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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
bryoncunningham
888 posts
 
I attended The Show. I was only there for a day, so I missed a great many things, but here are some of the things I liked: Evolution Acoustics, Rockport, Daedalus, Marten.

I certainly don't think you need to spend $29K on speakers to get great sound. The Evolution Acoustics micros are going for $2500, and they were remarkable. The Daedalus Athenas are $8950, and they sounded and looked beautiful. Both are a lot less than $29K.

As for the hearing thing, which doesn't have anything to do with the OP, I agree with Whart: the diminishment of high frequency hearing is more than compensated for by the honed perception that comes with age and experience. That's not just sour grapes talking. I'm under 40, so my high frequency hearing hasn't completely gone the way of the Dodo.

Bryon
onemug
784 posts
 
I think Honeybee2012 is just trying to get a buzz out of us.

On his "over 50", I'd agree with him but then we'd both be wrong.
rtilden
156 posts
 
I also liked Jonathan Tinn's room, both analog and digital rigs. I, too, was impressed with the little Evolution speakers, although they were being pushed by some mighty expensive gear. I don't think anyone mentioned the first floor Hilton room showing Concert Fidelity electronics and Estelon speakers. We are north of the $30K speaker mark here, but I very much liked the Estelon's natural presentation of small ensemble music. The room was huge and the ceiling high, which no doubt helped. Speakers were 3-way design, and I would like to have heard them playing full-on orchestral music, but that was not the fare I heard.
wolf_garcia
4,650 posts
 
People over 50 were likely involved in much of the design of the speakers, amps, wire, and front end components you hear, the mastering of the music you buy, the conducting and performing of much of the classical, jazz, or whatever stuff you might like, and every other aspect of music reproduction. I'm over 50 and am currently a sought after professional live sound technician/recording engineer (and musician/composer), and my experience when working with many younger (a lot younger) sound mixers is they (not ALL of course) can be completely clueless and have tin ears, to put it mildly. Nothing makes up for experience and taste it would seem...example: Patty Larkin (I name names in case this can somehow get back to the culprit) brought a young dude along to mix for her at a concert venue I had system-designed, mixed, and recorded successfully for many years. A sold out show...This guy had a "degree" in some music related technical field and worked in a studio someplace so I assumed he had a clue...man...No idea how to use trim pots (on a standard pro Mackie board no less) for mic level, no idea how to utilize clean amplification without compression or excessive EQ, a monitor mix nightmare episode, and it all resulted in the ONLY gig where other pro musicians in the crowd, along with some regular audience members, actually said the sound kinda sucked. This happened again for a sold out Janis Ian show (I can't kick out the artist's little mixer friend, can I?) and it was a cringe worthy episode of my having to rescue the hapless "sound chick". Lesson learned: Generally speaking, as far as taste and a refined ability to discern sound quality goes, young people can kiss my ass.
whart's avatar
whart
1,930 posts
 
Maybe we should start another thread on this, Wolf-Garcia. That highly touted Shelby Lynne record (at least the audiophile pressing) was recorded by Al Schmidt and produced by Phil Ramone. Neither of those guys is a youngster.
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