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RE: NY Audio Show 2014

Posted by saxman73 (P) on October 12, 2014 at 14:57:51

In Reply to: NY Audio Show 2014 posted by layman on October 6, 2014 at 10:47:10:

Thanks for the detailed post! My 2 cents - a bit late - :

This was my first audio show as well, and I live in Brooklyn. I am a professional musician (saxophone). Overall, it was very fun. A few observations:

The megabucks systems don’t always fare that well: sure, they were spectacular, but they didn’t always sound that musical or involving. To me, the best of the bunch was the room with Muraudio speakers and EMM Labs electronics. Huge soundstage that didn’t require to be in the sweet spot to enjoy it. It was like watching a movie on a huge screen. Good tonal balance. It sounded really good overall, as it should, since the price of the whole system was something like 150K!

Next door in the Kef room, I enjoyed the $1500 LS50 bookshelf speakers more than the $15000 (or more) Blade floorstander speakers, which sounded somewhat cold and bright. Admittedly, I was in the back, my back to the wall, probably in a really bad spot acoustically to make any good judgement, but still I thought the difference was startling, playing through the same electronics. I have Rogers JR149 speakers at home, derived from the LS3/5a and the LS50, although a thoroughly modern speaker, does seem like it belongs in that lineage. If I was in the market for something at that price point, I would definitely consider it. It sounded very right, for lack of a better term.

Many of the rooms are handicapped by bad acoustics, and inadequate sizes, which I guess can’t really be helped but, even more so, they are handicaped by the choice of atrocious music, which makes assessing the systems nearly impossible to me. Thankfully, most rooms happily took requests. The rooms that played better music automatically were more interesting. I also think that the music played speaks to the sensibilities of the gear displayed. Unfortunately, rooms with large megabucks systems tended to play spectacular, and often trite, music.

As a relatively new audiophile, on a budget, and a musician, pretty much everything seemed overpriced to me, and not always worth it. I definitely think the bargains in audio are in the used market, even though I am grateful for the designers trying to push the envelope and the people who put this great show together.

I am surely informed by my own biases and tastes, but, to me, in pretty much every room, as soon as vinyl was played, it sounded better, and as soon as there were tubes in the signal path, things also sounded better.

Some rooms that stood out to me:

The room with a Backert Labs preamp (12AU7 tube, $7500, made in Pennsylvania) and Gershman Acoustics "Grande Avant Garde" speakers ($12500). I spoke with the owner of the company, who said they tried to focus on the best possible rhythm and dynamics. I am not sure exactly how that translates in technical terms but it sounded very good and, to my ears, very right, if a bit on the warm (but still detailed) side. The whole system had an organic quality to it that made it stand out to me. It also helped that they let me play “Ray Charles and Betty Carter”, a recording that I know very well. CD player was Naim CD 5si. We also listened to Steely Dan on vinyl (VPI Classic 2 with 3D tonearm and Dynavector XX-2 mkII cartridge).

Audio Note: I don’t have the particulars but the whole system sounded really good, and they played great music. It was my first time hearing a NOS CD player and that also sounded very good and right. The amp used EL84, which my Fisher X-100-3 also uses, and there was something about that system that reminded me of what I like in my own system. I’ve heard people talk about the synergy of Audio Note systems. It was my first time hearing one, but I think there is truth to that.

The Soundsmith room with the strain gauge system sounded great, if almost too detailed.

The VPI room was nice and, actually, every room that had a VPI in it seemed to sound good. The Zu speakers room with the new VPI Nomad was very musical at a reasonable price point (at least in the context of the show).

The Vandersteen room was great: balanced, did everything well and musically, had scale and heft. One of the more satisfying expensive systems I heard.

A lot of people seemed to really like the Martin Logan room (with EMM labs CD player, I think the amps were Krell) but I had mixed feelings. The imaging was great, the clarity also, but after, 25 minutes, I thought it was too bright. Could have been the room, which was small and seemed overly reflective.

The other rooms blend a bit together at this point. For the most part, I didn’t take notes and I didn’t take photos. I wasn’t planning on posting about this but I thought I would chime in. Perhaps next time, I will try to do this in a more organized fashion.

Anyway, it all was fun!

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Sonic Craft

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