Show Reports....

ok, I haven't been to a show in around 4-5 years so was pretty excited to see one come to SoCal. A lot of mediocre sound at best, but here were my highlights and lowlights. Perhaps others can chime in as well.

Highlights:

1. Lotus Group----their junior speaker (but still at a lofty 75k) was shown and to me had it all in spades. power, palpability, and smoothness---it probably helps they use an active crossover at shows to take out some room issues. this one didn't use the Feastrex driver, but instead a Scanspeak Illuminator. My issue with this speaker is the requisite to triamp---and i think this ultimately scares a lot of folks away (me included)

2. Evolution Acoustics---nice meeting JTinn and playing a lot of fun music (Radiohead "Creep" on 45 was sweet). Speakers don't have low end, and imo, require sub---but within their range, very nice sound indeed. I left thinking both the Playback Designs dac and Dart gear would work well with my speakers (nice warmish sound--even on digital as JTinn was quick to point out)

3. Reference 3A/Concert Fidelity---while the room had a lot of issues (if they had a couple panels on the ceiling, would been 2x better), i think these speakers have a ton of promise and can be driven with low watt tubes (although they were using 100w ss monos).

4. Vivid/Luxman---very transparent midrange left a positive impression. i put on some Mumford and got the room rocking. Nice synergy amp/speaker---and the Brinkman turntable seems great to me. thought the system lacked in the bass department--could be the room.

Lowlights:

1. YG Acoustics/Tenor--- cold, lifeless sound. since i know the Tenor amps aren't the reason, must be the speakers.

2. Magico Q5-- i'm sure I will be in the minority on this one, but I just don't care for Spectral once again. I'm betting the Q5s sound superb on ARC gear as I like the brand of speakers (and almost purchased V3s 2 years ago). To be fair, i didn't get a demo of my music in the room.

3. TAD---again, just not my cup of tea. had all the hifi stuff right, none of the soul. I think (yet again) tubes would have helped this speaker. No one was tapping their toes in the room to swinging jazz--that says a lot to me. Andrew is a really nice guy though and i respect his work a lot!

4. Tannoy Prestige/Cary---heard a lot of Pink Floyd in this room and it appears the type of music that works well on them. However, just too euphonic and slow for me. Definitely more of a vintage sound---but on full scale classical it doesn't work. These Tannoys are fairly popular today in the HE world---but I feel my Zus outperform them and are cheaper.

5. Focal Grande Utopia/Burmester---300k of gear for cold, lifeless sound. I think the speakers were too large for the room.


Overall show comments:

1. shocked how much SS was being shown. not many tubes at all these days.

2. tape masters are just unfair to use as demos---i put on a well recorded cd after a tape and it sounds like crap.

3. low light music---Norah Jones rendition of Wild Horses. O'Hanlon demo---and it made me want to slit my wrists it was so long and drawn out.

4. 5,000 people showed up--this is great news for the industry

5. i tried to bring a lot of modern music and was met with a lot of "what is that?!?!"---people really loved it. the two tracks i demo'd a lot were:

Mumford and Sons "Awake My Soul"
Jamey Johnson "High Cost of Living"


6. the guys at Brooks Berdan were great---if i needed a dealer in LA, that is who i would turn to. i might go to them for a vinyl setup. as far as there Wilson/VTL room they ran? VTL has gotten too SS for me these days.

7. A lot more younger folks (like me) than i have ever seen before at a show. the iPod generation is interested in music guys, now the industry needs to cater more to that direction.

8. Albert Porter and I hate typical audiophile show music

9. Exhibitors in every room i asked allowed me to play my music---this is a big change from years past (come at the end of the day used to be a common response)

devert said:

All the show reports I've read, say this was one of the best sounding rooms at the show:

View attachment 1952

BTW, I listened to:

Mumford and Sons "Awake My Soul"
Jamey Johnson "High Cost of Living"

If I had to hear them more than once, I don't think I'd slit my wrists, but I would seek help for depression.

Click to expand...

Not sure Mumford is depressing music, but I also played Radiohead and Air---better?

The Wilson/VTL was very good I thought---- just like I said in the report, it could have used a hair more warmth. Certainly better than most rooms. But comparing that to the Lotus room was night and day.

DaveyF- what did you think of Tonian Labs?

A lot of people are talking about that room, but I just couldn't pin my finger on what was wrong with the sound. it just sounded perhaps closed in to me, but others said it was dynamic as hell. The nice thing about the Grand Veenas was the immediacy they portrayed----I'm really starting to notice an issue with lower sensitivity speakers on dynamics/immediacy.

And you and I must be the only ones who didn't like the YGs---guy coming out of the room told me "easily best in show." I'm with you--- it didn't sound like real music to me.

re: Magicos. The Q5s were with Spectral across from Legacy on the first floor. Ironically, I missed the Q3s. I tried to play my own music in every room which slowed me down---really need 2 days to do that and hit them all.

yup, Tony was there--- have you seen his cable? Talk about minimalist

he also was playing an 80s Audiolab integrated amp with Magnavox CDP (one of those old NOS dacs that people love)

RH likes really detailed hifi sound, which isn't necessarily my thing. for instance---i have heard Spectral 30x over the years and not once been drawn into a Spectral system. Spectral is pretty much his reference.

Different strokes for different folks, that's all.