Home Entertainment Show in Los Angeles

Agaffer,

That table was from Sound Engineering out of Nashville Tennessee, and I must have returned to that room 6-7 times. That quality of precision machining and design was breathtaking. $7,900 is a lot of money, but if ClearAudio, SME, or any of the other big names were selling it, the price would have been $20-30k easily.

It is an entirely new version of their SE-1 with a new plinth design and in black ebony wood with brushed stainless metal instead of Cocobolo and gold. The wood platter is made up of a constrained layers of differing thinkness plies(?). Bob Benn, the owner of Sound Engineering, told me that the ply combination was actually designed by the experts at Gibson Guitars, which happens to be just down the street from his shop.

The tonearm was the $6k Swiss made DaVinci Audio Labs (pic1, pic2). The designer/builder is actually a fine Swiss watch and clock maker by trade. And it shows in the workmanship.

In fact, it is the arm that Brinkman sold with their top tables until they decided to copy it on their own. Theirs does not even come close even though the appearances are nearly identical.

Agaffer, I was one of those who didn't ask because I didn't want to hear a number starting with 20, 30, 40. It's astonishing that, in this market, he's asking $7900. Maybe $7900 can never constitute a bargain for a 'table, but it's hard to believe that his economics aren't completely out of whack relative to the competition. BTW, I concur: Bob is a real gentleman and engaging tour guide.

Agaffer, I agree Coliburn in the way it was set up was a let down, even with Koetsu and Steel head in the chain. I blame the small speaker and amp it was mated with. Looks wise also, there are better looking TT's out there. I am sure it would have done great if it were paired with big speakers/room/amplification.

Product at the show I want most: the new Spiral Groove turntable from Allen
Perkins. An industrial design that is a superb, understated blend of retro and
contemporary. At $20K, I'll never own one.

Highlights for me were the field trip to RTI/Acoustech Friday night and the
recordings Steve Hoffman played Saturday in the Lamm room from his secret
stash. Especially the Beatles stuff. If only...

Also, this was perhaps my fourth or fifth Isomike recording demo from Ray
Kimber and it was just as impressive as always. No real commercial potential,
I suppose, so Ray is doing this as a labor of love. He deserves a medal of
some kind.

I haven't been to a HE show in 2-3 years, but this one seemed small and
underattended. So many usual players were MIA. I wonder if there's a future
for this show. At least in LA.

Thoughts on the Zu room? First time i had heard them. Seemed like the couch was setup in a room node (i asked as bass seemed weak for 4 10" powered woofers) which hurt bass response of the definitions, but thought the rest was really good for the money. I didn't care for the Druid demo however. Weird.

The Lamm room garners praise, but when i was in there the music bored me to tears so perhaps that is why it wasn't memorable.

I thought the W/P 8 room with ARC, 5As with ARC, and Sophia 2s with VTL all were great systems with high price tags. The 8s don't seem worth 30k to these ears. And the Sophia 2s sound very much alike to my originals.

All-in-all---this show has dissipated over the past 4 years. SF was good and NYC was good 3-4 years ago. Since then however, the show has had poor attendance.

btw, noticed the basic entire lack of home theater comapred to the nyc shows of past..

KeithR