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This was my first hi-end show & quite a revelation. It's good to see 2-channel audio alive and well in a dedicated show. But I was disappointed by the sound in many rooms. I'm sure in some cases this was due to room effects. Few exhibitors bothered with treatments, and it's probably no coincidence that the few who did generally sounded good.Best in show: Scaena Iso-Linear Speakers with subs & Memory CDP. The speakers are incredibly airy, detailed, seamless & natural, with a silky treble and magnificent grip on visceral LF.
Honorable mention: Lamm/Wilson, Magico, Kubotek Haniwa, Merlin/ARS. The Magico V3 is open, detailed, fast & neutral, though a bit pale in LF. Merlins sounded much better than they had any right to, driven by a neat little $4K ARS integrated tube amp. Haniwa horns with DSP were refined but way too pricy. Mr. Lamm has a perfect ear & the Watt/Puppies complemented his electronics except for a slight loss of precision in the mid-bass. Other good rooms included Reimyo & Eggleston/Rogue.
Biggist let-downs: MBL (dimensional presentation but hard & aggressive midrange), Burmester (detailed & fast but hard & aggressive mid-treble), Krell (boomy all through the bass & midrange).
Bizarro award: Cabasse Sphere(huge uncontrolled bass from a gigantic sci-fi eyeball.)
Most NY moment: Andy Singer as audio tastemaster. His long, progressive demo through four connected rooms included some decent equipment (Peak, Brinkman, VTL, Zanden), hobbled by egotistical pronouncements to the large captive audience, and a bum's rush out of the high-end room after exhausting delays in the price-point rooms. It was good to have Yamada-san personally present a complement of Zanden equipment. Singer's uber-room of Zanden, VTL, Brinkman sounded quite fine. The Escalante speakers in this room had a glorious treble & midrange, but a somewhat old-fashioned reflex-sounding LF. However, very difficult to judge well in a packed room.
The show is about more than demoing audio gear. But given the decline in brick & motor emporiums, this is about as good as it gets
Follow Ups:
Bob and I just got in from the show, a very intense weekend. I head home to VA tomorrow.Thanks to all who attended y'all were a great group and really challenged us with hard questions. Wow!
If anyone got a shot of the peak meters at the peaks, I would greatly appreceate a copy. Also any other shots. We did not get time to take many.Thanks!
It must be your first show if you found the sound disappointing, hotel rooms are notoriously bad for stereo, let alone multi channel. Bad sound tends to be the norm at these events. You are absolutely right that the rooms which employed treatment sounded much better on average. The use of such products was much more widespread this year than in years past. Exhibitors are learning, at least those that are left. This year saw a sharp decline in company representation. In past years big companies like Sony and Monster cable, video, photography and gaming companies exhibited alongside esoteric two channel high end audio. This year only the latter group showed up. For a show dubbed Home Entertainment there was precious little outside of two channel audio. The average age of attendees looked to be in the 50's and there where virtually no one under the age of 30 in the place. I love two channel analog but as an industry the high end needs to reach out a bit more. I posted some pictures on my Flickr page, I am still working on the descriptions:
Nice pictures! Just bought the Audio Research PH-7, it sounds great.
and an amp that sounded excellent for 40,000 dollars. what an exciting event.
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