I only arrived at noon on Saturday, so I missed Ann Bisson’s performance I also didn’t have the luxury of visiting every room, so I needed to be strategic. Every year I miss out on some good rooms, but that’s the way it goes for me. I probably only entered about 5-6 rooms per floor and still ran out of time (partly because I end up re-visiting certain rooms).
The first room I visited was the Wilson/VTL room as I am very interested in the new Alexia. I had a mini checklist:
1) See them in person
2) Get a feel for the new tweeter
3) Compare the scale of the soundstage in comparison to the Sasha and Maxx3.
4) Listen for differences in bass articulation.
5) Listen for differences in upper midrange presentation
I felt satisfied with the first 3 items, but not the latter two. There’s only so much you can expect from a hotel demo and during my visits to this room over the course of 2 days I heard the same small selection of music repeatedly. Also, the electronics were not my cup of tea. I got to chat with Peter McGrath, whom I greatly respect and always appreciate. Also got meet Deb Wilson which was a real treat – she is doing a wonderful job for Wilson on the community side of things and it was great to put a face to the name.
Next I visited the Doshi / Paragon room. I currently own and use Nick’s Alaap preamp and having heard his electronics, I am interested in anything he builds. This year he had new amps (160 watts versus 80 watts), a new remote controlled version of his line stage and a tape (NAB) stage. The speakers were Maxx3’s in a small room but they actually worked quite well considering. Totally different sonic presentation than the VTLs with the Alexia. I spent a fair amount of time in this room and really enjoyed it. My take on Nick is that it’s all about the music with him and his passion comes through in the selection of music he plays, how he introduces it, and how it’s not all about equipment specs. Of course Larry Marcus was there who is another music lover (his home system is one of the most engaging systems I’ve ever heard) and one of my favorite dealers.
One of my fav rooms had the Schroder tonearm with Allnic electronics and Zu speakers. They were playing a piano trio and it sounded gorgeous. I could have sat there all day. Great weight to the piano with good transients without an overabundance of harmonics clouding everything.
I was interested in hearing the Veloce gear and I ended up in a couple rooms with YG speakers. In the past I’ve never liked these speakers (thin, shrill, analytical), but this year they sounded very, very good. I'd love to demo that Veloce pre in my own system. It not only sounds great but looks great!
I also really liked the Rockport Avior speakers. I’m not a huge Rockport fan normally, but enjoyed them even though there weren’t any tubes and the soundstage was small and thin. A BAT REX pre was supposed to be used but it was damaged in transport; too bad, I bet it would have sounded much better. Another product I'd love to get to know better.
I enjoyed the MBL room for the 5 minutes I spent in there. The TADs sounded good as well.
Other highlights:
I met and spoke with Michael Fremer and enjoyed that very much. Met Steve Williams (of this forum) along with many other members (including Bruce B) and Ivan from the AA site.
Absent at the show that I would have liked to hear:
Avantegard
Magico
Spectral
Avalon (they did show some mini nearfield monitors which were nice however)
Evolution (they had a small pair but had no amp working when I went to listen)
Pass XS
Vandersteen 7’s
The first room I visited was the Wilson/VTL room as I am very interested in the new Alexia. I had a mini checklist:
1) See them in person
2) Get a feel for the new tweeter
3) Compare the scale of the soundstage in comparison to the Sasha and Maxx3.
4) Listen for differences in bass articulation.
5) Listen for differences in upper midrange presentation
I felt satisfied with the first 3 items, but not the latter two. There’s only so much you can expect from a hotel demo and during my visits to this room over the course of 2 days I heard the same small selection of music repeatedly. Also, the electronics were not my cup of tea. I got to chat with Peter McGrath, whom I greatly respect and always appreciate. Also got meet Deb Wilson which was a real treat – she is doing a wonderful job for Wilson on the community side of things and it was great to put a face to the name.
Next I visited the Doshi / Paragon room. I currently own and use Nick’s Alaap preamp and having heard his electronics, I am interested in anything he builds. This year he had new amps (160 watts versus 80 watts), a new remote controlled version of his line stage and a tape (NAB) stage. The speakers were Maxx3’s in a small room but they actually worked quite well considering. Totally different sonic presentation than the VTLs with the Alexia. I spent a fair amount of time in this room and really enjoyed it. My take on Nick is that it’s all about the music with him and his passion comes through in the selection of music he plays, how he introduces it, and how it’s not all about equipment specs. Of course Larry Marcus was there who is another music lover (his home system is one of the most engaging systems I’ve ever heard) and one of my favorite dealers.
One of my fav rooms had the Schroder tonearm with Allnic electronics and Zu speakers. They were playing a piano trio and it sounded gorgeous. I could have sat there all day. Great weight to the piano with good transients without an overabundance of harmonics clouding everything.
I was interested in hearing the Veloce gear and I ended up in a couple rooms with YG speakers. In the past I’ve never liked these speakers (thin, shrill, analytical), but this year they sounded very, very good. I'd love to demo that Veloce pre in my own system. It not only sounds great but looks great!
I also really liked the Rockport Avior speakers. I’m not a huge Rockport fan normally, but enjoyed them even though there weren’t any tubes and the soundstage was small and thin. A BAT REX pre was supposed to be used but it was damaged in transport; too bad, I bet it would have sounded much better. Another product I'd love to get to know better.
I enjoyed the MBL room for the 5 minutes I spent in there. The TADs sounded good as well.
Other highlights:
I met and spoke with Michael Fremer and enjoyed that very much. Met Steve Williams (of this forum) along with many other members (including Bruce B) and Ivan from the AA site.
Absent at the show that I would have liked to hear:
Avantegard
Magico
Spectral
Avalon (they did show some mini nearfield monitors which were nice however)
Evolution (they had a small pair but had no amp working when I went to listen)
Pass XS
Vandersteen 7’s