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In Reply to: RE: AK fest.. posted by Michael Samra on May 05, 2008 at 12:38:14
"I know you have impeccable taste and I trust your judgement implicitly but my taste did not resonate at all with VanAlstine solid state electronics..It looked like my old Hafler Dh500 and there was nobody that I saw in that room all day but one guy that was helping him here and there."
Well, I not so sure my tastes are impeccable but I do know what I like and don't like. I think there can be some room for disagreement as to what sounds good or not but I would hope agreement is more often the situation.
"Of course AK is basically a tube occasion and I don't think most were there to hear SS gear but the quads were an exception.They wanted just to hear the speakers and they probably didn't care about the electronics."
You surely must know that AK covers all aspects of audio and lots of other pursuits too, not unlike AA. For some reason tube equipment seems to get all the attention at recent AK fests but SS was certainly present. I think it's a combination of the style/fashion thing combined with the relatively forgiving nature of tubes that makes them attractive to DIYers. Make a mistake with a transistor and you're replacing plenty of parts. Make a mistake with a tube and you might not even know it.
"It was the dealer that told me this about having to comply and Doug Duecher was right there backing him up..Call the dealer and ask him and you tell me what he said.Maybe he just figured I was a tube guru and he didn't want to scare off a perspective sale,who knows."
It's not appropriate for me to get into too many details here but I assure you that the ASLs weren't being used due to the sound. Specifically, excessively tubby bass. The ASL's tubby bass on the QUADS is apparently a characteristic of the combination of the two components. This was more-or-less verified today where the exact same ASLs of the fest were placed into the system of an acquaintance whose speakers are also QUADS. Same result: tubby bass. Issue resolved when the primary amp (a very recent tube MAC) was placed back into the system. Just another example of synergy. I'm sure the ASLs sound great on other speakers as do the QUADS on the right tube amps. I wonder why they didn't use the QUAD line of tube amps? I'll have to ask the next time I get a chance.
Also, I don't believe they were pandering to a "tube guru" just for the sake of a potential sale. I'd guess that you simply heard the message that matched your expectations. I know it happens to me all the time at places like this.
And now for something really weird...Did you realize we were in the Pure Audio room at the very same time? It was my second visit to the room so I just sat back and listened to the music (Adventures of Don Juan/Charles Gerhardt/National Philharmonic Orchestra from the RCA "Captain Blood" album). You were having a rather deep conversation with someone else in the room so I didn't interupt.
At the risk of going off topic, over the weekend I acquired a pair of interesting tube amps you might have some knowledge of: Acoustat direct drive servo amps. I haven't really gotten into these things yet (no pics either) but they appear to be designed specifically for a certain model of Acoustat ESL. Got any recommendations on what Acoustat ESL these will work well with? Seeing as how you're a big fan of electrostatic speakers I figure you can get me pointed in the right direction.
TIA
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