ok, s'more pics and impressions. i liked the daedalus athena's, after i sat on the floor. i think they need to be on short stands, or tilted back a bit. lou, who seems to be a great guy, said they would have done better if you could have been 10'-12' away. i agree. excellent bass that was perfect for the room - energizing it w/o overloading it. wery detailed even toned smooth sound. good attack & decay.
scott doing his lonewolf impression on one of what are now
his athena's
the $2400 delivered speakers that ty of tyler audio was demo'ing seemed a good walue, if not the most refined sound. they were full range and detailed enough. i'd be curious about his other speakers, that are more audiophile-directed.
the sonist concerto 4's were ok, but i am not sure they were $5800 ok. the demo'er was saying how well they could do w/the 5wpc glow audio amp he was using, and that might be true, but i bet they would have done better w/an amp of at least 10-15wpc. and, i would be interested in hearing their more affordable offerings. for $5800 (or for any price) i wanna be drawn in, and it wasn't happening.
the cathedral audio speakers may as well have stuck a single speaker in their room and played it mono; the set-up seemed so inappropriate for the room. tone was ok, but that was all you could tell.
wintage scott amp driving the cathedral's
classic audio fared a little better, but they should have really demo'd only one pair of speakers in their room - the two pairs they had simply did not fit, imo, and the sound suffered for it. i only got to hear the larger pair, and the others were in the direct sound path.
amp(s) driving the classic's
the paolo audio speakers had amazing warmth and bass for a single-driver full range speaker, but it was nothing i could live with - it was bloated & the detail got lost. their round wood buttonless remote that you simply rotate one direction or the other for wolume control was a trip!
the living voice auditorium speakers were another speaker, that like the sonist, seemed ok, but did not really grab me and make me wanna listen. i was actually really wanting to hear these, as i have read so much about them. i am not exactly sure which model they were, but w/the "obx" outboard x-over, i know they're a min of ~$10k - serious coin. maybe it was the room, or maybe it was the fact that none of the beautiful tubed electronics in the room were connected to the speaker, but it was simply uninwolving sound.
i really liked the little volti veretta's; the rep turned it down at one point, saying they were being max'd out w/the low power amp driving them (rated 94db/1w), and that the room was really too big for them. odd, it was a small hotel room!?! personally, i thought it was rocking; if a bit on the lean side. they'd be perfect w/a pair of subs, me-thinks. nice soundstaging, nice detail, and these did draw you in and make you wanna listen.
equipment driving the volti veretta's:
ridiculous power cord also shown in the volti room:
i listened to the smaller polks at the show; $1500/pair buys you a full-range big sound that will easily fill a large room. not the most refined or detailed, but listenable; i bet these will sell to a lot of folks yust starting to get into serious audio, and they will wonder why anyone would ever be wanting to spend more.
electronics at polk:
special mit biwire cable for the polk monitors
deja vu audio had some big wintage-looking horns playing in one of their rooms; i wanted to listen more, but ran out of time. i have no idea what they actually were; anyone?
for me, the best sound of the show was around the corner from the first volti room, in a slightly larger room - their bigger brothers the volti vittora's w/a shape to remind you of klipsch offerings. (the owner said he's owned ~20 pairs of kilpschs before deciding to get into the speaker biz, and simply likes the style; that his speakers are not much like klipsch's at all.) anyway, with or w/o the optional powered sub, these thing simply sounded phenomenal, in all aspects. and the fact that they even sounded good at all was totally amazing, as they really need a big room, imo. they were on the long wall of the ~13x18 (i am guessing) room, and they still had excellent soundstaging, even if you were not directly centered. detail, tone, timbre, dynamics, extension - this speaker has it all. i would have loved to hear them in the room that vpi/berning/surreal/dsa occupied.
(sub):
awesome verdier la platine magnetic platter-support-bearing turntable w/soundsmith strain gauge cartridge/phono stage:
unlike phil a, i thought the vpi/berning/surreal/dsa room had one of the best sounds of the show, but not as nice as the room-challenged volti vitorra's. i do agree that the reps at the show were overdoing the salesmanship thing a bit, tho. it actually struck me as funny, more than anything. at one point, one of the listeners interrupted the rep and asked him in a mock-serious woice: "have you ever thought of getting into sales?" everyone in the room cracked up!
aj-in-fla's soundfield audio room also sounded great w/a minimalist set-up and no room treatments. i'd love to hear his speakers in a bigger room. detail, extension, timbre, soundstaging, were all wery nice. maybe the tiniest bit of room overload, but not much. we're talking 18" subs here, iirc correctly. i wanted to hear the smaller sam1's, but they were not in the house...
equipment for the soundfield speakers:
more to come...
doug s.
