Al, how are you?
I got back from the gathering a few hours ago. It was a blast. It was really cool meeting people with the same passion for music and this hobby. John was a very gracious host again, and is one of the most personable people in this hobby. Thanks John for your hard work in organizing this. Thanks also to Bob from CSS and Al Wooley for bringing a truckload of great speakers.
Now, the FAL speakers (the ones with the flat drivers, and ribbon tweeter), was played througout the day. At first, I thought, well it sounds very clean, but so what? Then, I sat in the center chair. Wow! These speakers have enormous potential. The sound was totally enveloping. Completely surrounds you. Its ultra clean, but smooth at the same time. In the future, John will use the Heil tweeter instead of the ribbon, and he says its even better. Keep in mind, this speakers were only a day or two old. They also had next to no x-over. Just a high-pass. Very impressive. John had 3 watt tube mono amps powering them. They can go very loud with even such little power, very efficient design. The cabinet design is very unique, and its a matter of form following function. The cabinets were built by Al Wooley of RAW Acoustics, and he did a fantastic job on them. They would not be out of place in a Sci-Fi show.
Some other speakers of note were the tall array of tangband drivers (16 per side), with a ESG 3 ribbon in the middle (very much like Jim Griffin's Needles array, except this was sealed and active, and using a better ribbon). They were very nice as well, although the Alpha's are still my favourite.
The Criterion's were also played, and again, great little monitors. Very smooth, and not much to fault at.
Hopefully some other that were there will post their impressions.
