Kharma Exquisites

Ok, Mike and Jtinn you are scaring me now. The sound I heard at the show , I thought, was incredible. But then again I am still a rookie in the high end audio game. I have not heard as many high end set ups as you guys. But this year was my 3rd year in a row at CES. In all the rooms I have been through, none of the setups made me feel as though I had heard the ultimate...until now.

If more people could experience at least what I heard at the show, more people could really truly understand that this hobby really is about the music.

One last question though. Did you think the Rockport/Tenor combo was showing its best? For me , the sound was a little thick and less free flowing than the Kharma/Lamm combo. I felt the same last year also. What do you think?

Avnut, i will difer to Jtinn as far as number of truely high-end systems heard. but i can say that the Kharma Exquisite/Tenor in my room was so incredible when i first heard it......it actually intimidated me. i had to have 6 or 7 experienced listeners in my room and get their feedback before i would allow myself to accept what my ears were telling me.....kinda scarey.

comparing the Rockport/Tenor to the Kharma/Lamm is tricky. my take would be that the amazeing Exquisites have such a special openness, mid-range purity, and coherence that it creates a very unique reality that no other speaker can touch. i could tell that the Lamm solid state amps held back the Exquisites from the supreme musicality and clarity i hear in my room with the Tenors.

as good as the Rockport Hyperions are, in comparison with the Exquisites, they are less open and refined. the ceramic mid-range of the Exquisites is so fast and uncolored even another state-of-the-art speaker like the Hyperion is exposed as less fast and slightly veiled. the Tenors were not a perfect match for the Hyperion and there was a slight loss of speed and snap......a loseness. with higher powered amps the Hyperion might have been better in this area but not as musical as on the Tenors.

consider my heavy bias toward the Exquisites and Tenors in my comments.....i can't help it.....as i sit here listening to them..... they never cease to beguile me.

Avnut: I spent 5 days in the Tenor / Audio Aero / Jena Labs / Rockport / Machina Dynamica room. I put the room together. We had severe problems the first few days due to construction problems and could not even setup the speakers properly until Thursday morning. Our room was the last to be finished on that floor. The show opened officially Tuesday at 10 AM and we still had construction going on until noon that day. It was not until Thursday morning that we actually acheived what I, and many others, thought was the best sound at the show. There was such a lack of fatigue and the musicality was quite good. Many people thought that due to the Tenor / Audio Aero / Jena Labs combination with the Hyperion's made a huge difference over the previous CES.

I loved the resolution and transparency in the Kharma room, but I tell you the sound was not even close to Mike Lavigne's room with his Tenor / Kharma combination. I thought the Kharma's lacked a little body at the show and I hear glorious body in Michael's system. If you heard it the way I have, you would realize the Kharma's were not near their potential at the show.

Thanks Jtinn and Mikelavigne for your comments. I have already started saving my spare change. :)