[krikor]

any more comments on these?

Not sure if it was the room, the electronics, the speakers or just a combination of things, but the Cirrus didn't do it for me.  Don't get me wrong, they sounded good but not fabulous to me. Perhaps my expectations were too high, especially given the build and price.  Perhaps too much detail as JLM mentioned.

On the other hand, I REALLY liked the Vapor Aurora.  Went back today was just amazed by those speakers.  Big, deep soundstage. Effortless sound with a natural, very listenable top-end, not hyper detailed.  And what bass, I don't how many times people had to ask if the subs were in action (they weren't).  Wish I had the extra coin for a pair (as a bit extra for the BMC gear with it).

[JohnR]

Hm, Rich didn't post a link to his "live" coverage, so I will

 http://rich.hifizine.com/

[vortrex]

Not sure if it was the room, the electronics, the speakers or just a combination of things, but the Cirrus didn't do it for me.  Don't get me wrong, they sounded good but not fabulous to me. Perhaps my expectations were too high, especially given the build and price.  Perhaps too much detail as JLM mentioned.

hopefully it was just one of those factors since my Cirrus are in mid-build now...

[TomS]

I was able to attend Saturday and had a good time listening, catching up with a few people, and snapping a few iPad pics.

First up was the Odyssey room. It was great to see Klaus, Alex, and Bryan team up and, dare I say, see Klaus using room treatments, no plants! The first thing they did was rip the plastic lighting panels out of the ceiling above and I'm sure the hotel appreciates that. Bryan showed some of their new tuned traps, which I'd love to try out. Alex had the Kismet tube phono stage right next to a Kismet integrated and also debuted a new solid state one on the rack upper right with MC/MM at about $1k. Sadly vinyl wasn't playable due to something fubar'd early on. The new monitors sounded really nice in the big room. Clean, plenty of output, and the beryllium tweeters were nicely integrated. I could easily live with those. Klaus also showed off the new equipment stands he's apparently making. Those cylinders are black anodized aluminum tube, shown in the pic on the table in raw form. Heavy stuff even without sand. He just loves heavy metal.

[TomS]

The Salk room had plenty of eye and ear candy to choose from. I heard the big SoundScapes and later the SS8's sounding sweet at both AK and Pete's, though he has a bit of an edge with his super room. I had a nice chat with Jim, always gracious and informative. I'd say the SS8 is going to be another smash hit. It is smaller and tidier than it appears, should fit in to a lot of space the others wouldn't and sounds terrific.

[TomS]

Next up were the 2 rooms with Vapor speakers - Ryan and Bill from Morningstar. All were brand new out of the box with no hours. I really wanted to hear the Cirrus sing, but they were in the loud play break in mode so probably not at their best. The little Breeze with the BMC electronics sounded very good, with decent bass from such a small monitor, and of course the RAAL tweeter all for $1200 - nice. All of them were beautifully executed and seemed to use only the best parts. The white ones with the Beyma had that Star Wars white armor sort of look to them. Unfortunately I didn't get to hear them.

[TomS]

The big Hawthornes looked really impressive. They were playing kind of low and lean when I was in the small room which they were dominating, but I suspect in their natural habitat they would really be da' bomb. Beautifully crafted and finished as well.

[TomS]

Rick at Selah had the Arc Arrays, sorry couldn't remember the exact name. They sounded very even and clean, were nicely made, and surely incorporate ingenious and complex engineering, but I still couldn't quite grasp the $12k+ tag  on them since they're a scaled down version of the big boys. Overall, good sound and good music choices, as always, in their room.

[JLM]

The problem with any full array is the cost for drivers (in this case 40 per cabinet).  As the price goes up so does your expectation for good drivers.  Rick showed my the tweeters they use - lots of excursion but tiny and pretty cheap looking (but what do I know?).

Those (10) 4.5 inch drivers have less total area than (1) 15 inch driver and with the biasing applied probably less than (1) 12 incher.

From the other end of the spectrum, my single driver speakers have, $800+ drivers.

[JLM]

The big Arcus sounded very nice (hard to say more at the end of the day of listening to so many things), but was as visually imposing as a Star Wars stormtrooper.     I'm sure in a large/white room it'd be much better.  Was told they were ordered for a customer for use as LF/RF in a 5.1 audio/HT system.

[OzarkTom]

I am afraid those arc arrays would never come to my house even if they sold for $500 and are the world's best speakrts. My wife would throw them and me out of the house.

[TomS]

I am afraid those arc arrays would never come to my house even if they sold for $500 and are the world's best speakrts. My wife would throw them and me out of the house.

Yes, they are very funky looking, form definitely following function. Eclectic decor would be the game there   

[Rick Craig]

The problem with any full array is the cost for drivers (in this case 40 per cabinet).  As the price goes up so does your expectation for good drivers.  Rick showed my the tweeters they use - lots of excursion but tiny and pretty cheap looking (but what do I know?).

Those (10) 4.5 inch drivers have less total area than (1) 15 inch driver and with the biasing applied probably less than (1) 12 incher.

From the other end of the spectrum, my single driver speakers have, $800+ drivers.

The tweeter module Don Keele showed you is from the CBT-36 kit and is much different than the tweeters used in the show arrays.

[JLM]

The tweeter module Don Keele showed you is from the CBT-36 kit and is much different than the tweeters used in the show arrays.

Thanks for the correction, sorry my bad.   

[doorman]

I am afraid those arc arrays would never come to my house even if they sold for $500 and are the world's best speakrts. My wife would throw them and me out of the house.

I was thinking the same thing, they'd be a deal breaker. Not to mention some of those really huge offerings!
Best
Don

[Doc77]

I own a pair of Cirrus in the exact configuration as Bill was running in the EE room, and something was off there.  It was like there was a layer of hash over the entire presentation that really took away from what they do best.  I thought the much cheaper Breeze was more refined and fleshed out sounding, like what I hear at home when I listen to my Cirrus.  Ryan told me the Cirrus should clearly separate itself from the Breeze as the better speaker, and was bummed that Bill's setup wasn't doing them justice. 

[bpape]

Just a quick note to say thanks to everyone who stopped by our room and the nice comments we got.  We did get the vinyl going for all day Sunday and it sounded really nice. 

Also, a quick thanks to Dave, Nancy, and the rest of the AKFEST staff for putting on this event. While very different from RMAF, its much more relaxed feel makes it a lot of fun to do. 

Bryan

[cstory]

My wife and I attended Saturday and it was our first show. It was interesting (and hot in some of the rooms) and we enjoyed our time there. Many thanks to the organizers for putting together something here in the Midwest.

I just wanted to share our impressions. On the negative side it got to the point where if we entered a room and heard Patricia Barber, Diana Krall, or some other acoustic Jazz, we left and tried to come back later when something different was playing. Come on people, have a little imagination with the music.  That sort of recording sounds good on almost any system.

Our favorite rooms pretty much mirror the ones mentioned so far.

We like Selah's arched array speakers. They have a nice unboxy presentation and they were dynamic.

We liked the Hawthornes, but overall we felt they lacked a bit of detail and were a little woolly in the bass. Maybe it's the amplifiers. I've never quite understood tubes.

The Oddessey monitors were very nice and of all the two ways, I like them the best. But then again I have a pair of Selah Grandeur's that use the same Scan Speak woofer so it's a sound I'm familiar with and like.

The Salks are wonderfully finished. We especially like the veneer on the small two ways that were on the table. Oh...and they sounded pretty good too. At least the Soundscapes, which were the one's playing when we were there.

Those were the rooms that stood out to us. The other rooms were good too, and we appreciated the effort that people made to bring and set up the systems.

Hopefully it will happen again next year.

Chuck

[Rick Craig]

Thanks for the correction, sorry my bad.   

No problem - thanks for visiting our room.

[stlrman]

I am surprised that some of you really enjoyed the Oddessey standmounts.
My wife and I thought they sounded horrid. Boxy,zero tonality, when the bass came in , it sounded like bad explosions in the box. I stopped in the room at least three short times. At 3500? I have bought $500 speakers used, namely the Green Mountain Europas that would blow them out of the water in every single parameter.
Also, The Salk Songtowers sounded really compressed, constrained,and overloaded.
If this is too harsh, sorry.
Todd