[woodsyi]

Clockwise:  Klaus, Phil A, Pansixt, Mix4fix, Bunky and jarcher.

[klaus@odyssey]

Thanks guys....

It was very,  very nice......good people, many friends, very good set-up results, fantastic feedback (much more coming,  hehehe) and superb food, an exhausting but at the same time relaxing and scenic drive, easy to deal with hotel, and a wave of sales.......

I'll be back next year for sure, and will take more time to stay a few extra days to hang with some of you guys...

Thanks again for making me and Irina feel so welcome.  DC rocks.....

Late,
Klaus

PS.  dammit Rim, your way of taking pics added another 20 lbs again .........
Actually, Ira has some nice pics which I'll post soon......

[Letitroll98]

I had a very nice visit with Klaus in his room, very informative without being pushy, prolly why he had so many sales.  Also maybe the price of his products compared to some $15,000 UcD based amps 

I decided not to use any flash with my pics this year, all taken with natural lighting.




The big Daedalus room sounded very nice, well set up, they have a conservative, "I'm not shouting hifi at you" sound.  Not impressive at first blush in a show or audio salon, but maybe more pleasant to live with in the long term.




Jeff's room wasn't clicking on all cylinders Saturday, I know what this setup can do from two years ago, it can be stunning, breathtaking, but not on this day.  Still very good, I could listen for a long time without fatigue, but missing the magic I know is there.




I like MBL's, but although an A+ for lighting effects, the sound was meh for the price.  Very boomy.




AJ's Soundfield speakers sounded great.  Relaxed, detailed, with excellent soundstage, with a killer bass that you don't hear, exactly what a great sub system should sound like, invisible until needed.  I'm not sure if I like the way they're voiced, but I'd need more time to decide.




Some guy playing some jazz with his friends, I may have been to his house, don't know, I was really drunk at the time.




Scott's small Daedalus room was outstanding.  Clean, unassuming, even FR without bells and whistles.  An older style large monitor design you don't see too much these days.




The Sonic Hemisphere's were beautiful in design and sound.  Don't know what the asking price is, didn't ask.  Like my Dad said, "Don't touch it son, it looks expensive."




The Joseph Audio Pulsars are speakers I've lusted after for many years, sounding a little bright and artificial this year.  Missing that sweetness and imaging they usually have.




Jim Salk's Soundscape 8's have such a beautiful tone, I never hear great imaging from Salks, is it the room?


So the overriding theme seemed to be setup problems.  Exactly what you would expect from a new venue, no history so every day was a new tweak.  I had a guest with me this year and so missed a lot of rooms I would have soldered on to hear if I was alone.  If the show is here next year and you need overnight accommodations, I thought the beds were excellent, at least the king size ones, and the rooms were a decent freshening of an older hotel.  Never did eat in the hotel, the bartender had trouble making drinks so we didn't want to risk any more than that.   
 

[AJinFLA]

The guy at the far right (in the bottom pic) has worked in FL in Disney at Pirates of the Carribean.  You probably don't recognize him without the bandana, hook and parrot on his shoulder.

Well, he'd fit right in here in Tampa.

And I'm crushed Bunky isn't the woman with guitar in his avatar  .

cheers,

AJ

[AJinFLA]

Clockwise:  Klaus, Phil A, Pansixt, Mix4fix, Bunky and jarcher.

Thanks and you were eating a 28oz steak???
Good to have met you all.

cheers,

AJ

[vinyl_guy]

The big Daedalus room sounded very nice, well set up, they have a conservative, "I'm not shouting hifi at you" sound.  Not impressive at first blush in a show or audio salon, but maybe more pleasant to live with in the long term.

As a more than 6 year owner of Daedalus speakers, I can state without question that Daedalus speakers are non-fatiguing. You can listen for hours and hours and hours and never get tired of your system and always ready for more. You also get great dynamics, tonal accuracy, a deep and wide soundstage and terrific imaging.

[AJinFLA]

I'm not sure if I like the way they're voiced, but I'd need more time to decide.

Or a couple Newcastles.
Maybe some tubes. They like tubes.
Sorry man, once again came up short despite having a fridge!
I take many things for granted here, like alcohol (and guns) available at every corner. Not so much there. I was informed that only dedicated liquor stores carried that there. Ouch. Didn't have time or inclination to wander far from hotel.
Speaking of which, no, they didn't have Newcastles either at the bar. What a travesty.
Thanks for stopping by anyway Dan. I'll shoot for something other than that shoebox (11.5' w) next time I pick a room.

cheers,

AJ

[jarcher]

Well, he'd fit right in here in Tampa.

And I'm crushed Bunky isn't the woman with guitar in his avatar  .

cheers,

AJ

Argh - eye patch at the cleaners.

Mee dog's from Tampa - that count?

[jarcher]

Or a couple Newcastles.
Maybe some tubes. They like tubes.
Sorry man, once again came up short despite having a fridge!
I take many things for granted here, like alcohol (and guns) available at every corner. Not so much there. I was informed that only dedicated liquor stores carried that there. Ouch. Didn't have time or inclination to wander far from hotel.
Speaking of which, no, they didn't have Newcastles either at the bar. What a travesty.
Thanks for stopping by anyway Dan. I'll shoot for something other than that shoebox (11.5' w) next time I pick a room.

cheers,

AJ

It's the people's republic of Montgomery county. I can assure you that most of the rest of Maryland is as booze and gun happy as its sisters down south. At the risk of further violating AC rules - forgot to mention double blind testing and maybe religion (or are they equivalent?) I'll shut up now.

[jarcher]

I had a very nice visit with Klaus in his room, very informative without being pushy, prolly why he had so many sales.  Also maybe the price of his products compared to some $15,000 UcD based amps 

I decided not to use any flash with my pics this year, all taken with natural lighting.




The big Daedalus room sounded very nice, well set up, they have a conservative, "I'm not shouting hifi at you" sound.  Not impressive at first blush in a show or audio salon, but maybe more pleasant to live with in the long term.




Jeff's room wasn't clicking on all cylinders Saturday, I know what this setup can do from two years ago, it can be stunning, breathtaking, but not on this day.  Still very good, I could listen for a long time without fatigue, but missing the magic I know is there.




I like MBL's, but although an A+ for lighting effects, the sound was meh for the price.  Very boomy.




AJ's Soundfield speakers sounded great.  Relaxed, detailed, with excellent soundstage, with a killer bass that you don't hear, exactly what a great sub system should sound like, invisible until needed.  I'm not sure if I like the way they're voiced, but I'd need more time to decide.




Some guy playing some jazz with his friends, I may have been to his house, don't know, I was really drunk at the time.




Scott's small Daedalus room was outstanding.  Clean, unassuming, even FR without bells and whistles.  An older style large monitor design you don't see too much these days.




The Sonic Hemisphere's were beautiful in design and sound.  Don't know what the asking price is, didn't ask.  Like my Dad said, "Don't touch it son, it looks expensive."




The Joseph Audio Pulsars are speakers I've lusted after for many years, sounding a little bright and artificial this year.  Missing that sweetness and imaging they usually have.




Jim Salk's Soundscape 8's have such a beautiful tone, I never hear great imaging from Salks, is it the room?


So the overriding theme seemed to be setup problems.  Exactly what you would expect from a new venue, no history so every day was a new tweak.  I had a guest with me this year and so missed a lot of rooms I would have soldered on to hear if I was alone.  If the show is here next year and you need overnight accommodations, I thought the beds were excellent, at least the king size ones, and the rooms were a decent freshening of an older hotel.  Never did eat in the hotel, the bartender had trouble making drinks so we didn't want to risk any more than that.   

Couldn't agree more on all points. I think regular rooms were more complimentary sound wise last year, but there's more variety of choice here so exhibitors can find something that works well for future shows.

Sonic hemispheres room was sorta a sleeper hit, but not crazy about speaker cosmetics - very subjective thing though. Good natural sound and Played good tunes as well & nice guys. Bought out all their acoustic treatments (which have still not been unloaded from my car, which makes it hard to drive!). They were pleased but to have to lug it home and gave a good price in appreciation.

VPI / Joseph room was prime example of bad set up issues you mentioned. I think both involved were to some degree not as interested as they should be in associated gear and optimizes set up for SQ. rather more interested that their gear is displayed prominently visually. They'd benefit tremendously from having someone like command performance in years last or other competent dealer do their set up in the future. After all, it don't mean a thing if it don't sound good.

Funny unlike usual I did not hyper obsess about imaging and soundstage with Salk soundscape 8 + AVA amp as the sound / timbre was so right to begin with. Will have to listen more carefully next time. Wavelength DAC is kinda getting long in the tooth, but to tame potentially over bright set up I could see where a nos tube DAC makes some sense. Jim's no dummie on analog or digital gear. I like his server as well evening he seems to only make a small batch at a time to meet occasional customer requests. Attractive and functional. He asks $1k which is not insane.

[jarcher]

Ack !   

Between laggy AC text input and flaky predictive type on portable devices , spend more time fixing posts than writing them. Do the Jedi thing and read through the typos please.

[woodsyi]

I can tell you the Modwright/Daedalus room sounded the best for only 2 people.  Most rooms were shutting down by 3 PM Sunday when I rolled into the room.  I heard the room Saturday and noticed that Argos speakers were more coherent compared to the Orpheus I heard in Denver but they didn't grab me or anything.  They were good but not really engaging.  Back to Sunday, Lou played my own CD for me.  Since there was nobody else in the room I figured I can play my Opera and it wouldn't drive anybody away.  So we played  the track Dupuis le Jour from Charpentier's Louise sung by my favorite diva, Ileana Cotrubas.  It was good and her brittle voice came though intact but still just nice and polite.  Then Lou wanted to do something and changed out the speaker cables and replayed the track.

Wow!

That's what I heard Dan saying in the background.  The texture just changed so much -- for the better.  How should I describe the difference?  The richer texture of her voice emoted passion that wasn't there before.  What was a polite peck on the cheeks went to a full French and I am not talking about the language.  I could feel the love in this love song.  A minuet turned into a tango, emotionally speaking.  This is why I am in this hobby.  Finding moments like this when a song will transport you into another world.  Brava!  And Bravi to Lou and Dan.  Too bad only one other person was there is witness the metamorphosis.    It had to be some synergistic stuff that happens with a cable.  Something clicked. 

[jarcher]

System matching - so true. I've heard on more than one occasion the wrong cables kill a system. Now that I've found mostly transparent and neutral cabling, I mostly try to start with that and keep it there if no major problems present themselves.

[roscoeiii]

AJ's Soundfield speakers sounded great.  Relaxed, detailed, with excellent soundstage, with a killer bass that you don't hear, exactly what a great sub system should sound like, invisible until needed.  I'm not sure if I like the way they're voiced, but I'd need more time to decide.

Can you or other attendees (or AJ), give us an idea of how these new speakers are voiced? This is a speaker that many of us are interested. And brand spankin' new.

[nature boy]

As a more than 6 year owner of Daedalus speakers, I can state without question that Daedalus speakers are non-fatiguing. You can listen for hours and hours and hours and never get tired of your system and always ready for more. You also get great dynamics, tonal accuracy, a deep and wide soundstage and terrific imaging.

I listened to Lou's Athena speakers extensively at the 2012 CAF.  No fatiguing sound with these babies.  While I respect Art Dudley's ears and reviews since his early days at Listener Magazine, I don't think he spent enough time with the Daedalus speakers.  They are some of the most articulate, realistic and easy on the ears speakers I have ever listened too!

NB

[fridays]

Those Daedalus speakers are sure nice looking

[Scottdazzle]

Letitroll 98,

Thank you for the positive feedback on the small Daedalus/ModWright/WyWires system.  I was trying to represent a musically honest and appealing system that many audiophiles can afford and be happy with for a long time.  I was pleased with the system and I'm glad that you and others liked it, too.

One writer commented on a hardness to the sound.  I will attribute that to the room and a/c, not the system.  I tried to turn the a/c off when I heard it come on but I know I missed a time or two when I got distracted or when the room got near 80 degrees.

[Roscoe Primrose]

Indeed, we all had to learn how to handle a new room this year.  I was up 'til after 2AM thurs night in the DCaudioDIY room, and up again at 6AM getting things close to right.  We probably had a simpler system than many of the commercial vendors.  I don't think we ever got the small speakers based on the Audience drivers setup right in the room.  Last year I didn't get one of the three speakers properly setup until after midnight Sat. night.  Setup in a strange room can be a daunting task! 

Roscoe

[jarcher]

Letitroll 98,

Thank you for the positive feedback on the small Daedalus/ModWright/WyWires system.  I was trying to represent a musically honest and appealing system that many audiophiles can afford and be happy with for a long time.  I was pleased with the system and I'm glad that you and others liked it, too.

One writer commented on a hardness to the sound.  I will attribute that to the room and a/c, not the system.  I tried to turn the a/c off when I heard it come on but I know I missed a time or two when I got distracted or when the room got near 80 degrees.

Scott - I think you did all just right.  I'm just becoming overly sensitive to "hard" sound and gradually diving into the "dark / euphonic" side of the sound spectrum.

An unsolicited piece of advice : leave the damn AC on as much as needed, unless it really is killing the AC quality to the system.  On more than one occasion I left a room prematurely because the BO + feet stank was too much.  And this last weekend was unusually cool + dry for a DC July weekend as you know.  Between temperature + odiferous comfort & sonic purity, I think 90% of us will take the former.......and after all, most of us have to deal w/ some level of ventilation noise in our homes, even if a simple fan.  So "real world" background noise makes more sense even for a demo.......my 2 cents (now worth 1 w/ inflation).

[jhm731]

Then Lou wanted to do something and changed out the speaker cables and replayed the track.

What speaker cables did he use?