Steve's THE Show 2016 Pictures

[Folsom]

I'm not Steve, :b, but I had high expectations for Kyron, the big brother was on the floor at the Sydney audio show some time ago. And was quite disappointed - very hifi sound, it didn't do anything for me. The newer, smaller unit may be more refined as the makers keep learning - would be interested in other's opinions ...

What is "Hifi" sound?

 

[fas42]

Brash, no refinement, when it gets louder there is a shoutiness - in one sense it's almost like midfi, except there's more bass wallop and treble shriek - you're intensely aware that you're listening to a sound system, rather than experiencing a musical event.

 

[Folsom]

Very confusing.

 

[fas42]

Sorry 'bout that ... I listen to, and evaluate a system in terms of how close it gets to making me think that what I listening to is the real thing - what I call "hifi" sound is over the top, obviously fake, reproduction ... it's just too far away from mimicking the qualities of real sounds, being natural in presentation, to take seriously.

 

[KeithR]

Brash, no refinement, when it gets louder there is a shoutiness - in one sense it's almost like midfi, except there's more bass wallop and treble shriek - you're intensely aware that you're listening to a sound system, rather than experiencing a musical event.

Sean Casey from Zu. defined Hifi as all "fireworks" this weekend which made me laugh (and agree)

 

[DaveC]

Very confusing.

I agree. "High Fidelity" is the goal, not an insult! Can we stop using "HiFi" as a derogatory word, it's more than ridiculous.

Never heard Super 8 but I saw their marketing banner claimed "no compromise", which is enough to bother me as speaker design is all about choosing compromises.

 

[DaveC]

Sean Casey from Zu. defined Hifi as all "fireworks" this weekend which made me laugh (and agree)

And kind of funny coming from someone who makes hifi speakers, although they have always been closer to PA than HiFi... WTF does "fireworks" even mean? Ridiculous BS, IMO and totally inappropriate.

 

[DaveC]

Thanks for the pics, Steve!

 

[KeithR]

And kind of funny coming from someone who makes hifi speakers, although they have always been closer to PA than HiFi... WTF does "fireworks" even mean? Ridiculous BS, IMO and totally inappropriate.

whoa dude- who pee'd in your cheerios?

no music, all fireworks. the kind of system where you hear/are drawn to sounds all over the place, but no holistic musical presentation. i think it's pretty self-explanatory.

 

[BruceD]

Indeed big thanks to Steve for the Pics --and those of another super session in his sound room--I've experienced that and will savour the moment of his hospitality plus the superb sonics

Incidentally I concur what joy Anne Bisson is --her music and demeanour--she signed a Record for me and chatted away--wonderful---in contrast to the miserable Jennifer Warnes at the same venue who exclaimed through clenched teeth to me--NO PHOTOS no Autograph on disc

funny how you can go off some people when the "bubble" is burst

--Meh to her!

Good Listening!

BruceD

 

[DaveC]

whoa dude- who pee'd in your cheerios?

no music, all fireworks. the kind of system where you hear/are drawn to sounds all over the place, but no holistic musical presentation. i think it's pretty self-explanatory.

Well, having someone denigrate their own industry and insinuate that their product is better is a red flag imo. I've heard this many times (and I'm obviously tired of it!) but never in relation to a specific system, it's always "those types of systems", with a wink and a nod.... Exactly what speakers are we talking about here that are producing these "fireworks"? Most high end speakers are getting to the point they are all excellent and while there may be unfortunate setups the truth is almost every high end speaker (of course there may be an exception here or there) is capable of extremely good results.

IMO and many others high fidelity is the goal, not an insult!

 

[KeithR]

Well, having someone denigrate their own industry and insinuate that their product is better is a red flag imo. I've heard this many times (and I'm obviously tired of it!) but never in relation to a specific system, it's always "those types of systems", with a wink and a nod.... Exactly what speakers are we talking about here that are producing these "fireworks"? Most high end speakers are getting to the point they are all excellent and while there may be unfortunate setups the truth is almost every high end speaker (of course there may be an exception here or there) is capable of extremely good results.

IMO and many others high fidelity is the goal, not an insult!

Dave, he wasn't denigrating the industry. In fact, I posed the question in relation to the JBL K2/ML room which I found really poor sounding in that direction and he suggested the term "audio fireworks." There are clearly things he doesn't prefer and he's fairly honest to me as a long-time customer - but Alon Wolf isn't a Wilson fan either if you know what I mean. Sean was very complementary of Rockport's cabinet structure in the same conversation.

Sean's one of the nicest and well respected guys in the industry - I encourage you to chat with him some time (plus he likes esoteric modern music). He draws from Harry Olson decade's old audio science.

Zu also just got the cover of Stereophile selling primarily direct which says a lot about his 14-year old company.

 

[FrantzM]

I agree. "High Fidelity" is the goal, not an insult! Can we stop using "HiFi" as a derogatory word, it's more than ridiculous.

Never heard Super 8 but I saw their marketing banner claimed "no compromise", which is enough to bother me as speaker design is all about choosing compromises.

And kind of funny coming from someone who makes hifi speakers, although they have always been closer to PA than HiFi... WTF does "fireworks" even mean? Ridiculous BS, IMO and totally inappropriate.

Well, having someone denigrate their own industry and insinuate that their product is better is a red flag imo. I've heard this many times (and I'm obviously tired of it!) but never in relation to a specific system, it's always "those types of systems", with a wink and a nod.... Exactly what speakers are we talking about here that are producing these "fireworks"? Most high end speakers are getting to the point they are all excellent and while there may be unfortunate setups the truth is almost every high end speaker (of course there may be an exception here or there) is capable of extremely good results.

IMO and many others high fidelity is the goal, not an insult!

Hi

I am in agreement with all the above. Our hobby needs a clear vocabulary in order to convey aural impression. A difficult endeavor. When we get t use terms such as "organic" and/or "holistic" we go in the other direction that of making any attempt to describe the sound of a component understandable .. What does something like "Holistic" means describing how a speaker sound? Really?? My speaker is more holistic than yours!

I also agree with Dave that while systems do differ in their sounds, most High End speakers are indeed capable of great results when dedication and time is devoted to achieve these results. The incredible variety of systems within community as small as the WBF is testimony to that.

 

[rbbert]

I'm guessing about others' definition, but to me "holistic" can refer to how well the different drivers integrate with each other, compared (for example) to mostly full-range speaers like some e-stats, or speakers with co-incident drivers like TAD CR-1 or many Tannoys.

 

[Ron Resnick]

I agree with Frank and Steve and I did not care for the Kryon.

I liked the Perfect8 The Point. I thought it sounded great for a small speaker system. I think it began to fall apart a little bit when I played the Thelma Houston quite loudly.

Perfect8's The Force looks very interesting!

 

[es347]

..boy it's a good thing Peter Breuninger isn't here to read the critiques offered by a bunch of rookie audiophile wannabe journalists....chaff as he once lovingly called us...heh heh

 

[YashN]

Sunny was demoing MQA sound on a Meridien processor and played an Adele song that sounded very good. Lots of ambience. When the track was done he asked me how I liked which I did but then I asked him to play the rebook file of the same song and he refused. He said that they are forbidden from doing such by Meridien . I smiled as I politely left the room

Always found it odd that there weren't many Redbook vs MQA comparisons. That might explain it, but not justified, IMO.

 

[garylkoh]

Gary Koh and his Genesis 7.2f driven by a 1.5 watt head amp dispelling the roomer that Genesis speakers are difficult to drive.

Sound was terrific and worthy of an Honorable Mention in the sound I heard

Many thanks for the honorable mention, Steve. I was corrected by Bob Clarke of Profundo who told me that the Viva Audio Egoista 2A3 headphone amplifier puts out a healthy 3 watts

 

[Robert K]

German Physiks - the new MBL !

Merrill Audio

I enjoyed this room very much. I knew virtually nothing about the German Physiks speaker. I really liked the sound put out by this speaker. When I entered the room I thought it was a new MBL speaker

Hello Steve,

Many thanks for posting the pictures of our German Physiks loudspeakers at T.H.E. Show. I forgive you for confusing us with MBL, who also make a pretty good omnidirectional loudspeaker. We have been around since 1993. The principal difference between German Physiks and MBL is our DDD driver. This omnidirectional driver has a very wide bandwidth; typically 24kHz down to about 200Hz, where it is usually crossed to a conventional dynamic woofer. This very wide operating range means there is no crossover point in the midrange, which is where our hearing is most sensitive and where any discontinuities are most difficult to hide. As most of the audio range comes from one relatively compact driver, this gives a very coherent sound. The DDD driver has some other useful advantages and you can find out more about these on the site our US distributor has created at http://f12.ccc.myftpupload.com/.

All the best,

Robert Kelly
German Physiks

 

[Steve Williams]

Hi Robert and welcome to WBF



I really enjoyed listening to this speaker and yes from the distance I confused it with the MBL but after a few minutes in the room it sounded very special and I enjoyed listening to it