Axpona 2015: Vivid-CAT, AudioKinesis-Atma, Alexia-D'Ag, MBL, Raidho makng music? You?
- Thread starter caesar
- Start date
These Raidho D3 speakers were very good, despite a powerful subwoofer playing loud in a neighboring room. Obviously one needs to listen longer to these and not under show conditions, but you can tell right away these aren't drek and the guys know what they are doing.
Nobody mentioned the Tidal room as good sounding. So only sexy looks but no impressive sound at this show?
Everytime I walked in, there were guys yapping and marketing their stuff. Unfortunately, being time-limited, I did not bother sitting through the presentations and didn't get to hear it for as long as I would have liked. Also, they did not have a transport. So I would not have been able to evaluate it to the degree I would have liked. A real shame...
For guys who love that fast and clean and precise sound, these Polymer Audio speakers are hard to beat. With some coverage from the audio magazines, I believe these can challenge Magico and YG. The accompanying electronics are Thrax and are gorgeous, for those who dig modern design. (Sorry, the room was dark. Maybe these guys can get spot lights next year and for other shows. But these definitely sound much better than my picture makes them look.)
Last edited:
MBL 111f with UHA tape deck. Some people dig the spatial presentation of MBL, others don't. But this room was always full. The majority, even if they didn't drink or smoke something, felt transported. Apparently, the team plays the tape machine very late into the night, so folks coming back to the hotel at dinner can enjoy the system.
Finally,
It was a very good show despite the underwhelming performance of some big systems. Some random thoughts and cool things to improve upon are:
- more parking on Friday
- clear signage of brand displayed and cost, so people are interrupted less from listening by chatter
- QR codes around gear, again, so people can talk less inside the rooms
- more transports, in addition to servers, to get the fans engaged
- more staffing in each room to get those people who want to yap out and let the folks in the room listen
One of the best improvements from prior years was bringing in artists for some excellent live music. Here's John Primer, who happened to be the former guitarist for the legendary Muddy Waters and the great Magic Slim, was no slouch himself. It was the best sound of the show.
It was a very good show despite the underwhelming performance of some big systems. Some random thoughts and cool things to improve upon are:
- more parking on Friday
- clear signage of brand displayed and cost, so people are interrupted less from listening by chatter
- QR codes around gear, again, so people can talk less inside the rooms
- more transports, in addition to servers, to get the fans engaged
- more staffing in each room to get those people who want to yap out and let the folks in the room listen
One of the best improvements from prior years was bringing in artists for some excellent live music. Here's John Primer, who happened to be the former guitarist for the legendary Muddy Waters and the great Magic Slim, was no slouch himself. It was the best sound of the show.
Sneaking in with my comments.
Yes, Philip's room was good, but my best was the new ARC amp on the Sonus Faber Lillium. Coincidentally, the demo included the exact same alternate cut of Peggy Lee doing 'Fever', but without all the over-processing of the released version (reverb, etc) that I was using for demo in all of the rooms I went to. That particular cut just sounds so right for the music and allows the listener to hear so much deeper into the mix. The midrange was organic and the whole presentation dynamically right. I was wow'd.
Agreed on the MBL rooms. We commented that their downstairs room sounded better in the hallway... with the door closed. Some serious db. That honor, though, went to the G1's in Philip's room. Jeez those guys can't keep their hands off the volume pot! Was easily over 100 on both of my visits to their room. But, the G1's didn't fall apart, the soundstage didn't collapse, it just got louder and surprisingly didn't overload the room somehow.
Another room that I thought was really great was the Emerald Physics 2.3. All of their speakers will now carry the "EP" prefix to the numbering scheme. I could easily see the latest 2.7 in my room as they have the new tweeter and another significant upgrade I believe has to do with the crossover. Awesome bottom octaves and smooth throughout, but nice detail and staging. Need room to breath, though, that obviously wasn't possible in that hotel room.
John
Philip O Hanlon
Industry Expert
John,
We were only using the Giya G3, there are two larger models in the Giya series. The G1 would really not work in a such a small room, but would completely overload the room. Surprisingly enough, the G3 will drive a room as large as ours - 40 x 31 x 23'. Though it does not reproduce the last 1/2 octave like the G1 can. The G1 is also considerably easier to drive, as the speakers get smaller, they are harder to drive.
All of the Vivids pretty much share the same drivers, which are all a ultra low distortion design. All of the drivers are made from an aluminium / magnesium alloy, (not forgetting the 4'th order crossovers) which helps in their seamless reproduction. Consequently you can play them a lot louder than competing designs, without running into distortion, which induces fatigue pretty quickly..
Philip
Hi Philip,
Yes, thanks for the correction; I am forever confusing the Vivid model numbers in the G series. I appreciate loud, but wow you guys were cooking! If you recall, I asked if you can load your large room with the G1s the same way and you responded a resounding "YES"! Impressive. I am still amazed by what the G3s can do, but, new, they are above my price point for now.
Yes, the lack of fatigue is what I noticed after spending several minutes in the room with the volume up. Again, impressive. I guess these reasons, and more, are why we don't see used ones on the market.
Thanks again for the reply and the fun time,
John
Yes, thanks for the correction; I am forever confusing the Vivid model numbers in the G series. I appreciate loud, but wow you guys were cooking! If you recall, I asked if you can load your large room with the G1s the same way and you responded a resounding "YES"! Impressive. I am still amazed by what the G3s can do, but, new, they are above my price point for now.
Yes, the lack of fatigue is what I noticed after spending several minutes in the room with the volume up. Again, impressive. I guess these reasons, and more, are why we don't see used ones on the market.
Thanks again for the reply and the fun time,
John
Thank you very much. It is an honor to be on the same list as those other four. Brian Walsh (of Essential Audio) really knows what he's doing as far as system assembly and setup.
Beginning to think I have tin ears; I thought the Volti room, not mentioned above, to be one of the best. .
Those sub support frames have been out about a year, they followed shortly after the new sub was introduced at CES 2014. CES 2015 was the introduction of the Manhattan speaker, and yeah, it's smaller w/9 mid drivers vs. the 12/15/18 options of its bigger brothers. The shorter tower allows for placement of the woofer underneath where the other configs have the woofer and tower separate. The goal, as 'Manhattan' suggests is a smaller footprint speaker for smaller spaces (read: apartment possibly), and also more affordable entre into Scaena sound and tech.
That's my REF 75. One of the owners of Scaena and I both agree the 75 w/KT150s is a tremendous pairing, easily better than my old 210 monos, and the newer 150. I drive the 12 pod towers w/mine, plenty of power. The show setup was supposed to be bi-amped, a 75 on each side, but the owner's 75 was damaged in shipping so mine did double duty. We know from CES that a pair of 75s drive the Manhattans extremely well. In all setups, the woofers have their own amp so the 75 (or whatever) just drives the mids and tweets.
FWIW, I think the new subs are awesome -- not only great punch and speed, but unrivaled texture to my ears. They are smaller than the old ones as noted earlier -- 12" drivers vs. the 18" ones on the originals. The enclosure is actually a modified drum. Will have them in my room next week.
Was supposed to help run the room, but some late-breaking work commitments bollixed it up. Was bummed.
Last edited:
Similar threads
