[James Romeyn]

Curl os onlu a hored gun (designer) for Parasound.

dave

planet10,
Most readers likely understand your meaning above, that Parasound is not Curl's company, but rather he designs for Parasound.  Knowing Curl as I do (we shared work space for a time), he might take exception to the incorrect spelling "hored" vs. "hired"...or maybe not...

At THE Show last January Curl listed the names of his ex-employees now deceased, including Pat who I met and who soldered Vendetta preamps.  I have absolutely no superstitions, but if I did I'd think twice about seeking employment with John.  The list was really looong.

Another first for Curl: legendary audiophile designer with the longest list of deceased ex-employees...     

[James Romeyn]

Odyssey finally!!!

It's great to see Klaus add some good ole Yankee "flame-on" to the already-incendiary USA-China currency war!  Don't use that "C" word while the Chinese purchase US bonds and T-bills at the Treasury Counter!  Oh, and the all-upper case shouting is oh-so-subtle and sweet!     (sarcasm off)

[standub]

Odyssey finally!!!

So the new speakers look amazing.  Klaus told us the drivers alone cost something like $1900!!!! The sound quality is tremendous already on the sibilieus.

Difranco sounds very nice as well. The speakers are a bit clos to the wall and the soundstage is not as deep as I can tell it wants to be.  The separation in background vocals is pretty good. Balance is excellent overall. Klaus really did a great job with this setup overall.

Mahler: good dynamics. A bit bright on the cymbal, but we are in very close to the speaker. In a properly setup room I doubt it would be an issue.

Tool: wow!!! They jump at you in the opening of the grudge. Great bass slam. Damn thts impressive for a small speaker like this. Again I think the room is a bit of an issue sometimes verging on shouty, wish we had a room about 4-6' bigger in both directions. Overall Id put this room in the same category as many of the best we've heard. Awesome job klaus and Alex. 

Awesome, awesome, awesome room.  Once the kids are both in school some of this gear will be mine.  And Klaus and Alex are great guys to hang out with.

[doug s.]

It's great to see Klaus add some good ole Yankee "flame-on" to the already-incendiary USA-China currency war!  Don't use that "C" word while the Chinese purchase US bonds and T-bills at the Treasury Counter!  Oh, and the all-upper case shouting is oh-so-subtle and sweet!     (sarcasm off)

wait a minute - none of this makes any sense to me.  isn't klaus german?  doesn't he think anything not german is crap?    isn't odyssey gear cheap off-shored symphonic line knock-off crap?   

doug s.

[Vapor Audio]

We got to run the Vapor Cirrus again in the Iris room ... they're now known as the Kipod killers!  You liked them didn't you Stan?

[Rclark]

Wow Pez, thanks!

You make me wanna come see this next year, I think I'll learn way more than any forum reviews. Plus, you look like my kind of people \m/ . You tend to get the idea that it's mostly established, retired people at these things, good to see that's not the case.

[standub]

We got to run the Vapor Cirrus again in the Iris room ... they're now known as the Kipod killers!  You liked them didn't you Stan?

Yes, yes I did, a lot.  This was the year of bookshelves, between Soundfield, Odyssey and Vapor every one else can keep their towers.  Including the monster priced YGs.

[Pez]

I am BEAT. Like my bones are tired. We had a great time again. Wow shannenhans was incredible and we really went nuts on our orders. Either way it was the time of our lives. Went back up to the Daedalus room put some music on that we didn't listen to and just had a great time socializing. Fun stuff. 

Again, glad you all are enjoying our coverage. Tyson is probably working in his opinions now.

Tyson - just finished - christ it's 2:30am.  If I'm a bit harsh in my comments it because I'm dead tired and exhausted after hanging out with a bunch of audio dorks all day.

[geowak]

Thanks to all for the comments at the show. It must be rough listening to all that sub standard audio gear and having to go to the local eatery for a swig of beer.
BTW I agree with doug s. I thought Klaus is German?? I also thought he was retooling expensive german Symphonic Line gear with cheaper stuff to sell in the USA??

[djbnh]

Killer day 2 reviews, again many thanks to the reviewers. Was nice to have the Odyssey coverage, too - congrats, as usual, to Klaus and Alex. I note that I find the comments about the various room presenters informative, can't wait for day three. 

[Kinger]

Another fantastic day of coverage guys.  Thanks again for bringing it to us.  Tyson - Your comments on some of this stuff just had me laughing

Looks like the drivers used in the Odyssey speakers are the same as the ones used in the Fritz gear just from the pictures.  Do the speakers have a similar sound?

Hope there is a day 3............

[dminches]

For those of you who are still at the show you need to audition the NOLA Grand Reference speakers being driven by a pair of Audio Research mono blocks. They sound incredible. They deliver the music naturally and effortlessly.

[SoCalWJS]

Random pictures from some of the rooms.

For those who like it loud. JBL Synthesis. I couldn't get the whole room in one shot with my camera (no wide angle lens). In the sweet spot, there was a good soundstage and a surprising lack of "horn" sound. Effortless. The bass seemed boomy to me, but it was probably just overloading the room.






The electrostats from Sanders.




All right. I have two more pictures of these, but I took them vertically to fit - how do I rotate them????

Oh well. I LOVED these speakers. They demo'ed a whole bunch of music, including organ, at near reference levels w/o problems. Yes, the sweet spot is small, but when you are sitting in that sweet spot......

[SoCalWJS]

OK, the room that RUINED it for me. Synergistics Research.




I was listening to Seal's "Rose from the Grave". Sounded just about as good as I've ever heard it. Good depth. Clear separation of instruments in a convincing soundstage. I'm enjoying this. They hit "pause". Step behind the rack. Remove a "bullet" from one end of the USB connecting the DAC. Insert a different colored "bullet". Hit "play".

OMG what just happened?????!!!?????

He say the resistive load in the USB cable has just changed and asks if you can hear a difference?

Um, YEAH, and IT IS NOT SUBTLE.

Maybe you can see the "bullets" on the top shelf of the system.





I have been in the camp that cables make a difference in a system, but they are at best subtle, and the laws of diminishing returns are in play. Now, I have to rethink my beliefs. If just changing the load on the same cable makes that large of a difference......

I have much reading, learning, and rethinking to do.

[SoCalWJS]

I got tons more in no particular order. Few or no comments. Just some of the rooms that I liked.

Totems (Earth's?). FAST bass. I've always had a soft spot for Totem.


The mBL's. Best I've heard them at a show. They were only just a little too big for the room they were in. If I ever hit the Lotto, they'll be on my short list 'nuff said. Believe the speakers are the 116f.




The Jeff Rowland room with Thiel 3.7.s. Again, the room was just not big enough. Got all the way to the back wall and everything is just starting to come together, but then rear wll reflectins kick in.





Ah well, time to finish waking up, get breakfast, pack up, and head over for day three. Still have rooms I haven't been to (eek), and a few that I want to go back to.

[eclein]

Has anybody heard the new DAC from Schiit yet???

[jackman]

wait a minute - none of this makes any sense to me.  isn't klaus german?  doesn't he think anything not german is crap?    isn't odyssey gear cheap off-shored symphonic line knock-off crap?   

doug s.

Nice try but your statement makes no sense.  Klaus is a German American and, unlike the Chinese knock-offs, he liscensed the Symphonic designs.  The Chinese just rip off designs with no regard for intellectual property.  Klaus could have made his stuff (or had someone else make it) in China for less money but he knew the quality would not have been up to his standards. 

I salute Odyssey!

[bunky]

Thanks to all for the comments at the show. It must be rough listening to all that sub standard audio gear and having to go to the local eatery for a swig of beer.
BTW I agree with doug s. I thought Klaus is German?? I also thought he was retooling expensive german Symphonic Line gear with cheaper stuff to sell in the USA??

Klaus has been a American Citizen for several years and he is one of the 1st manufacturers who got into internet sales game early on.the cases for his gear are machined.anodized and assembled in the USA ,the transformers are made in Canada. the boards come from Germany,the loudspeaker cabinets are made in USA and most of his drivers are Scanspeak.in my personal experience although he is not perfect but who is ? Klaus exhibits a high level of personal integrity is one of the finest people i know of in the Audio industry 

[mr_bill]

Any comments on the vapor cirrus speakers?  Are they as good as they are touted to be?

[rbbert]

Just a few quick thoughts, sorry I can't post pictures.

First, a somewhat heretical one; despite more rooms having poor CD sound than poor vinyl sound, in the good sounding rooms where both vinyl and CD were available, I noticed no preference for one or the other except when ticks, pops and other record noises occurred.   And IMHO, higher-res digital clearly beat either when it was available.

I was very disappointed in all the von Schweikert rooms, I'd hoped to be impressed but to me none of them (VR44, VR33 and VR5) stood out in their price ranges.

The Wilson Sasha W/P's were in a number of rooms, featured in the D'Agostino Momentum room, but the only place they sounded good to me was in the Doshi Audio room.  I expect we'll hear more from Doshi in the future.

Vandersteen 7's in two rooms, Audio Research and Aesthetix (sp?), are clearly best of show contenders.  I thought for the most part they sounded better in the ARC room, but the Aesthetix room improved Sat vs Fri.

NOLA (Baby Grand II) and ARC are also right up there for best of show.

I really wanted to like the VTL, Tape Project and (big) TAD room better than I did.  I'm not sure what part of the chain fell down.

The Sanders ESL system is truly great.  Martin Logan is not even close.

The Usher Mini-Dancer II's ($5000 list?!) in the Puget Sound Studios room were very impressive at their price point.

Kevin Voecks was showing the Revel Studio 2's ($16k/pr) with $13k of ML mono blocks driving them.  Oustanding!

More later.