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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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In Reply to: RMAF05 impressions posted by bigtube on October 3, 2005 at 12:22:03:
I was astonished.This was my first show and was left with lingering questions...am I deaf? Is this practice of listening to audio truely THAT subjective? IMHO there were a couple of great rooms, a few good ones, many awful ones(dry, or edgy, or lifeless, or, or, or...), and a handful of truely abominable rooms.
What astonished me was where I was personally ranking much of this highly touted gear that I was finally hearing for the first time. To lead with some perspective, I thought the Avantgarde Duos with the little Thor amp, Thor pre and dac, and Oracle player was awesome. Even though it was a CD front end it was heads above the competition, the digital edge was not offensive and if I was a parameterizing type of listener I would say they were all lights out impressive. The music was alive and I kept coming back to enjoy it. 30W Thor PP-EL34 on a 103db speaker? No problem! Dead, dead quiet. These amps have always impressed me when I've heard them.
This was in great contrast to many rooms with big speakers, big SS amps, and very big turntables that sounded DEAD. I went back to one particular room three times because first, I couldn't believe what I was hearing, and second, I had to make sure it wasn't the music selection. How can a big three way, 2 woofer floorstander powered by an SS behemoth spinning a great Billie Holiday cut be so devoid of life...it was a joke! It did not fare any better with music that had a baseline.
A few rooms I found literally offensive. Not only was the sound horrid but combined with the asking price of this gear it made me sick to my stomach. I'm talking about statement speakers and amps here. The two I have in mind were both SS systems with digital front ends...one just made awful noise, the other went a step further and hurled awful noise at you mercilessly. The components of the latter system are SO highly regarded and SO expensive, that the experience forces me to conclude that I am surely walking to a different beat. What I heard being barfed at me was not music. Bad analogy...one would have to barf razor blades to get a better picture.
For a system with a big, tough to drive speaker mated with SS electronics and digital I felt the smaller Avalon room(BAT electronics) was decent. There was good weight and I found the sound least offensive in this class.
I thought the ESP room produced some excellent music. They were driven by some very high priced kt88(6550's?) amps but was truely the listening oasis amongst the small roomed systems. Also very nice I thought, was the VPI/shelter, Cayin, Harbeth rooms. Yes, they were having a little trouble with the bass hump in the small rooms but the smooth, warm, detailed, lively music was a standout.
I almost forgot....the Tannoy room was great! They had these big single driver boxes that looked like they belonged in your grampa's house. They were using a TT that I'd never seen before, I heard later it may have been a transrotor? but I haven't been able to verify. Whatever it was the combination with the tannoys was simply excellent.
Kharma room...hmmm, am I allowed to diss a fellow Kharma? Sure, why not...I am an owner of the old relic 1.0Ce, which everyone knows is pathetically inferior to the take all comers 3.2598365 crm enigma silver streak, super-speaker. Well, mated with their SS amps(which given their diminutive size must be made of the densest material known to mankind) that speaker sounded dry and lifeless. Oh, it did it's clarity thing, but the sound was too ethereal for me. To think I even considered trading "down".
I'm interested in hearing what others who were there think about the VRS. I've heard the VRS hard drive player before, and at this show it was in 3 or 4 rooms(one was forgettable due to a strange looking, but beautifully built speaker that lacked tranparency) and my suggestion is that no CD spinning system can match it. The VRS lacks a considerable amount of CD glare to my ears and sounds quite smooth.
Lastly the ARS speakers seemed pretty good with 2x845 art jotas per channel. Unfortunately, with a digital front end and the tendency to be turned up WAY TOO LOUD, it was not easy to perceive their potential. This disease, causing one to turn up the volume beyond what the room and/or the speakers could take, infected more than a few demonstrators.
All in all a worthwhile, eye opening experience. I have lost all of the stereo rag induced anxiety over the latest and greatest hifi prooduct designed especially for the removal of copious amounts of green from my wallet. Aside from chasing down a decent quad of xf1 mullards I think I'll go back to listening to some music, thank you very much.
D
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Follow Ups
- Re: RMAF05 impressions - GenX 17:29:38 10/03/05 (2)
- Re: RMAF05 impressions - Mali 08:25:50 10/04/05 (1)
- Re: RMAF05 impressions - pugs 11:04:02 10/16/05 (0)
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