The Show 2019-Steve's Photos

First off I must commend the organizers for finally finding what I hope is the permanent location of THE Show. The drive for me was around an hour as I didn't stay at the hotel. The Hilton was lovely and by all accounts so were the guest rooms . The sound in each room wasn't bad at all. In fact some very good music was heard in some of the very small rooms. Case in point was Jonathan Tinn's room with his new speakers which sounded terrific. So also the small room upstairs by Alma Music which was showing the Wilson Tune Tot. The sound was terrific. Finally one last room I thought to be exceptional and that was the room of our very own Duke LeJeune and his Audiokinesis speakers. I loved the sound. Lastly one of my favorite small room set ups was that of Joe Cali who had an all Gryphon speaker and electronics set up. I heard it Friday and Saturday. Saturday was much better IMO

There were some very good rooms and some real disappointments for me such as the CH Precision room where there was racks full of Ch Precision gear and the sound level the old guy was playing at was so subdued that for me the room was underwhelming but more later

 

That's pretty much the highlights of what I saw and heard

A few surprises and some very good rooms

For me the drive was about an hour each way so I can't gripe for Southern California

I thought the hotel was very nice

I hope this becomes the final west coast resting point for THE Show as I enjoyed it. There were many excellent vendors and one can hope for the growth of this audio show. I thought it was well attended but not overly so

Parking was outrageous but the nice thing was the food trucks outside the hotel and on each floor the hotel set up a bar and mini restaurant which took a huge load off the restaurant there


Kudos to everyone who participated. I'm hosting shortly one of our members so I'll be back to name the rooms that really stood out for me

 

Thanks for the photo report, Steve. I've been keeping up a bit with your local buddies, Ron, Keith, and Jeff. You guys are lucky to have such a nice show locally. Which were your favorite rooms overall?

 

That's pretty much the highlights of what I saw and heard

A few surprises and some very good rooms

For me the drive was about an hour each way so UI can't gripe for Southern California

I thought the hotel was very nice

I hope this becomes the final west coast resting point for THE Show as I enjoyed it. There were many excellent vendors and one can hope for the growth of this audio show. I thought it was well attended but not overly so

Parking was outrageous but the nice thing was the food trucks outside the hotel and on each floor the hotel set up a bar and mini restaurant which took a huge load off the restaurant there


Kudos to everyone who participated. I'm hosting shortly one of our members so I'll be back to name the rooms that really stood out for me

Epic job, thanks Steve. You should maybe reward your hard work with a MSB Reference or Select 2

 

Great Pics Steve and grateful for the reports and effort--Kudos!
Looking forward to your final choices

Thank you again,
BruceD

 

Steve - Thx for covering and sharing the photos.

Mike

 

Excellent coverage Steve. I hope my coverage of Capitol Audiofest is equal. I should have My Samsung Sx10+ by then. It has a much inprovrd Camera.
What did you think of the Muraudio electrostatics?

 

Excellent coverage and beautiful photos Steve....thank you for all of it!

 

Thanks for the excellent photo story Steve!

 

Excellent coverage Steve. I hope my coverage of Capitol Audiofest is equal. I should have My Samsung Sx10+ by then. It has a much inprovrd Camera.
What did you think of the Muraudio electrostatics?

I liked the speaker. Odd shape but nice sound

 

Awesome show report Steve.... For those of us who could not attend, the photos are a welcome respite to a busy morning... Thank-you!

 

Your photo's are excellent Dr. Steve, and thanks for posting them. Sadly, the worst pic was of you (out-of-focus) because it was taken by someone else. Overall, it made me really sorry I didn't make it there.

 

That photo was out of focus because he was using "live photo" which creates a bit of motion

 

My favorite room was Thrax - open and dynamic, good tone and big sound stage on their own PP 300B electronics and DD turntable. Brutal looking speakers though.

The best "value" room was indeed the Wilson TuneTots on a Luxman integrated. Completely surprised me.

 

Imo the three best value rooms was
1. The Tune Tots from Alma Music
2. Our very own Duke LeJeune’s Audiokinesis speakers. I thought they were terrific for the price
3. As always Sanders Sound Systems.

 

Lastly one of my favorite small room set ups was that of Joe Cali who had an all Gryphon speaker and electronics set up. I heard it Friday and Saturday. Saturday was much better IMO

Excellent report, Steve.

I was there on Saturday, and the place was quite crowded. Parking fee was outrageous($18), we ended up parking a block and a half away for free and use the money on food trucks.

My favorite room of all, big or small, is Joe Cali's room. Joe's room was very musical yet detail. He doesn't over-tuned the room and cause it to sound dead like a lot of dealers did.

 

+1 on the Audio Limits Thrax room

 

My three faves were (in no particular order), YG Hailey 2.2 on the Luxman m900, Thraxxx room, and the Stenheims with the Technics table and CH stuff.

Next three notables to me were Evo Acoustics with Dartzeel and Wave Kinetics, Wilson Tater Tots on the integrated Luxman, and the Horning speakers with TW and integrated 300b amp. Something for everyone at this one, including some fun Altec woofers and horns (that would have benefitted from a larger space). Always a pleasure to run into KeithR, and very nice to meet Ron in person.

 

My favorite rooms in no particular order
Philip O'Hanlon's On A Higher Note with Scott Walker. Gryphon electronics with Magico speakers. It sounded terrific
All 3 Alma Music rooms were well planned and expertly set up. Fabio and Alex IMO are masters at system set up
Johnathan Tinn's room and new speakers were terrific and those external crossovers never cease to amaze me
Joe Cali's all Gryphon room was also wonderful.Joe also has a terrific ability re system set up
I also thought the large Scott Walker room with the MSB DAC, turntable, Tape deck and top of the line VAC electronics was very good

I'm really not a horn speaker guy and those big ones which I heard in a few places just did not do it for me.I did think Duke LeJeune's small horn speaker truly surprised me. I went back twice to be sure and for the money this little speaker delivered

 

Did anyone hear the huge Burmester stereo amp?

It was never playing each time I went by the room. It looks so heavy that it would need a crane to bring it into the room It was huge

View attachment 53756

 

Hi, Steve,

And thank you for the report and pics.