Went yesterday with fellow member Ron Party and found the show to be overall better than last year's show (its first) but still lacking in the number of overall rooms.
I took many photos and hope to post them later today as time permits but IMHO the best room at the show were
1. Music Lovers from Berkeley/San Francisco demoing in probably the largest room at the hotel.
Maxx lll's with full Spectral front end. The room was set up by Dr Keith Johnson with the speakers at least 25 feet apart. The sound was beyond incredible and as big as the room was, there was absolutely nothing lacking. I had heard Music Lovers room in Berkeley several weeks ago where the same gear was played through Sashas and it also was spectacular. Yesterday's however was IMO the biggest, and best listening at the show
2. Magico Q5 driven by Constellation Hercules monoblocks. I sat next to Alon Wolfe as he demoed the speaker and IMO it is deserving of all of the hype which preceded this speaker. Simply fantastic. As an aside the next room we were in was demoing the Q3 with the new ARC Ref250 and although very good, it got lost in the big room in which it was played and as a result it just didn't provide the same emotional impact for me as the Q5
3. MBL What can one say, every MBL speaker they played was simply mesmerizing with such a holographic soundstage. Of course all MBL amps and front end were used
4. My good friend Jonathan Tinn was in a very small room and appropriately chose to demo his Evolution MicroMini One with Dart amp and his new Playback DesignsMP-S3 which allowed him to play Hi Rez files to 384 Khz. I was simply stunned as to how good these little book shelf monitors sounded. And here's the amazing part of the story. These tiny speakers had an MSRP of $2,000. I asked Jonathan if it were a typo on the page and he really meant $20K (inasmuch as I also heard Alon's new Q1 which although very good was not IMHO as good as the Evolution MicroMini One and had an MSRP of $22,000 (it might have been $24K). Unfortunately no demo of his new Wave Kinetics NVS TT
5. Honorable mention and a real sleeper at the show was Jim Salk's Soundscape speakers which were not only beautiful to behold but also had probably the best bass I heard at the show. These speakers had an MSRP IIRC of $13,000
6. For those who want to get into R2R but haven't been able to find a machine yet, my good friend Phillip O'Hanlon from On A Higher Note was demoing the new Sonorus ATR10 Analog Tape Reproducer, a $10K player ONLY which is built on a Studer/Revox platform and (get this) has a wireless remote control as well as a tube output stage. It sounded fantastic and with 21st Century electronics there is no need to use an outboard head amp
I forgot to also post #7 and that was Dan D'Agostino's room (where Dan was there in person) where he showcased his new amp played through a pair of Wilson Sasha's. The rom was tiny but the sound was terrific. I know the review on Dan's prototype of the amp was met with some scrutiny but honestly the sound was also in the top 5-6 I heard yesterday. Dan was a true gentleman. I sat an talked with him for a while as I reminisced with him about all of the Krell gear I owned over the years
I took many photos and hope to post them later today as time permits but IMHO the best room at the show were
1. Music Lovers from Berkeley/San Francisco demoing in probably the largest room at the hotel.
Maxx lll's with full Spectral front end. The room was set up by Dr Keith Johnson with the speakers at least 25 feet apart. The sound was beyond incredible and as big as the room was, there was absolutely nothing lacking. I had heard Music Lovers room in Berkeley several weeks ago where the same gear was played through Sashas and it also was spectacular. Yesterday's however was IMO the biggest, and best listening at the show
2. Magico Q5 driven by Constellation Hercules monoblocks. I sat next to Alon Wolfe as he demoed the speaker and IMO it is deserving of all of the hype which preceded this speaker. Simply fantastic. As an aside the next room we were in was demoing the Q3 with the new ARC Ref250 and although very good, it got lost in the big room in which it was played and as a result it just didn't provide the same emotional impact for me as the Q5
3. MBL What can one say, every MBL speaker they played was simply mesmerizing with such a holographic soundstage. Of course all MBL amps and front end were used
4. My good friend Jonathan Tinn was in a very small room and appropriately chose to demo his Evolution MicroMini One with Dart amp and his new Playback DesignsMP-S3 which allowed him to play Hi Rez files to 384 Khz. I was simply stunned as to how good these little book shelf monitors sounded. And here's the amazing part of the story. These tiny speakers had an MSRP of $2,000. I asked Jonathan if it were a typo on the page and he really meant $20K (inasmuch as I also heard Alon's new Q1 which although very good was not IMHO as good as the Evolution MicroMini One and had an MSRP of $22,000 (it might have been $24K). Unfortunately no demo of his new Wave Kinetics NVS TT
5. Honorable mention and a real sleeper at the show was Jim Salk's Soundscape speakers which were not only beautiful to behold but also had probably the best bass I heard at the show. These speakers had an MSRP IIRC of $13,000
6. For those who want to get into R2R but haven't been able to find a machine yet, my good friend Phillip O'Hanlon from On A Higher Note was demoing the new Sonorus ATR10 Analog Tape Reproducer, a $10K player ONLY which is built on a Studer/Revox platform and (get this) has a wireless remote control as well as a tube output stage. It sounded fantastic and with 21st Century electronics there is no need to use an outboard head amp
I forgot to also post #7 and that was Dan D'Agostino's room (where Dan was there in person) where he showcased his new amp played through a pair of Wilson Sasha's. The rom was tiny but the sound was terrific. I know the review on Dan's prototype of the amp was met with some scrutiny but honestly the sound was also in the top 5-6 I heard yesterday. Dan was a true gentleman. I sat an talked with him for a while as I reminisced with him about all of the Krell gear I owned over the years
