I wonder how many show sound opinions come from those who sat off axis ? I can't imagine everyone getting a chance at the sweet spot in popular rooms.
a few 2014 Newport Show pics
- Thread starter Mike Lavigne
- Start date
Only if you hung in that room for awhile. And if you finally get the sweet spot seat and a well-known reviewer walks into the room, you will be asked to move.
I was very happy to hear VAC show well this year. I believe it was last year or the year prior to that, when VAC had shown with Scaena, which had me perplexed.
Some preliminary comments, and they just go to show how people can here things differently, or perhaps hear the same things but place different value judgements and priorities on what they hear.
All three days I thought the Magico Q7 room sucked, regardless of source. Myles will probably be happy to hear that I thought the S3's upstairs were much more musically engaging.
I don't understand how a "tuner" like Joseph Walker could have a room with components of that quality sound so bad all three days; bad rooms or not, many sounded much better than the Raidho/Walker room.
I was singularly underhwelmed by the Evolution Acoustics room, and also by all 4 rooms where there were Wilson speakers (2 Sahshas, 2 Alexias). I'm not really blaming the speakers because Steve's Wilsons sounded fantastic.
The Perfect 8's / Balabo / Bergmann system was pretty good Sunday afternoon when they finally got the ribbon mostly broken in (it was replaced the day before the show) and fixed the phase on the subs.
The Nimbus Joule White's sounded like an excellent $13k speaker driven by the high power amps.
Both the rooms with YG speakers sounded pretty good; both the rooms with Vandersteens (Treo and 7) were disappointing. The 7's in particular I've heard sound better, i still haven't heard anything very likable about the Treo.
A very nice $7k speaker is the Prana Fidelity, made in Denver.
I'm obviously biased but I thought the Acoustic Zen Crescendos sounded very good as usual!
FWIW, some of the worst sounding rooms I visited were using LP, some of the best open reel (but that didn't help the Magico Q7). In general, in rooms with servers and high-end DACs, the difference between hires (either 24/88.2 or better PCM, or DSD) and Red Book CD were often quite pronounced. As others have said, most rooms, regardless of source, didn't sound very good. Supposedly T.H.E. Show is moving to a new venue next year.
All three days I thought the Magico Q7 room sucked, regardless of source. Myles will probably be happy to hear that I thought the S3's upstairs were much more musically engaging.
I don't understand how a "tuner" like Joseph Walker could have a room with components of that quality sound so bad all three days; bad rooms or not, many sounded much better than the Raidho/Walker room.
I was singularly underhwelmed by the Evolution Acoustics room, and also by all 4 rooms where there were Wilson speakers (2 Sahshas, 2 Alexias). I'm not really blaming the speakers because Steve's Wilsons sounded fantastic.
The Perfect 8's / Balabo / Bergmann system was pretty good Sunday afternoon when they finally got the ribbon mostly broken in (it was replaced the day before the show) and fixed the phase on the subs.
The Nimbus Joule White's sounded like an excellent $13k speaker driven by the high power amps.
Both the rooms with YG speakers sounded pretty good; both the rooms with Vandersteens (Treo and 7) were disappointing. The 7's in particular I've heard sound better, i still haven't heard anything very likable about the Treo.
A very nice $7k speaker is the Prana Fidelity, made in Denver.
I'm obviously biased but I thought the Acoustic Zen Crescendos sounded very good as usual!
FWIW, some of the worst sounding rooms I visited were using LP, some of the best open reel (but that didn't help the Magico Q7). In general, in rooms with servers and high-end DACs, the difference between hires (either 24/88.2 or better PCM, or DSD) and Red Book CD were often quite pronounced. As others have said, most rooms, regardless of source, didn't sound very good. Supposedly T.H.E. Show is moving to a new venue next year.
Bruce B
WBF Founding Member, Pro Audio Production Member
As far as the Wilson Alexia rooms go, the room that had all the white Vicostic diffusers sounded great to me. The other room, not so much.
I'm telling you, my new dream speakers are the mbl X-treme's
I too thought the Magico Q7's sucked and the S3 was much better.
Tonally, the Raidho sounded good but I thought were too far apart.
I liked the big Focal's and the Vivid room too.
I'm telling you, my new dream speakers are the mbl X-treme's
I too thought the Magico Q7's sucked and the S3 was much better.
Tonally, the Raidho sounded good but I thought were too far apart.
I liked the big Focal's and the Vivid room too.
LOL! Heard the S3s over the weekend driven by the Audio Note Kagura SE amplifiers. What a nice combo! Delicate, sweet and great low level resolution.
Experiencing the large Focal/Boulder combo at lower SPL level was serendipitous. The staff only attenuated the volume on this system so the smaller Focal/McIntosh system, next door, could be demoed. Naturally, :b I went next door and heard terrific sound
I never returned to hear the Focal/Boulder rig.
The Wilson Alexias that Bruce mentions were clearly the best of the Wilsons. I thought they sounded only mediocre on Fri and Sun but pretty good on Sat; after listening to them Sun I thought that Sat might have been a happy accident.
I was with Bruce in the MBL room Fri, when they were good, even better on Sun
Fully concur
When I listened with a friend this morning, for approximately 90', a few items ruminated in my mind...in no particular order:
1. The dealer was uncertain how to neutralize the 'AC clocking/reclocking' aspect of the system configuration, therefore, I cannot attest whether this effect was engaged during the audition.
2. It was extremely difficult to dial-in volume...exercising the remote did not yield fine control. In this system, attenuating the gain -- perhaps, internally via the preamp -- would have been wonderful.
3. The audition consisted of vinyl and tape sources.
My observations were favorable. The drivers were quite coherent...I was able to detect slight tweeter localization. The drivers integrated very well, which suggests to me, -- in part -- the crossover is well-implemented.
There was a memorable record that was first up...a Decca recording of Beethoven's Ninth which sustained a palpable sound field. It is seldom, indeed, that I can suspend my disbelief -- especially, in show conditions -- but it resulted with this recording, rig, and room
I listened to them on Saturday and noted they were 'boomy' at times...sounds like better sound on Sunday
Supposedly T.H.E. Show is moving to a new venue next year.[/QUOTE]
That's the buzz.
Another room I liked was the Usher / Pass Labs room, with a 2 piece 3-way speaker system that sounded very good for about $13k; of course the amplification cost 3-4x as much as the speakers (5-6x or more if you included the Xs preamp)...
For the Alexias (with Constellation) I sat in the sweet spot all three days; the difference might have been that on Saturday the room was packed (probably 20-30 people) while on both Fri and Sun I was almost alone. They may have intentionally (or not) "tuned" the room for more people in it.
For the Alexias (with Constellation) I sat in the sweet spot all three days; the difference might have been that on Saturday the room was packed (probably 20-30 people) while on both Fri and Sun I was almost alone. They may have intentionally (or not) "tuned" the room for more people in it.
room 1022, High Water Sound, Cessaro Horns, Tron electronics, TW-Acustic.
I always like most aspects of Jeff's room, and his music. those speakers thou seem to be typically not quite smooth enough on top for me. and in this case, each time I happened on this room he was playing too loud to stay long. at RMAF sometimes his rooms are among my favs.
I always like most aspects of Jeff's room, and his music. those speakers thou seem to be typically not quite smooth enough on top for me. and in this case, each time I happened on this room he was playing too loud to stay long. at RMAF sometimes his rooms are among my favs.
DaveyF said: "I asked the rep if he could play the Kronos TT, to which he replied that he didn't have the knowledge to do so and so we kept on listening to the dreck. Why they even had the TT in the system is beyond me?? "
How much knowledge does it take to play a tt? Unbelievable!
How much knowledge does it take to play a tt? Unbelievable!
Atrium room 204, Sonus Faber, Ayre Electronics
I've heard these speakers sound much better than this on other amplification. but not bad sound.
I've heard these speakers sound much better than this on other amplification. but not bad sound.
Atrum 202, Wilson, Aesthetix Electronics, AMG tt, Graham Elite tonearm.
pretty good. I could not really tell what the Elite arm was doing....to be fair.
pretty good. I could not really tell what the Elite arm was doing....to be fair.
I've never heard the Ellipsa SE's sound good (on 3 occasions), but in a different room I liked what I heard from Amati Futuras (for the second time), on this occasion driven by relatively inexpensive PrimaLuna electronics, which BTW sounded so much better in triode mode that it's hard to imagine anyone ever using the ultralinear mode (it's not enough extra power to make much sense to me). They (the Dialogues) were using KT150 tubes.
An interesting occurence in the E.A.R. room, with Marten Coltranes and (obviously) deParavincini electronics. First up was Miles Davis LP "E.S.P", not a fantastic recording but usually sounding better than this, I thought. Then we changed to Dan's server for his own 24-96 rip (HDTT has one too, available commercially) of a prerecorded 7.5 ips tape of the album "Spain" conducted by Adolfo Argenta, and boy did the sound open up and become smoother, more detailed and much more listenable. I know they are two totally different recordings, but with one the system sounded fantastic, the other not so desirable. I didn't get a chance to investigate further because Tim de was in a bit of a manic mood, and Dan shooed us out into the hall so others could listen to the system instead of us chatting. Still, that 45 minutes spent talking with Tim is a huge part of why I go to audio shows, because as a non-insider it's about the only chance I'll ever have to pick the brain of someone like that.
Atrium room 323, EAR USA, Marten speakers.
always one of my favorite rooms to hang, and listened for awhile here. just good sound....the Marten speakers were not fully working for me. miss the Durand arm from last year.
always one of my favorite rooms to hang, and listened for awhile here. just good sound....the Marten speakers were not fully working for me. miss the Durand arm from last year.
got home last night and had a choice between listening to all the new vinyl I bought and loading more pics. hummmmm??
the vinyl won in a knock-out, and I listened to it until late. the big rig was really strutting it's stuff welcoming me home.
so this morning I did what I could. tonight when I get home i'll try to load more.
the vinyl won in a knock-out, and I listened to it until late. the big rig was really strutting it's stuff welcoming me home.
so this morning I did what I could. tonight when I get home i'll try to load more.
Davey F, many thanks for the great comments, it seems some missed our room as we were off the lobby where it was less noise polluted, which has pro's and cons.. Out of interest, which day did you visit? This was the first showing for Z:Axis at Newport Beach, so it was good to hear some highly positive feedback
Rgds,
Paul
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