First, I have to say this is one of the best shows I've been to in the past 15 years. The Hotel Irvine was a fabulous location, it wasn't an AARP convention, and the rooms clearly were a step up from previous efforts at the dingy hotel(s) near the airport (both in size and function). The music vendor room was the largest in years and was crowded every time I went in. The show's organizers were hoping for 10,000 people- I'm not sure they got there, but it was a very large crowd. Saturday rooms were packed, but to put this in perspective, there were 9 floors each with approximately 15-20 rooms. That is a ton of rooms! I toured with friends and new audiophiles on Saturday and rarely got a sweet spot. Sunday was pretty dead in the morning at least, which allowed me to cruise at will and the rooms sounded best. Going on Friday is a total waste of time imo, but did hear it was quite crowded. I was hearing all weekend how this show may now be the premier version in the US and fully agree. If you haven't been to Newport, fully recommend coming next year. It’s worth the effort and the sonic rewards were large.
Media was mostly server this year, so my demo disc was a doorstop (last year when I brought my flash drive, they were all cdps go figure). Analog was in a ton of rooms- some folks were saying Axpona was the opposite. Overall, the sound was much better than prior years. Fewer complaints from people and representatives alike. My LP that was getting raves for demos was Blake Mills "Heigh Ho"- at least 20 people took pictures or shazam'd it. Exceptional, fresh music and impeccable production work from Oceanway.
So who delivered the sonic goods? I expect to hear differences of opinion and that's cool. Please note, I couldn’t hear everything folks- the show was that big. There are several rooms for instance that I just skipped as I have never liked them. Sorry, Vandersteen/ARC. Also, I noticed that most of the better rooms had more efficient speakers- I value dynamics with good tone so that’s my preference.
Sounds I liked:
Evolution Acoustics MM2s w/ xover towers/DarTZeel: Simply stunning in every way. Musical with superb resolution. i forgot to ask Kevin how much the external xovers added to the mix, but hearing the EAs finally in a big room was the show's highlight. Extremely hard to leave the sweet spot chair
Vivid G3s/Luxman: maybe a hair warm in parts, but eminently enjoyable. The G3s were supplemented with subs I believe. I feel Vivids pair much better with Luxman than Mola Mola that Philip has demo’d with before.
Spendor/Jadis: for 6.5k, this speaker was quite good sounding and the Jadis integrated was drop dead gorgeous. Low end frequency limited, but quite nice, lively sound. they manufacture all drivers themselves including the new tweeter and don't build cabinets in China. go figure these days!
Salk/Lampi: Jim Salk has gone in a different direction with this higher efficiency speaker and was rewarded. Very open, musical sound for 12k. As far as how much the Lampi influence was? I wouldn’t pretend to know.
YG Sonya/Audiomax: more on the analytical side of the spectrum, but very enjoyable sound and the best I’ve heard YGs. Note, they biamped the Sonjas and I felt it really added dynamic life to them.
Sounds I disliked:
Magico S5/Soulution- it didn't matter that it was in a cavern room, but this was cold, lifeless sound in every conceivable fashion. I could forgive the bass and spatial cues because of the room, but there was zero tonality.
Marten Coltrane/various amps- they were bright and etched in the midrange. Heard them in two rooms and clearly can't understand the appeal.
Rethm- didn't seems like any highs and the bass was really wooly/funny. I thought the Trenner & Friedl and Voxativ speakers were much better in high-efficiency speaker land at the show.
Other snippets...
S5s on Rowland was better tonally, but wasn’t dynamic nor particularly exciting…Kaiser certainly was luscious sound, but they were playing a boring Krall tape so I couldn’t fully judge…Carmels on D’agostino was a great combo…Sonicflare’s Wilson/Einstein room was always packed and played Star Wars- kaboom!...TechDas looks like the Death Star in person …I feel like I’m hearing, not only viewing a cabinet with Harbeth…Audeze makes great headphones although I found the new, more inexpensive one bright…Viva's headphone amp with Gary Koh was a fun few minutes of figuring out i don't like headphones!...slickest device that I lust for has to be Astell & Kern even though I don’t play music on the go…surprised how many audiophiles asked for vocals (get over it people)…
Media was mostly server this year, so my demo disc was a doorstop (last year when I brought my flash drive, they were all cdps go figure). Analog was in a ton of rooms- some folks were saying Axpona was the opposite. Overall, the sound was much better than prior years. Fewer complaints from people and representatives alike. My LP that was getting raves for demos was Blake Mills "Heigh Ho"- at least 20 people took pictures or shazam'd it. Exceptional, fresh music and impeccable production work from Oceanway.
So who delivered the sonic goods? I expect to hear differences of opinion and that's cool. Please note, I couldn’t hear everything folks- the show was that big. There are several rooms for instance that I just skipped as I have never liked them. Sorry, Vandersteen/ARC. Also, I noticed that most of the better rooms had more efficient speakers- I value dynamics with good tone so that’s my preference.
Sounds I liked:
Evolution Acoustics MM2s w/ xover towers/DarTZeel: Simply stunning in every way. Musical with superb resolution. i forgot to ask Kevin how much the external xovers added to the mix, but hearing the EAs finally in a big room was the show's highlight. Extremely hard to leave the sweet spot chair
Vivid G3s/Luxman: maybe a hair warm in parts, but eminently enjoyable. The G3s were supplemented with subs I believe. I feel Vivids pair much better with Luxman than Mola Mola that Philip has demo’d with before.
Spendor/Jadis: for 6.5k, this speaker was quite good sounding and the Jadis integrated was drop dead gorgeous. Low end frequency limited, but quite nice, lively sound. they manufacture all drivers themselves including the new tweeter and don't build cabinets in China. go figure these days!
Salk/Lampi: Jim Salk has gone in a different direction with this higher efficiency speaker and was rewarded. Very open, musical sound for 12k. As far as how much the Lampi influence was? I wouldn’t pretend to know.
YG Sonya/Audiomax: more on the analytical side of the spectrum, but very enjoyable sound and the best I’ve heard YGs. Note, they biamped the Sonjas and I felt it really added dynamic life to them.
Sounds I disliked:
Magico S5/Soulution- it didn't matter that it was in a cavern room, but this was cold, lifeless sound in every conceivable fashion. I could forgive the bass and spatial cues because of the room, but there was zero tonality.
Marten Coltrane/various amps- they were bright and etched in the midrange. Heard them in two rooms and clearly can't understand the appeal.
Rethm- didn't seems like any highs and the bass was really wooly/funny. I thought the Trenner & Friedl and Voxativ speakers were much better in high-efficiency speaker land at the show.
Other snippets...
S5s on Rowland was better tonally, but wasn’t dynamic nor particularly exciting…Kaiser certainly was luscious sound, but they were playing a boring Krall tape so I couldn’t fully judge…Carmels on D’agostino was a great combo…Sonicflare’s Wilson/Einstein room was always packed and played Star Wars- kaboom!...TechDas looks like the Death Star in person …I feel like I’m hearing, not only viewing a cabinet with Harbeth…Audeze makes great headphones although I found the new, more inexpensive one bright…Viva's headphone amp with Gary Koh was a fun few minutes of figuring out i don't like headphones!...slickest device that I lust for has to be Astell & Kern even though I don’t play music on the go…surprised how many audiophiles asked for vocals (get over it people)…
Last edited: