Thanks for all your hard work at the show Pete. For those of you who haven't been to a room that Pete is 'running', he is terrific at playing great tunes and keeping the audience engaged.
I don't want to say too much about the NYAS here, but I do think that NYC audiophiles, and in fact anyone who attends any audio show deserves better than what the Chester Group is delivering each year.
Everyone was complaining about the sound in their rooms. The only rooms that didn't have bass problems were the rooms that didn't have bass. Believe it or not, there were several of those. Why would anyone buy a speaker that has no response below 100Hz?
Our room at the NYAS was not only square, but had flimsy walls that added bass to the music. I suspected this during the show, but now I know for sure. After the show, I brought the Rival speakers to Fidelis Audio in Nashua NH, where they will remain on display until they sell. In a proper demo room, the Rivals sound so much better than they did at the show. The room at Fidelis is lean in the bass, a sure sign that it is overly damped. But in that bass-controlled environment, the absence of bass nodes allowed the Rivals to really shine. Bass was tight, deep, well defined, and a bit lean. If it were my listening room, I'd remove a few of the absorbers and let the room sing back to me a bit.
What a great experience to be able to end my weekend being able to hear my speakers performing at such a high level. Much nicer than having the memory of room 805 stuck in my head.
The improvements made to the Rival design after the Capital Audio Fest, where I demonstrated and sold the prototype pair, are significant. Mostly in the midrange, which is much fuller and bolder than those prototypes sounded. I had to work hard on the crossover design to bring the midrange forward and still have it integrated with the rest of the sound. The design went through a complete aesthetic makeover. I did the final voicing with a Rival sitting next to a Vittora, and with a switchbox on my lap, switching between the two while music was playing. Fun.
Greg
