[HerculePirate]

Good day Gents,
I consider myself the least experienced of the lot here and my gear is SB3 - TacT M2150XDM - Salk HT3.
I am a believer in Room Correction for MY SITUATION... may be a poison for many.....
In no way can equipment be the first target of blame or bad performance without the consideration of a room influence.... I know this is an old theory for many but being with a TacT I have come closer to this truth....

In another vein ... I steer clear away from people who call $20K USD equipment as a BARGAIN.... Thats when I close the article and look away.....

Though I have never gone into Frank's equipment but the journey with Salk's and AVA has made this idea more clearer.....
The interaction and attention that Jim and AVA give make their equipment worth a lot more than $$$.

Cheers...

HP
"the ringing of the division bell has begun"

[R Swerdlow]

woodsyi

It seems that you live in the Washington, DC area.  Have you considered visiting Dennis in Bethesda and hearing his SS10s in a home environment as opposed to hotel conference rooms or the marble mausoleum in the Rockville mansion?  It also seems he will soon have SS12 bass units as well.

You could bring your own choice of music and, if so inclined, your preamp or amp, or your own speakers too.  It only is limited by the size of your forklift.

I highly recommend a visit to the Salk Secret Sound Labs.  It is a speaker junkies delight.  And Dennis is both friendly and fascinating.

Richard

[DMurphy]

woodsyi It seems that you live in the Washington, DC area.  Have you considered visiting Dennis in Bethesda and hearing his SS10s in a home environment as opposed to hotel conference rooms or the marble mausoleum in the Rockville mansion?  It also seems he will soon have SS12 bass units as well.
Richard

I think Woodsyi and I met up at the D.C. show and had a nice talk.  He's most welcome to stop by and listen to the SS10's at a reasonable level.  I just got 4 CD's of opera selections for my contribution to WETA classical radio.  I would be very interested in his candid opinion after listening in a speaker-friendly environment.

[woodsyi]

I would love to come over and listen to your SS.  I will even bring my own amp/preamp to compare.  I am curious what opera selections WETA made.  I listen to it everyday at work (background music) and they never play any arias with vocals -- only the orchestra versions.  PM me what weekend works best for you. 

Thanks and I am looking forward to it.

[DMurphy]

I would love to come over and listen to your SS.  I will even bring my own amp/preamp to compare.  I am curious what opera selections WETA made.  I listen to it everyday at work (background music) and they never play any arias with vocals -- only the orchestra versions.  PM me what weekend works best for you. 
Thanks and I am looking forward to it.

You've been PM'd.  The only opera they play is on Saturday afternoon--the Met during the season and other opera companies out  of season.  Vocal music is the third rail for classical music stations.  It's kind of weird--virtually all of pop broadcast music is vocal, and virtually all of classical broadcast music is instrumental. 

[markie]

Here's what the stereotimes.com website said about the Soundscapes at RMAF 2010:

Jim Salk's Soundscape loudspeaker at a mere $15k, has to be among the most affordable as well as attractive loudspeaker I've heard that can reproduce the lower octaves with the quality and ease it demonstrated. Fit 'n finish looks exquisite on the model shown above. The Soundscape's RAAL ribbon tweeter sits above a 3" Accuton midrange and housed in an separate enclosure. These drivers are supported by a 12" long-throw woofer along with dual side-firing passive radiators. After walking around the show and seeing so many ridiculously priced gear - on a hunch - guessed this attractive sounding transducer at about $40k. Of course, I was astonished to find I was $25k over its asking price. An amazing bargain! Salk (photo above) is either a genius who cares about the regular Joes or he's absolutely nuts. One way or another, his designs are sure to make it hard for many other designers of crazily-priced 3-way speakers to justify their costs. I love it!

[markie]

Here's what Steve Marsh from sixmoons.com had to say about the Van Alstine / Salk room at RMAF 2010:

Getting my vote for the best sound per dollar system had to be the Audio by Van Alstine room. Salk Signature Song Tower QWT loudspeakers ($1795/pair) were powered by the Van Alstine Ultravalve tube amp ($1695). The front end was a novel setup using an Oppo Blu-ray player and sending the HDMI output into an Atlona AT-HD577 Audio De-embedder, which picked out the stereo audio signal and sent it on to a Van Alstine Vision Hybrid DAC (decodes up to 24/192). I didn’t know the source material playing when I entered but it had a wonderful full and rich female vocal with a punchy bass underpinning. You really had to wonder if anyone needed to spend more money than this for musical enjoyment.