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The Vinnie Rossi / Harbeth room was the best sounding of the ones I attended. The new Vinni Rossie amplifier paired with the Harbeth Monitor 40.1 system had an extraordinary sound because it sounded so ordinary- like ordinary music and vocals- not at all like an amplifier and a pair of speakers. You hear about speakers "disappearing" and many claim to. But I swear to God I was sitting four feet from a pair of toe'd in large boxy monitors and I could not tell if they were actually playing. There were absolutely no sonic queues- low frequency, midrange or treble- that I heard coming from either speakers. It is as if they were silent and an invisible combo was playing directly behind them. All of the sound came from a stage about four feet behind the front of the speakers. The sound was natural- no colorations or distortions of any kind.For me, the "natural" speaker sound is in, and the others that followed today just sounded like speakers.
I heard the microRendu today in Vinnie's room, and it was outstanding. It was the best computer based audio I have ever heard.Vinnie's LIO and Harbeth speakers were excellent too.
I heard his room yesterday, and it was one of the best rooms imo...MSB Analogue DAC were among my favorites. Either way, Vinnie's LIO with the Micro sounded incredible. But it's my first time hearing a LIO so hard to differentiate, but what an enjoyable room!
A lot of the rooms sounded bright/hard to me. I know show conditions are tough on these guys, but a lot of stuff I would never want to own based on what I heard at the show. As for the best rooms. Rossi's with the Harbeth was the best for me. Very smooth sound. Salk and Revel also sounded pretty good.
Volti/Rossi LIO. The smaller setup upstairs sounded terrific.
More so than in prior years I found that there were very few bad sounding rooms. There are always a bunch of ear piercing setups but I thought this year had a ton of great sounding rooms including:1 - Paragon audio with Doshi and Wilson2 - Both Modwright rooms with Ryan speakers and another brand I can't remember3 - MBL4 - Salk room on LL5 - Scenium (sp) with ARC amps6 - Rossi and Harbeth7 - Rossi and VoltiI am sure there are more. Really good show this year.
VinnieRossi/small Harbeth was smooth and very easy to listen to...also tempting.
Spatial M3 Turbo after hours using the Vinnie Rossi LIO. This was incredible! Thanks for attending Vinnie and thanks to TomS for bringing his LIO! Oh, should also thank Clayton Shaw for letting us take over his room for a bit and crank it. These speakers really are the shizz.
...it is especially welcome when it is something we are probably not familiar with. Various needle drops transferred USB stick are always great! And if you are new to computer audio or anything in the system, please don't be shy to ask some questions between tracks. Having fun, listening, and learning is what these shows should be all about.[/b]
This room probably is in my top 2 favorite rooms at AXPONA. For those who have not heard the Harbeth 40.2 monitors, which despite their large size can be used as near-field monitors even in a large room, they are supremely musical and for acoustical music (singer/songwriter, jazz, classical), they are very hard to beat (probably even better than Magicos). If I don't get Magicos, I will probably get Harbeths (or something similar like Omegas). Even if I get a pair of Magicos (which are better for large orchestral music and amplified music), I may still get a pair of Harbeths. The midrange of these speakers are second to none, the bass is potent and no subwoofer is necessary (even with a 25 watt amplifier) and the coherence of all the drivers is simply seamless. If there was a "you are there" presentation at AXPONA for acoustical music, this was it. Vinnie was using his LIO, a modular design that can be configured with different options including a delta sigma DAC, phono preamp with tube linestage, headphone amp and 25 watt class AB mosfet amp.
Vinnie - Thanks for letting me be part of the team in Room 314! Once again, your LIO (this time with the DHT pre) impressed the "heck" out of me (putting it very mildly)! A brilliant "All-in-One" solution that does EVERYTHING right! Great tonality, dynamics, leading edge transients, PRAT, etc, etc... and one thing that was extremely impressive; it's SILENT, Black background... pretty amazing on 99 dB efficient Volti horns! When things are that quiet, the microdynamics and subtle instrument cues really can amaze you!
Heck yeah man. Wish I was there.
A winning system came in the form of hand-built-in-Maine Volti Audio Alura 99dB-sensitive loudspeakers ($15,900/pair), Vinnie Rossi LIO ultracapacitor-powered integrated amplifier with phono stage and DAC ($10,470 as configured), Acoustic Signature Challenger MKIII turntable ($4995) with TA-1000 arm ($1500), and the world-premiere appearance of Triode Wire Labs' Gold Statement power cord ($999), along with other Triode Wire Labs power cords and cables. Ella sounded gorgeous on her "April in Paris" duet with Louis Armstrong, with fabulous soundstaging but exaggerated sibilants on consonants. I could really hear how Satchmo's trumpet and vocals seemed all of one piece (as in: the product of the same musical intelligence and inspiration), and marvel at the natural timbral contrast between trumpet and piano.Read more at http://www.stereophile.com/content/axpona-jasons-friday-finish#8t6tDKzKHHB2hAUK.99
jtwrace was playing DJ and keeping us hooked with all types of music that was anything but boring! The M3 Turbos completely filled the room with BIG sound and at times, we had the volume way up and were transported toconcerts by Bon Jovi (a killer live cut of Living on a Prayer), Candlebox, Sara Barellis (sp?), Tori Amos, and plenty of others). John Darko told me that he loved using his LIO review unit with the Spatials, and how much of a smoking good value they are, and Ihave to agree. It was nice to meet Clayton Shaw of Spatial, who was friendly and seemed humble with regards to what he was ableto deliver to his customers for only $2600 / pair. This thread has more from this fun listening session (including a pic), starting here: http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=139398.msg1519478#msg1519478Vinnie
Maybe I should get a part time job playing DJ at a show.
with Sonore microRendu (powered by a Belleson super-regulated power feed from LIO's internal ultracapacitor power supply)
Wow. What two amazing rooms you had at Axpona. Thank you for the good show! I surely liked what I heard and they are definitely on my top list of best room.
Can you share some more info of your impressions of this setup? - kind of with and without type of comparison
Multiple good sounding rooms, when only the select few could even do one good sounding room, nice. The LIO is a very smart product, Vinnie. Fatigue is gone, and you've reduced the whole system to a nice little box. To me this is more luxurious than Goldmunds not so great sounding wireless speakers. I actually think it's a little more elegant to have say a turn table and the LIO than nothing at all in a room for WAF/lifestyle; but offset not in the middle of the speakers wherever they may be.
Hi Vinnie, can you tell me what stands you're using with the Harbeth 40.s? They're very sharp looking!Thanks!
I expect that a lot of converts were won over by the Vinnie Rossi ultra-configurable, do everything but wash your dishes, Stereophile Class A Recommended Component LIO with new LIO directly heated linestage ($10,470 as shown, including multi-format DAC, phonostage, and 25Wpc MOSFET amplifier). I certainly was when I heard it paired with Harbeth M40.2 Reference loudspeakers (starting at $14,795/pair), Acoustic Signature Thunder turntable ($10,995) with Acoustic Signature 12" TA-5000 tonearm ($6495), and Dynavector Te Katora Rua cartridge ($3000), and Tellurium Q Silver Diamond speaker cables ($7495) and Black Diamond interconnects ($1795). The sound was smooth and warm on some throwaway pop, and simply great on a 24/48 file of Harnoncourt conducting Schubert. In fact, the sound was so beautiful and smooth, with such a warm midrange, that even some loud talking in the room could not obscure how wonderful it was.Auditioning a very different track from Joelle Gere confirmed that the system's beautiful midrange was not in the least over-exaggerated, and that the top was non-fatiguing, if a tad polite. The session ended with Phoebe Wilder's "Weather Coming." I've heard a lot of digital rain sound like broken glass, but this 24/96 downpour actually sounded like the H2O that brings forth life rather than reigns havoc on all it touches. No wonder Herb Reichert enthused over the Vinnie Rossi LIO. Thanks for the beautiful experience, Vinnie and Walter Swanborn of Fidelis A/V.Read more at http://www.stereophile.com/content/axpona-jasons-journey-continues#xlLJL0Y2MLJJ8EkZ.99
Hi beowulf,They are made by Resonant Woods in NH: http://resonantwoods.com/Brooks Tanner designs and builds them custom-sized for the Harbeth models, along with equipment racks (he built therack used in our room) and other custom woodworking. I love (and own) his Curved Series stands:Vinnie
Thanks Vinnie,they are quite beautiful and many congrats for the great rooms at AXPONA as well. I'll see you in a couple months at T.H.E. Show Newport, I'm looking forward to it!
