Posted by badman (M) on June 10, 2003 at 19:10:12

In Reply to: Re: Reasonable insanity posted by John Swenson on June 10, 2003 at 12:30:49:

The inundation of ones skull with pounding bass at these shows gets really tiring. The rooms typically have strong bass reinforcement, and the exhibitors don't do a damn thing to naturalize the response. Not a one of my favorite rooms at HE2002 had a sub. The best (which surprisingly was actually chosen as best) I heard was the Joseph Audio room- which had bass, but was played at reasonable levels. Blue Circle was excellent- using bookshelves, again, at reasonable levels. Kimber Kable- likewise excellent, also bookshelves at reasonable levels. Triangle and Meadowlark both showed mid-size floorstanders played at reasonable levels- also good rooms. I avoided the HT demos.

The Pipedreams sounded terrible, as did the big Dynadio- Evidences, IIRC. Not overplayed when I went in, just the systems weren't communicative.

If and when I can afford a room, it'll have tubes and bookshelves. Just seems to be better that way at a show, as they're not so problematic in the bass, and peoples ears actually can listen to music and relax vs. the big overplayed systems.