In Reply to: T.H.E. Show, New York 2012 posted by MaggieLover on April 14, 2012 at 22:47:20:
It was a lot smaller than I expected. I love the hotel and am ok if I need to spend $22 on a hamburger once. RMAF is the queen of all shows right now with 10x more rooms and manufacturers.
Overall I felt the "ask the editors" was better then ever before. Not just Stereophile guys and it added some breadth. Good questons and you did get a feel for some of their opinions.
Friday was so bad we almost did not head into the city Saturday. But we did and it was worth it. A lot of the rooms were more dialed in. It was surpising the bass problems in those large rooms. I think (a random theory) that with concrete walls and the padded covering the mids and highs were recessed. But whatever, it is a hotel room and I was happy to be in big rooms.
Best in show was the Gratient. We hardy gave it a second thought on Friday but on Sat the guy was really engaging and playing interesting music. The image was really good and there were a ton of dynamics. All from a tiny speaker. Cool! The Harbeth version was a step down and that helsinki thing was all over the place.
The MBL room was the same as always: Audio porn. We only visited once due to the line. My experience was just ok and but Bob said it was fairly good for him. We were at each side. The guy in the hot seat said it was amazing. So once again, everyone comes out with a different view of MBL. On of the consistent problems with MBL is how important ear hight is to get the right sound and in hotels the ears are almost always too high.
TAD - never went in due to loud and bad music.
Innovative/Wilson - never went - too loud
Legacy - I think they were just ok this time. The bass was boomy and sloppy (reminds me of an old girlfriend).
Lighton - speakers were beautiful but the sound was off in the room for me. I think it has potential and will look again.
Quad - I was really excited to hear these and visited twice. I got nothing out of them. No image, goofy sound and no depth (reminds me of an old girlfriend). I will just assume Art Dudley is deaf (trolling for Art :)
LessLoss was interesting. I never got back for a second listen so I did not get a good listen. I think it interesting but they have one too many drivers on the back. Need another look.
Sony - I just did not get a good listen. We visited once on Fri and it was ok. I was amazed with this speaker at RMAF in the Kimber room so I know what they can do.
YG - show 8 and still no magic at all. I keep thinking this is a lot like the Levinson rooms at other shows. They measure really well (so I hear) and they have all the press but I cannot connect. The true difference between measurements and listening.
Zellaton was ok - never got a good listen but was not impressed at this show.
Sceana room was good. Some people seemed to be wowed by this room but maybe I never got into the right spot. The high end was great as were those nice super subs.
Never made it to the Singer room as I cannot stand the commitment to 15 minutes of sales pitch. On the one hand this is the correct way to sell here, get people into a controlled situation etc. But I don't like it.
I cannot recall the name of those horns or the equip in the room. Visited twice and both times we just could not "get it". The first time I was sure the guy was playing really poor recordings. The second visit was just as poor and I am not sure what was going wrong. Maybe he knew the setup was not working or not but that was a disappointment for me.
That is all I got.
P
As I slowly slip into the dark cesspool of audiophalia neurosis. . . .
My speaker building site
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Follow Ups
- RE: T.H.E. Show, New York 2012 - Pjay 07:05:10 04/16/12 (40)
- Speak up, Pjay! - Art Dudley 16:23:48 04/16/12 (1)
- RE: Speak up, Pjay! - Peter Breuninger 14:57:15 04/17/12 (0)
- RE: T.H.E. Show, New York 2012 - MaggieLover 08:13:32 04/16/12 (37)
- RE: T.H.E. Show, New York 2012 - Ozzie 15:44:49 04/17/12 (4)
- RE: T.H.E. Show, New York 2012 - MaggieLover 16:27:02 04/17/12 (3)
- RE: T.H.E. Show, New York 2012 - Ozzie 17:29:17 04/17/12 (2)
- RE: T.H.E. Show, New York 2012 - MaggieLover 17:34:01 04/17/12 (1)
- RE: T.H.E. Show, New York 2012 - paulmah@hotmail.com 22:28:36 04/25/12 (0)
- RE: T.H.E. Show, New York 2012 - Kal Rubinson 08:38:46 04/16/12 (31)
- RE: T.H.E. Show, New York 2012 - MaggieLover 21:11:53 04/16/12 (2)
- RE: T.H.E. Show, New York 2012 - Bill the K 08:08:28 04/17/12 (0)
- Agreed. - Kal Rubinson 06:59:51 04/17/12 (0)
- RE: T.H.E. Show, New York 2012 - MaggieLover 11:49:29 04/16/12 (25)
- Agree to disagree. - Kal Rubinson 15:24:04 04/16/12 (24)
- RE: Agree to disagree. - RGA 20:00:11 04/16/12 (19)
- RE: Agree to disagree. - rick_m 07:13:57 04/17/12 (14)
- RE: Agree to disagree. - Alan Sircom 16:30:13 04/17/12 (13)
- RE: Agree to disagree. - rick_m 10:41:52 04/28/12 (0)
- RE: Agree to disagree. - RGA 18:07:31 04/17/12 (11)
- RE: Agree to disagree. - josh358 19:54:32 04/27/12 (10)
- RE: Agree to disagree. - RGA 21:28:59 04/27/12 (9)
- RE: Agree to disagree. - josh358 06:57:06 04/28/12 (7)
- RE: Agree to disagree. - Tony Lauck 21:00:17 04/28/12 (4)
- RE: Agree to disagree. - josh358 06:27:33 04/29/12 (3)
- RE: Agree to disagree. - Tony Lauck 09:12:03 04/29/12 (2)
- RE: Agree to disagree. - josh358 09:47:36 04/29/12 (1)
- Thanks. nt - Tony Lauck 10:31:33 04/29/12 (0)
- RE: Agree to disagree. - RGA 11:58:32 04/28/12 (1)
- RE: Agree to disagree. - josh358 12:30:12 04/28/12 (0)
- RE: Agree to disagree. - Tony Lauck 06:27:41 04/28/12 (0)
- Solution? - Kal Rubinson 07:07:44 04/17/12 (2)
- RE: Solution? - RGA 18:02:52 04/17/12 (1)
- And..................................... - Kal Rubinson 19:10:18 04/17/12 (0)
- RE: Agree to disagree. - MaggieLover 20:45:51 04/16/12 (0)
- RE: Agree to disagree. - MaggieLover 15:41:21 04/16/12 (3)
- RE: Agree to disagree. - Ozzie 16:06:39 04/17/12 (1)
- RE: Agree to disagree. - MaggieLover 16:38:50 04/17/12 (0)
- Fascinating differences of experience! Just goes to show... - Enophile 17:25:45 04/16/12 (0)
- yes and - Pjay 09:54:01 04/16/12 (1)
- RE: yes and - paulmah@hotmail.com 22:42:27 04/25/12 (0)