Akfest 07'

carusoracer · « **on:** 16 Feb 2007, 02:39 pm »

Ackfest 07'...Any AC members attending?

I will be going. It sounds like a lot of fun. Anything to warm up here in the Midwest...Today's high 18 degrees low -1

Big Red Machine · « **Reply #1 on:** 16 Feb 2007, 02:55 pm »

I just put it on my calendar. I work in Southfield but haven't looked up the location of the hotel yet.

bpape · « **Reply #2 on:** 16 Feb 2007, 02:56 pm »

Got a link to any info on this?

Bryan

Big Red Machine · « **Reply #3 on:** 16 Feb 2007, 03:13 pm »

http://audiokarma.org/ak2007/

bolly · « **Reply #4 on:** 17 Feb 2007, 12:13 am »

I went to last years, it was fantastic! I'll be going to Saturdays installment!

nicksgem10s · « **Reply #5 on:** 17 Feb 2007, 01:10 am »

I went last year by myself and had never been to an audio show before. I saw a few dealers I knew and met some very friendly folks. I plan on attending this year with at least one other audiophile buddy and maybe more. I work in Oak Park which is about 10 minutes from where AKfest will be held. I really want to check out the Salk speakers after seeing so many photos and threads about them. I also hope to meet some more cool people. See you guys & gals there.

Nick

chadh · « **Reply #6 on:** 17 Feb 2007, 04:09 am »

I've never been to anything like this before. Maybe I should make the drive from Ann Arbor for one of the days.

Chad

Rick Craig · « **Reply #7 on:** 17 Feb 2007, 05:05 am »

Quote from: carusoracer on 16 Feb 2007, 02:39 pm

Ackfest 07'...Any AC members attending?

I will be going. It sounds like a lot of fun. Anything to warm up here in the Midwest...Today's high 18 degrees low -1

I'll be there exhibiting and look forward to meeting everyone.

MaxCast · « **Reply #8 on:** 17 Feb 2007, 11:11 am »

I went last year and had a blast. It's small (one floor) but growing. You can still use up a whole day. Take a break, lunch, and revisit your fav rooms.

I am trying to keep the ducks in a row so I can go. I would look forward to meeing any AC memebers as well as Mr. Craig. I see AVA is listed. I wonder if Frank is coming or if Jim will be demoing his gear with his speakers?? Maybe the McIntosh man will let me take some demo gear home to audition

He had a sweet set up last year but the room was just to small,,,but what you gonna do??

Anywho, if you are thinking about it, GO!! Don't miss it. You will want to go next year as well. It is a great way to hear different set ups, tubes, ss, vintage, as well as new gear.

bpape · « **Reply #9 on:** 17 Feb 2007, 01:54 pm »

Trying to figure out if I can slink out for a weekend. Sounds like a lot of fun.

Bryan

carusoracer · « **Reply #10 on:** 20 Mar 2007, 06:17 pm »

Akfest this weekend.

Looking to meet other AC members. I will be there Sat from 10:30am until...
Anyone suggest a meeting place and time?

I'm sure I will be spending time in all the rooms. Especially Salk/AVA

nicksgem10s · « **Reply #11 on:** 21 Mar 2007, 12:17 am »

I will be there on Sunday. Looking forward to hearing some great music and meeting some cool people. I hope to meet some AC members as I don't participate over on Audiokarma too often other than to find out when the AKfest is happening.

Nick

MaxCast · « **Reply #12 on:** 21 Mar 2007, 11:24 am »

I plan to be there Saturday and early Sunday. Hope to meet you guys.

ted_b · « **Reply #13 on:** 21 Mar 2007, 12:26 pm »

I'll be there Saturday. It would be great to coordinate a meeting spot, if for no other reason than a quick intro. OK, I'll start. 1pm at Salks room..?

carusoracer · « **Reply #14 on:** 21 Mar 2007, 04:31 pm »

1:00pm in the Salk room

G2moscode · « **Reply #15 on:** 22 Mar 2007, 04:53 pm »

The AudioKarma Audio Fest looks to be an event worth attending.
I'll be there for both days walking around.

I'll also have a 401 with me if anyone wants to take a listen.

Gage Rommel
vice pres
Moscode, Inc

ted_b · « **Reply #16 on:** 25 Mar 2007, 02:58 am »

It was a pleasure meeting and chatting with the likes of such Circle veterans as Chris (carusoracer), Gage (G2moscode), Rick Craig and Jim Salk. These folks are very knowledgeable, but more importantly, very real genuine folks who simply enjoy music.

The AK Fest was a good time for me (my first real audio show). I heard a lot of great stuff, and several baddddd ones too. It boggles the mind how important system synergy must be, as some of the systems were so difficult to listen to, yet are written up so glowingly in the press. I'd give most of the blame to the hotel room acoustical environment, except that Rick, Jim and folks like David Michael and the Manley guys were able to extract wonderful sounds out of their hotel setting.

Anyway, can't wait for RMAF. Thanks again. Carusoracer, I'll ping you asap about out discussion.

chadh · « **Reply #17 on:** 26 Mar 2007, 12:02 am »

I spent a good part of today at AKFEST '07. This was my first audio show, and it was an interesting experience to be sure.

I had the pleasure of meeting Jim Salk and Rick Craig, and greatly enjoyed listing to to the Selah speakers and the Salk speakers paired with AVA electronics.

The Salk/AVA room was the only one I noticed with any room treatments. So it was hard to tell whether I was hearing the speakers, the electronics, or the room arrangements. But I think at the end of the day this was the room with the most natural, effortlessly seductive sound.

The Selah room also sounded really nice, and it was hard to choose between the Selah and Salk speakers in terms of sheer visual appeal. Both manufacturers produce beautiful looking and sounding speakers.

I also enjoyed the Manley room, outfitted with a pair of sweet looking and surprisingly dynamic and powerful Danish speakers. A few of us were looking around for the sub.

It was rumored that the MacIntosh system on display had a quarter-of-a-million dollar price tag. It certainly won the award for the most visually imposing system I heard. The speakers were a prototype pair that MacIntosh is developing. About 7' tall, they feature 2 woofers, and then a weird arrangement of 22 midrange drivers (each 2" in diameter) and 28 tweters (each 1/4" in diameter) stetched in four columns above the woofers.

One room featured a pair of Usher floorstanders, driven by VPL monoblocks, a CAT preamp and a Trivista DAC. It was pretty sweet sounding: especially on a great live Muddy Waters recording they were playing. This was probably the set-up that sounded closest to a "live" experience.

One of the Audio Karma guys was showing a DIY speaker creation of his that sounded wonderful in some ways. It used a funky tweater (Heil?), that he explained was a ribbon that worked sort of like an accordion, squeezing its ends together rather than vibrating in a plane. It had a really special sound, very airy and immediately extremely appealing. After listing for a while, I found the treble seemed just a little bright. But it really sounded lovely at first listen.

I also heard a pair of $10k Tetra speakers, powered by BAT electronics. I thought these had a really sweet treble, and produced an astonishing amount of bass for a two-way design.

It was hard to put my finger on why I liked some things and not others. Somtimes I liked the tubes, and other times I didn't. SOmtimes I liked the multi-way speakers, other times not. Sometimes I'm sure the source material I got to hear made the difference. At the end of the day, I think I learned more about me than about any of the gear. It seems that I'm more than a little sensitive to high frequency harshness. In rooms where everybody was raving about the sound, I'd often be wincing because I found the treble to be glaring. The rooms I found most appealing were the ones where I didn't have this problem (bass issues I found far less disturbing). I guess it's not surprising this is also the biggest problem I have with my own system.

The day ended wonderfully as well. I won a prize in the raffle: a Redgum 60w dual mono integrated amplifier valued at $1600. Now I just have to work out what to do with it.

Chad

ted_b · « **Reply #18 on:** 26 Mar 2007, 01:35 am »

To my ears the best sounding room was David Michael Audio's room, where a Belles pre/amp combo was driving the most musical sounding speakers, a pair of Harbeth HL-5's. The compact 7's were amazing, as well. And no, Jim's room was not the only one treated. David's room was well-treated, with a nice combination of large homemade tube traps and some bass traps. It was tight, but still plenty of air. A very linear room from such a challenging location.

I did not like the Tetra's (but they truly do produce prodgious bass, not just boom) or the IDS's at all; the former being poorl;y integrated and veiled (their long wall setup was atrocious) and the latter being brighter than the sun! I also wasn't at all impressed with the Escalante Fremont's, although I must admit that few if any long wall setups worked yesterday. They were mostly all way too bass heavy and one-note sonic booms, and had poor soundstaging, due to the fact that they had to hug the long wall. The McIntosh stuff in both their own room and the IDS room did nothing to support their reputation; I know from several golden-eared Circle folks and others that the Mac gear (especially the monoblock 501's!) sound great; in this show they sounded horrible. And I thought Jim's room was slightly overdamped. His beautiful HT3's sounded a bit boomy, and I could tell it was the room talking. They were good enough to overcome it, but it was too thumpy for long term listening. OTOH, I could have listened to the Harbeth room for the rest of the day and night.

My second best sounding room was the Manley/System Audio setup. Very very nice, and great conversation in that room, too. Markus's homemade floorstanders with the Heil-like tweeter assemby and the visible crossover network was a nice sounding rig, as well, although I spent only a few minutes in there. They sounded great even at the door.

Overall I was struck by how truly bad some rigs could sound, and yet how wonderful others could. It's all my opinion, and I'm sure other ears would tell different stories, but likely just as polar.

Great time overall.....and just a 2 hr drive from home. And I won a Manley hat (wish it was the Redgum integrated, though...

). Congrats Chad.

pardales · « **Reply #19 on:** 26 Mar 2007, 01:49 am »

I managed to get there for the last two hours of the show today. I would liked to have spent more time as I felt like I had to rush through some rooms. I will say more later but the room I spent most of my time in was the Madisound--a company which sells speaker drivers, electronic parts + kits, and speaker kits for the DIY crowd. They had a $450 pair of speakers ("Loki" I think), which they sell the kit for, that had to be one of the 2 or 3 best speakers I heard at the show--I am thinking of buying a pair for the experience of putting them togther and enjoying their wonderful sound. I searched out the rooms featuring single-driver speakers (there were 3 by my count) and lower wattage amps. That is my thing these days.

This was my first audio show and it it was really enjoyable. I'm already looking forward to next year.