Update,
I only ended up being able to make 1 of the 30 minute listening sessions (there were 4) because Shawn's brother was late coming in from the airport. I picked the room that John Atkinson was speaking in.
the gear was from a boulder company called Ayre
2 of their monoblocks
http://www.ayre.com/products_detail.cfm?productid=141 of their pres
http://www.ayre.com/products_detail.cfm?productid=16fed by their new USB DAC ($2500 retail) which was sourced by a mac mini, real slick setup
speakers were the B&W 802d
http://www.listenup.com/lu/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=802D&Category_Code=49920&Store_Code=lWithout adding in cables the system retails for $50,000
They played a few tracks at 16/44.1 (A Ray LaMontagne track and a Wood Brothers) and then Atkinson jumped in and played some of his 24/88.2 masters. Atkinson played some choral pieces he had recorded and also a rock/fusion thing he had done. He walked us through the recording process, the mics and where he set them up and what he was going for. The system sounded good, tremendous detail, good imaging - some of the choral works were amazing, you could really place the voices in the hall. Hard to judge sound stage from where I was at, front and center but a touch too close.
Like I said, it sounded really good but I wasn't as jaw droppingly amazed as I thought I would be. For that kind of money I expected to be totally blown away and I wasn't. It was all pretty dry, very clean and probably measured very accurately but it wasn't engaging. I didn't want to sit there with a stack of music and just listen to everything I could. Feels weird to knock a system that costs more than my yearly salary but I guess I really am a tubes and vinyl man.
John Atkinson was super cool. It makes me want to start reading his snotty magazine again. He's really smart, pretty funny and was very nice.
