Lone Star Audio Fest 2024

[Norman Tracy]

Starting this thread to promote and later report on Lone Star Audio Fest 2024. Please let us know your plans for exhibiting, attending, or ask any and all questions.

Lone Star Audio Fest will be held at Embassy Suites Galleria Dallas TX USA. The fun will happen June 7, 8 & 9, 2024. For more details see the show's website:Lone Star Audio Fest

As a long time LSAF exhibitor and volunteer I can write volumes on the show’s characteristics. Sparing you that I found this comment posted on WBF from LSAF 2023 by Hans Looman from his Infigo Audio room that sums it up nicely.

Jun 4, 2023

Writing this from the Lonestar audio fest (last day here, today).
It is a cozy small size show but unique in the way you can really take the time and connect with people coming into the room to listen.
We've had lots of traffic into our room and many times over people came back for some more.
Been fun to meet the guys running room 209 (nothing for sale here, just music, fun and beers) and many of the other exhibitors.
Thank you so much Steve for organizing this!
Thank you @DSkip for lending out the Rossofiorentino Volterra 2 speakers and the time spent to perfect the setup, we have great sound!

Hans sums up the LSAF experience perfectly. I will add LSAF 2023 was my first in person experience with Infigo Audio and I was gob smacked. Hans’ sound is absolutely state of the art, industrial design and PCB layout works of art.

Steven Solazzo of Stereo Clarity has a YouTube video that also details what LSAF is all about. Steven along with LSAF founder Wayne Parham of Pi Speakers has been instrumental in the success of LSAF. I will echo Hans thanks to Steven and Wayne.

LSAF 2024 the place to be for audiophiles June 7-9, 2024.

 

[Norman Tracy]

With LSAF 2024 opening in just ten days and counting I will be posting about some of the gear to be available for audition.

Mike Lundy of Uilleam Audio (https://uilleamaudio.com/) describes the system he will demo as the GR Research NX-Studio Monitors paired with speaker stands, also designed by GR Research, that have dual 8" servo sub drivers built in. While the back of the stands is open, they perform like a slotted rear port instead of an open baffle and can therefore be placed much closer to the front wall than open baffle subs can. This preserves the ability of the studio monitors to be placed closer to the front wall while extending the bass of the studio monitors. Instead of starting to roll off around 70Hz like the monitors alone do, when combined with the sub stands, the roll off begins about 30Hz with a -3dB point around 27Hz. I say around and about because, while the servo drivers can play flat to 20Hz, the actual response at the listening position varies depending on the room and setup. Electronics are a full stack of PS Audio including BHK preamp, DirectStream DAC MK2, PerfectWave SACD transport, and M series amps plus the woofer stands' servo-amps in this bi-amped reference system. Photos show system tuning in Mike's listening room.

 

[Norman Tracy]

Another debut at LSAF 2024 Miller Audio's Dyna-120.



Miller Audio proudly introduces our new 60-watt per-channel KT-88 / 6550 Push-Pull Vacuum Tube Amplifier. Based on our original Dyna-70 Ultimate Upgrade audio system amplifier, it features the same great-sounding Audio & Power Supply Drive circuit card & 6SN7 preamp tubes as used in the Dyna-70. You are assured of a great sound experience with proven performance from our many satisfied Dyna-70 Ultimate Amplifier customers. Like the Dyna-70, the Dyna-120 is available in Manual Bias (standard) or Automatic Bias (optional) models. All appearance and upgrade options for the Dyna-70 are also available for the Dyna-120.

Miller Audio Dyna-120

 

[Norman Tracy]

Another really fun exhibitor slated to return for LSAF 2024 is Pete Millett who shares a room with his design client Artisan Fidelity and enclosure supplier Landfall Systems. One never knows what new goodies Pete and crew will show up with, for me it is like Christmas morning walking in their room to see and hear his latest HiFi designs. The emission and expert control of electrons in vacuums, high voltages, high efficiency speakers, and refined engineering and design aesthetic are constants in Millett's rooms. Here are a couple of examples of what we might be hearing.

 

[Norman Tracy]

Spearheading the LSAF 2024 demo system of PureArtFi, Miller Audio LLC, and Audio Crafters Guild will be the LS-6 monitor. A full range standmount combining the breakthrough Purifi loudspeaker drivers with master level cabinet work the LS-6 redefines its category. Yes a bold statement, drop by our room at LSAF in Dallas June 7-9 and hear for yourself. The PureArtFi LS-6 is a collaboration between master cabinet maker Paul Stover and audio designer Norman Tracy. The extreme cabinet resonance suppression measures Tracy's designs require dovetail perfectly with the solid hardwoods and precision fabrication Stover's decades serving the high end homebuilding industry in Colorado provide. The LS-6 pair slated for demo at LSAF feature solid walnut front baffles and stand plates along with shop sawn 1/8" thick spalted hackberry veneered enclosures. Hidden inside the square edge modern enclosures are potted crossovers and limp mass damping elements addressing mechanical and acoustics resonances. Quieting those driver reaction forces noise sources further reveal the musical effects of the Purifi's breakthrough reductions of distortion and other non-linear behaviors.

 

[Norman Tracy]

Thursday night and LSAF 2024 exhibitors are putting the final touches on our systems. For those in the Dallas TX area it will be a very fun show.