What did you like at the Lonestar Audio Fest?

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marvda1

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What did you like at the Lonestar Audio Fest?
« on: 9 May 2007, 12:14 am »
 here are some of the rooms that i liked at the lonestar audio feat.
1)  ultrasonic audio racks/clarity cables room, the sound of the marten design speakers driver by art audio 80 watt monoblocks was quite nice and those acrylic amp stands and rack with the blue lights were great.  i purchased a 6 ft. power cord ($150) for show special 50% off that sounded real good with my preamp.  the clarity people were great, they let me take home a $150 power cord and $500 pair of interconnects saturday to listen to and bring back sunday without paying :)

2)  the audio note uk. room (factory assembled) sounded great (expensive) they had a nice looking gigantic audio rack ($6000).

3) the audiokinesis (spelling) room was really good with the jazz modules.

4)  audio mirror room with vlad's $12,000 folded horn speakers that he had just finished 4:00 am sat. had GREAT life and energy driven by a 12 watt tube integrated amp he built 20 years ago.  i was really interested in his 45 watt set monoblocks that he built at the show saturday night and completed around 1:45 pm sunday, these look and sound great for his asking price of $2100, you can see them at www.audiomirror.com .  he took them to the clarity cable room to put them in the system that had the $7000 pr. art audio amps and to my ear there was not a 3x+ difference.

5) the element cable room also had pretty good sound with audio valve tube monoblocks (german) and vs vr4-jr speakers and vincent cdp.

perhaps some others can chime in as i didn't write a lot of this down and am going from memory.

 :drool:
marvin

arthurs

Re: What did you like at the Lonestar Audio Fest?
« Reply #1 on: 9 May 2007, 01:15 am »
I was walking around with you most of the time, and concur with your report....I didn't know you snuck back and bought.auditioned some cables...you sneaky devil.... :angel:

FredT300B

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Re: What did you like at the Lonestar Audio Fest?
« Reply #2 on: 9 May 2007, 10:36 am »
I was there as an exhibitor (The ART Arrays) so I didn't have as much time to see everything, but my favorites were the classes (I attended the one on "Fun With High Voltage - Building A Tube Amp") and the informality of the event. My favorite system was the AudioKinesis room with Duke's Jazz Modules and Richard Gray's SET monoblocks.

arthurs

Re: What did you like at the Lonestar Audio Fest?
« Reply #3 on: 9 May 2007, 12:45 pm »
You know, there's one that I forgot to mention, Fred's Arrays sounded very good, and at what he said they cost, a ridiculously good deal...

marvda1

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Re: What did you like at the Lonestar Audio Fest?
« Reply #4 on: 10 May 2007, 01:33 am »
yep, listened to those $500 clarity interconnects but i think the "white" ones sound better :)

arthurs

Re: What did you like at the Lonestar Audio Fest?
« Reply #5 on: 10 May 2007, 01:34 am »
Those are a great IC for the price....

rcarlton

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Re: What did you like at the Lonestar Audio Fest?
« Reply #6 on: 12 May 2007, 03:58 pm »
Got to admit I really liked the MaxxHorn free CD and lens cleaner. Tore apart my Cambridge Audio Azur 640C, used a q-tip with the stuff and cleaned the lens. CD player is now working! Thanks!

I enjoyed the first lecture, especially the first third. I got lost real fast when they wandered from the handout.

I was mentioning to seadog how one of the rooms had a Richard Gray Power Company 400 pro (I incorrectly called it a Pole Pig). Said I would like to audition one in my system to see if they are worth it. A fellow standing next to me corrected me about which unit it was and said he used one to quiet an air conditioner in New Orleans. Talked a little bit more and lo and behold it was Richard Gray himself :duh:! Good thing I didn't say anything bad about his product :scratch:!


Brad

Re: What did you like at the Lonestar Audio Fest?
« Reply #7 on: 12 May 2007, 05:03 pm »
I thought the Hawthorne/Scott room was terrific.  And the guy was giving away free beer.  :wink:

I enjoyed the tube amp seminars - didn't get to the xover seminar by Mr. Parham.
Really enjoyed meeting a lot of nice audio people in a low-key environment.
Plenty o' new music to buy now, too.

FredT300B

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Re: What did you like at the Lonestar Audio Fest?
« Reply #8 on: 16 May 2007, 11:22 am »
I thought the Hawthorne/Scott room was terrific.  And the guy was giving away free beer.  :wink:

Free beer is one of the best tweaks I have found for improving the "perceived" sound quality of a system. Shiner seems to work best in Texas. I gave away two cases Saturday, and most visitors complimented the system I was exhibiting. Obviously a cause and effect relationship.  :lol:

EDS_

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Re: What did you like at the Lonestar Audio Fest?
« Reply #9 on: 16 May 2007, 01:27 pm »
I thought the Hawthorne/Scott room was terrific.  And the guy was giving away free beer.  :wink:

Free beer is one of the best tweaks I have found for improving the "perceived" sound quality of a system. Shiner seems to work best in Texas. I gave away two cases Saturday, and most visitors complimented the system I was exhibiting. Obviously a cause and effect relationship.  :lol:

Sadly, for me, I was unable to listen in your room as it was full each time I came by. Darn-it!

Brad

Re: What did you like at the Lonestar Audio Fest?
« Reply #10 on: 22 May 2007, 12:07 am »
EDS_,

Sorry you couldn't make it in to listen - it was a lot of fun.
If you make it down to Houston, you are more than welcome to stop by and listen
(may even have more of those FREE beers left 8) )

EDS_

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Re: What did you like at the Lonestar Audio Fest?
« Reply #11 on: 22 May 2007, 02:38 am »
EDS_,

Sorry you couldn't make it in to listen - it was a lot of fun.
If you make it down to Houston, you are more than welcome to stop by and listen
(may even have more of those FREE beers left 8) )


Shiner is sort of the TexoAmericana offering of love and peace.
Excuse my ignorance; when and exactly where is the H-town event?
I'd really like to hear your rig.


Brad

Re: What did you like at the Lonestar Audio Fest?
« Reply #12 on: 22 May 2007, 03:11 am »
There is a monthly Houston Audio society meeting at various places around town, usually someone's home or a retail place.
I can ask FredT to put the Hawthornes on as one of the topics.
Maybe the June or July meeting.

I am in the process of moving - once we are settled, you are more than welcome to come by and have a listen.  We are on the northwest side of town.

PM me for contact info.
We'll keep plenty of Shiner cold for you.
The anniversary special brew this year was really good - a black ale.

FredT300B

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Re: What did you like at the Lonestar Audio Fest?
« Reply #13 on: 22 May 2007, 10:32 am »
There is a monthly Houston Audio society meeting at various places around town, usually someone's home or a retail place. I can ask FredT to put the Hawthornes on as one of the topics.

I'll ask if the HAS group would like to schedule the Hawthornes as a meeting topic. Also, it would be great if you could bring them to the next Lone Star Bottleheads meeting. It will be at my house on July 21 unless somebody else offers to host. You can join our forum at get messages about meetings at: http://lonestarbottleheads.org/ Shiner is the official beer of the Lone Star Bottleheads.  :lol:

Brad

Re: What did you like at the Lonestar Audio Fest?
« Reply #14 on: 22 May 2007, 09:58 pm »
Fred - even if I can't make the July 21 Bottlehead meeting, I'll make sure the Hawthornes are there.