NEW YORK HI END SHOW 2025 who is going and post your impressions

[AudioLibertarian]

I am planning to attend either on Friday, or both on Friday and Saturday. Will post my impressions as well. Some new and very interesting exhibitors will show, such as PBN speakers, as I have not seen that company showing on the East Coast in awhile. Also, very interesting speakers from France: Atlantis, also SWX tube gear from the UK, and few others. I really miss a high end show vibe in the Tri-State area, last decent one being in 2014. Looking forward to it!

 

[Kal Rubinson]

I'll be there tomorrow and I hope to be surprised. (My expectations are not high.)

 

[Bloomie]

T.H.E. New York (New Jersey) Show Source Book

From this PDF, folks can get a better understanding of the show and its participants.
I look forward to hearing from attendees and seeing pictures.

Good friends of mine will be exhibiting at the show:

Jessica and Aaron Sherrick of Now Listen Here in Terrace 2
Damon von Schweikert in Salon A
Colin of Gestalt in Room 124

And my pal Marc, from the West Coast, will be attending the show in New Jersey; he's come East for several reasons and conveniently found a way to include the show in his travel itinerary.

 

[AudioLibertarian]

I visited all rooms today at the show. Not that many people attended, but it was Friday, so I hope the crowds will pick up over the weekend. There were few big price, highly marketed set-ups of brands that attend almost every show, some smaller brands, and some quite curious exhibits.

My favorite room was a joint room by High Water Sound and Gestalt Audio, using Cessaro speakers and single end amplification by the UK brand SW1X, and a fairly "exotic" and rare on these shores, top of the line DAC and phono preamp by Cinnamon from Portugal. Both analog and digital set ups in that room sounded just fantastic, so much so, that I had to go back to their room few times, just to realign my hearing, after visiting some dreadful multi - lots of thousands set-ups elsewhere at the show. Jeff Catalano ever the gentleman, offered to play requests by visitors from his usual treasure stack of LPs, and Colin from Gestalt enthusiastically played anything Qobuz had to offer through his new fantastic discreet R2R, double box digital front end by Cinnamon, (price I think around $30K) which based from the description of the innovative power supplies tech used, could challenge any DACs at any price. I'm not easily impressed by most expensive DACs to say the least, but even when compared to the usual state of art analog rig that Jeffery uses at shows, the sound from Cinnamon based digital front end felt intensely musical and at least equal to that turntable. Cinnamon also offers single box dac at around $13K or so, that I may consider at some point in the future, along with some excellent tube based SW1X dacs from the UK.

 

[AudioLibertarian]

Also excellent was a set-up in the the Odeon (from Germany) speakers room showing with Air Tight 845 based amplification, especially good in the "sweet" spot. Music was lush, yet detailed and realistic sounding.

 

[AudioLibertarian]

Fantastic set up was playing on the ground floor's very large banquet size room by the Robert Lighton speakers with Audio Note 845 based monoblocks. Even in such a huge room, the imaging was simply amazingly holographic and wide. The crossovers were external with DIY feel (see pictures), yet the sound had the density and tonal texture and a feeling of being present at the actual performance that rivaled any system I ve heard ever! However, the above applies only to classical music and jazz, as they did not play any rock, much to my chagrin.

 

[AudioLibertarian]

Now for a very curious exhibit:

While in a hallway I head a very realistic sound of organ from somewhere. Being I have done some baroque music recordings as an amateur, that eerie sensation of hearing something very realistic was uncanny. I entered the room that said OMNI on the door and saw an elderly Chinese gentleman sitting in the corner and two wooden constructions (speakers), with 3 pro amplifiers& crossovers and Marantz cd player playing a disc. When I asked what these speakers were the gentleman replied that he was an OEM rep from Taiwan and was looking for investors in the USA to build and marker these speakers. The sound of the organ music was glorious, so I hope he finds like minded folks to bring his design to the market.

 

[AudioLibertarian]

Tonian Labs brought their new monitors which, even with a rather crude set-up and "plain" Technics Class D combo unit, sounded very realistic and "real" music like. Price was $4500 , but anyone looking for speakers in a small room, should definitely give these a try.

 

[AudioLibertarian]

Frankly I don't understand the people that market the Popori electrostatic speakers! At the last year's Axpona show, every time I went into their room wanting to listen how these speaker sound with the usual show musical menu, they had that Youtube guy that wears cowboy hat, play that dreadful drum and bass track that made me nauseous (literally) . Now I get it , they wanna show that these speakers can do bass, however in my humble opinion the real essence of the eletrostats should be their beautiful mid range, pure high frequencies and imaging first.
Today almost same scenario was repeated, except now there were other drum and bass music tracks, and none of actual music being played. Not even Diana Krall or Tin Pan Alley !!!!!!!! No Chesky, Reference Recordings, or other typical audiophile crap that we take for granted at these shows. None! Never thought I would quote old Joe Biden, but : "C'mon Man" .
Overall the sound was pretty decent, and I'm not an old fogy and have been to and enjoyed Rammstein & Scooter concerts few times, however based on the average age (about 74) of the show attendees on Friday, the Popopi people are either trying to convert those folks into fans of drum and bass genre this late in the game (using the least suitable speaker for such genre and God knows why) , or trying to make them feel they could still hear anything at all....

 

[AudioLibertarian]

I seldom, if ever, publicly bash products or designers from audio companies, however I must put on (sorta) Larry Davids' hat and declare that I think the people in charge of designing the sound of Borressen& Aavik products and of Legacy speakers are most likely deaf at certain critical mid range frequencies.... as the sound in those room mainly had tizz and boom.
How could anyone stay in those two rooms for longer than 2-3 minutes is beyond me. Then again, I must allow for the possibility that these two companies may know their target show audience's hearing acuity much better than I....

 

[AudioLibertarian]

I also met and enjoyed a conversation on matters audio with Clement Perry, a publisher of the StereoTimes, which I have been enjoying tremendously over the years, ever since its inception. What a classy gentleman! The StereoTimes' crew & Clement have over the years unearthed quite a few gems in the hi-end audio on their web site, that I have actually purchased and still use. Wish him much success and to carry on his hi-fi endeavors.

 

[AudioLibertarian]

Audio Note UK had a very good sounding set up, with their filed coil speakers and premiering their top of the line dac with discrete R2R technology, and separate power box, The MSRP of this new dac will be in the USD $195 000 range, or so.....

 

[AudioLibertarian]

Bache Audio speakers and Alexus Tube Audio from Brooklyn had a very musical and enjoyable set up as well, at quite "reasonable" prices.

 

[thomasx]

Thanks for the fine fotos. Only one short note: The Airtight amps shown use 211 tubes.

 

[unboxed]

I also met and enjoyed a conversation on matters audio with Clement Perry, a publisher of the StereoTimes, which I have been enjoying tremendously over the years, ever since its inception. What a classy gentleman! The StereoTimes' crew & Clement have over the years unearthed quite a few gems in the hi-end audio on their web site, that I have actually purchased and still use. Wish him much success and to carry on his hi-fi endeavors.

Thank you for your kind words. I am glad the reviews were well received and useful. We try hard.

 

[Paul1960]

Frankly I don't understand the people that market the Popori electrostatic speakers! At the last year's Axpona show, every time I went into their room wanting to listen how these speaker sound with the usual show musical menu, they had that Youtube guy that wears cowboy hat, play that dreadful drum and bass track that made me nauseous (literally) . Now I get it , they wanna show that these speakers can do bass, however in my humble opinion the real essence of the eletrostats should be their beautiful mid range, pure high frequencies and imaging first.
Today almost same scenario was repeated, except now there were other drum and bass music tracks, and none of actual music being played. Not even Diana Krall or Tin Pan Alley !!!!!!!! No Chesky, Reference Recordings, or other typical audiophile crap that we take for granted at these shows. None! Never thought I would quote old Joe Biden, but : "C'mon Man" .
Overall the sound was pretty decent, and I'm not an old fogy and have been to and enjoyed Rammstein & Scooter concerts few times, however based on the average age (about 74) of the show attendees on Friday, the Popopi people are either trying to convert those folks into fans of drum and bass genre this late in the game (using the least suitable speaker for such genre and God knows why) , or trying to make them feel they could still hear anything at all....

The Popori people did the same thing at T.H.E. show in Costa Mesa. The only explanation is they are trying to differentiate themselves by demonstrating that the speakers handle bass and dynamics better than the typical electrostatic speaker. And I have to say I was impressed by the WR3 they had playing which was their lowest end model but I would agree the music played didn't show off the full range of what I suspect the speaker is capable of. In spite of that the room was always packed and I went in 3x.

 

[gestalt]

I visited all rooms today at the show. Not that many people attended, but it was Friday, so I hope the crowds will pick up over the weekend. There were few big price, highly marketed set-ups of brands that attend almost every show, some smaller brands, and some quite curious exhibits.

My favorite room was a joint room by High Water Sound and Gestalt Audio, using Cessaro speakers and single end amplification by the UK brand SW1X, and a fairly "exotic" and rare on these shores, top of the line DAC and phono preamp by Cinnamon from Portugal. Both analog and digital set ups in that room sounded just fantastic, so much so, that I had to go back to their room few times, just to realign my hearing, after visiting some dreadful multi - lots of thousands set-ups elsewhere at the show. Jeff Catalano ever the gentleman, offered to play requests by visitors from his usual treasure stack of LPs, and Colin from Gestalt enthusiastically played anything Qobuz had to offer through his new fantastic discreet R2R, double box digital front end by Cinnamon, (price I think around $30K) which based from the description of the innovative power supplies tech used, could challenge any DACs at any price. I'm not easily impressed by most expensive DACs to say the least, but even when compared to the usual state of art analog rig that Jeffery uses at shows, the sound from Cinnamon based digital front end felt intensely musical and at least equal to that turntable. Cinnamon also offers single box dac at around $13K or so, that I may consider at some point in the future, along with some excellent tube based SW1X dacs from the UK. View attachment 160259

Thanks for coming in Elliot, and thanks for the kind words.