As a music lover, I was hitting the hotel carpet pretty hard looking for the handful of speakers that could transport me to that transcendental State of Flow. Now it is very easy to blame the hotel room walls , windows, poor room size, and to come up with other excuses of why speakers sound like crap at shows. But music lovers can easily cut through the malarkey: they are listening to the musical whole rather than to sound. Of course tastes differ. Of course we have had previous experiences have shaped us. Of course, we all have biases. But let’s face it: some designers are just damn better than other in taking the detail and embedding it in the musical whole than others. Some designers are just better at making their speakers sound more natural.
Listening to my own music, such as Quincy Jones’ Walking in Space and Brubeck Live at Carnegie Hall, it was very easy to tell apart a good audiophile speaker from a music lover’s speaker. To me, the Nola KO was an easy winner. Carl’s genius is to capture the music’s realism and naturalness. Yes, the YG was alright. It was very dynamic and its cabinet is quieter by a whole lot, but who cares about that artifact when you want the musical whole? Yes, the $50K Vandersteen, with even more expensive ARC electronics than Carl used, excelled in resolution and other audiophile terms but lacked that magic. The new Wilson speaker with uber expensive dCS was just throwing too much detail into my face, but the Maxx 3 with Yoshi/ Joshi/ Doshi ???? amps was pretty good, yet it seemed that it was still designed for audiophiles looking to check those dreaded terms off their list as they seek that “Deeper Understanding”…The $30K Rockport with BAT and Playback Designs was very good, but did not have the openness that made me let go and forget ...(Great to see BAT with a new amp, by the way, as I was starting to get worried about them.)
If I had to make a decision on the spot of what speaker to live with ove the next 10 years, would I choose the $10K Nola over the MBL 101? No. Out of what I heard, I think MBL was more real sounding and was able to transport the listener in a time machine better than anything at the show -for the same reasons as Carl’s speaker: which is to get that damn speaker out of the musical experience and to fool you into thinking you are at the original event...
Now I know those who believe in “high fidelity” religion will tell us what they like in a matter of time. Nothing wrong with that – as I said, all tastes and goals differ. One man’s paradise is another man’s hell…And with no Magico at RMAF, there will not be Magico Derangement Syndrome on the part of the press, so it will be interesting what the elites will have to say. But the music lover off the street could have walked into the NOLA room, camped out for 3 days, and not missed a whole lot in the show. And for $10k, which is NOT CHUMP CHANGE BY ANY MEANS, the KO outdid many others at multiples of its price and was a clear winner.
I definitely did not hear everything. Any other speakers a music lover may enjoy?
Listening to my own music, such as Quincy Jones’ Walking in Space and Brubeck Live at Carnegie Hall, it was very easy to tell apart a good audiophile speaker from a music lover’s speaker. To me, the Nola KO was an easy winner. Carl’s genius is to capture the music’s realism and naturalness. Yes, the YG was alright. It was very dynamic and its cabinet is quieter by a whole lot, but who cares about that artifact when you want the musical whole? Yes, the $50K Vandersteen, with even more expensive ARC electronics than Carl used, excelled in resolution and other audiophile terms but lacked that magic. The new Wilson speaker with uber expensive dCS was just throwing too much detail into my face, but the Maxx 3 with Yoshi/ Joshi/ Doshi ???? amps was pretty good, yet it seemed that it was still designed for audiophiles looking to check those dreaded terms off their list as they seek that “Deeper Understanding”…The $30K Rockport with BAT and Playback Designs was very good, but did not have the openness that made me let go and forget ...(Great to see BAT with a new amp, by the way, as I was starting to get worried about them.)
If I had to make a decision on the spot of what speaker to live with ove the next 10 years, would I choose the $10K Nola over the MBL 101? No. Out of what I heard, I think MBL was more real sounding and was able to transport the listener in a time machine better than anything at the show -for the same reasons as Carl’s speaker: which is to get that damn speaker out of the musical experience and to fool you into thinking you are at the original event...
Now I know those who believe in “high fidelity” religion will tell us what they like in a matter of time. Nothing wrong with that – as I said, all tastes and goals differ. One man’s paradise is another man’s hell…And with no Magico at RMAF, there will not be Magico Derangement Syndrome on the part of the press, so it will be interesting what the elites will have to say. But the music lover off the street could have walked into the NOLA room, camped out for 3 days, and not missed a whole lot in the show. And for $10k, which is NOT CHUMP CHANGE BY ANY MEANS, the KO outdid many others at multiples of its price and was a clear winner.
I definitely did not hear everything. Any other speakers a music lover may enjoy?
