[SoCalWJS]

Did anyone take any pictures of the system in room 1022 at the Hilton?

"Million Dollar Sound- when price isn't the shocker and sound is....."

I've got a couple, but I seem to have focused on a "black box" and one "PA Lookin' " speaker - can't believe I didn't take an "overall" photo. 
I thought the sound in the room was just OK - they were focusing on their technology, but should have used beter/different speakers.

[jhm731]

I've got a couple, but I seem to have focused on a "black box" and one "PA Lookin' " speaker - can't believe I didn't take an "overall" photo. 
I thought the sound in the room was just OK - they were focusing on their technology, but should have used beter/different speakers.

Here's a quote from TAS reviewer Robert E. Greene about the sound in RM.
1022 at the Hilton:

"What can I say? When you're right, you're right.

It was gorgeous, to my ears some of the most beautiful and musically truthful sound at that or any other show. And indeed Alex* got the room really out of the system to a startling extent. The room was small and not promising looking at all in acoustical terms. But the sound was wonderful.

Great work indeed! I gather that the measurement and filter construction process is quite intricate. But whatever is happening, it really works.This exhibit made almost every other exhibit sound somehow speaker-like--sometimes like good speakers, but like speakers. Alex's exhibit sounded like musical sound, not like speaker sound in a way not easy to express in words, but instantly and convincingly heard.

Congratulations are definitely in order! Hats in the air and three cheers! REG"

*Alex Zaets

Does anyone who was at the 2012 Newport Show and visited RM.1022 at the Hilton, think it was the "most beautiful and musically truthful sound at that or any other show?"

[Cheeseboy]

What was your favorite room? 

#1 for me was shared by TAD playing the files they traded for use of thier reference speakers mixing and mastering for file access to digital masters.  You just can't beat good software and hardware.  And then the Scaena and VAC combo room.  Both of these were special and wonderful sounding systems.  I could have spent hours in both of these rooms. 

Room 1022 was listened but unmemorable.  What was in it?  I listened.  Can't remember.

My favorite value room goes to Wally at Underwoods, Marantz/Peachtree/Emerald Physics/REL system.  For $6500 it sounded far above its price tag.  Open baffle bliss. 

[BrassEar]

Some random thoughts from Sunday. My second time at this show:

Best sound:
Coincident
Sanders Stats

Best Demo:
Totem HT demo showing Mr. and Mrs. Smith shootout segment. One of the best audio/video demos ever seen. Nice folks too.

Most of the rooms sounded pretty weak IMHO.  No point in signalling them out after the show. Tried to get into the Maggie demo several times but Wendell kept turning us away for the next demo. I can't understand why people say this guy was nice. Wendell was incredibly rude in a show more or less filled with nice people. Made me feel that much better for replacing my Maggies with Martin Logans.

When I got home my humble system was as good or better than about 95% of what I heard at a fraction of the price. Gotta love Roger Sanders and his NO BS TWEAK policy in his room. Plain wires and run of the mill CD/DVD player proving their is still a few sane audiophools left in the world.

[Russtafarian]

Last night as I was walking to my car around 8pm I saw Richard Vandersteen muscling a pair of big diffuser panels into his truck.  I said hi and complemented him on his room and we ended up chatting for a few minutes.  Among other things we talked about, he made a few interesting points about show conditions that I hadn’t considered before.  He said the ambient noise level in a hotel demo room is a lot higher than at home, so to get the same signal to noise ratio, the system has to be pushed much harder than normal which logarithmically increases the system distortion.  He said his demo room sounded good for show conditions but he was only getting about 50% of what he hears from his model 7’s at home.  My friend has 7’s and I can confirm that his set up sounds better than what I heard in Richard’s room at the show.

Nice guy.  Even at the end of an exhausting week he was willing to talk and share his passion for great audio.

Russ

[jhm731]

Room 1022 was listened but unmemorable.  What was in it?  I listened.  Can't remember.

"The room will be called Acoustic Zen/Million Dollar Sound and the trick is:
for the source we will be using a generic $100 DVD player paired with $1000 Ice
Power amp and all going through a $750 Digital Equalizer/Preamp. No power
conditioners nor expensive cables will be used. The prototype speakers we will
be using are made from MDF purchased and cut at the local Home Depot. Ported
boxes measure 15x22x12 inches and contain four 6.5 inch woofers and a couple of 2 inch round ribbon tweeters each.

The goal is to show what can be done by proper equalization to a sound in a
regular room while using a regular components. The ultimate goal will be to make the Best Sounding Room in the show. Based on experiments here in San Diego our sound should be mind blowing, something no one has ever heard. We decided to go with inexpensive gear in order to make the whole experience a bit more dramatic for all non-believers."

[J-Pak]

Sanders Sound System. 
This was one of my favorite shows at T.H.E. Show last year, and this year did not disappoint.  The model 10 electrostats cost a "mere" $13,000, which INCLUDES the Magnetech amp used for bass and the outboard digital crossover.  Some of the unique technology that set this 'stat/woofer hybrid include the very steep crossover slope due to the digital crossover, enabling the crossover point to be pushed down to a low 172 Hz with 48 dB/octave slopes, essentially preventing the woofer from intruding on the wonderful 'stat midrange.  "Ultrastat" panels are arc-proof and can play very loud, with added benefit of 94dB sensitivity.  Unlike last year, this room allowed show-goers to play their own tracks at the end of the show, and I was able to confirm with my own demo tracks these these offer some of the highest resolving, purest, yet smooth sound around, with the transmission-line bass delivering great, fast bass without intruding on the midrange. 

DZ3C3702 by drjlo3, on Flickr

Great speakers. Just curious if you've heard Sound Labs?

[Jed]

Jed, I attended the show on Saturday morning and heard the Symphonias in Wyred4Sound's second room to the left. They were BLOODY TERRIFIC - among the top speakers I heard all day! Wyred were playing some kind of world music, with lots of acoustic instruments and strong percussion - what I remember most vividly was the incredible sense of dynamic kick - bass was DEEP and impactful. I was looking for subwoofers, myself. There was tonal purity and yet a humongous scale to the sound of those dual 7" Accutons!     

Cheers

Much appreciated Alec_cat.  I'm glad you enjoyed the system including the Clearwave Symphonia 72Rs, as much as we do.  To the next show we go!

Best Regards,
Jed

[SoCalWJS]

here's what I took of room 1022.









..... might trigger some memories?????? (I was focusing on power conditioners  )

[Cheeseboy]

The fog is clearing.  If I recall correctly the hybrid speakers were screwed up on purpose.  The room was set up with no treatments.  The technology was put into the system to show off a room correction system that would help the worst system in the worst room. 

It worked.  In my opinion it wasn't in the same zip code as the best sounding room at the event.  jhm731 are you affiliated with the room in question? 

[jhm731]

jhm731 are you affiliated with the room in question?

Never heard of this system until I read about it on REG's forum this morning.

[Cheeseboy]

I guess I should have given the sound a chance.  The gentlemen in the room didn't reach me very well in setting up the predict and prove experiment.  I listened haphazardly.  Sorry.  There were alot worse rooms. 

Like why did Channel Islands demo on such a less than revealing and bandwidth limted pair of speakers?  I was expecting more from them.   I was expecting to have a friend hear a quality demonstration and trade his amps in for the CI 500's.  The demo was pretty weak. 

[SoCalWJS]

I guess I should have given the sound a chance.  The gentlemen in the room didn't reach me very well in setting up the predict and prove experiment.  I listened haphazardly.  Sorry.  There were alot worse rooms. 

Like why did Channel Islands demo on such a less than revealing and bandwidth limted pair of speakers?  I was expecting more from them.   I was expecting to have a friend hear a quality demonstration and trade his amps in for the CI 500's.  The demo was pretty weak.

I resemble that remark.





























......... now the big VAC's..............

[CIAudio]

Like why did Channel Islands demo on such a less than revealing and bandwidth limted pair of speakers?  I was expecting more from them.   I was expecting to have a friend hear a quality demonstration and trade his amps in for the CI 500's.  The demo was pretty weak.

Sorry you were disappointed... others thought it was very good.
http://hifiqc.wordpress.com/

Our demo system was originally meant to be a small system (for the small demo room) but we ran out of D-100B's right before the show, so we substituted the D-500's.
The main product we were showing was our new Transient MKII Asynchronous USB Converter, and it was received very well. Many also liked the prototype loudspeakers... we could have sold about 100 pair if they were production ready.

To show what the D-500's can do would take a much larger speaker (& room).

[Cheeseboy]

Thank you for the kind explaination.  I guess there is no "one size fits all" demo opportunity at these shows.  That makes perfect sense for the size of the speakers and the size of the amps and other equipment for the demo.  We didn't know that was a CI speaker design.  No badges on them that I saw. 

 

[melomaniac]

The new Eddie Current Audio "Electra" electrostat amp is supposed to be there.  See it?

driving stax 009 and wow - oh, I wish I hadn't listened to that...

[Jon L]

driving stax 009 and wow - oh, I wish I hadn't listened to that...

Just work more, and then some more..  To add to insult, Craig at Eddie Current confirmed to me that more electrostat amplifiers are coming of different topology that will necessitate more $$$ than Electra 

[abernardi]

I also find it amazing the different tastes.  I met another Audiocircle fellow at the show and we compared notes and our favorites were completely different, except we both liked the Silverlines, tho he loved the small ones, which I thought were alright, I loved the big ones, which he thought were too boomy, which surprised me because I hate boomy. 
   It's a shame that these shows can't be done under better conditions because as Mr. Vandersteen pointed out, the ambient sound level was so high, those systems really had to work to be heard.  I'd like to see a series of shows, each one focusing on one element in the chain, DAC's let's say, played on the same reference system in a tuned room.  Then the next day would be amps, next day preamps, then speakers, then tweaks, then voodoo tweaks!  That would be very cool.

[lonewolfny42]

Thanks for the great photos and comments....  

[enjoythemusic]

Agree lonewolfny42, you guys really have posted some cool stuff! Just woke up and still have a HUGE pile of work ahead of me. Man it has been a LONG week...  Great show and from what i heard there really were MANY impressive sounding rooms. Was imposssible for me to pick just a few. My report is now all done and at www.enjoythemusic.com/the_show_newport_2012/