Axpona 2014- Polymer Audio, Marten/ Cat, Soundlab Atmasphere my best so far. Yours?

caesar

Well-Known Member
May 30, 2010
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It's hard to be very impressed at the show. But let me get right to the one of the biggest surprises: Polymer Audio Research Speakers. Imagine a Magico speaker with a soul: a completely inert cabinet, great dynamics, non-annoying tweeter, tremendous resolution, and the sense that gear is not just a mechanical contraption but a way to communicate everything on the recording so well that you only feel the emotions of the performance. Well, this is Polymer Audio Research Speakers. They were driven by some ridiculously pricey FM Acoustics gear, but the sound was sublime. Additionally, as a great marketing ploy, the room had beautiful model wearing a short red dress at the door. All manufacturers and dealers: start copying!

I am partial to Soundlab as I own them. Slap on some Atmasphere MK2's and you have sound that approaches nirvana. No these speakers are not for heavy metal fans, but just about everything else will sound natural, organic, and as good as possible. The Soundlab room was quite large, with several rows of seats and people chatting, which is quite annoying , but the essence of the magical Soundlab was there. I heard this system at Brian Walsh's home in a treated room and under much better conditions, and it was absolutely sublime. Nevertheless, despite the show challenges, Soundlabs are awesome speakers and didn't disappoint me.

I did not know much about Marten speakers before the show. And have had limited experience with CAT. CAT doesn't advertise, and instead invests all of their money into R&D. What you had was a tool not to evaluate sound, but to evaluate the quality musical performance. This room was packed all the time. Superb!

German Physics was the biggest disappointment. A cost no object system was there, but the room partner chose to display the 5 channel system with a video projector. The only problem was the video did not jive with the sound coming of the speakers. It was kind of like those dubbed kung fu movies from the 1970's, where Bruce Lee's mouth moves, but words don't come out at the same time. Soooooo disappoining!!!!

Magico was displaying several pairs of the S class speakers. To me the S class speakers are much more palatable than their Q series, but still sound like hi-fi to my ears.

Likewise for Wilson. The Alexias with D'Agostino and dCS was good, but did not transport me.

Likewise for the Kharma/ Constellation room: very good, but no state of flow for me.

TAD speakers are always great.

Sonus Faber Aida's were good, but at $120K and very expensive Audio Research Electronics just didn't do enough for me. Maybe it's because Audio Research amplification was Class D?

MBL had their smaller speakers at the show. One of the MBL rooms had Greg Beron's UHA deck. While it is always a treat to hear the MBL and to hear analog tape recordings, I really love the bigger MBLs, as there is nothing like it on earth.

I will be going back to re-listen to some of the rooms. I especially want to spend some time with the Scaena's.
 

Bruce B

WBF Founding Member, Pro Audio Production Member
Apr 25, 2010
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Make sure you catch Nick Doshi's room. He has a pair of Sasha 2's and even though I have the Alexia's, I felt Nick's room was a little more palatable.

Both of the mbl rooms have Greg's deck playing. I was told that the mbl Extreme's will be at Newport as well as a 5.1 surround system 101e!!

I did like the Magico S speakers though.

I also don't particularly like horns, but the horns in the Merrill Audio room playing Jonathan's tapes were great. Didn't sound like horns at all.

And as stated before, make sure you hear the Lampizator room with Purity Audio. Great sounding room!
 

rblnr

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
May 3, 2010
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Check out the Scaenas today (Sunday) if you get a chance Bruce.
 

mep

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
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So Caesar, are you flying incognito at the show or have you actually said hi to anyone from WBF?
 

mbovaird

Banned
Jan 5, 2013
146
1
0
Caesar - thanks for your comments. I heard the MKS-X at a friends (I believe he had the first pair made). They weren't my cup of tea...but I'm glad you liked them. I wonder now much the excellent and uber expensive FM Acoustic gear played a role in this?

As for the TAD's, which ones were showing? Big REF1's?

I agree with you on the big MBL's. Always amazing sounding.

Were there any Raidho speakers at the show?
 

flez007

Member Sponsor
Aug 31, 2010
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Caesar - thanks for your comments. I heard the MKS-X at a friends (I believe he had the first pair made). They weren't my cup of tea...but I'm glad you liked them. I wonder now much the excellent and uber expensive FM Acoustic gear played a role in this?

As for the TAD's, which ones were showing? Big REF1's?

I agree with you on the big MBL's. Always amazing sounding.

Were there any Raidho speakers at the show?

My friends at Merrill/Sadurni/IPI are getting a lot of accolades, sorry I could not be there.
 

Bruce B

WBF Founding Member, Pro Audio Production Member
Apr 25, 2010
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My friends at Merrill/Sadurni/IPI are getting a lot of accolades, sorry I could not be there.

These are the only horns that I can actually sit I front of and just enjoy the music. Totally doesn't sound like a horn.
 

rblnr

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
May 3, 2010
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Agreed. Have always loved the dynamics of horns but never liked the Avant Gardes (that's not what a voice sounds like!), etc. These were good
 

Bruce B

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Just heard the ML CLX/McIntosh room. Holy crap. They were playing the 1812. Made my pants flap! Of course they were using 2 subs and the McIntosh proprietary room correction system.

The Sceana system was great as well.
I know Greg's system is sounding much better today. Totally different sound on e they got the bugs erradicated.
 

bmoura

Well-Known Member
Sep 6, 2013
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Just heard the ML CLX/McIntosh room. Holy crap. They were playing the 1812. Made my pants flap! Of course they were using 2 subs and the McIntosh proprietary room correction system.

The 1812 with Cannons - fun!

Any word on the PS Audio room with their new DirectStream DAC? Curious as to how that one sounded.
 

edorr

WBF Founding Member
May 10, 2010
3,139
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Smyrna, GA
These are the only horns that I can actually sit I front of and just enjoy the music. Totally doesn't sound like a horn.

Loved those horns. One caveat though, they sounded great with small ensemble music, but when playing orchestral music dynamics and timbre were great, but the image was much smaller than realistic.
 

edorr

WBF Founding Member
May 10, 2010
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Just heard the ML CLX/McIntosh room. Holy crap. They were playing the 1812. Made my pants flap! Of course they were using 2 subs and the McIntosh proprietary room correction system.

The Sceana system was great as well.
I know Greg's system is sounding much better today. Totally different sound on e they got the bugs erradicated.

The Macintosh were a huge pleasant surprise. Very good sounding and quite an affordable setup.
 

edorr

WBF Founding Member
May 10, 2010
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Few observations. Best sound for me was the focal / aesthetix room. Both MLB rooms (lower end models) were a big dissappointment, especially knowing what the full blown 101 is capable off. Magico S3 pulled of some strange magic, fulling a very small with gobs of coherent sound and bass to die for. Not sure about musicality of the system though. Would have to listen with my own music in different setting. The Mexican horns were phenomenal. Another Big surprise was Taiwanese Lawrence speakers. Great sound from relatively affordable speaker. Expensive dynaudio setup with Clearwater tt totally sucked IMO.

Final comment on vinyl / digital. Every room switching between the media I preferred the digital. Most notable in the top notch focal aestethix room. I believe they had a 100k table. Could not hold a candle to a fine 96/24 recording they played.
 

MylesBAstor

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2010
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New York City
Few observations. Best sound for me was the focal / aesthetix room. Both MLB rooms (lower end models) were a big dissappointment, especially knowing what the full blown 101 is capable off. Magico S3 pulled of some strange magic, fulling a very small with gobs of coherent sound and bass to die for. Not sure about musicality of the system though. Would have to listen with my own music in different setting. The Mexican horns were phenomenal. Another Big surprise was Taiwanese Lawrence speakers. Great sound from relatively affordable speaker. Expensive dynaudio setup with Clearwater tt totally sucked IMO.

Final comment on vinyl / digital. Every room switching between the media I preferred the digital. Most notable in the top notch focal aestethix room. I believe they had a 100k table. Could not hold a candle to a fine 96/24 recording they played.

Can't say I agree with your observations or digital. 99% of the digital drilled a hole through my skull.

Re: Focal room. Did you bring your own vinyl to listen to? The digital they played sucked and the vinyl I brought was very good. People went crazy when I played the Elvis '57 and Mercury recordings. The fellow next to me asked why did I bring the Mercury and I told him to listen. After twenty seconds his first comment was I can see the musicians. The digital was two dimensional, flat, smeared, boring and harsh. You couldn't tell where any instruments were and I couldn't wait for them to take it off. It was a thoroughly unpleasant listening experience. I don't know. Maybe there was something wrong.

The MBL room/UHA had issues until Sunday. You can see my day one and two comments on my blog. Much better on Sunday as it turned out there was an issue with the Jolida Pre.
 

JackD201

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
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Just heard the ML CLX/McIntosh room. Holy crap. They were playing the 1812. Made my pants flap! Of course they were using 2 subs and the McIntosh proprietary room correction system.

The Sceana system was great as well.
I know Greg's system is sounding much better today. Totally different sound on e they got the bugs erradicated.

McIntosh isn't licensing from Lyngdorf anymore?
 

edorr

WBF Founding Member
May 10, 2010
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Smyrna, GA
Can't say I agree with your observations or digital. 99% of the digital drilled a hole through my skull.

Re: Focal room. Did you bring your own vinyl to listen to? The digital they played sucked and the vinyl I brought was very good. People went crazy when I played the Elvis '57 and Mercury recordings. The fellow next to me asked why did I bring the Mercury and I told him to listen. After twenty seconds his first comment was I can see the musicians. The digital was two dimensional, flat, smeared, boring and harsh. You couldn't tell where any instruments were and I couldn't wait for them to take it off. It was a thoroughly unpleasant listening experience. I don't know. Maybe there was something wrong.

The MBL room/UHA had issues until Sunday. You can see my day one and two comments on my blog. Much better on Sunday as it turned out there was an issue with the Jolida Pre.

Heard the MBL room on sunday. Sounded harsh and not musical to me. When I walked into the Focal room, the played a high rez track from MA Recordings (sera una nocke). Sounded phenomenal. Heard a few LPs one none came close - somehow the image shrunk. Walked in a second time and some fine guitar music was playing. Thought it sounded great again and a record was spinning. Looked more closely and the tonearm in spinning record was in "up" position. Listening to digital again. I have not horse in the race - just calling it as I hear it.
 

MylesBAstor

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2010
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Heard the MBL room on sunday. Sounded harsh and not musical to me. When I walked into the Focal room, the played a high rez track from MA Recordings (sera una nocke). Sounded phenomenal. Heard a few LPs one none came close - somehow the image shrunk. Walked in a second time and some fine guitar music was playing. Thought it sounded great again and a record was spinning. Looked more closely and the tonearm in spinning record was in "up" position. Listening to digital again. I have not horse in the race - just calling it as I hear it.

I heard the MA too. That's what I was referring to. I couldn't wait for him to take it off. Everything was plastered on the back wall and flat as a graphene sheet. No imaging whatsoever. Oh did I mention where were the harmonic overtones? Not much of anything period.

Are you talking about the MBL or MBL/UHA room? As far as the latter room goes, how do you know what you are complaining about wasn't the music being played? Just because it was tape doesn't make it automatically good. Nor can one make any judgements unless you bring and play your own music. Would you go to a store and buy something using their software?

And I have no horse either.
 
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Bruce B

WBF Founding Member, Pro Audio Production Member
Apr 25, 2010
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McIntosh isn't licensing from Lyngdorf anymore?

The guy showing off the system actually said "proprietary" and Lyngdorf wasn't even mentioned. He went on to say that McIntosh will not be licensing it to anyone.

He seemed pretty knowledgeable, though quite animated!
 

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