[gary]

For me the OB7s sounded good, but more like box speakers than fullrange OB (OB meaning flat baffle- no wings)
Lin

My thoughts exactly. They didn't sound bad per say, but they sounded like regular speakers in boxes and just didn't do much for me.

Gary

[lonewolfny42]

Amber Wave Audio - Wow....those were some mono blocks......
Each about two feet wide....large tubes....very heavy...powering small two way speakers (6.5 woofer)....really filled out the room. Expensive....yes...but sounded sweet !!!

Usher - I know Stan and Carter, good guys from Texas. Had a better and larger room this year....nice slection of Usher speakers. Played many from the line....the 520's and 604's....low priced, nice build, good sounding....great value for the buck. And the larger Dancer model can really rock...check them out.

[Brad]

I thought the Klipsch's in the Juicy room sounded better than I've ever heard Klipsch sound before....

I think the XRS's were not broken in and simply too rough to show off the Juicy gear.
That driver just takes some time......
Great, friendly people - I really like the Blueberry preamp and their class A tube amp.

[sunshinedawg]

It was great to see everyone again. I had a great time. I'm gonna have to catch up on my sleep some time this week!

Rooms that I thought were exceptionally good:

GTT/Kharma
Selah
MBL
ACI

Very good category:

AV123
Odyssey
Bolder Cable
Evolution
Amber Wave/Intuitive
Moscode/Placette
Omega

Honorable mention:

April
Flying Mole

See everybody again next year!

[lonewolfny42]

Too bad I missed this room.....but nice room treatments.....







Found a photo of the 200 lb, $42,000/pair Amber Wave 200W push-pull monoblocks....

[Woodsea]

Lonewolf, I saw that Pic with the 2 guys running the room.  They looked so proud.  I just loved the way they matched the ceiling color and the hotel's linens and pillows.  Of course the black electrical taped matched perfectly with the sub and rack.  Very nice touch. 

[lonewolfny42]

I think guys should save that photo Woodsea.....
Conversation...."Honey....I'd like to put up some room treatments in the living room....which would look better.....
.......this....

.....or this ? 



................

[Glenn K]

The Bolder Room....Nice seeing Wayne again....VMPS 30's sounded good powered by Bill Baker's Bella amp....and SB setup. Treatments all over added to the enjoyment.Nice job Wayne...

So you all know, Wayne is one of the coolest people around. At first we where going to only treat one room with the GIK products, but 2 other companies called us to see if we would do the same. Wayne being the nice guy that he is let us ship 13 HUGE BOXES (let me stress these boxes are HUGE) to his shop and he brought everyone of them to the show for us. Thank you Wayne and looking forward to working with you in the future.

Glenn

[Mike Dzurko]

I have noticed several people mention ACI as one of the standout rooms. I'd like someone to detail the system...or refer me to another thread that describes the system.

Thanks.

Here you go:

ACI Sapphire XLs on Friday. On Saturday we added a Force XL sub kicking in at about 40Hz. The CDP was an Original Leonardo on loan from AAA Audio, the Integrated amp was a Predator on loan from Music Direct. Cabling was all DH Labs. GIK did a GREAT job with the room treatments (thanks Glenn and Bryan). Those folks who took the time to sit down were generally not in a hurry to leave  A lot of fun for sure. I'd be happy to answer any other questions.

[bpape]

I'd just like to say it was great finally meeting a lot of the folks I see here on Audio Circle.  Great bunch of people and good times were had.

Special thanks to Wayne of Boulder Cable, Mike Dzurko of ACI, and Bryan Ingeneto, Gilbert Yeung, and Rick Craig of Selah and Home Audio Connection and Blue Circle respectively for allowing us to exhibit with them this year.  Those were 3 very different systems all set up in basically the exact same room.  Just goes to show that even in the same room, there isn't a stock way to treat it.

Also a special thanks to Jeff Dorgay of Tone Audio Magazine for allowing us to use his room until Mike got there and for providing the nice little integrated from Valve Audio to drive the ACI's.  For those who weren't there, Glenn liked the Sapphire XL's so much he actually bought the show setup.

One other thing I haven't mentioned.  During the show, Jack Bybee dropped off a prototype of his new power conditioner/regenerator.  I'll be very honest that I've never been a 'power guy' other than if there were serious noise/stability issues with power.  Don't get me wrong, I understand the need for a good power supply in the individual pieces as Wayne has already proven that to me with his SB power supplies.  Wayne already had a very nice conditioner in there that helped a lot over the stock flaky house power.  However, when the Bybee went in, there was a major change.  This was not at all something subtle.  If we had time, I would have loved to shoot the room before and after putting that piece into the system.  The difference it made to the bottom end was not at all subtle. 

Looking forward to next year.

Bryan

[RAW]

Another two rooms.....
GR Research - Danyy once again did a fine job on treating his room. Sharing the room....Gary Dodd. Same speaker's as last year....slight crossover change. With the Dodd 120's, Dodd Battery preamp, and Lite dac and player ....sounded good to my ears. Cranked a little ZZ Top, followed by Danny's selection....AC/DC....it was rock'in....
He also played his new smaller speaker, ribbon front,two woofers on top....big sound, clean, good dynamic's....nice job Danny....

Right across from Danny....RAW speaker's....powered by Dodd. Heard the HT8's and HT3's. Good looking, good sounding....well done Al....

Nice to meet you and talk over all we had a good show.
See you next year.

And yes Gary's new pre with amps sound stellar.

[WEEZ]

Bryan, you are quite correct re: the power unit in the Bolder Cable room. The sound in there was very, very good even before the Bybee conditioner was used. With it in place, the sound was improved several notches..especially in the bass, as you mentioned. I commented at the show, that Bill Baker's amplifier was really doing a great job in Wayne's room...and I stand by that. What a terrific amplifier.

It was great to meet you, Bryan. The show was so much fun.

WEEZ

[CornellAlum]

Does anyone have any comments that had heard the vmps speakers before as to the effectiveness of the outboard crossovers and waveguides?  Any more info on the bybee unit, I searched the web and couldn't really find any.

THX

[zybar]

Does anyone have any comments that had heard the vmps speakers before as to the effectiveness of the outboard crossovers and waveguides?  Any more info on the bybee unit, I searched the web and couldn't really find any.

THX

Can't comment on outboard crossovers, but the waveguides did work.  I was able to move out of the sweet spot (both left/right and standing up) without things falling apart.

The Bybee conditioner made a pretty substantial improvement in the bass.  It tightened things up and provided more and/or better texture.  I thought the unit was a prototype so I wouldn't expect info on their website.

George

[TomS]

I picked up some literature that had pix of the finished Bybee unit in the Analysis Audio room where Jack Bybee was camped out.   I believe there were a couple of models with the bigger one at about $3000-3500 list (I'll check later when I'm home).  Wayne indicated the bigger one was a regenerator (a la PS Audio) with a healthy dose of gold or platinum Bybees in it.  I think they also had a power cord with the same treatment though it was somewhat redundant since the filters were also in the conditioner.  I was only in Wayne's room briefly, but I DO know as a system it sounded very, very good, especially in well articulated bass.

The Bybee was initially used in the AA room and they took it out after the first day.  Not sure why, but the Joule VZN-160's are a little different in that they use big variacs on the power supplies to power them up slowly.  Experience with my Joules has been that they generally sound better plugged right into a dedicated outlet.

Tom

[John Casler]

Does AV123 have the Strata Mini speakers at the show? Would love to hear comments from anyone that heard them if they are there.

All the pictures and comments so far are great. I'm jealous that I'm not there

They were there.
There are some impressions in this: http://www.av123forum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16190 thread.




How did they sound?  They sure look beautiful.

And they were good!!

Hmmmmm.....something "very" familiar about the midrange panel

[zybar]

Hmmmmm.....something "very" familiar about the midrange panel

As well as the cabinets!

George

[DeadFish]

Okay!
Howdy folks.  Too much drivin that turned me into a puddle once home last nite kept me from posting before.

What everyone already said, but *more!*
I too am not complete in even finding my few sparse notes, but here is some 'stuff'.

A lot of the already mentions, I can agree with previous postings regarding Bolder, ModWright, Amber Wave, Gran Sfaras in both rooms, Dodd/GR Research, Odyssey, Butler and ACI.  Special mentions in particular for me that the Dodd/GRR room again sounded so good with what they had to work with in the room.  Gary's 'tubular love' with amps and new pre (beautiful!) wow!  Those stubby little speakers of which I've forgotten the name but meant to be surrounds made just such great front speakers at really, REALLY stupid money for the kit!  HagTech's use of the Gran Sfara's was outstanding and I like the way Jim voices his gear in particularly.  The Gran Sfara's at the end of the hall with I-don't-know what eqt. was my first room on saturday with a wonderful bit of orchestral music playing that just purged my pallat and set me up for a great day of listening.  The speakers positively disappeared.
My first time to hear ACI, I wanted some of their speakers before I had ever made any 'hi end' investment, and when I stumbled onto some used Vandies, I didn't get to purchase. STILL sorry, and STILL saying 'but I don't NEED more speakers' to myself.
I played some Angelique Kidjo (Oremi) and Curtis Mayfield (New World Order) which have some clever tricky stuff in them in the Modwright room with the big Acoustic Zen speakers and they just did everything right (for me) and got the hell out the way to make me laugh at what I heard in the music. (an important point when my emotions fall out of me, listening.) 
lessee, whatelse...
I liked what those IDS (I think) arrays did, even if it took special electronics to help it happen. Sitting sidways to long room, they sounded pretty spiffy to me!  Unique enough to pique my interest.
Oh yeah, in general, like some others mentioned, I tried to keep my stops to rather realistic products that either I could afford or get in my rooms.  That precluded a lot of rooms when I looked in the door, and that was fine, I ran out of time for what I wanted to see anyway.  There were some notable exceptions like Ray Kimbers big demo setup (oh wow!) and a couple of trips into the Wellborne amp with Cogent speaker room.  Boy Howdy, those killer horns were biamped with tricked out 300B monos on the bottom and 45's on the top.  My first listen was with a crowed room and others' music. Nice, but I wanted more.  I went in on an off time and was alone with the Cogent rep.  The track I played, (the very last on Darol Anger's 'Heritage') "To the Sea/Shenandoah" I must have listened to perhaps a thousand times in the years since it came out, and I have heard so many variations of 'what-is-missing' in the layers on many, many systems.  The chorus of voices, the emotions I heard/felt left me breathless with tears streaming freely.  I kid you guys not, this time.  I know horns aren't for everyone's tastes, and these were $55k or so monsters, but "PHEW!"
Again, when the emotions fall out, SOMEthing must be right!  So, okay some DRD amps are STILL on my list!!
Oh yeah, Tyler Acoustics horns, again not to some's tastes were doing something right for me, somewhat similar to my altecs.  I got worked up there too.  Sometimes, again like my Altecs, its not about precision, but about emotion.
Experience Music was a goodie.  I heard them 2 years ago, impressed with their steam-punk kind of look to their woodworking which is just way cool, and that they played a side of vinyl Dead for me.  They still sounded great if beyond my affording.  Their central stack of gear with tubes way older than me in a really neat looking cabinet just tripped my trigger. (again)
Well, I've lost my place and continuity, but these were the big highlights for me, as I think on it.
Somebody who was there help me, there some little speakers, I thought they had a 3 letter name at the end of one hall that were part of a home-theater setup, but also did great 2 channel.. Cannot remember who was telling me about them, $900 little buggers with bass out the ass.  Gotta go looking for notes now.  Great deal, and friendly folk who gave me a rare glimpse of a .wav file of Hunter S. Thompson ranting to an answering machine, to the wrong audio company!!! Too funny for words!!

Oh yeah, 95bchw, in that first picture 'who are these guys?' from the far right, that's me with backpack, Chris/LW, Wayne@Bolder, and I don't know the last fella.

And lest I forget, you guys I met, both 'users' and reps,and the occasional lady are the punchline to my MasterCard commercial.  I rented a Mitsibushi Eclipse for the journey (way big fun pony!), stayed in 2 hotels, ate good, took all the crap I needed and more I didn't, but meeting y'all and chatting...."Priceless".  Thanks for putting up with me.  Although generally considering myself (like many) an introvert, you brought out the real 'social whore' in me and I just didn't want to stop and go to sleep.

Can we do it again next month?
When can I sign up for next year?

Warmest Regards,
DeadFish

[Danny Richie]

Thanks for all the high praise guys.

Those stubby little speakers of which I've forgotten the name but meant to be surrounds made just such great front speakers at really, REALLY stupid money for the kit!

It was the new O-3. There is a thread about them in our forum. There is a pic posted of one of them over here: http://www.av123forum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16190&perpage=15&pagenumber=9

The kit will be only $415 for the pair.

Hmmmmm.....something "very" familiar about the midrange panel

  Properly implemented, they sound great. With a very accurate response on and off axis, beautiful Rosewood cabinets, and rear facing 8" sub powered by a 350 watt plate amp, and only $1,595. a pair... I think they'll sell a lot of them.

The show was a blast, and I had a great time. It was great seeing some of the same old faces and some good friends again.

[hometheaterdoc]

some thoughts:

Overall theme for me from this show (which apparently differs from a lot of folks on this thread):  "Blah"  There wasn't a lot of stuff that really jumped out at me that was in the realm of possibility for the average consumer... I also heard a ton of crap at this show.  Show conditions aside, there was a lot of bad sound, imo...  looking at it from the retail side of things, it continues to amaze me how so many companies find a market for their products. 

Show attendance was supposedly much higher this year than last... but it seemed rather dead in the times I was wandering through the halls and rooms.  A few rooms were consistently full of patrons, however...

Being a retailer, I was interested in some rooms more than others and didn't spend a lot of time in the direct to consumer rooms.  However, I had to stop in and have a listen to the Salk stuff that everyone raves about on here.  There were some typical show condition things that were hurting the overall sound (which Salk owners confirmed for me), but I was surprised that the speakers weren't nearly as aggressive as I was anticipating.  I really, really, really don't like the Seas excel driver used up into the midrange in every other design I've heard.  But it was quite good in Jim's speaker.  Kudos to you Jim!

The AmberWave room was cool... but I couldn't stand in there for more than a minute before the hum and fan noise drove me bonkers and I had to leave... I didn't even get a chance to hear the system.

The Evolution Audio speakers were one of my favorite things I heard at the show.  They weren't perfect.  But I'd put a pair of them in my living room at the asking price.  Here, too was another example of a speaker defying my previously held belief.  This is the first design with an Accuton driver that I actually liked.  Great look as well.  JT is going to sell a bunch of those to all his customers.  Great to see Flo and Kevin again as well.

The Butler/Escalante room wasn't quite right for most of the weekend.  I think a lot of it had to do with the Monads that BK brought had just been completed prior to the show and therefore weren't really broken in.  By late Sunday afternoon, it was starting to sound fantastic in there.  That's my kind of sound (which might explain why I have the almost identical setup except for source hehe)

The Verity Audio room was quite good and showcased what you could do in a decent sized space with a minimal system.  Their speakers are getting to be quite expensive, but I can see why so many audiophiles love them.

The Acapella (sp?) speakers were really quite good and did not sound like a typical horn at all.  I was very impressed with these fed by Einstein electronics....

It was great to meet a few AC folks and customers.  Unfortunately, some of you now know what I look like.... so much for keeping a low profile