CAS

[Hugh]

Don't forget California Audio Show, July 15-17.

We'll be in Room 209.

http://www.caaudioshow.com/

[Response Audio]

Hey there Hugh. What will you be using at this show?

[Hugh]

Hey Bill,

We'll be bringing PB101 Pre and M845 (small) Monos plus our Trinity.

[woofersus]

Day 2 starting now....

Attendance is very good and the number of exhibitors is down a little thanks to the Newport Beach show, which equals tremendous room traffic.  Any AN-ers having made the journey should look us up and say hello and get some free candy. (both in wrappers and the ear kind)

[woofersus]

Here's a picture of the room glowing up a storm...




And one with different camera settings to show the deep gloss on the Piano Birdseye Maple cabinets:




Center channel (not playing) on it's new custom stand:




The 101D tubes get a lot of attention...





It's been a good show.  A little down on exhibitors thanks to the Newport Beach show, but that just means lots of traffic for us.   It's my first time hearing the M845 monoblocks and I'm quite pleased.  Typical of Melody they're a fairly balanced overall sound, but these are just a smidge more romantic sounding than the bigger push-pull PM845's.  Very nice if 21w is enough, and in this case it easily is.

[Hugh]

Like Tim said, the traffic into our room was a big surprise to us and it easily surpassed the number of visitors from Newport Beach show.

As a matter of fact, we ran out of brochures and flyers at mid-day on Sunday which indicated we have had close to 1,000 people who came to our room.

I'm pesonally looking forward to next year.

Thanks again Tim & Nhan for your help and support.

Without you guys, I'd know if I can make it.

[Hugh]

Got some nice mentioning from EnjoyTheMusic.

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/cas_2011/page2.htm

Angel City Audio
Hearing Wynton Marsalis and Dianne Reeves do Feeling of Jazz in the Angel City Audio room first thing Saturday morning was a great way to start the day. Angel City Audio is the North American distributor for Onix and Melody, and just last year introduced the first product of their own, the ACA Trinity ($1999 per pair), which was on display here. The system consisted of the Onix XCD-50 Reference CD Player ($3799), a Melody Pure Black 101 Tube Preamplifier ($4499), Melody M845 Tube Monoblock Power Amplifiers ($5899 per pair), and the Trinitys.

This system did a fantastic job connecting me to the music, vocal music in particular, and the soundstage extended well outside the speakers. The tonality of the midrange here was stunning, highs were extended and not overly sweet. The Trinity speakers might have been exactly the right size for the room had they been just a little farther from the front wall...their designer (and Angel City owner), Hugh Nguyen, said he would have liked an additional six inches, but doing so would have nearly blocked the door... such is shows. Still, the Trinitys put on a moving performance, and are an extremely good value.

I was impressed as well with the Melody amplification...it had a sound that was linear and accurate without being analytical, that could have easily been mistaken for (very expensive) solid-state.