Today Jason Lord, owner of The Source AV, in Torrance, California, just South of Los Angeles, hosted Bob Levi and the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society Audiocon June 2018 event.
Two of the main attractions of the event were demonstrations and class instruction sessions by McIntosh, and tube repair tutorials by George Meyer AV. A large number of senior McIntosh representatives were present and very friendly and helpful to all attendees.
The biggest audio-only system at the event was a system fronted by gorgeous Sonus Faber Lilium loudspeakers.
An elaborate multi-box, all McIntosh system, including the McIntosh MT 10-TT turntable and cartridge, was arrayed along the front wall of the acoustically-treated largest audio room.
I was grateful to hear the Yuko Mabuchi Trio, an LP sponsored by the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society, which was beautifully recorded and sounded very transparent and dynamic. But something didn’t sound quite as warm and quite as natural as great vinyl typically sounds.
So I looked closer and I saw that the signal is going through the McIntosh MEN 220 Room Correction System, an elaborate digital sonic room correction device. I think the signal processing from the device may have been making the sound a bit dry and a bit digital.
In the room in which I spent the second most time a Boulder 1060 Stereo Amplifier was driving Raihdo C3.2 speakers. The Boulder 1021 Disc Player was the source, with assistance from the Boulder 1010 Preamplifier.
All digital and I played a low resolution mix-up CD I had in my car but I enjoyed listening to my driving songs on a great system! I was very pleasantly surprised that even with my CD of low-resolution files the system did not sound at all 1980s-bright. I think Raidho makes great loudspeakers!
The McIntosh representatives demonstrated Jason’s top-of-the-line McIntosh multi-channel home theater system, backed up with JL Audio Gotham subwoofers. This is the largest of Jason’s three (3) home theater demo rooms.
The full-range loudspeakers were the McIntosh XRT2.1K.
The sound playing multi-channel demo tracks was stunningly dynamic and powerful.
In Jason’s second smallest audio room I found an analog system featuring a Dr. Feickert Woodpecker turntable and tonearm with an Ortofon Cadenza Black cartridge. Once I discovered this system and I put an LP (Stevie Ray Vaughn’s Couldn’t Stand the Weather) on the turntable I spent by far the most time listening to music in this room. The sound was fantastic: transparent, dynamic, emotionally-involving and natural!
Sonus Faber Stradivari Homage speakers were being driven by McIntosh MC2301 tube power amplifiers. A McIntosh C2600 tube preamplifier completed the system.
Though this is one of Jason’s smaller systems it is what I was looking for: all-tube + turntable and no digital room correction manipulation. I was very happy spending a large portion of the afternoon listening to Stevie Ray Vaughn on this all-tube, all analog system! The Homage is a wonderful loudspeaker!
This is at least the fourth time I have heard the Dr. Feickert in different systems and liked it. It is a modest design for a reasonable price and the thing sounds great every time. That turntable is a great value and a musical winner!
I had never heard the Stradivari Homage before. I liked it very much.
Interestingly I see that Michael Fremer gave this speaker a rave review in January of 2005.
The Source AV also has the largest high-end headphone and headphone amplifier demo room in the entire United States!
Jason’s facility is very large and impressive. If you have not seen it you should take a trip and visit The Source AV!
Jason has created one of the most impressive home theater demo rooms in the United States, and he has achieved fantastic sound from small, medium and large audio-only systems alike! Jason has been in the high-end audio business a very long time and he knows what he’s doing to achieve musical and emotionally-involving sound reproduction at all price levels.
Thanks to Jason Lord and Bob Levi for organizing, and thanks to Jason for hosting, a very fun audio event!