This coming from you Joe is especially humbling as I have always enjoyed your numerous contributions to the forum and your in depth NY Show reports . You are one of the most respected members of Audiogon and have stuck with them , like me , though many have jumped ship to AA for various reasons. Teamwork and a positive attitude will keep things strong and alive. Thanks again . Brent
LA Show Report
Beautiful weather , relaxed atmosphere and friendly attendees made this show one I will remember fondly.This was an audio show primarily but the presence of Blu `ray was IMO , nice . I really want this format to survive. The Blu- Ray demonstration was promising and seemed poised for an agressive advertising attack .I was ambigously told that the start time up from disc insertion to play was far faster than the Hd Dvd which is a relief. The 120 inch projection demo looked pretty terrific overall.The Wilson 7 surround system was very good too.
Speaking of them , in another room ,Wilson showed the new Watt Puppy 8 which employs the tweeter found in the Maxx 2. What seems clear to me is that the company is progressively and steadily creating more natural sounding loudspeakers. The demonstration , presented by Dave Wilsons son and employing top tier Audio Research tube monoblocs and the Ref 3 was engaging and informative.The speakers are simply more of what the 7 brought to the table and it appears to me that this company is under intelligent design teams and moving in a tightly controlled direction. Dave Wilsons wife was there meeting and greeting and the woman is simply beautiful and graceful. All in all , Wilson is a class act.
Once again , for me , the best value was the Hyperion speaker. The flagship HPS-938 with 94 db effeciency , 6 ohm nominal ohm load and first order crossover struck me as pretty seamless as well as dynamic and open yet never strained or harsh . It was effortlessly being driven by a 17 wpc SET. For 6 k , this is the one to beat IMO.
Studio Electric was showing the Type One loudspeaker . It looked like a Mangar driver, head finished in chrome but wasnt. It also looked like a chrome B&W but wasnt. So what was it ? Clear and controlled in the midrange for sure . Female volals just jumped out at you . I liked it alot.
Like CES this year , the VR 4 Jr setup was excellent offering a sound that belied its size and stature. It was nearly butted against the model 5 but didnt seem to be smothered sonically . They offered a wide deep rich soundfield and palpable , natural midrange . Nice , once again for me.
I spent some time talking to Richard Bird of Rives Audio . He is so much younger than I would have imagined.We talked of his involvement in Mike lavignes incredible project and his enthusiasm for how it turned out was all over his boyish face. Make no mistake however, this is a focused intelligent designer and his contribution to our industry has no peers.
Dynaudio was showing in many rooms and the sound was always detailed , lightning quick and dynamic as hell. This speaker company has it together.They were showing the C4 with the Moon gear in one room which is simply gorgeous . The chrome exterior and large blue LED read out was worthy of being in an Art gallery. I think the Andromeda was the source in here and sounded excellent.
My friend Darren Censullo of Avatar Acoustics was at the show again .I can not say enough about him on a personal level. IMO , he is a consumate professional with a good eye for outstanding products. His honesty and enthusiasm , his intelligence and proactive nature make him someone I really look up to. I really feel he represents our industry with class and respect. We need all the Darren Censullos we can get to keep our industry alive and vital. Also , his ability to set up and tune a room is inspiring to me personally. Showcasing the new DynaStation 2 cd player, the sound was a breath of digital fresh air. . The new model now uses NOS Telefunken tubes and the sound was very natural and analog sounding. His Karan amps were also standouts offering a sound for the Ascendos that were image precise and unrestrained . His music collection is reason enough to search his rooms out year after year and I found myself scrambling to find a pen to write down many of his selections which were often exotic and obscure to me. As usual , he tunes the room with Frank Changs Resonators.
Everyone who is anybody at least respects Mcintosh. Anyone who forgot the Mac room this year needs Hospice. Simply Drop... Dead ... Gorgeous. The MC2KW 2000 watt Monoblocs were sexy sexy sexy. Stacked in colums between their XRT2K loudspeakers , I was struck at the complete freedom from the room boundaries and lack of glare at bone crushing levels. This new gear and this room , I will never forget.
It was an honor to meet Rick Schultz of Virtual Dynamics this year. Everywhere his cables were present , you remembered the sound as non fatiguing and uncompressed. Also the Tara Omega cables sounded beautiful in my all time favorite room year after year : the MBL room . I met Wolfgang this year and am struck by his genuine concern for the expression of " musicality " within the performance of a system . He never mentioned soundstaging .I got the impression that this is a brilliant man that cares about his product. His rooms are always contenders for best sound of the show year after year.
Speaking of excellent sounding rooms , The ESP Concert Grand room was arguably the best sound at the show this year . It could have been the most artistically tasteful as well. The sound was huge but with lazer focus . The soundstage was 10 feet behind the speakers and offered a glimpse into Seans design genius.The man himself was here this year and his enthusiasm was infectious. The new Concert Grand is indeed a colossal leap in performance over his earlier designs.
Other notable sounds for me were the Nola , Vandy 5 - ARC rooms as well as Ray Kimbers B&W demonstration room .
Vinyl was everywhere and played side by side in all but a few rooms.The 4th floor Rockport room was the best for me but Clearaudio,Kuzma , and Basis tables were in many rooms.
In conclusion , the show highlight was the lecture by Steve Hoffman . The faces of the attendees were like watching a room full of lottery winners.
Great show to all that bypassed it . You missed a ton of audio fun.
Speaking of them , in another room ,Wilson showed the new Watt Puppy 8 which employs the tweeter found in the Maxx 2. What seems clear to me is that the company is progressively and steadily creating more natural sounding loudspeakers. The demonstration , presented by Dave Wilsons son and employing top tier Audio Research tube monoblocs and the Ref 3 was engaging and informative.The speakers are simply more of what the 7 brought to the table and it appears to me that this company is under intelligent design teams and moving in a tightly controlled direction. Dave Wilsons wife was there meeting and greeting and the woman is simply beautiful and graceful. All in all , Wilson is a class act.
Once again , for me , the best value was the Hyperion speaker. The flagship HPS-938 with 94 db effeciency , 6 ohm nominal ohm load and first order crossover struck me as pretty seamless as well as dynamic and open yet never strained or harsh . It was effortlessly being driven by a 17 wpc SET. For 6 k , this is the one to beat IMO.
Studio Electric was showing the Type One loudspeaker . It looked like a Mangar driver, head finished in chrome but wasnt. It also looked like a chrome B&W but wasnt. So what was it ? Clear and controlled in the midrange for sure . Female volals just jumped out at you . I liked it alot.
Like CES this year , the VR 4 Jr setup was excellent offering a sound that belied its size and stature. It was nearly butted against the model 5 but didnt seem to be smothered sonically . They offered a wide deep rich soundfield and palpable , natural midrange . Nice , once again for me.
I spent some time talking to Richard Bird of Rives Audio . He is so much younger than I would have imagined.We talked of his involvement in Mike lavignes incredible project and his enthusiasm for how it turned out was all over his boyish face. Make no mistake however, this is a focused intelligent designer and his contribution to our industry has no peers.
Dynaudio was showing in many rooms and the sound was always detailed , lightning quick and dynamic as hell. This speaker company has it together.They were showing the C4 with the Moon gear in one room which is simply gorgeous . The chrome exterior and large blue LED read out was worthy of being in an Art gallery. I think the Andromeda was the source in here and sounded excellent.
My friend Darren Censullo of Avatar Acoustics was at the show again .I can not say enough about him on a personal level. IMO , he is a consumate professional with a good eye for outstanding products. His honesty and enthusiasm , his intelligence and proactive nature make him someone I really look up to. I really feel he represents our industry with class and respect. We need all the Darren Censullos we can get to keep our industry alive and vital. Also , his ability to set up and tune a room is inspiring to me personally. Showcasing the new DynaStation 2 cd player, the sound was a breath of digital fresh air. . The new model now uses NOS Telefunken tubes and the sound was very natural and analog sounding. His Karan amps were also standouts offering a sound for the Ascendos that were image precise and unrestrained . His music collection is reason enough to search his rooms out year after year and I found myself scrambling to find a pen to write down many of his selections which were often exotic and obscure to me. As usual , he tunes the room with Frank Changs Resonators.
Everyone who is anybody at least respects Mcintosh. Anyone who forgot the Mac room this year needs Hospice. Simply Drop... Dead ... Gorgeous. The MC2KW 2000 watt Monoblocs were sexy sexy sexy. Stacked in colums between their XRT2K loudspeakers , I was struck at the complete freedom from the room boundaries and lack of glare at bone crushing levels. This new gear and this room , I will never forget.
It was an honor to meet Rick Schultz of Virtual Dynamics this year. Everywhere his cables were present , you remembered the sound as non fatiguing and uncompressed. Also the Tara Omega cables sounded beautiful in my all time favorite room year after year : the MBL room . I met Wolfgang this year and am struck by his genuine concern for the expression of " musicality " within the performance of a system . He never mentioned soundstaging .I got the impression that this is a brilliant man that cares about his product. His rooms are always contenders for best sound of the show year after year.
Speaking of excellent sounding rooms , The ESP Concert Grand room was arguably the best sound at the show this year . It could have been the most artistically tasteful as well. The sound was huge but with lazer focus . The soundstage was 10 feet behind the speakers and offered a glimpse into Seans design genius.The man himself was here this year and his enthusiasm was infectious. The new Concert Grand is indeed a colossal leap in performance over his earlier designs.
Other notable sounds for me were the Nola , Vandy 5 - ARC rooms as well as Ray Kimbers B&W demonstration room .
Vinyl was everywhere and played side by side in all but a few rooms.The 4th floor Rockport room was the best for me but Clearaudio,Kuzma , and Basis tables were in many rooms.
In conclusion , the show highlight was the lecture by Steve Hoffman . The faces of the attendees were like watching a room full of lottery winners.
Great show to all that bypassed it . You missed a ton of audio fun.
- ...
- 31 posts total
Myself and another audiophile buddy went to the LA show as well. It was the first show of it's kind for me, and such fun. We spent a full three days there and I think we took in every single room on the four floors. I echo many of Brainwater's comments, especially on the Hyperion, ESP and MBL rooms. The Hyperion room also showcased some tube amps sporting the 845 tube - they looked a little DIY, but for the money ($4k new for the pair I think it was), the looked like bargains. The MBL room did give me goosebumps - the sound was really vivid and fleshy although I would have liked to have listened to their big speakers with some tube gear upstream, rather than their solid state ensemble. In particular I echo Brainwater's thoughts on the ESP room. The speakers were driven by scary looking $30k Wavestream monoblocks, and sources included the Brinkman TT and a lush Lector digital front-end. It was possibly the best sound in show for me. Like Brainwater hints at, it was the type of room I wanted to put my feet up in and hang out for an hour or two - the music was just dreamy, effortless and non-fatiguing. Part of what made this room great was that it was managed very well - the guy just kept playing music. This was in sharp contrast with a few other rooms including the Usher room and the Wilson room, where I found myself getting a lecture on how their speakers are so great, rather than listening to music. The Usher bookshlef did sound great though, and the Wilson's also sounded great - I'm just wasn't a fan of the 'experience' where they make you feel like you're about to witness a solar eclipse or some live music event. I found the sound great, but found so many other rooms more pleasantly humble and respectful of my time (you had to line up at the Wilson room for a 'demo', followed by a few intros to the music about to be heard). One other stand out room for me was the room by Rives Audio. Actually, they had two rooms there -identical rooms but one with room treatments and one without. That experience was such fun, because you could compare the two identical systems both with and without the room treatments. The Rives hardware was there in the treated room, but was not in the signal chain as they found that the room didn't need it. Even with the 'passive' treatments, the room was so clearly better than the untreated one next door. It was such an eye-opener for me. Even then, I should emphasise that the untreated room sounded superb (just not as creepy good as the treated room). Gear in the room was Rockport Mira speakers (I think it was Mira?), Gryphon CD player and Gryphon integrated amp. Gosh, I could keep talking but I'll try and end this spiel soon. Another room worth mentioning was the ZU Audio room - I really liked the speakers there, all the moreso because the front-ends they were using were quite humble. I find their speakers unique and fresh and would consider a pair at their pricepoints. There were rooms I was very disappointed with, but I should hold my tongue lest it was simply that the rooms offered poor acoustics or had some other kink in the signal chain. At the end of the day though, back at home base, I still like my system and find it unwanting of any immediate upgrades, although I'm sure I'll upgrade something soon just for the hell of it - you know how it goes. |
Outlier , first let me say that your system looks really great! I forgot to mention the Rives room . We were having a chat with Joe Kubala and he said not to miss it as we were leaving the show. We went back upstairs to the 4th floor for a quickie demo and stayed an extra hour going back and forth. Wasnt it Real Traps and RPG being used by Richard? Anyway, the demonstration was astonishing. In the untreated room , it sounded good for what they had put together. You might not have known just HOW good it could have sounded had the treated room not been right next door. Upon entering the room , had you been blindfolded you might have guessed it was Ray Kimber doing his Isomike demo again .It simply sounded like a Quad recording . Sound that was maybe 2 dimensional in the untreated room took on an organic expansiveness that was at once natural yet surrounded the side walls and rear of the room with an ease and lack of attention drawn to itself. This was a text book example of what we all need to be concentrating on if musical reproduction is important. |
I also felt that Eliiot of Acoustic Image had the best sound at the show with the $40k ESP Grands. Believe it or not, those tall line arrays have 10 drivers each - four 8", four 5", and two 1" soft dome tweeters. Yet, the image and sound like true planars with nearly the same speed and immediacy, but seriously deep and tight bass. The sound seemed to eminating from a single point sourde. The rest of the system used were massive $35k Wavestream monoblocks, two chasis $16k Messenger preamp w/ built in phono, Brinkman LaGrange TT w/ Brinkman arm, I think a Dynavector XV-1S cartridge, and the Lector CDP & DAC. Yes, that's silly down-payment-on-a-house kind of money for a system that I would not nor could not ever pay. But..... If I were ever to hit the Lottery, THAT, is how I would like my systems to sound. They played a solo classical piano piece that was so emotional and real sounding that several grown men were wiping tears from their eyes afterwards. I-shit-you-not! Honest to God truth. The piece was off a supposedly impossible to find Helen Grimaud cd(in that vinyl room) "Chopin Ballade No. 1, etc." (Denon CO-1786). I don't know which track, but it was played with a heart-wrenching fury. All the more incredible because Grimaud was only 18 when she recorded it. It was played with the emotion of someone far beyond her years, and I'm not even a big classical fan. CD picture Ballade no. 1 in G minor, op. 23 Balladen, Kl, op. 23 Après une lecture de Dante Chopin, Frédéric Grimaud, Hélène [Mitarb.] Ratingen DENON Electronic [1989] 1 Compact Disc, Beih. EST d. 1. beigef. Werkes: Années de pèlerinage, année 2 . - EST d. 2. beigef. Werkes: Sonaten, Kl op. 11. Interpr.: Grimaud, Hélène [Kl]. - Aufn.: Leiden, 1987. P 1987. DENON CO-1786 |
- 31 posts total