[Pez]

Day one post 1 text:

First Entry.

It is midnight and I'm absolutely exhausted. I apologize that I could not get anything up any earlier than this, but I hope you all enjoy what little I am going to post tonight.

Also you techies out there, I need a better way to dump my photos than standard Flickr or the audiocircle photo upload. If you can help PLEASE PM me so that I can have an easier time of it.

There are also audio interviews that Tyson and I conducted throughout the show that we can use some assistance in getting onto AC.

{Tyson} - We tried to hit mainly the AC vendors first, but the show was so huge that we missed some rooms (GR Research, Selah Audio) and did not spend enough time in others (Salk/Van Alstine).  Apologies, I feel pretty bad about that.  Next year....

I will say that meeting some of the designers and other AC people was the real highlight of the show for me.  Wayner, Frank, cloudbaseracer, Scott, Lou, I'm looking at you guys

Since Jason has provided the blow by blow for most rooms, I'll just jump in and add comments on what I heard in those rooms where I actually had some time in the sweet spot.  If you don't see any comments on a room from me, you may deduce that I didn't get enough time to even get a general impression. 

TAD / WBT Room


This was an excellent room! Fantastic demo concept. The TAD?s had a set of ?standard? binding posts and a set of WBT next Gen terminals. The entire system was setup with Nexgens and they were demoing the standard terminals and then immediately switching to the WBT Nextgens. To say the results were SUBSTANTIAL is an understatement. They were absolutely astounding. Obviously the WBT Nextgens demand an substantial ?high fi tax? but this is one of those occasions where I can say honestly that if you can afford it, it is a worthy upgrade. The TAD?s with the Bel canto front end sounded phenomenal especially given the space we were in. Overall I have to say the the WBT guys did a fantastic job, one of my favorites! TAD up close in all it's glory.



Bel Canto front end.


Daedalus Audio


I have a special place in my heart for Daedalus. Why? I showed up for a little preshow sneak peak on Thursday and Lou with Daedalus was kind enough to not only take me in, but used my feedback in setting up his system. Class act all the way. The system consists of the Ulysses fullrange, Modwright KWA 150 amps, Ellis Audio Dac, Logitech/Modwright Transporter LS365, AMR CD77, Bolder modded Squeezebox, dynamic Design cabling, Furman power conditioner and a whole lot more (fair warning I am not going to go into this kind of detail with every room as it is very difficult to track all of this on the fly.) Overall I have to say the daedalus room is easily one of the top rooms I had opportunity to see. Lou is the type of guy who really does everything from beginning to end with detail, pride, love, and a great amount of life experience that you just cannot find with a lot of similarly priced setups. I know I?m gushing, but really a fantastic experience here and Daedalus is a very welcome addition to AC. Ulysses with the KWA 150. Sorry for the crooked pic.

{Tyson} - My impressions of the Daedelus room were "good but not great" the first day.  Three things happened to change my mind the 2nd day.  I got to hear them LOUD and they were just completely effortless and dynamic at high volumes.  Second, Lou took them off their tuning stands and put them directly on the floor, which gave them considerably more bass punch.  That alone would have been enough to put this room in top5  at the show for me.  But then we also had a chance to hear them hooked up to some Quicksilver Atmasphere tubed monoblocks and they just sang.  Beaufitul, beautiful sound.

We also did a taped interview with Lou, available here:  http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=72350.0 




Front end equipment. Another crooked pic.



Much more to come, but sleep beacons and I have a longer day tomorrow than today. Enjoy!

[JohnR]

Cool

I sent you some info on the image and audio file uploading.

[ArthurDent]

Nice Pez, Thanks,  keep dispensing 

[daz_bike]

Thanks for the feedback on the WBT Next Gens. 

However do you know what make/model the 'standard' binding posts were in the demo.  You really need to know what you are comparing the WBT's with to make a judgement on what sort of improvement exists.  The standard could be brass/nickel cheapies in which case a large improvement would be expected.  I wonder what the difference would be if you replaced the 'standard' with a known entity such as Eichman binding posts for instance.

Keep the reports coming in (after some sleep of course!) .... fantastic.

[dangerbird]

Pez,, thank you for taking the time to post a glimpse,and your impressions of the WBT's, which has certainly grabbed my attention. Thank you kind sir.

[2bigears]

  thks Pez,for all that just can't jump on a plane and fly because of our criminal past or we just can't find the scratch,please keep it coming.don't worry bout' slanty pics as they look great.hope the weather and beer is good for all you guys.wish i was there......

[WGH]

Friday was a great day at RMAF, it was not crowded at all and easy to get a seat in the sweet spot. All the venders were very friendly and helpful though some were slightly frustrated trying to get extremely expensive microprocessor controlled equipment to work. After a while my brain reached sensory overload and one room blended into another but here are a few impressions:

Wilson Audio Sasha speakers - excellent sound, these speakers are truly world class.

Lenahan Audio - where did they hide the sub? These little speakers are amazing, everyone who visits their room will be scratching their head wondering how they do it. Amplification is by Monarchy Audio.

Salk Speakers/Audio by VanAlstine - the HT4's (bamboo cabinets) were driven by Franks new tube amps and both were a big hit. The HT4's had some of the best natural, deep bass in the show, the small rooms did not support low bass so in most of the exhibitors systems the lowest octaves were missing. Jim graciously plugged in the Ferrari red HT2-TL's at 6:00 pm so I could have a listen. The speakers are very clear and balanced, the raves for this speaker on the Salk Circle are well deserved. I'm saving up for a pair.

Janszen/Bryston/Wadia - big electrostatics driven by world class electronics, the sound was like a live mike feed. If you like your music detailed to the extreme this is a system to check out, "Keith Don't Go" was mesmerizing.

Wayne

[Pez]

Post 2

And we're in biz-nes!!!!

German Physiks





As usual German Physiks/Vitus comes to the show with a design that is truly unique amongst a world of front baffled driver arrangements German Physiks utilizes an omnidirectional full range (down to 400 hz or so) that is capable of response into 24khz. I like the way the omni directional nature allowed for you to sit almost anywhere and still hear the soundstaging effects. Albeit the sweetspot is still the place to be, anywhere else is still very enjoyable.

{Tyson} - I've never heard German Physiks speakers before and their soundstaging abilities were impressive!  They were not as dynamic as I would have liked, but I suppose that's the tradeoff for omni-directional drivers like this.  Really glad I got to hear them.



Wyredforsound/Emerald Physics




Another great room (of which there were many this year) This is the first time I have had the chance to listen to these beauties. And despite the less than optimal setup for an OB system they managed to get this system sounding lovely. I enjoyed the balls to the wall bass and very coherent performance. I have to say I spent WAY more time than I originally intended in this room. And here is the Emerald Physics room sans wired for sound. Pretty similar sonically.

{Tyson} - I've never heard open baffle bass done really well until we got to this room.  Dynamics and room integration were impressive!  I didn't like the sound of the horn loaded tweeter, but that's a personal preference regarding any type of horn or loaded driver, which a lot of people do not share with me.  Otherwise it was a great sounding room.  I did think that the smaller set of speakers using 8 inch drivers worked a bit better in the small hotel rooms.







The unit next to the computer is an active crossover that is capable of everything from eq'ing bass to room correction

{Tyson} - this was very, very cool stuff!  I already actively EQ with a modded DCX2496, but the design pictured here would go far beyond even the capabilities the 2496 has.  How about the ability to to time domain correction as well as frequency domain correction?  Or the ability to electronically deal with first reflections?  This is leading edge stuff, I hope lots of people understand how good this type of product is.

We also did a Wyred4Sound and an Emerald Physics interview, available here:  http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=72350.0 



Back o Tyson's head.

{Tyson} - It's been a while since I saw a picture of the back of my own head - Hooray for no bald spot!


Merlin/Joule Electra



Am I in heaven? I swear this was again another great room. I loved the Joule Electra tube amps and the Merlins never fail to please IMO. I loved the sweet refined top end and that liquid midrange. And for a relatively small driver/cabinet these things had very believable bass. The Esotar tweet was sweet sweet sweet. ☺

{Tyson} ? Ahhh, soft dome tweeters, paper woofers, and tube amps!  This mirrors the audio setup I have at home and is exactly the type of sound I love.  Top 5 of show, along w/Daedalus, Odyssey, Hansen Speakers, and the Empirical rooms.

Von Schweikert/CI Audio

The Von Schweikert room was full to the brim with slack jawed gawkers and over bearing geeks. It made it very difficult, nay, impossible for me to get a decent idea of what the sound quality was. The equipment looked hawt! Other than that I was not able to assess much more.

Much more to come!

[Pez]

Post 3

Benchmark Media/Studio Electric
 

Another room brimming with dorks, I really couldn?t get a good assessment of the sound here, but I hope you enjoy the crazy looking pic.

{Tyson} ? Another room we didn't have time to really sit down and listen to, but the speakers looked very cool.  And props to the vendors, they had an open bottle of Macallan 25 year old Scotch on their refreshment table!  No glass was available, unfortunately.  Next time I guess I'll just drink some straight out of the bottle!


Atma-sphere/Classic Audio

Low watts, big drivers, and horns. What can I say, I thought the dynamics were pretty darn nice! I thought that the Bass was a bit boomy, but with any show you have to give it a pass, it?s so hard or sometimes impossible to tune out bad bass inside of 24 hours. I did enjoy the big presentation though.




Analysis Audio

Sorry folks, I literally hopped in, snapped some shots and hopped out. I hope you enjoy the pics. Some Appogees! Err Analysis Audio
 


BPT/Empirical Room



Big giant open baffle ribbon panels and 4 15" bass OB drivers X 2. The pic doesn't do this room justice these ribbons are more than 7 feet tall. I apparently did not get a pic of the woofers. Sorry! I fell in love with the deep DEEP soundstage these babies projected. They were made by Chris Hoff of BPT. I think this room wins my vote for one of the best soundstaging and imaging. Simply put Empirical knows digital better than almost other company right now. More more more to come!

{Tyson} ? Yes, this was a great room.  First day the bass was too loud, but second day we came back and it sounded great.  Soundstage was even better than the German Physics room, and dynamics and clarity were among the best I heard at the entire show.  Steve and Chris really know their stuff.

[Pez]

post 4

Acapella/Audio Imports
 


Loved the eccentric design philosophy. Plasma tweeter, dome midrange driver loaded in an horn. Again another big dynamics system. And the room had a ton of pricy tweaks and mystery objects very interesting. Innards of the Plasma tweeter. Sounded pretty decent too.
{Tyson} ? Very cool room, a kind of heaven for the super-tweaky amongst us.  Unfortunately they were having some problems, there was some minor distortion coming through the highs that prevented us from getting a really good handle on their capabilities.



High end breaker box.


tweak table


Close up of the Plasma tweeter.


YG Accoustics celebrity watch! Tyson on the left, Scott F on the right.

YG is a local (local as in Arvada Colorado) audio company. If you have not heard/seen them the pictures tell all. HUGE aluminum monolithic designs with highly customized scanspeak stuff. Meticulously assembled and tested. Had some great fun listening to Chinese drum tracks on this relatively dynamic setup. The guys with YG acoustics are wonderful! down to earth and willing to talk to anyone even the majority of people who cannot afford these beauties.

{Tyson} ? Beautiful speakers and great guys to talk to.  Check out our interview with them here: http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=72350.0



Still more to come!

[Pez]

post 5

Audio Unlimited

Audio Unlimited is a local dealer, that said, I will post a few pictures of their super duper megabuck you will never ever own it systems. They sounded pretty good, just don?t touch. I can't remember the name of these speakers (a little help anyone? pm me please) but The Hansen Audio speakers were far and away my favorite in the AudioUnlimited megabuck rooms.

{Tyson} ? I loooooved the sound of the Hansen speakers, which shocked me because I figured they would be the typical dry and bright sound that metal drivers have.  But the speakers sounded wonderful!

 

{Tyson} ? AHA!  These aren't metal drivers at all ? it's some kind of multi-layered composite (looks almost like a honeycomb material).  No wonder the speakers sound so good.  Plus I also found out they are phase coherent and all the drivers are physically time-aligned.  Clearly these guys know how to build a good speaker



I've died and gone to Accuphase heaven!



Smaller possibly slightly less overly priced?





Vinyl Porn



JM Labs/Focal (audio unlimited cont'd)


{Tyson} ? I've always disliked the sound of JM Lab speakers, and this year was no exception.

Don't be deceived by the flowers, this amp was freaking massive!
 



Legacy Audio
 I thought this was the most reasonable of the you can't afford it rooms (of which there were many) Though IMO Legacy isn't winning any contest in any category for me. Although they have very great attributes, none of them jump to mind as outstanding IMO.

{Tyson} ? Agreed w/Jason, I thought this room would have a bigger, more dynamic sound, but the speakers sounded remarkably small.



Sorry for the dark pics on this one. I've contacted Legacy to see if they'd send me these piece so I can get a better one. They laughed at me. :
 

Other legacy room.



More to come (yes folks, this is day 1 coverage still. )

[Bob in St. Louis]

Pez, You're a stud. 
Thanks for the pics dude. Most appreciated by those of us that couldn't make it.
Your work with all the photographs is fantastic. Thank you, thank you.

Bob

[Pez]

post 6

Dynaudio




The Consequence II The latest, greatest, most expensive Project Dynaudio has ever undertaken. The result of many many years and literally millions of dollars of research. Technology beyond your wildest imagination. The speaker looks like someone took it and turned it on its head (bass driver on the top, and super tweeter on the bottom) and unfortunately for Dynaudio they sounded exactly like they looked. Like the soundstage consisted of smurfs. Everything came from down low, nothing sounded right and it was easily the worst megabuck system that I heard. Do I attribute the sound to ?bad room etc?? No the speakers either need way more space to integrate or Dynaudio made a terrible mistake in placing the tweeters at the bottom of the cabinet, ie your treble is going to be eaten alive by the carpet not to mention most people's ears are on their heads, I wonder where Dynaudio's engineers are located? I was so unimpressed I went back a second time to make sure I got the sweetspot to give it a second chance. I will tell you it's not quite as bad from the sweet spot, but it was far from good. Another issue arose. When I wasn't in the sweet spot in the back row, if someone was even slightly in the way of the tweeters I completely lost the soundstage. The further you are from the sweetspot the more the voices seem to come from the ground. Bad stuff here folks.

{Tyson} ? Yes, these speakers are a terrible design.  Sound comes from the floor.  Maybe they made these speakers for people that are so rich, that they prefer looking down on the performers.


AVA/Salk

 

It was great to meet everyone in this room. They had WAY to many speakers in the room to chose from (which is a great thing) and you can definitely see these guys have a sense of humor as well as a solid understanding of what goes in their designs. Really fun stuff here. Check out the great looking gear!

{Tyson} ? It was great to meet Frank, Wayner, and Jim in person.  Unfortunately while we were there the focus was on changing out to a new pair of speakers, so I got to hear very little in this room.  I will say that the speakers and the new Ultravalve amps are beautiful, better than pictures can convey.  We also did a very interesting interview with Frank & the gang, which you can listen to here:  http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=72350.0

Another very impressive thing about this room was the esoteric speaker wire, which used a combination of cloth and air dielectric, something that no one else seems to be doing, outside of a few companies from Japan.

 

Ultravalve up close!



Again, hilarious sense of humor here. Check out the rope thick cabling on this baby!

[fly_fish_nz]

Great stuff - Thanks Pez!

[capwkidd]

Can someone tell me what the make/model of the unit to the right of the imac is, and the item below it?

Another great room (of which there were many this year) This is the first time I have had the chance to listen to these beauties. And despite the less than optimal setup for an OB system they managed to get this system sounding lovely. I enjoyed the balls to the wall bass and very coherent performance. I have to say I spent WAY more time than I originally intended in this room.

And here is the Emerald Physics room sans wired for sound. Pretty similar sonically.


the unit next to  the computer is an active crossover that is capable of everything from eq'ing bass to room correction

[Pez]

Tyson is starting to add his comments. I am editing them into my text in red.   

[twitch54]

Am I in heaven? I swear this was again another great room. I loved the Joule Electra tube amps and the Merlins never fail to please IMO. I loved the sweet refined top end and that liquid midrange. And for a relatively small driver/cabinet these things had very believable bass. The Esotar tweet was sweet sweet sweet. ☺

Agreed, Bobby P. gets it right year after year !

pic below, day one cocktail hour, L to R........ Lonewolf, Wayne, Twitch, Steve, Wayner and I believe...Ed ?

[Dracule1]

They're both Firewire Pro DACs (and much more).  The silver unit next to the iMac is the Apogee Ensemle DAC:

http://www.proaudioreview.com/article/17390

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-much-gear-so-little-time/71114-apogee-ensemble-personal-thoughts.html

Item below it is the Prism Sound Orpheus DAC, said to be better than the Esemble:

http://www.prismsound.com/music_recording/products_subs/orpheus/orpheus_home.php

http://www.sonicstate.com/news/2008/03/17/messe08-prism-orpheus-firewire-io/

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/high-end/418542-apogee-ensemble-prism-orpheus-upgrade-experience.html

Can someone tell me what the make/model of the unit to the right of the imac is, and the item below it?

Another great room (of which there were many this year) This is the first time I have had the chance to listen to these beauties. And despite the less than optimal setup for an OB system they managed to get this system sounding lovely. I enjoyed the balls to the wall bass and very coherent performance. I have to say I spent WAY more time than I originally intended in this room.

And here is the Emerald Physics room sans wired for sound. Pretty similar sonically.


the unit next to  the computer is an active crossover that is capable of everything from eq'ing bass to room correction

[Pez]

Unstickied for now

[TheChairGuy]

I forgot how good (and extensive) your coverage was last year....outstanding folks

See ya' tomorrow....John