Went to the AK fest on Saturday and Sunday morning. It was fun to get away and meet some people that hang out at AudioKarma. There were probably about a dozen manufacturer’s rooms and a half dozen “personal” rooms. Rooms where a couple guys brought in their systems and set them up for the weekend. Those 1970-80’s solid-state guys are almost just as nutz as the tube guys
There were rooms by McIntosh, Manley, Tetra, Salk Sound, and Blue Circle to name a few and a couple dealers there as well. It cost $20 for two days and included lunch on Saturday.
Pics here
http://www.audiokarma.org/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=3026&si=&page=1&sort=8&perpage=12&password=&ppuser=&what=&name=&=Rooms I liked were:
Salk’s
Tetra speakers/Roland power
Harbeth speakers/?
MacIntosh gear rocks, speakers very good but, $$
Equipment that didn’t do it for me:
Zu Speakers – cool cabinets
Maggie 1.6 (never heard them, almost bought a used pair)/AR power
Vandersteen 2C/ a rack of cool vintage Pioneer gear, modded Spec 2 amps
It was your typical hotel room set ups except with the added rooms of individual’s private systems. It was fun to go into a room and listen to someone’s system. Talking with them with the changes they made, how it improved, etc with out a sales pitch. Great to have both, IMO. The guy from Blue Circle was a hoot and took the pics above. Didn’t like the speakers he was using though.
The Maggies that I finally had a chance to hear didn’t impress me too much. I’m sure the room had a lot to do with it. Tetra’s little standers were real good, IMO. Amazing bass from a 4”er. The Harbeth’s also sounded good to me but don’t care for the cabinets. I wish I could have heard the small Totem standers they had in the same room. They had a lot of speakers in that room.
Salk Sound was the only room set up diagonally. Jim also uses a DEQX unit to help the room response. Heard the infamous Salk demo CD again and I finally may be tired of Jennifer Warnes…ha ha. Jim’s wife, Mary, was there and I had a chance to talk with her for a while. Great sound and beautiful speakers in Jim’s room.
Reading about how equipment sounds, listening to it, and reading what others say about the same equipment tells me a lot about audio nuts. We all have our different ideas on how we like our music reproduced.
That’s all folks.
And, thank you Jim.
