I made it to a bunch of rooms on Saturday. The music selection was notably bad this year in my opinion. I was demo'ing the new vinyl of Roger Waters Amused to Death and played that in about 15 rooms that had turntables. My favorite sound was in the Zesto room, with a Merrill-Williams turntable running through a Zesto Andros phono stage to a Zesto preamp and the new Zesto monoblock amps, powering a pair of Kharma speakers. That room sounded great and I liked that at least most of the equipment there wasn't over the top expensive like some rooms. I would post my pic of that one here if I knew how.
I was impressed again with the Sanders setup, although I wish I could play some of my own tracks to see how they sound on that system. It sounds pretty amazing with their demo tracks, though.
Vapor Audio was good again and had happy hour at the end of the day, which was a nice bonus. I don't know if it was the setup or music selection in the NOLA room but it did not sound good when I was there. Very loud and overbearing sound.
I was also quite disappointed by the sound of the White Album in Mono which they played in its entirety with the new VPI top of the line turntable, a mono cartridge, and some Joseph Audio speakers. Very shrill on the high end and fatiguing to listen to, which of course could be from any number of things, but whatever the cause, it did not sound good to me.
I also enjoyed the Gamut setup. I wasn't familiar with that line before this show (Danish I think?) and I liked what I heard. I saw a lot of gorgeous turntables (Triangle Art, Pear Audio, Saskia, and Merrill-Williams), but of course it's difficult to gauge a turntable when you can't control any of the other variables or A/B it against another turntable.
Those are the things that stood out to me from the show. It seemed more crowded this year but that may be because I usually go on Sunday. But I had a great time overall and will be back again next year!
I was impressed again with the Sanders setup, although I wish I could play some of my own tracks to see how they sound on that system. It sounds pretty amazing with their demo tracks, though.
Vapor Audio was good again and had happy hour at the end of the day, which was a nice bonus. I don't know if it was the setup or music selection in the NOLA room but it did not sound good when I was there. Very loud and overbearing sound.
I was also quite disappointed by the sound of the White Album in Mono which they played in its entirety with the new VPI top of the line turntable, a mono cartridge, and some Joseph Audio speakers. Very shrill on the high end and fatiguing to listen to, which of course could be from any number of things, but whatever the cause, it did not sound good to me.
I also enjoyed the Gamut setup. I wasn't familiar with that line before this show (Danish I think?) and I liked what I heard. I saw a lot of gorgeous turntables (Triangle Art, Pear Audio, Saskia, and Merrill-Williams), but of course it's difficult to gauge a turntable when you can't control any of the other variables or A/B it against another turntable.
Those are the things that stood out to me from the show. It seemed more crowded this year but that may be because I usually go on Sunday. But I had a great time overall and will be back again next year!