[PhilNYC]

Hello from Las Vegas!

Some folks have asked me to post some notes from the show.  Unfortunately, I don't have a way to upload my digital pics from my hotel room, so I guess this will really be more of a teaser and a set of recommendations for anyone who is attending to show of what to check out.  I'll keep my comments to the things that really stuck out to me, and I'll limit my comments to products/companies that I don't sell as a dealer (although those rooms were, of course, awesome!   ).  I'll upload my pics next week with more details accompanying them...

Spent the day at the Alexis Park, which is where the main set of demo rooms were....

The room that made the biggest impression on me by far was Rethm Audio (www.rethm.com).  Rethm produces single-driver speakers based on a modded Lowther driver.  They had three models on display: 1st Rethm, 3rd Rethm, and 4th Rethm.  Without a doubt, these speakers produced the best 3D soundscape and spacial presentation I have ever heard.  Ever!  And this was in a crappy hotel room with no room treatments.  The speakers do have limitations...as a single-driver speaker, they don't go super low (the designer said that in his studio, with proper placement, he can get the 1st Rethm to go flat down to about 38hz), and maybe they don't untangle complex music as well as other great speakers...but the soundscaping and imaging was out of this world.  (can you tell I was excited by these?).  The smaller Rethms were also quite impressive with these attributes.  Rethm was using Audion tube equipment and an Marantz CD player to demonstrate.

The Jeff Rowland room (www.jeffrowland.com) had great sound.  They were demonstrating a new line of products based on a digital power supply.  Being demoed was a pair of 500watt monoblocks that were about the size of two car stereo units each.  They were driving a pair of JM Labs Nova Utopias...the Novas are quite large, and it was funny watching these tiny little monoblocks sitting next to them.  

MBL (www.mbl-germany.de/) has some of the coolest looking speakers.  They are based on a "radial-beam" technology that makes their midrange and tweeter look like a motor from a Cuisinart.  Asides from their reference equipment, they were demonstrating their new "Noble II" line, which includes a radial-beam monitor and a set of electronics (amps/preamps/digital source).  As with everything I am writing about, it sounded great.

Amphion speakers (www.amphion.fi) were also quite impressive.  The designer, Anssi Hyvonen, told me that his goal with these speakers was to really work on the dispersion pattern of the sound they produced.  As we all know, room acoustics are a big problem for most of us, so Amphion's goal was to make a speaker that would work in even the toughest of rooms.  I think they were quite successful.  They were demoing with T+A electronics (apparently, T+A is a 25 year old company that is the "Krell" or "Mark Levinson" of Germany..they are the 800lb gorilla of high end audio in Germany).

Hovland (www.hovlandcompany.com) was introducing their new HP-200 preamp, and it is gorgeous.  It's visually matched to their Radia amplifier, with its back-lit blue glow.  They were demonstrating using Wilson Sophia speakers and a Dodson DA-218 DAC (I forgot which transport).  

Quad (www.quad-hifi.co.uk) had their big ESL electrostats on display.  They look a lot like room treatments!   But they did sound quite impressive...particularly their midrange transparancy was really notable.

Sim Audio (www.simaudio.com) was demonstrating their "Limited Edition" versions of the Eclipse cd player, the P-5 preamp, and W-5 amp.  Apparently, they are upgraded versions of those products with different cosmetics, and they have only made 250 of each piece.  Get them while you can!     Sim Audio was using one of the tall/slim Dynaudio high end speakers (didn't catch which model).


And that's it for now!  Hope this was informative!  I'll try to post more tomorrow (will post it in this thread again)...

Phil

[zybar]

Phil,


Were the Rowland amps the 201 monos?

Eric is trying to convince me to go that way.

GW

[PhilNYC]

George,

Yes, the Rowlands were the 201s.  They had it set up with the Synergy IIi preamp and an Accuphase cd player (don't remember which one).  The setup was very impressive...

[mcrespo71]

I've been touting the Quad midrange for years!   If they weren't so damn large (room dividers as Phil said), I would buy them in a minute!

MC

[zybar]

Thanks Phil.

If only you could get a good price on the 201's....

GW

[Sa-dono]

The Jeff Rowland room (www.jeffrowland.com) had great sound. They were demonstrating a new line of products based on a digital power supply. Being demoed was a pair of 500watt monoblocks that were about the size of two car stereo units each. They were driving a pair of JM Labs Nova Utopias...the Novas are quite large, and it was funny watching these tiny little monoblocks sitting next to them.

Thanks for the info Phil! The Rowland 201's look great, and I'm glad they sounded good too. They're actually 250 watts @ 8 ohms and 500 watts @ 4 ohms (in case anyone is interested). They're about the width and depth of a sheet of paper. These are actually one of the options I'm looking at for new amps

[lonewolfny42]

Phil , Thanks for the rundown - enjoy the show !!

[Sa-dono]

Thanks for the info Phil! The Rowland 201's look great, and I'm glad they sounded good too. They're actually 250 watts @ 8 ohms and 500 watts @ 4 ohms (in case anyone is interested). They're about the width and depth of a sheet of paper. These are actually one of the options I'm looking at for new amps

Well it looks like Phil and I may have been incorrect about the amps. According to Soundstage, they had the new Rowland 501's there. I imagine these are 500 watts @ 8 ohms, and they are priced at $6500 per pair. Of course it is possible they had the 501's and 201's there. I wonder how these two compare to each other, and how they compare to the 301's...

[PhilNYC]

Thanks, Sa-dono, and sorry for the mistake!  I must have gotten it confused with a 201 on display...they do look just about identical...

[lonewolfny42]

Phil , Has there been anything that has surprised you at the show ?  

[ekovalsky]

I'm pretty sure there is no JRDG 501 amp.  I'll double check with Jeff tomororw.  The little monoblocks in the JRDG and Nearfield (Pipedream) rooms should be the 201's.  The 201's are 250w/500w into 8/4 ohms.  I believe they are essentially identical to the 302s but lack the huge Piltron toroidal transformer and have smaller (but mono) power supplies.  The chassis is simpler too and much smaller and lighter.

The 201's are a relative bargain even at MSRP of $4700.  I woundn't not buy them just because discounts are minimal.  Jeff could have set retail higher with discounted dealer pricing (which he did on the 300 series), but choose not to to make the amp more accessible.  A price increase could be in the works, my Rowland dealer has told me demand is high and supply is limited.

It was quite funny seeing such tiny amps driving the giant Nova Utopia and Pipedream speakers.  And driving them well with awesome bass slam!  I saw other amps probably 50 times their size, like the Theta Dreadnaught & Enterprise, mbl reference, (dead) Burmester, and Pass XA200 with the same or even less power output!

I find these switch mode amps faster and cleaner than the best conventional class A and AB designs.  For me, living in Arizona, their efficiency is a great plus.  I do know that Jeff is "upgrading" the very bulky, very expensive battery power supplies of his older Model 8T & 9T amplifiers with the switch mode power supply.  He says it sounds better, is more reliable, and much more efficient.


http://www.jeffrowland.com/Model%20201%20Page.htm

[Sa-dono]

I'm pretty sure there is no JRDG 501 amp.  I'll double check with Jeff tomororw.  The little monoblocks in the JRDG and Nearfield (Pipedream) rooms should be the 201's.  The 201's are 250w/500w into 8/4 ohms.  I believe they are essentially identical to the 302s but lack the huge Piltron toroidal transformer and have smaller (but mono) power supplies.  The chassis is simpler too and much smaller and lighter.

Please do check on this for me. Soundstage lists them as the 501's in the 2nd post of their coverage, with a price of $6500. Unless the price has raised on the 201's, and Soundstage got their numbers wrong, then there might be a 501.

[Ric Schultz]

There is a 1000 Watt Ice Power ASP board (500 watts into 8 ohms).  This might be what is used in the 501? amp (hance the more expensive price).  The 500 watt ASP module (250 watts into 8 ohms) is what is in the 201.  I have the 500 watt ASP module as well as the regular non switching regulated 500 watt board here and will be doing comparisons soon with product to follow.  I just love how small these things can be made....and with no heat.....very cool.

[PhilNYC]

Phil , Has there been anything that has surprised you at the show ?  

I spent most of the day on Friday at the St. Tropez, and the majority of it was really esoteric (lots of really bizarre looking stuff...sounded pretty good, too!).  But the biggest surprise to me was the Halcro demo rooms at the San Remo.  I really hate to jump on that Stereophile bandwagon of "the greatest amp ever!", but I have to say that the Halcro/JMLabs/Meitner room was pretty darn amazing.  I've heard Halcro stuff before, and I thought it was pretty good, but nothing so far above other high end stuff, so it was really surprising to me how great it sounded to me today.  And Halcro's multi-channel room was even more amazing...they had Wilson Maxx/Sophias in a 5-channel setup (using a Wilson center channel that  I don't know the model) with double-bridged Halcro DM68 (?) amps...and the whole time I was listening, I kept thinking that I had gone to Disneyland, and I was in one of those really innovative Disney Imagineering things.  It was the first multichannel setup I'd ever heard that just really made me feel so completely transported to a live music venue.  Just prior to going to the Halcro room, I had gone to the Edge/Epiphany room, and that was impressive (but not without fault), but the Halcro demo just put that to shame...

[BikeWNC]

Glad to see your having fun!  The Halcro room, lets see...  cha ching, now that's a real world setup for most of us.  What do you guess the cost of that rig is?  Anyway, it's nice to hear what is possible once in a while.  Wish I was there.  Thanks, Phil.

[ekovalsky]

Please do check on this for me. Soundstage lists them as the 501's in the 2nd post of their coverage, with a price of $6500. Unless the price has raised on the 201's, and Soundstage got their numbers wrong, then there might be a 501.

I'll find out for sure today when I see Jeff.  My bet is the "501" is a typo and he has raised the MSRP of the 201 without changing dealer pricing, so the consumer cost will probably be the same at $4700.

[zybar]

Eric,

Any idea on how the 201's will sound in comparison to your amp?

You are starting to get me seriously thinking about the 201's...

GW

[PhilNYC]

Glad to see your having fun!  The Halcro room, lets see...  cha ching, now that's a real world setup for most of us.  What do you guess the cost of that rig is?  Anyway, it's nice to hear what is possible once in a while.  Wish I was there.  Thanks, Phil.

Yeah, an audiophile buddy of mine and I often talk about our "billionaire system" (if we were billionaires, what kind of system would we get)...for me, this one was it.  In the multi-channel room, there were a total of 7 DM68s in use, each costing $35K (for a total of $245K).  The Wilson Maxx costs $38.9K, the Sophias $11.7K.  Add in the Halcro preamp, the Meitner DAC, and all the cabling (whatever it was), and you've got yourself a nice chunk of pocket change...!

On the "more affordable"   end, the 2-channel setup was using the Halcro DM38 stereo amp (just one for $15K), JM Labs Nova Utopia ($35K), Halcro preamp and a CD player (didn't see the brand/model)...superb...

[lonewolfny42]

Yeah, an audiophile buddy of mine and I often talk about our "billionaire system" (if we were billionaires, what kind of system would we get)...for me, this one was it.  In the multi-channel room, there were a total of 7 DM68s in use, each costing $35K (for a total of $245K).  The Wilson Maxx costs $38.9K, the Sophias $11.7K.  Add in the Halcro preamp, the Meitner DAC, and all the cabling (whatever it was), and you've got yourself a nice chunk of pocket change...!

Hey Phil, How about your best pick for a "real" world system that you have heard at the show. Thanks !! ......(Phil , you missing the heat wave here. Its now 3 degrees ! )

[PhilNYC]

Hey Phil, How about your best pick for a "real" world system that you have heard at the show. Thanks !! ......(Phil , you missing the heat wave here. Its now 3 degrees ! )

Hmmm...that's a tough one, because "real world" certainly means different things to different people.  As mentioned in my first post, I was really impressed by the Rethm room.  The 3rd Rethm speakers are about $4K, and they were being driven by tube components that were (I believe) in the $2K-$4K range.  This wasn't a system that'd I'd personally choose for my one and only system given its limitations for bass and complex music, but it continues to be one of the rooms here that really sticks out as doing something really special (soundscaping/imaging, tonal balance).  The Amphion speakers were also one of my favorites in that price range, but I don't know the pricing of the T+A electronics it was running (they were showing a new tubed integrated, so it couldn't be too expensive).

Asides from that, most of the rooms that stuck out to me had something in their systems that made them a bit pricey...the Jeff Rowland room was using $35K speakers; the Sim Audio room sounded really nice, but the Dynaudio Confidence C2 they were using are in the $10K-15K price range.

Hope I'm not coming off as an audio snob here, naming all the stuff with big price tags...!