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T.H.E. Show Speaker report, and excess opinionated rants

Posted by DrChaos (A) on June 9, 2016 at 16:18:14

I attended on Sunday from about 11 AM to 5PM. I likely heard perhaps 1/3rd of the rooms, and even then didn't have a strong impression of many.

I'm really only going to review speakers, as I assume that at such a show, all demonstrated electronics are well able to drive systems more than adequately and have good enough intrinsic
fidelity.

Let me get some whinging preliminary rants out of the way.

The music:

Yeah, it's mostly jazz music and too similar. But I don't mind jazz as much as some other people, but I want good, interesting jazz, and I didn't hear as much of that. I also think that small instrument ensembles of the sort typically played are really bad to distinguish audio systems. The acoustically simple music hides many flaws, except possibly really obvious (10db+) mid-bass resonances. Way too much of that 'slow breathy female vocalist + bass guitar + languid drum kit', crap. Unless you know the person's voice live, you don't know what
she's really supposed to sound like. (Alan Shaw, principal scientist of Harbeth uses recordings
of his wife's voice to calibrate)

I'm a classical fan myself, and in particular, I like using classical as there is an absolute
acoustical reference point that I think I can recognize reasonably easily---certain flaws in
critical tonality become immediately apparent (like within a few seconds) with classical recordings,
in particular mid ranges of violins, which could be masked easily with the you-know-what-kind-of-recordings
they play. I feel that large-scale diversified orchestral presents the greatest challenge to realism
and reproduction, and fortunately there has been no classical 'loudness war'.

In my opinion, the best single test is a modern (after 1990) recording of large orchestra playing something complex: e.g. Mahler or Stravinsky. And to be truthful, no recording and 2-ch playback really will get you to the experience of being in Row 4 in front of the Vienna Philharmonic at full tilt. Chamber music reproduction can come pretty damn close though.

Unfortunately I had no opportunity to ever use the music on my USB stick that I brought, and frequently
the classical selection was limited---and much of the time the only thing was some particularly annoying
Rimsky-Korsakov, I think I heard it 4 times?


Weird audiophile fetishes (aka stuff I don't like):

There are certain popular audio fetishes which attract substantial and dedicated fans, and I just plain don't get them, or I think they're nuts.

So, getting started with the gratuitous insults....

* Most overt horn, and single driver speakers. Just....no. I'm not prejudiced, I'm postjudiced. They just sound distinctly inferior, colored, distant, or unclear compared to many other well designed speakers I heard. And I'm not an orthodox zealot on speaker engineering approaches: I like the omni MBL's, and many planars quite a bit.

At least these designs were a minority there, and after a few examples I just stopped going into those rooms.

* Phonograph recordings, aka "vinyl". Unlike horns, "vinyl" "spinners" were everywhere. Reverently fed and lovingly worshipped.

Aannd, with only a few exceptions, coming up was obvious high noise level, congestion, and popclickpoppop, and not infrequently, just lousy tonality. With bigger differences in quality between digital and LP playback than many speakers.

It's just a big WTF for me. Either it was OK but nothing amazing, or substantially worse than digital.

I know I know---for pop and other genres there could be a good reasons as the digital versions might be dynamically smashed at the master where the LP recording (must not utter v-word!) wasnt.

But for classical, I heard NO advantage, and plenty of disadvantage. Wasn't different from what I remember about LP with my dad in 1983.

This is the second time I've been to this show. My first impression last year (I had never heard high-end LP playback before) was the same. Confirmed again. I've ruled out "vinyl" in my future.

The few reel-to-reel playback systems sounded perfectly good however.

I won't mention anyhing more about a typical cable rant (overpriced placebo) or tube electronics (unlike horns & vinyl, these can sound quite nice and fully competitive acoustically, but I just don't want to deal with the expense, efficiency, and reliability challenges)


Now on to very subjective and imperfect and music-dependent impressions.

Followed by highly subjective "cum laude", "magna cum laude", and "summa cum laude" sections.

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General observations.

Contrary to what many people report, I heard quite a bit of good systems, and good mostly sounds similar, not surprisngly.

Lots of 2-way standmounted speakers as usual. And pretty much all well designed ones sounded about the same to me. Some were a bit brighter, and others a bit fuller, but I'm not sure I could make enormous distinctions between them.

I won't report electronics because I don't remember any of it and don't care.

Thrax: playing a super crackly record. Generally decent tone but don't remember much else.

Morosonic: big square thing with a horn in the gullet. honky, nasal, distant, no.

Acoustic Zen: two rooms, one with big ones, one with huge ones. Decent overall, dynamical,
but not fully transparent to my ears. Got to play Mahler 2 on the monsters at the end of the day.

Harbeth 40.2: big, warm, steak and a cabernet (cabinet?) sound. As svelte as George Foreman.

Voxativ: single driver, no

Raidho: good pulse and clarity. Expensive.

Perfect 8: open baffle, made from glass. Expensive as sin!

Evoke Eddie speakers: three way large standmount, with planar magnetic mid, and ribbon tweet.
Didn't like the veneer. Sound---I had high expectations. Engineering seemed solid, PhD
designer was present. But I heard a bit too much forward and sibilant character, but I think
this could have easily been the pop recordings being played. reserve judgement to later.

Axis voicebox: small standmount 2-way with ribbon tweeter.
Roksan something: small standmount 2-way with ribbon tweeter.
Gamut: medium standmount 2-way with a not-ribbon tweeter. Had a 'grill' which was more symbolic than real.
Spendor: medium standmount ?-way with a ? tweeter. Had a conventional grill. Bit warmer than the others.

Big Wilson something in big room playing rock: sounds like it would be great with rock.

Odyssey: their own speakers, orignally a 3-driver but owner said that the additional woofer
was overloading the (very small) room. Can get package with their own amplifiers, seems like
very high value. But for classical, on goes a LP which I think had terrible tonality,
couldn't judge speakers, assuming the recording was the problem.

Revel Concerta (?): nice tonal balance as usual, but not quite transparent as I like.
Revel Performa (smaller one): just a tad too light tonality. (I have high standards for Revels, and
they perhaps should be in my next category up.)


Analysis Audio: their top of the line planar. Being a ribbon maggie owner I've always wondered about
these. Pretty good, but given the price, $22K, not as special as I'd need to justify.
They had better deep bass, but I think the midrange is better on the maggies.

Emerald Physics: large open dipole. Seems promising, as I like planars, right? As soon
as classical went on, immediately & obviously sounded wrong. Violins were constrained and distant,
to a degree not present with many other products. Disappointing.

Salk: actually pretty good but playing such simple music (usual stuff) I couldn't really judge them.
Fantastic looks, and price was much lower than the typical. Upside potential.

Kii: self-powered large, deep standmounts. Apparently very high tech---very clear and crisp, a bit
too sharp and cold tonal balance for me.

Cum Laude:

A ginormous Wilson thing which looks like some kind of Imperial Enforcer Droid. No doubt frightfully expensive.
Playing just a single piano recording. The recording engineer was in the room; it was
a live recording of Emanuel Ax playing Beethoven Piano Sonata Op 31. The performance was
magnificent and I was lost in the genius artistry and composition, and loved the change after
too much uninteresting jazz. Sound was perfectly good, and full sized, but I doubt it
did something substantially better that my 3-series Maggies couldn't do for < 10% of the cost.
No doubt on something else requiring bass & SPL, these things would be awesome, at least in Raw Power.

Larsen -- gets points for an engineering solution for an interesting problem. You can put them
directly, flush against the wall. Have some hidden drivers and are engineered with wall interaction
in mind. Unique product in market and sounded quite good.

KEF Reference + Wyred 4 sound: only got a short hear of these, and not with my sort of music,
but my immediate impression was that they sounded tonally 'flat/right'. The room was sponsored
by Wyred4Sound and they were selling electronics, not speakers. They have a new blingy power amp.

Angel City Acoustics: Made in Los Angeles. Proprietor was a Chinese gentleman. 4-driver floor
standers---I think called "Seraphim". Sounds good.

Magna Cum Laude:

Revel Ultima2 Studios. As I expected, high performance, clarity and correct tonality. Tim Duncan
of audio--just performs day in and day out.

Kyron Dipoles: really nice warm and enveloping & clear---warmer than most. Astonishingly expensive
total system with huge amps & boxes @ $112K.

Summa Cum Laude---value for money:

#2: Magnepan MMG. Playing in a three-channel stereo, with #3 synthesized by a Bryston something or other.
Very clear, and $600?

#1: You picked it already. Elac UB5. $500 a pair? Insane. Sounded spectacular at that price.
Super crowded room with Mr Jones talking. I'm not sure I could easily distinguish this from
any of the other small standmounts anywhere in the show regardless of price.

Look you could take a UB5, pair it with a good sealed sub with appropriate bass management, and
99% of the world would be DONE with audio upgrading.

Summa Cum Laude--absolute sound

Missing: Revel Ultima 2 Salon. Didn't get to hear, but my memory of last year would put it here.

#2T: MBL 101. Big fat omni, tons of depth, texture, total clarity, great for a large space.
Looks like some kind of Protoss pylon. Costs as much too.

#2T: The absolute sleeper. PTE Technologies Phoenix SG self-powered speakers. Wow! This was
a small room in a terrible location out of the main flow. Company is obviously run by
engineers---marketing material and website is awkward but informative.

Very large 3-driver heavy, self-powered standmounts.
Great, full sound, can go to high volumes. Very inviting tonality.

They deserve much more attention! One of the men of the room asked me if
there was something I didn't like about the sound (first one to do so), and I
think I heard just a bit of a low bass resonance, which is very likely due to
the small and square room.

#1: Sanders. Electrostatics + transmission line bass. Got to hear a number of orchestral selections.
If you're in the (narrow) sweet spot? Stunning!!

Full clarity on the most complex music, close to true live orchestra, from lowest to highest
frequencies, unbroken, and at substantial level.

Buy the whole system for $22K (speakers, dsp, and 2 of their monster amps), and you're fucking
DONE with 2-channel if you can abide by the placement requirements.

Sanders or Bust!

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