Best and Worst store set up's heard

[kach22i]

The worst Mac set up I heard in a store was near Lansing, Michigan about five years ago. They had some of the big tube amps hooked up to some self-bass powered speakers. The flaw in the system however was using a McIntosh DVD multi-player to play CD's with. The beginning of each note seemed to be missing. There was the full bloom middle part of the note which tube amps get right, and the ending of the note which SS amps get right, but there just was no start or beginning which SS also gets right most of the time.

The best set up in a store was with B&W 801 speakers in West Bloomfield, MI about eight years ago. The sound was cranked up all the way by some young customer. I thought that I could dive into the waves of music flowing towards me like some body surfer. It was somehow fulfilling, like a good wine with a fabulous meal. I don't recall if it the system was tube or SS powered, somehow it mattered little.

 

[Gregadd]

Best Wison Audio
Worst WIlosn Audio

 

[Steve Williams]

now you know you have my blood boiling

 

[kach22i]

What about these consumer electronic shows held in hotel rooms?

I keep reading how bad they are, however most rooms at a local show held in Novi, Michigan impressed me greatly.

Wilson's must be difficult to set up, I've never been impressed the few times I've heard them in stores.

 

[soundofvoid]

Best set-up was the Magnepan 20.1R powered by a huge Classe Omega SS amp through Metronome digital.
I had asked to listen Cassandra Wilson singing "Strange fruit" (all time favorite) and i was in trans...as most of the people
attending the same room.When the song ended half the people shook my hand and took a note on the CD title ... including
the man responsible for the set up!
Worst disappointment was last year when auditioning the KEF Muon with Theta amplification and Esoteric digital front.
Lifeless and completely uninvolving...someone has messed up something, big time!

 

[audioguy]

Dunlavy Audio Labs demo at CES the year AFTER John Dunlavy was out of the company. It's really hard to screw up the sound of those speakers but they managed to do so in two different rooms. Another high mark for bad demo was at a dealer in Florida (don't recall the name) of both the Wilson Alexandra and the Maxx II. VERY cool looking demo rooms and very BAD sound.

Actually the BEST demo I ever heard was at a dealer in Nashville years and years and years ago (probably 1993 or so) with the Wilson Grand Slamm. Everything locked in and I immediately bought a pair of Wilson's as a result.

The most "real" demo I ever heard was in Singapore at some high end shop with Maggie 20's and huge ARC tube amps. Never before or since have I heard a piano recording sound like that!

 

[kach22i]

I went to the AK-Fest in Novi, Michigan on Saturday, a few more to add to the Best & Worst at a show list.

The McIntosh setup was one of the better ones in my opinion. However the speakers were so expensive they had to price them as "each" and not as "pairs". One of those if you have to ask then you can't afford it experiences, $10,000 for one speaker, ouch.

Almost 40 photos, but less than fair quality.
http://s184.photobucket.com/albums/x295/kach22i/AK-FEST 2010/

 

[kach22i]

The Mac A/V room was sweet too.
http://s184.photobucket.com/albums/x295/kach22i/AK-FEST 2010/?start=0

 

[Bulldogger]

However the speakers were so expensive they had to price them as "each" and not as "pairs". One of those if you have to ask then you can't afford it experiences, $10,000 for one speaker, ouch.

Wow they are good though. I luv mine. Best speaker I have ever owned.

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

One of the best set-ups I've heard is in a local shop here - an iMac full of lossless files feeding some high-end SS DAC/pre/amp stack (sorry, memory fails) driving Wilson Sophias. The gear is good, but it's the set-up that really makes it. They've dedicated a small, well-treated room to that one system and tweaked speaker placement beautifully.

P

 

[flez007]

Best- Avalon/Rowland/VTL - Mexico City Avalon dealer
Worst - Wilson/Levinson - Miami Wilson distributor

 

[JackD201]

My best in-store would be the original Revel Studio with all levinson gear, IIRC No32 pre, No432 amp, No 390s CDP. The components seemed made for each other, well I think they were, and the speakers fit the showroom to a "t".

The worst? I don't know any local dealers who have screwed up anything so badly so as to be especially memorable.

 

[DaveyF]

I've heard some great in-store demo's. One of the better ones was many years ago featuring a stacked pair of Quad ESL's. These were driven by Marantz 9's along with an ARC SP10Mk2 and an Oracle front end. VERY impressive, especially on vocals and piano.
One of the worst I have heard involved the RedRose speakers from Mark Levinson...can't remember the model, except it was a small monitor and had a ribbon tweeter. Oddly, it was hooked up to Valhalla cable and a very nice amp and pre-amp; just really sounded like a cat's squeal on everything... unlistenable! I noticed that these very same speakers were reviewed in Absolute Sound a few months later and were slammed.( Justifiably so, I couldn't believe that anyone would buy them at any price).