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For the first time in my elderly years, I have seen hope for High End Audio.
I attended all -3-days of Axpona. Friday was crowded. Saturday was fight the halls packed. Sunday was the usual get out of Dodge but still well attended. The shocking surprise was the number of Fathers with young sons, twenty something girls and guys and women. WOW !!!!! It looks like the High End is attracting more than just old men.
I felt the show was very well organised and the Quality of the rooms was not bad at all. The seminars were great. Nice choice of topics. Thanks to Lynn Stanley and a Jazz string trio for their "Free to Attendees" performances. Can't wait til next year.
Follow Ups:
It does appear it was a good show, thanks for the input ...
How was the Aesthetix room?
Attended all 3 days. My first show in 45 years. Overall impression was that almost all displays too bright with inappropriate music to evaluate systems and digital front ends usually only using cd quality downloads. The Tape Project and some vinyl the exception. Very few top of the line speakers on display. Poor set up the rule rather than the exception. I would agree with Valin that the Magneplaner 3.7 had the best sound in the show which says something about the current state of high end audio. Headphones and amps well represented. Wells headphone amp at $7,000 outstanding as it should be at that price. Woo Audio had excellent room with Michael offering excellent advice. Seminars informative and mostly worth attending. Chad Kassum, Miles Astor and "Mikey" on topic. Biggest disappointment was the MBL room. Too loud and painfully bright although I would love to have their tape front end. Sienna Manhattans at $35,000 showed promise if they could only get them set up properly. Their back up to Lyn Stanley was embarrassing. Distorted at least on her first demo. Able to pick up 5 early mint rare Mercuries at Sarurday's Audition. A fun weekend.
Did you get a chance to hear the MQA demo by Meridian?
If so, what were your thoughts?
No I did listen to that display.
The big red horns were Sadurni driven by Merrill amps, the sound was great. Can you believe the Merrill amps were Class D, driving 108 dB efficient horns and sounded that good, I was so surprised to learn they were Class D.
My pick for best of show, and I dmit I didn't get to every room in the 3 days, was Tidal. The Bricasti was also stellar.
Some how I missed Lyn's show but met her and listened to her and a couple tracks in the Tidal room. She sold all her albums so I had to come home and order them from MD. However, I did meet Patricia Barber after her show who was gracious enough to take a picture with me.
MBL played a master tape track of James Newton Howard & Friends at concert level, crystal clear and sounded incredible. Both them and Sadurni used a room treatment from SMT which was a diffuser opposed to deadener which allows for a more natural sound.
I did have a blast.
Merrill Audio is the US distributor.
Merrill is distributor for what?
.
I felt the sound was SUBSTANTIAlLLY better than last year.
Standouts for me were the Acoustic Zen room -- holographic imaging with weight and substance to every performer.
The Sonus Faber room on the 12th floor was similarly amazing. A bit too much bass perhaps.
The Lawrence Audio room with their big speaker (the Double Bass?) was the best bang for the buck Imo.
Also enjoyed the Muraudio room, the MQA Meridian room, and the huge horn speakers in the lower level.
One person said the Meridian room with the MQA higher rez format was "wonderful" sounding.
How did that room compare to your favorite room with the Acoustic Zens? Or some of the others you liked?
Was the MQA demo head and shoulders more musical?
Thanks,
I would say the demo was good maybe even outstanding. However I don't know how it compares to the non mqa versions of the same pieces. No baseline was given. I still am skeptical as to how well all the various studios will authenticate the sound at the microphone for their recordings. I know what Meridian says and I think they can do it for their recordings but I don't know how well other studios especially independents will do it. Before I invest in any thing related to this I'll need lots more proof via listening.
There was a recent TAS article alluding to Apple's possible collaboration with Meridian and MQA. I can't recall which issue it was in. Significantly, when Apple acquired Beats they got a lot more than people see on the surface with headphones and the Beats music service... they got entertainment industry insider Jimmy Iovine.Also, Apple just announced earnings:
http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/27/technology/apple-earnings/index.html?iid=Lead
Edits: 04/27/15 04/27/15
Thanks! for sharing- guys. Some of the complete coverage is starting to be posted on Stereophile. com
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