Finally a minute to come online.
First off, I saw Daedelus for Ken, and liked it. It was a nice clear smooth sound, which got the heart of the music through easily. They really "spoke." Paired with the utterly gorgeous Art Audio 845 monoblock tube amps, mass strings were very rich and one high point of the show. Later I went back and heard the smaller of the two speaker models and enjoyed that almost as much. It had plenty of bass, just not as deep or impressive as their big brother. A few people commented on the appearance of the larger Daedelus as not particularly trendy or show off slick. But they were nicely made of real hardwood with a satin oil finish that I love.
Then onto Serious Stereo for WEEZ, man we missed you! I can;t say I was impressed with Serious as much, but they were playing some not so great early recordings of Patsy Cline which they were extremely fond of so I didn't want to interrupt their reverie with Bartok. So I couldn't really get a sense of its high end performance. Sorry! The display used antique furniture so it ws very homey and comfy, and the brothers were fun and helpful with questions. Maybe Jim can give you his wife Linda's take on their demo?
Linda was so much fun, I'm really glad to have met her. You're a lucky man Jim.
I spent a lot of time in the The Lotus Group rooms, hearing various permutations of Feastrex drivers in various cabinets. One in particular was great with D5nf driver and passive radiator. I thought it was the best single driver speaker that I heard at the show, and was very satisfying with extended treble and bass, enough to enjoy good recordings without longing for more. I don;t think I heard that hemp driver Jim was speaking of though.
Lotus Group also distributes Acoustic Revive brand, so I got a demo of their CD demagnetizer and ionizer on my homemade demo disc. It was a very noticeable improvement. I don't know why nor care, but the price was surprisingly cheap for the job they did, less than a grand for both. Is that cheap? Hmmm.... maybe not. Weird but cool. I wondered whether it would make any difference when I rip tracks to network. I knew better than to ask, but it would be cool to actually try and see the sound of two identical ripped tracks one before and one after zapping. If it worked I would order those gadgets immediately.
Carl and I did sample the Analysis Audio panel ribbons driven by Behold electronics. They were great, but I still think the amps were holding them back. What was lacking last year with Joule OTL tubes was filled in, but the strength of the OTLs were missing. I found the speakers less enjoyable this year, but bass was improved big time so rock sounded much better. I would love to hear them with AR Reference electronics and 210 amps. These speakers are Ref-worthy -haha. I met a nice guy starting out as hifi dealer in MA who is carrying the line. The importer Mike is a swell guy, real, honest, dedicated and trying to do right. He would fit in well here.
I also heard the new Apogee clones, they were not as smooth or natural as the Analysis Audio version even WITH AR reference electronics- haha but the fine electronics could not be denied nor hidden by the speakers' slight edginess. He would not turn up the volume, afraid of the acoustics in the room. Startup company, seemed a little shellshocked by the show. Harley will name them best of show. He likes the in your face stuff, now I get it. I am also personally biased towards the Analysis, FWIW. I like Mike. The new Apogee is not the old Apogee, just an apogee restorer who took the name and stuck it on his own version of Apogee copy, including the model names.
mbl made on impression on me. Last year I sat next to Bob Harley while he listened to the big dogs, and he subsequently gave them his best of show. I thought they were obnoxious. So this year I was determined to figure out what is so special, if anything. The stars lined up and I could "hear" them playing in their element and I think I got it. Seemingly infinite current and speed playing through a huge metal omni speaker makes awesome transient response, dynamics and a good natural sound, good tone. They were still smooth and musical if you call the sample track I heard music, more like movie scene drum orgasm. Overall I enjoyed it, but I don;t know if I could live with it. Next year I will practice being an even bigger arrogant snob than the demo host and insist that they play my Dvorak strong Quartet so I can find out for myself if they can play delicately. Since Harley's own system is Maxx2/BAT600 I am not surprised he liked the mbl, But I know the MAXX can make music too. Jon Valin says they can, and I usually trust his comments to some degree. Unfortunately they were only playing music that showed off these transient strengths and the vibe in there was not inviting enough for me to ask to play my demo disc that would shed light on its ability to actually play music, so I just enjoyed the fireworks and moved on. The first time I wandered in there, they were playing the "basic" (cheapest) system. It was truly obnoxious, harsh and screechy treble, the worst sound of the show. Unbearable really. Lots of people in the room, huddled on the far side away from it, all talking to avoid listening. The big speakers were much better.
Acoustic Zen's new speakers were playing with some kind of ss amp, sorry, I don't remember which. I enjoyed them, but not as much as the Adagios last year with Response tube monoblocks. Robert was as gracious as ever.
I spent a lot of time in the Harbeth room, and got to know Harbeth importer Walter Swanbon and mfg rep for Resolution Audio, Tim Ryan. We had fun testing tweek vibe footers after the show ended. The new Monitor 40s were there, the first pair in the US. The bass driver is new along with crossover, resulting in higher input impedance and mush easier to drive them. The speakers were close to perfect for my taste, but lacked the very bottom half octave that I love so much, and the Harbeth plastic mid range gave up a slight amount of mid range hyper detail, making everything sound truly beautiful. The midrange detail that I crave was slightly diminished compared to drivers made of stiffer materials. Even with bass response to 30Hz, the room with no treatment was surprisingly good. I wondered if the resonant cabinet was the reason for this, but Walter assured me that room treatment is just as valuable with them. But their room was same size and shape as everyone else and we could crank deep bass and I never heard any crazies. Beautiful speakers. The Resolution Audio stuff was also very innovative and cool, with great sound. The performance was excellent, made even better when modded by GNSC. I think the Harbeths would prefer 100w of PP tubes, maybe that would bring back the midrange hyperdetail. Just guessing. I guess the Monitor 40s were my favorite speaker at the show. Awesome.
I'm not surprised Jim bought the ACIs, I loved them too. Last year, Jim bought the Adagios and they were my favorite of the show. I'm looking forward to learning more about Mike Dzurka and ACI speakers. I would love to hear the larger models sometime. Congrats Jim!!!
Acapella had huge 4 way horns with plasma tweeters. They sounded very dynamic as to be expected, but very little horny coloring. It was not as smooth as the smoothest cone speakers, but lively and exciting while still musical and delicate, even at too high volume. The room was huge with gigantic computer optimized molded diffusors. The elements looked like the Sydney opera house rooftop. They diffused bass down to low frequencies and made the room sound awesome. Don't know who makes them, but they looked expensive and utterly lacking in WAF. If you are looking for a way to cause a quick divorce, this is it. I assume it would be like one of those gopher sirens that you put underground. No woman, not even an audiophile would tolerate those things, but they worked pretty good even down low, which is the miracle. The Acapellas were played too loud most of the time. On last day I heard them playing solo classical piano, still too loud, but at least I could focus in.
Joe Skubinski was in the Usher/JPS room. I was glad to finally get to talk to him, as the room was crowded all weekend while the new 718s played. Same room that had Nuforce last year, but this sounded much better with traditional Usher bipolar SS amps. The little speakers easily filled the whole huge room, powered by Usher amps and Aluminata wires. Clean clear sound, even my bass tracks sounded almost completely satisfying, surprising from the single 5" woofer and small "bookshelf" style cabinet, would love to hear them with tube amps sometime. Bass was better on the tiny dancer than the Monitor 40. The system had typical JPS sound, smooth, silent, a certain solid rightness. Good stuff. It was fun to meet Joe, I pretended to be a spy trying to exact secrets about Alumiloy from him. A couple times he smiled at the questions, but for the most part he was very forthcoming and explained to me much more than I could comprehend. Something about annealing the wire and multiple layers of different alloys. The kind of aluminum he uses is an alloy of other metals which is significant in some way I didn't understand, but yes there is aluminum in them thar wires. I'm sure he has many secrets too, making me realize just how complex designing good wire really is.
Emerald Physics had a cool demo. Their new speakers are open baffle with 2 15" drivers on the bottom, and a horny compression driver tweeter, all blended with Behringer DCX2496 digital crossover and biamped by 2 stereo Belcanto 300watt ICE amps. It sounded pretty darn good fromone source, messed up on another, culd have been a preamp issue, dunno. I never got to hear my demo. Huge open sound with great fast bass, no room problems I could notice. The mid/highs were a little brittle, but that could be the stock $250 digital crossover which has a reputation for crappy sound. A few mods similar to what Bolder does with a SB and it comes alive. Overall, a very promising debut and lots of interest and talk about them. I hope they come back again next year with the system really tweaked.
Luxman was there in force, they had every product on display. I heard an incredible Cannonball Adderley track being played, it was one of the best sounds I heard. I don't remember the name of the speakers, but they looked like big silver footballs with 3-4 drivers on the front. They sounded a little hifi but nice. I could tell the magic was in the tube electronics.
Break time.
Rich