http://enjoythemusic.com/HIGH_END_2019/Weaver/
Final Thoughts
It may come as no surprise that yet again, the USA's The Audio Company room, with partners Valve Amplification Company and Von Schweikert Audio, receives my top honors as best sound of show. You may also find it no surprise to learn that an inordinately large number of other journalists, from the US as well as Europe and Asia, came to yet the same conclusion.
This remarkably fine level of achievement was realized because they did such an amazing job with room taming in these problematic spaces. By forgoing the use of large draped curtains that so many exhibitors use to combat the high selectivity and poor bass reinforcement available, and instead using very carefully and strategically placed TubeTraps and final loudspeaker placement, Georgia's The Audio Company once again knocked this one out of the sonic park in Atrium 4.2, E217.
Best of Show: The Audio Company, Esoteric, Acoustic Signature, Air Tight, Valve Amplification Company, and Von Schweikert Audio.
Sources were Germany's Acoustic Signature Invictus Jr. turntable ($85,000), using a Japanese Air Tight Opus 1 cartridge ($16,000), or either the Japanese Esoteric Grandioso P1 CD transport ($38,000) or Esoteric N-01 network audio player ($20,000), feeding the Esoteric Grandioso D1 monoblock DACs ($38,000/pr.). The spectacular retro-industrial looking Valve Amplification Company's new 450i iQ integrated amplifier from the United States ($150,000) drove the USA's Von Schweikert Ultra 9 loudspeakers ($200,000/pr.). Equipment stands were from Spain's Artesania Audio, both the Esoteric Line (3-space racks x 2) and the Artesania Audio Air Force turntable shelf, with all cabling from the USA's MasterBuilt Ultra Line.
Saturday afternoon saw me doing my Audiophile DJ duties in this room. In fact, this entire audiophile LP listening session tradition started with these fine folks at the 2017 Capital Audiofest in Washington, DC, and the event has become somewhat of an ongoing show staple.
But the sonic performance in this room was astonishing; and perhaps even more impressive with its digital presentation than the analog rig could offer at this show. Bass performance was extended, fast, tight, powerful, yet highly pitch defined, no small trick at the MOC. Midrange was pure, with indisputably authentic timbre, full bodied texture, and rife with an immediacy and intimacy that was infectious. The upper frequencies were transparent, detailed, and extended, revealing that final degree of effortlessness, air, and shimmer as naturally as if the system was merely breathing.
I know many of you may be wondering how is it that this same combination of gear and team members can achieve best of show at every show where they exhibit, show after show. You should know that I've had this very conversation with at least a dozen-and-a-half other audio journalists over the past several years. We have all said, rhetorically, how can we award that room best of show again? Well, it all comes down to the reality of the performance.
When you examine the strategic combination of some of the best minds in the industry today (look at the list of partners involved with this system) with the most advanced and successful implementation of technologies, you have no problem understanding such an accomplishment, one that they have managed to repeat, show after show, virtually without exception, for more than two years now.
Think about it. Look at the achievements in any field where state-of-the-art technologies are applied to human endeavors, like Formula One automobile racing. Look at the successes of Ferrari under Ross Brawn, with the most successful driver in the history of the sport, Michael Schumacher, during the late 1990's and early 2000's, when Schumacher earned seven World Championships, five of them consecutively! Or those of Red Bull Racing under Adrian Newey and Christian Horner, with Sebastian Vettel in the cockpit during his three consecutive Championships in the early 2010's.
It should be seen as almost inevitable that when you combine the most advanced technologies, be that an inherently faster and more dependable race-winning automotive chassis and motor synergy, or bleeding-edge loudspeaker technologies driven by heroic valve-based electronics capable of turning in a more realistic recreation of a musical performance, with hard working, inspired, and dedicated professionals in their field, you achieve astonishing, repeatable successes.
And while a Best of Show designation may seem to be a more subjective form of "winning," in a clearly different kind of race, it is no less a first-place finish, crossing the sonic finish line ahead of the competition, and is every bit as real and distinguished an accomplishment. The number of shows over a year may be looked at as the number of races in a given season or series.
To that end, when you look at the repeated recognition conferred upon this travelling collection of gear and partners, by so many different journalists, from so many different media outlets, it becomes clear that they are having one championship season after another.
Final Thoughts
It may come as no surprise that yet again, the USA's The Audio Company room, with partners Valve Amplification Company and Von Schweikert Audio, receives my top honors as best sound of show. You may also find it no surprise to learn that an inordinately large number of other journalists, from the US as well as Europe and Asia, came to yet the same conclusion.
This remarkably fine level of achievement was realized because they did such an amazing job with room taming in these problematic spaces. By forgoing the use of large draped curtains that so many exhibitors use to combat the high selectivity and poor bass reinforcement available, and instead using very carefully and strategically placed TubeTraps and final loudspeaker placement, Georgia's The Audio Company once again knocked this one out of the sonic park in Atrium 4.2, E217.
Best of Show: The Audio Company, Esoteric, Acoustic Signature, Air Tight, Valve Amplification Company, and Von Schweikert Audio.
Sources were Germany's Acoustic Signature Invictus Jr. turntable ($85,000), using a Japanese Air Tight Opus 1 cartridge ($16,000), or either the Japanese Esoteric Grandioso P1 CD transport ($38,000) or Esoteric N-01 network audio player ($20,000), feeding the Esoteric Grandioso D1 monoblock DACs ($38,000/pr.). The spectacular retro-industrial looking Valve Amplification Company's new 450i iQ integrated amplifier from the United States ($150,000) drove the USA's Von Schweikert Ultra 9 loudspeakers ($200,000/pr.). Equipment stands were from Spain's Artesania Audio, both the Esoteric Line (3-space racks x 2) and the Artesania Audio Air Force turntable shelf, with all cabling from the USA's MasterBuilt Ultra Line.
Saturday afternoon saw me doing my Audiophile DJ duties in this room. In fact, this entire audiophile LP listening session tradition started with these fine folks at the 2017 Capital Audiofest in Washington, DC, and the event has become somewhat of an ongoing show staple.
But the sonic performance in this room was astonishing; and perhaps even more impressive with its digital presentation than the analog rig could offer at this show. Bass performance was extended, fast, tight, powerful, yet highly pitch defined, no small trick at the MOC. Midrange was pure, with indisputably authentic timbre, full bodied texture, and rife with an immediacy and intimacy that was infectious. The upper frequencies were transparent, detailed, and extended, revealing that final degree of effortlessness, air, and shimmer as naturally as if the system was merely breathing.
I know many of you may be wondering how is it that this same combination of gear and team members can achieve best of show at every show where they exhibit, show after show. You should know that I've had this very conversation with at least a dozen-and-a-half other audio journalists over the past several years. We have all said, rhetorically, how can we award that room best of show again? Well, it all comes down to the reality of the performance.
When you examine the strategic combination of some of the best minds in the industry today (look at the list of partners involved with this system) with the most advanced and successful implementation of technologies, you have no problem understanding such an accomplishment, one that they have managed to repeat, show after show, virtually without exception, for more than two years now.
Think about it. Look at the achievements in any field where state-of-the-art technologies are applied to human endeavors, like Formula One automobile racing. Look at the successes of Ferrari under Ross Brawn, with the most successful driver in the history of the sport, Michael Schumacher, during the late 1990's and early 2000's, when Schumacher earned seven World Championships, five of them consecutively! Or those of Red Bull Racing under Adrian Newey and Christian Horner, with Sebastian Vettel in the cockpit during his three consecutive Championships in the early 2010's.
It should be seen as almost inevitable that when you combine the most advanced technologies, be that an inherently faster and more dependable race-winning automotive chassis and motor synergy, or bleeding-edge loudspeaker technologies driven by heroic valve-based electronics capable of turning in a more realistic recreation of a musical performance, with hard working, inspired, and dedicated professionals in their field, you achieve astonishing, repeatable successes.
And while a Best of Show designation may seem to be a more subjective form of "winning," in a clearly different kind of race, it is no less a first-place finish, crossing the sonic finish line ahead of the competition, and is every bit as real and distinguished an accomplishment. The number of shows over a year may be looked at as the number of races in a given season or series.
To that end, when you look at the repeated recognition conferred upon this travelling collection of gear and partners, by so many different journalists, from so many different media outlets, it becomes clear that they are having one championship season after another.
