals when I was there.
I had the fortune of being in this room at the right time: Paul S. grabbed The Staples Singers tape and played Respect Yourself on his Tape Machine Project player. Just wonderful.
 

Ron Party

WBF Founding Member
Apr 30, 2010
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Oakland, CA
I spent most of my time in Gary's room. What a treat. And what a great way to demo a system. That pseudo Meridian Trifield ;) was awesome. Had a very pleasant chat with Carol as well. To this humble spectator, Gary does this hobby the right way and is one of the good guys in this business. Anyone owning Genesis products should take great pride, knowing the gear is outstanding and the man behind the gear also is outstanding.

What was a real treat was we had a recording artist come with her master tapes and she got up and sang together with herself. That was truly music coming alive!!

The other WBF member who came to hang out was Ron Party - who was lucky enough to be sitting close enough to the singer to hear her voice.


I had a great show - more so because of the great friends who came over and hung out with us spinning music. The California Audio Show is one of the smaller ones in the US, but this just gives everybody more time to spend more time in the rooms that they liked.

I was told that there were other great rooms. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to go and visit with Tom and his Soundlabs. I was told that it was magnificent. Because Lyn Stanley was in my room at the end of each day talking about her album (and I was in charge of putting the tape machine to play), I couldn't go and visit. But everybody who came to tell me how good the Soundlabs were sounding said the same thing - "Gary, next year lend him your 1,440W amplifiers!!"
 

cjfrbw

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Apr 20, 2010
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These speakers in the clear boxes had some interesting theories around construction and room mode cancellations. However, I didn't find the actual sound as compelling as some of the other small speaker setups. P1010813.jpg P1010814.jpg P1010815.jpg
 

cjfrbw

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Apr 20, 2010
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Linn speakers?? not to be confused with the Scottish brand, or maybe so, I dunno, unless I got the wrong door plaque. These speakers are made in Oakland, CA. The midrange horn is 110db efficient, and they can be bi or tri amped, presumably with something like a nice 45 tube on top and maybe a 300b on the midrange, and a subwoofer if desired. The Pass amp in there was probably overkill. I guess I will call him the "host" (since "vendor" seems unpleasant to some presenters) was a British Classics Professor who looked and sounde like, well, a British Classics Professor.

The sound was very very good, and it would be very interesting to hear this speaker with a 45/300b active tube array. P1010817.jpg P1010818.jpg P1010819.jpg P1010820.jpg
 

cjfrbw

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Apr 20, 2010
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Pleasanton, CA
The sound from the Audion/Spatial/True Audiophile room was wonderful. It had that dripping, delicious 300b sound that was nonetheless not the least bit dynamically challenged in the moderate size room and had good frequency extension as well. The odd looking dipole speakers must be pretty efficient, and at the price, an outstanding deal. Music was a BB King piece and it sounded GOOD, excellent coherence and 300b flicker flam lambency.

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cjfrbw

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2010
3,309
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1,730
Pleasanton, CA
The San Francisco Audiophile Club room was packed with audiophiles shooting the breeze, so really couldn't hear the small system that well, but the candy and water were good. They were recruiting, but I didn't sign up but might go to their web page and check things out since our own East Bay BAAS seems to have migrated south to Orange County with Steve Williams. P1010825.jpg P1010826.jpg
 
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cjfrbw

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2010
3,309
1,293
1,730
Pleasanton, CA
Anyway, that's a wrap since my pictures were my bread crumbs to what i saw and they ran out. Lots of pacemaker-friendly gomer elevator audiophile music, nobody had to pull out the defibrillator paddles anywhere, but a few occasional rooms would play some more challenging stuff like the young Zu speaker guys. The Sony-Pass VFET also played a good variety of stuff.

There was even an occasional audiophile female there. All in all a very enjoyable show with lots of good sound.
 

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