[SET Man]

GREAT pics SET Man! If I may ask, what camera are you using as those pics look great!

Finished posting my coverage at www.enjoythemusic.com/new_york_audio_av_2013/

Hey!

    Thanks you, glade you like them. As for the photography equipments... I used my Sony A700 DSLR, now 5 years old and discontinued for a few years now with Sony's Carl Zeiss SLA2470Z 24-70mm f2.8 zoom lens and Sony HVL-F58AM flash of which I used on a few very very dark room.

    I did missed some of the rooms there though.

Take care,
Buddy

  To show pics.... http://flic.kr/s/aHsjEGVu6v

[jhm731]

From stereophile: Merrill Wettasingh of Merrill Audio says his Class D Veritas Monoblock amplifiers are "not for tube lovers". The crimson or black chassis is made of a solid 60lb. billet of aluminum. Allowing only spade connection for the "best and biggest" sound, these 400 Watt (8 ohms) power-houses seek "audio purity" rather than coloration, according to Wettasingh.

[Emil]

Why are these being ignored by every forum and blog?

These sounded wonderful and are  affordable!

http://dagogo.com/audio-space-ls-35a-bookshelf-speakers-and-sw-1a-subwoofer-review/2

 

[Berto]

Why are these being ignored by every forum and blog?

These sounded wonderful and are  affordable!

http://dagogo.com/audio-space-ls-35a-bookshelf-speakers-and-sw-1a-subwoofer-review/2

Emil you are SO right! These speakers were wonderful. $2900 new , what a bargain. Sounded much bigger then they are, great tone, and balance. I starred at them thinking how they sound better then some of the 50k speaks at the show. You could do alot worse for alot more but I doubt you could do alot better for less.

[SET Man]

Why are these being ignored by every forum and blog?

These sounded wonderful and are  affordable!

http://dagogo.com/audio-space-ls-35a-bookshelf-speakers-and-sw-1a-subwoofer-review/2

Hey!

   Emil, I was in that room....

Music First Audio Room by setpower1, on Flickr

Music First Audio Room by setpower1, on Flickr

   I actually was excited  to check that room out because I was at their room last year....http://flic.kr/p/byCKKo But it wasn't the same. Last year they had a real vintage Roger LS3/5A without sub, I liked the room. But this year I didn't get the same magic with those GINIz(?) version of the LS3/5A. I would rather look for a vintage LS3/5A than those combo.

   Still compared to what available around the same price new today they are very enjoyable speaker.

Take care,
Buddy

  Link to 2013 show pics.... http://flic.kr/s/aHsjEGVu6v

[SET Man]

.....
I guess like Buddy said if you listen for sonics the kondo room might not be for you. But if you want to hear how old Johnny Cash was when he sings a song the Kondo room will tell ya. The emotional connection had me shaking my head. There was not enough big SET glass at the show (for my taste) so I spent a lot of time in this room. The sheer purity and organic quality of the music was an experience I will not forget.

Hey!
 
    Glade that someone here understand what I meant. Many audiophiles are easily get impressed with big sound, big bass, some even think that boomy bass is good and etc. They get caught up in that typical audiophile's mumble jumbles. And yes I was like that too for a while when I got started.

Kondo System by setpower1, on Flickr
    I've heard a numbers of system at shows and in a real home settings and regardless of type of components use tube or SS, it is very rare to encounter one that can make me feel this way... only a few so far.

    Yes, if you guys are wondering.... yes I am a SET and Single Driver speaker user.

Take care,
Buddy


  Link to 2013 show pics.... http://flic.kr/s/aHsjEGVu6v




   

[kbuzz3]

Hey!

   Emil, I was in that room....



   I actually was excited  to check that room out because I was at their room last year....http://flic.kr/p/byCKKo But it wasn't the same. Last year they had a real vintage Roger LS3/5A without sub, I liked the room. But this year I didn't get the same magic with those GINIz(?) version of the LS3/5A. I would rather look for a vintage LS3/5A than those combo.

   Still compared to what available around the same price new today they are very enjoyable speaker.

Take care,
Buddy

  Link to 2013 show pics.... http://flic.kr/s/aHsjEGVu6v

I will give the nod to this room as well. I thought it was putting out some very very good sound with nice tone compared to some of the mega buck demos.  And yes my reference is vintage l35as.

My two cents here was that along with the audio space/music first/wells, the clue was a very good speaker run by a hegel integrated.

I was underwhelemed by the harbeth 30.1 run by RWA stuff. Either it was me but i rwa always has great sound, and i thought the room was kinda "sleepy" sounding. The new kef ls50s were good  but seemed in that room to sound more technical then soulful if that makes sense.  Funny thought id love em.

Loved the Joseph audio pulsars driven by a unico hybrid. Best combo of detail and tone then almost all the rooms i heard.



 

[jhm731]

Anyone hear this room:

[jackman]

Kbuzz,

I loved the Joseph Audio Pulsars at the Chicago Axpona.  IMO, they were among the most memorable speakers I heard in the two days I attended.   They sounded better than any of the big bloated ribbon tweeter speakers I heard at the show.  More realistic and enjoyable, and decent bass for little speakers.   I don't recall if they were using a sub but the overall sound (the channel D room) was excellent.

[Letitroll98]

Yes, I agree completely.  The Pulsars are one of the best bookshelf speakers out there, and the family traits move well into the larger models of the series.  The small floorstander Perspective is a little warmer with somewhat deeper bass extension and impact, but sounds very similar.  I haven't heard the Pearl in quite a while, and there's a new model out, but I do remember liking them a lot.  They're a bit of an odd duck sometimes, requiring careful setup.  I've heard them sound lush and organic, and other times bright and incisive, always with tons of detail and deep, wide imaging.  One of my favorite, go to speakers.

[AJinFLA]

Yes, I agree completely.  The Pulsars are one of the best bookshelf speakers out there, and the family traits move well into the larger models of the series.

We share tastes (other than Newcastle), as one of my faves at Capfest '11 was the Joseph room.

Btw, did anyone at this show hear the Cary/Audio Electronics stuff? Think they may have demo'd with KEF

[tonyptony]

Anyone hear this room:

Yes, I did. I was there on Saturday. I agree with a lot of what was said here, although my reaction to the Kondo room was more mixed. If one were to point out any weakness there, I felt the speakers were not up to the rest of the electronics. I thought there were points along the frequency spectrum where they sounded uneven, leading to a slight sense of non-linearity. For that kind of money they were good, but as I said not up to what was behind them. Pretty sure what I was hearing was from the speakers.

As to the Innovative Audio Wilson Alexia / D'Agostino room, I have to grudgingly say I was finally impressed with a pair of Wilson speakers. Honestly I've never heard any Wilsons sound "great" at a show - even last year at NYAS with Innovative using VTLs to drive Wilsons, or at last year's RMAF. But the combination of Dan's gear and the Alexias impressed me, at least with the music I heard - and I'm not really a Wilson fan. They sounded like drop dead real music - image size, tonality, space, texture, depth, resolution. I didn't think the Wilsons in Innovative's other room, fed by LAMM electronics, sounded as good. They sounded like typical Wilsons.

I was also not impressed with the Raidhos, less so with the floorstanders in the Singer room (I agree with minimus - plus they didn't throw a very realistic soundstage). But even the Diamond bookshelves showed limitations when playing complex, dynamic classical music. I heard both simple pieces (vocal jazz with a small instrument backing), and the other (symphonic Wagner) both from various very good recordings. With small scale music the D-1 was sublime - resolved, clear, nice sense of space. But when things got complicated and very dynamic it showed limitations in being able to maintain depth and clarity across the whole frequency span. Small details in the Wagner - which I hear clearly in my own system - got lost in the mix. Could have been the room in part, but I'm not sure. Now one could say small bookshelves shouldn't be expected to handle large scale music that well, but for 26+ thousand dollars it had to do better than what I heard.

The rest of the stuff sounded pretty much like it does at all shows, with the postings so far being on target IMO. The biggest surprise for me were those little coincident driver speakers in the Harmonix / Reimyo room. I didn't expect them to sound as good as they did. Realistic, nice soundstaging, surprising low end.

Didn't care for the Sony speakers. I heard the (what was at the time) prototypes of that newer speaker at RMAF last year. In both cases they were using PASS gear. That new SS-AR early look at RMAF sounded wonderful. The speakers at NYAS (they were a less expensive model from what I could gather) did not sound all that exceptional. But it didn't help that they were right above the mbl room.

Didn't care for the Waterfall glass speakers. It didn't impress me that the exhibitor knocked on the glass to show how inert it was. That trick is as meaningless now as it was when audio salesmen were doing it 35 years ago. It proves nothing when compared to how a speaker will resonate across the full audio band. That aside, I didn't think it sounded all that realistic when playing small acoustic ensembles.

I agree the show "felt" about the same size as last year. There were more rooms, but it didn't seem like there was really that much more to hear. My friend who came with me had an interesting observation: he felt like it was the kind of show you could go to every other year, unless there was something really new and exciting to hear in an in-between year. At best, if you've been to the first two like I have you could probably do next year's in one day, or a day and a half at most. Or just skip it and go to RMAF. I'm disappointed, as it seems like it did not grow enough from last year to seem like NY could regain its standing as another city for a great audio show.

Liked the Pulsars.

But for as much as a downer as I'm sounding, I actually did have a good time. Saw my show friends at the The Clue and Coincident rooms (both sounded fine, as always), and saw Valerie Joyce sing in the 5th floor atrium room. Wonderful performance, even if she still is somewhat young. Hopefully she will continue to grow in skill and technique.

[SET Man]

We share tastes (other than Newcastle), as one of my faves at Capfest '11 was the Joseph room.

Btw, did anyone at this show hear the Cary/Audio Electronics stuff? Think they may have demo'd with KEF

Hey!
 

KEF by setpower1, on Flickr


KEF by setpower1, on Flickr

   I was there on Sunday a little before the show end. Yes, they were using Cary and Audio Electronics. When I was there they were demoing the little LS50 with Audio Electronics amp and preamp. I've been curious about the LS50 and that was the first time I've heard them. They are small speaker in a large room. The sound was good but on a heavy bass electronic music they had on I can hear them loose control of the bass with port noise. Other than that I think they sound very good for the size and price and should work well in smaller room.

   Unfortunately I didn't get to hear their bigger one with Cary Audio in the same room.

Take care,
Buddy

 

[AJinFLA]

Thanks! Didn't realize they had 2 setups, one Cary, one AE. Yes, thought the LS50s sounded, nice and "big" given their size, but definitely add a sub if you're going to drive them hard!
Like the AE stuff as well, reasonably priced too. May have to snag some for a show...
I would personally have had the LS50s spread a little wider and toed in, but that's easy to do sitting here!

cheers,

AJ

[medium jim]

Thanks! Didn't realize they had 2 setups, one Cary, one AE. Yes, thought the LS50s sounded, nice and "big" given their size, but definitely add a sub if you're going to drive them hard!
Like the AE stuff as well, reasonably priced too. May have to snag some for a show...
I would personally have had the LS50s spread a little wider and toed in, but that's easy to do sitting here!

cheers,

AJ

Can't wait for Newport and to read all about the New York Show in TAS.   I always hide my CC's and on hand Cash when going to Audio Shows...too much in the moment impulse buying can happen and does happen

Jim

P.S. Many thanks to all who have posted pic's and first hand accounts.   The Symbol Record Player Console sure is nagging me, buy me, buy me....

[Berto]

Anyone hear this room:

I agree that this was the best Wilson room I ever heard. Nice tone and body, then like mentioned in this thread, you go across the hall and the Wilsons w/Lamm SS sounded ALOT thinner and I left immed. Those momentum SS monos, I thought were the best SS i've heard. As impressed as I was, it was more about refinement and sophistication then pure beauty and emotion.

I would like to attend a audioshow. Only power is tubes, all run in triode.  PP, PSET and SET of course 

[TONEPUB]

As a GamuT S9 owner, that room was WAY too small for those speakers.  That was pretty unfortunate.  For those of you that heard it, it was about 10 - 15% of what that speaker is truly capable of.  It's always a disappointment when you hear them put big speakers in too small of a room.

[tonyptony]

As a GamuT S9 owner, that room was WAY too small for those speakers.  That was pretty unfortunate.  For those of you that heard it, it was about 10 - 15% of what that speaker is truly capable of.  It's always a disappointment when you hear them put big speakers in too small of a room.

Agree. I heard the Gamuts at Woodside Audio. I thought he was trying to do too much at NYAS with that setup in the room he had.

[tonyptony]

Unfortunately I didn't get to hear their bigger one with Cary Audio in the same room.

I was in that room. I'd give you an impression of what I heard if I'd actually heard them. Instead what I saw (note the term) was the guy in that room act like a carnival barker, doing his best to show off his special compilation CD 12 seconds at a time, having the room guess who was performing on each cut. It made actually listening to the system all but impossible. I got fed up with the bear on the tricycle and tuned out.

[BobM]

Didn't get to hear the Gamuts, that's the 1 room I missed completely. Walked past that room at least 4 times and each time it was packed to the gills. They did took way too big for that small room, and he had them toed in at a rediculous angle.