Bgoeller, which room was Austin Acoustics in? I don't recall seeing that name and a quick search of the program doesn't show it. I was impressed on an overall sense with the TIDAL Speakers room, very nice sound. On a budget sense the Hsu monitors and subwoofer were very musical, though for $1200 were missing the articulation you get with the mega bucks speakers. I was rather disappointed with the Von Schweikert flagship speakers (I didn't get the model number but they were huge). They had wonderful articulation and seemed tonally to be very nice, but I initially sat one seat off center and the channel closest to me dominated the sound, with almost no image. Moving one seat over to the center the image snapped into place, but the speakers still did not disappear. This seemed to be one of the hardest rooms to get a seat in, yet I bet most of the folks didn't hear their best sound. There were other rooms that sounded very nice, Paradign Personas, Scaena (no model, but it was the "small" ones) with PS Audio (I'm biased), the new ELAC monitors, the Sanders electrostatics (too bad they have a very small sweet spot), and the Auralic Polaris all-in-one streamer/integrated amp. There are are others but I didn't take notes.
I would like to make a couple of general comments. First, the disparity in sound at shows is really amazing. All these people think they are providing good sound? This has been noted many times before, but I just had a hearing test done, first time in 30 years or so. I was surprised to find my hearing was good ... only to about 3k Hz, then it took a dive to about 5k Hz and back up to almost to sub 3K Hz level at 8k Hz where the test stopped. The doctor said this is textbook noise damage. Uggghh. But at the show I was frequently assaulted by what I thought was bright sound. Are many audiophiles (or manufacturers) afflicted with worse hearing damage? The second comment is related and is about the two live concerts I heard, one Friday night, the Frank Catalano Band, and one Saturday night, Blues Review & Benefit Concert. Let me first say the playing was very good, even exceptional. But the loudness, Friday was loud, Saturday was ear-splitting for me. I had to put ear plugs in, ruining the tonal balance big time. The levels were at or near normal concert levels, one reason why I don't go to too many concerts, but the audience here was audiophiles. We do care about our hearing, don't we? On Saturday I saw only one person, an audiophiles wife directly in front of me, make an attempt to protect her ears. This seemed a real disparity, but not a new one nor likely one to be solved ...
I would like to make a couple of general comments. First, the disparity in sound at shows is really amazing. All these people think they are providing good sound? This has been noted many times before, but I just had a hearing test done, first time in 30 years or so. I was surprised to find my hearing was good ... only to about 3k Hz, then it took a dive to about 5k Hz and back up to almost to sub 3K Hz level at 8k Hz where the test stopped. The doctor said this is textbook noise damage. Uggghh. But at the show I was frequently assaulted by what I thought was bright sound. Are many audiophiles (or manufacturers) afflicted with worse hearing damage? The second comment is related and is about the two live concerts I heard, one Friday night, the Frank Catalano Band, and one Saturday night, Blues Review & Benefit Concert. Let me first say the playing was very good, even exceptional. But the loudness, Friday was loud, Saturday was ear-splitting for me. I had to put ear plugs in, ruining the tonal balance big time. The levels were at or near normal concert levels, one reason why I don't go to too many concerts, but the audience here was audiophiles. We do care about our hearing, don't we? On Saturday I saw only one person, an audiophiles wife directly in front of me, make an attempt to protect her ears. This seemed a real disparity, but not a new one nor likely one to be solved ...