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Thoughts from THE Show, is $29k the new $10k?

Had another enjoyabe brief one day visit to THE Show, Newport Beach last weekend. Great to see so many fellow hobbiests, and great gear. Went in search of speakers; here is a brief and disjointed summary of my impressions:
Many vendors were focusing on the $25-32k range; with most for sale around $29k as an entry point to 'quality'.
Rockport showed their new entry, $29k speaker in the Atrium. Had great balance; was warm, detailed, and engaging. First show presence for dealer; nice guy. My first experience with Rockport; was very impressed.
Eficion: at the Hilton; wow; for $16k I think it gives Wilson a run for its money with the Sophia; its AMT ribbon tweeter had great crystal highs, and its large woofer filled the room with satisfying bass, I enjoyed it.
BMC: nice gear; their $32k speakers had dipole arrangement; with both front and rear firing speakers; very engaging, huge sound stage, and great low end response. Paired up nicely with their amp/dac
YG: brought my own CD; so I was familiar with what was possible; initialy liked their sound;but in the end found it a bit 'dry', and brittle; and not totally enjoyable, this was at at least three different rooms showing their speakers.
Wilson Shasha's in the Brooks-Barden room; always a treat; enjoyed their room treatments, and professionalism, nice analog set up. Warm, detailed, lovely, and engaging.
Ventures: wow, very expensive; and very large...but totally engaging; great integration, warm, detailed, expansive sound stage, great bass, huge open subtle nuance on female voices...
Ayon: liked their Lumen White's better last year, than their own speaker line this year, but great amps and dac.
Found the KEF blades a bit disappointing, surprised at how large they are in person.
Enjoyed the TAD speakers again this year, well balanced, integrated very well.
There was a 'curved' line array speaker; I forget its name that also was quite good, interesting design, but filled the room with great sound; no glare.
The Veloce gear, with its battery source was extremely 'quiet' and detailed, and enjoyable.
Surprised how many room utilized the Synergistic Research ART treatments...hard to tell how it improved things; but can't argue with the results.
Too much to see and listen to in one brief day. Curious to hear from other members their take....I know you don't need to spend so much to get quality sound, but so many vendors showing off their $29k speakers made me want to chuckle; and take out a home loan...also thought the digital and computer audio was getting very close now to the analog rigs.
Love having this showcase in our backyard on the west coast; and will contiue to support and attend. Kudos to Bob Levi; and his team at LA/OC audio society; another great job; and Tierney Sutton singing on Friday night was an extra special treat.
mribob
quad-man's avatar
quad-man
130 posts
 
This is why a loudspeaker MUST be relieving, accurate, and nimble the passive transducer needs to do what she is told..and the electronics tell her what she'll sound like this is loudspeaker 101!!! The transducer is to deliver all the music without any truncation let the electronics fit the sound of the end user. We used beautiful Lamm amplifiers with the Berlin R at the show and sound varied by the recordings some were soft, some had balance some played fast bass some were mushy..It's damn near impossible to quantify the sound of just the loudspeaker as the synergy of the whole which obviously includes the recordings, the genre, and the preference of the listener.

I like very open fast sound with lots of detail open transient bass and I generally dislike the sound of speakers with 10 mile long crossovers, ones without a port or vent and ones with obvious sonic gaps.
jmpwme
106 posts
 
Totem room was impressive.
nilthepill
842 posts
 
Almost all the rooms with UHA RTR sounded really really good. How I missed the MBL room is beyond me but the best one was the room with that German solid state electronics and speakers driven by UHB. The same room where on left there was the Ayon electronics driven by a UHA RTR too (sounded great). And on left rear there was Lamm 2.2 amps.

Except the J-corder room, except those RTR were Modded Technics and really cool looking but driven by OK electronics.

Those RTR are really interesting and worth looking in to.
audiolabyrinth's avatar
audiolabyrinth
4,483 posts
 
Whats funny about the discussion about hearing here on this thread, Is the fact I have listened to these speakers of today that go up to 40khz!, and one of the best speakers I have ever heard only went up to 16khz!, and there is nothing wrong with my hearing at all, the 16khz speakers were horn speakers that was incrediblely detailed on the treble, etc.., they just sounded very good, they were 101 sensativity to boot!, cheers!
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