T.H.E. Show Newport 2015-Who's Going.
- Thread starter Steve Williams
- Start date
A couple of thoughts on Newport.
First the good: the new venue seems to be better than the old venue. The hotel has better parking and the exhibit rooms are a little larger and slightly easier to find.
The parking although easier will require you to walk much further to the venue than before. Something to remember IF you are little less ambulatory.
The majority of rooms that I heard were sounding pretty good. Including my 'best of show' contender, which is pictured above....the Clearaudio Statement/ Goldfinger with Aesthetix and Wilson Alexia's in Garth Leerer's room. Garth was getting a great sound, probably
due to the significant contribution of that TT! It's a stunner and IMO at the top of the heap.
Next, a great sound was to be had in the Rowland, Nordost Odin 2 and Magico S5 room. ( Although the incessant talking by most of the attendees there and the staff was NOT good). I thought the S5's were about as good as I have ever heard them.
Next up was another great room and possibly also 'best of show'...the Rockport, BAT room showing the Avior's with the BAT gear including the REX amps. These made for a great synergy and the room, while a little small, was superb sounding.
The SF room with the unobtanium Xtrema's was excellent, although the smaller SF's were held back ( This is IMO always the case) by the choice of electronics...the McIntosh ss amps and preamps. While it was clear that the speakers were superb,the slight
steely hardness and grain could be laid at the electronics feet.
Next up were the rooms with the Harbeths... in this instance, i thought they were hitting above their normal strata and were super for the price.
Now the less good...
The biggest disappointment for me was the room with the Cabasse Sphere! Just a disaster, with way way too small a room for the speaker and badly set up as well. The wall of electronics ( Esoteric) behind the speaker was doing nothing for the imaging and the fact that the
dealer had the speaker jammed up against the rear wall was crazy, IMO. The dealer did state that they did NOT get the room that they wanted, BUT why set them up like that?? Thin sounding, with imprecise imaging at best- and images locked to the speaker itself. Too bad as I have heard these sound a LOT better.
I just don't get the Tech Das room?? Particularly with the Tech Das one....sited on a cheap stand ( well actually two) we have a $100K table and it is NOT even leveled correctly!! The sound in this room wasn't too bad, but the visual of the table at an angle on those cheap stands
was weird. The lights on the amp stands also was a distraction.
OTOH, a few other distributors had also set up their TT's so that they weren't level, LOL. Ok, it was the first day.
Now to my pet peeve....the LONG line to receive the entrance tag and the inexcusable wait that ensued. There was NO reason that anyone had to pre-pay, as the line to acquire the tickets was actually shorter and quicker than the pre-paid line! After 45 minutes in this line, there were a lot of disgruntled a'philes.
What's with this guys?? Simple solution is to mail out a wristband or tag prior to the event and on the day have a scanner scan the band/tag and be done. Instead we see a total bottleneck situation that requires a look-up and a tag /book acquisition?? I hate to think what the weekend line is going to look like!! Anybody going today had better get there WAY before opening time, or expect to wait 1hr + for the access
Otherwise, an interesting show with a lot of gear that is "underpriced"...
First the good: the new venue seems to be better than the old venue. The hotel has better parking and the exhibit rooms are a little larger and slightly easier to find.
The parking although easier will require you to walk much further to the venue than before. Something to remember IF you are little less ambulatory.
The majority of rooms that I heard were sounding pretty good. Including my 'best of show' contender, which is pictured above....the Clearaudio Statement/ Goldfinger with Aesthetix and Wilson Alexia's in Garth Leerer's room. Garth was getting a great sound, probably
due to the significant contribution of that TT! It's a stunner and IMO at the top of the heap.
Next, a great sound was to be had in the Rowland, Nordost Odin 2 and Magico S5 room. ( Although the incessant talking by most of the attendees there and the staff was NOT good). I thought the S5's were about as good as I have ever heard them.
Next up was another great room and possibly also 'best of show'...the Rockport, BAT room showing the Avior's with the BAT gear including the REX amps. These made for a great synergy and the room, while a little small, was superb sounding.
The SF room with the unobtanium Xtrema's was excellent, although the smaller SF's were held back ( This is IMO always the case) by the choice of electronics...the McIntosh ss amps and preamps. While it was clear that the speakers were superb,the slight
steely hardness and grain could be laid at the electronics feet.
Next up were the rooms with the Harbeths... in this instance, i thought they were hitting above their normal strata and were super for the price.
Now the less good...
The biggest disappointment for me was the room with the Cabasse Sphere! Just a disaster, with way way too small a room for the speaker and badly set up as well. The wall of electronics ( Esoteric) behind the speaker was doing nothing for the imaging and the fact that the
dealer had the speaker jammed up against the rear wall was crazy, IMO. The dealer did state that they did NOT get the room that they wanted, BUT why set them up like that?? Thin sounding, with imprecise imaging at best- and images locked to the speaker itself. Too bad as I have heard these sound a LOT better.
I just don't get the Tech Das room?? Particularly with the Tech Das one....sited on a cheap stand ( well actually two) we have a $100K table and it is NOT even leveled correctly!! The sound in this room wasn't too bad, but the visual of the table at an angle on those cheap stands
was weird. The lights on the amp stands also was a distraction.
OTOH, a few other distributors had also set up their TT's so that they weren't level, LOL. Ok, it was the first day.
Now to my pet peeve....the LONG line to receive the entrance tag and the inexcusable wait that ensued. There was NO reason that anyone had to pre-pay, as the line to acquire the tickets was actually shorter and quicker than the pre-paid line! After 45 minutes in this line, there were a lot of disgruntled a'philes.
What's with this guys?? Simple solution is to mail out a wristband or tag prior to the event and on the day have a scanner scan the band/tag and be done. Instead we see a total bottleneck situation that requires a look-up and a tag /book acquisition?? I hate to think what the weekend line is going to look like!! Anybody going today had better get there WAY before opening time, or expect to wait 1hr + for the access
Otherwise, an interesting show with a lot of gear that is "underpriced"...
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I won't pretend to read the minds of others, but it is conceivable that the cheap stands underneath the $100,000 turntable were purposeful. We cobbled a stand together with $14 worth of Ikea junk at RMAF, so my turntable could demonstrate its strengths at remaining quiet under adverse circumstances. If it works well on a 3mm thick hollow door, then it is pretty good at the task, correct? Maybe they had the same idea?
Or maybe not! In this case, i don't think so. When I talked to the dealer, he assured me that he had apparently leveled the TT with the built in level. Sure didn't look level to me...as can be seen in the photo. At least a few other dealers admitted to me that they hadn't leveled their TT and had cobbled it together on a stand. Perhaps it was due to day one??
Unfortunately, the simplest solution to the long registration lines (and the one many of us used) was to simply ignore them and go see the show. We didn't register until about 5 hours after we got there; OTOH we also didn't waste any time in line.
Kudos to Richard Beers and Bob Levi for securing a very classy venue. The venue food was very good and there were numerous locations to relax if one wished a bit of a respite from audio goings-on. Of course, there were queues for the elevators -- which inspired one to utilize the stairs.
There are a few rooms remaining that I have a desire to see and hear and as of yet haven't. Some personal observations, thus far: The source is critical. The rooms/systems I discoverd most engaging all used analog tape and/or vinyl The acoustic space/room is critical. The systems I enjoyed were located in larger rooms. With those self-evident provisos established -- the principals still had to set-up the room to best effect and underscore the sonic attributes of the featured gear.
I've had mixed impressions of MBL gear over the years at shows; however, using analog tape -- this is the most satisfying experience for me with MBL.
The only room I've returned to daily and shall resume the cycle again, tomorrow, is the Evolution Acoustics/DartZeel room Whether analog reel tape rolling on an ATR or vinyl spinning on their Wave Kinetics tt/arm/cart set-up...the experience was involving, immersive, and left me with great anticipation!
Of course, there were queues for the elevators -- which inspired one to utilize the stairs. There are a few rooms remaining that I have a desire to see and hear and as of yet haven't. Some personal observations, thus far: The source is critical. The rooms/systems I discoverd most engaging all used analog tape and/or vinyl
The acoustic space/room is critical. The systems I enjoyed were located in larger rooms. With those self-evident provisos established -- the principals still had to set-up the room to best effect and underscore the sonic attributes of the featured gear.I've had mixed impressions of MBL gear over the years at shows; however, using analog tape -- this is the most satisfying experience for me with MBL.
The only room I've returned to daily and shall resume the cycle again, tomorrow, is the Evolution Acoustics/DartZeel room
Whether analog reel tape rolling on an ATR or vinyl spinning on their Wave Kinetics tt/arm/cart set-up...the experience was involving, immersive, and left me with great anticipation! 
Once again today extremely disappointed in mbl, the worst I've heard them sound. Open reel tape sounded like mp3. And apparently I wasn't the only one, Mikey Fremer left after 1 (yes, that's one) minute.
I really haven't noticed the source correlation Sam has. Plenty of LP's sounded bad, lots of server/DACs, even playing Red Book, sounded really good. Even tape (in the mbl room) could sound not so hot. In fact two of my better sounding rooms, Light Harmonic and Nordost, had no analog sources. Room size was definitely an issue, though, the bigger definitely the better.
I really haven't noticed the source correlation Sam has. Plenty of LP's sounded bad, lots of server/DACs, even playing Red Book, sounded really good. Even tape (in the mbl room) could sound not so hot. In fact two of my better sounding rooms, Light Harmonic and Nordost, had no analog sources. Room size was definitely an issue, though, the bigger definitely the better.
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