[AJinFLA]

What's the deal with the cover over the equipment?  What should we know?

The only thing covered was the (prototype) amplifier (around 80w/ch. SS output stages).
The "equipment" was my netbook feeding straight WAVs (44k) to a Nuforce Icon uDac2 > amp. That was my entire front end.

cheers,

AJ

[jtwrace]

Does this mean that you're building amps too?

[JohnR]

Is the other driver a coax?

[AJinFLA]

Does this mean that you're building amps too?

No. For right now, I'm going to concentrate on one thing only, the monitors.

cheers,

AJ

[AJinFLA]

Is the other driver a coax?

KEFs latest.
I'm a firm believer in smooth off axis sounding better in the majority of rooms.
There was zero so called acoustic "treatments" in my rather asymmetric hotel room.

cheers,

AJ

[jtwrace]

No. For right now, I'm going to concentrate on one thing only, the monitors.

cheers,

AJ

Well, get to it!   

Is this going to be a full-time gig for you?  What's your occupation?

[AJinFLA]

Is this going to be a full-time gig for you?

No. Well not yet .

What's your occupation?

I'm a full-time beer drinker.

cheers,

AJ

p.s. that or engineering inspections (civil, mechanical and electrical) for a municipality.

[JohnR]

KEFs latest.

Thanks. Very clever concept  , thanks for the info, much appreciated. Hope it goes well for you.

[AJinFLA]

Thanks. Very clever concept  , thanks for the info, much appreciated. Hope it goes well for you.

Thanks John. Don't worry, I'm still an open baffle guy at heart .
Those will be next.
Guess I'll have to tread lightly here too, as I will soon be a "manufacturer", so I'm pretty sure I won't be able to shill my products in threads like these.
But I'm sure glad I slipped Letitroll that $100 bill for his positive write up...ooops

cheers,

AJ

[nullspace]

This is all a little bittersweet for me, AJ. I wish you all the luck with your venture, but if you're now a 'manufacturer', will you be losing your catchphrase-esque acerbic tone here and at diyAudio?

Already, in this thread, you're all rainbows, unicorns, and panda bears. I don't know, it seems like the end of an era to me. If you're not tearing 'chops' a new one, who will?

Regards,
John

[Saturn94]

................
But I'm sure glad I slipped Letitroll that $100 bill for his positive write up...ooops

cheers,

AJ

Hey, I was in the room when Letitroll was there; where's my $100 (deleting positive posts now )!

[pansixt]

Dan told me how nice AJ's speakers sounded.
Now I know why we missed the room on the first pass.
I think he wanted me to miss it. LetitRoll you owe us.
James

[AJinFLA]

This is all a little bittersweet for me, AJ. I wish you all the luck with your venture, but if you're now a 'manufacturer', will you be losing your catchphrase-esque acerbic tone here and at diyAudio?

Already, in this thread, you're all rainbows, unicorns, and panda bears. I don't know, it seems like the end of an era to me. If you're not tearing 'chops' a new one, who will?

Regards,
John

Maybe
Hope you make it to one of the shows John.

cheers,

AJ

[AJinFLA]

Hey, I was in the room when Letitroll was there; where's my $100 (deleting positive posts now )!

You get a free Billy Joel CD with your order...when you trade up from the Revels

cheers,

AJ

[AJinFLA]

Dan told me how nice AJ's speakers sounded.
Now I know why we missed the room on the first pass.
I think he wanted me to miss it. LetitRoll you owe us.
James

Maybe next time you'll know where to go. I promise it will pay off for you.

cheers,

AJ

[Saturn94]

You get a free Billy Joel CD with your order...when you trade up from the Revels

cheers,

AJ

 

No Revels here though, I have a pair of Salk HT2-TLs and ADS L1290 series 2 (I bought these new in 1986!).

[AJinFLA]

Ooops. You're right. I think we had agreed that the Salk room (along with Joseph Audio) were our favorites (other than mine ).
Jim (Salk) has an interesting ipad setup as well. Very cool. It was great meeting him and Dennis Murphy.
I wish we had more shows like this. Capfest was a blast. A South East version would be nice. I guess there is Axpona, but this show just had a great, intimate feel to it. Perhaps the future of high-end? Who knows?

cheers,

AJ

[Letitroll98]

Capitol Audiofest Report



A few pics and notes from some of the better rooms.  No pics of our meeting at the hotel bar on Saturday afternoon or the dinner with Phil, Steve, James, and myself in order to protect the guilty.



Soundfield Audio 1's with the larger OB speakers in the rear, which I didn't hear.  As noted, dynamic is an understatement, the deepest, most powerful bass I have ever heard from a small cabinet speaker, heck, from any speaker regardless of size.  They threw a large soundstage and sounded super with both small and large scale works.  Not a completely finished design with our AJinFLA deciding if he wants to enter the audio manufacturing world and how in the heck he’s going to fit that plate amp into that little box.



The TW-Acustic Black Knight turntable from Denmark was the kewlest analog display at the show, and the speakers Highwater Sound's  Jeffrey Catalano had...



... Horning Hybrid Eufrodite Ultimate Zigma Plus loudspeakers, were some of the best sounding.  At $19,000 as pictured with eight (count ‘em, eight) 8" bass drivers in a Ripole config hidden in the rear of the very deep cabinets, they could light up your room, but still sounded light and delicate with an awesome soundstage.



Everyone was impressed with Tidal speakers presented by "The Voice That Is" stereo shop up my way in Newtown Square, PA.  I heard the floor standing Piano Diaceras at $37,000 to $41,000 depending on finish driven by $63,000 worth of Tidal preamp and 140 wpc amp.  My notes say detailed, dynamic, delicate, with spectacular soundstaging and bass that was beyond tight.



Command Performance had the Joseph Audio Perspectives at $11,800 a pair driven by Manley tube amps and preamps connected to Bel Canto Lightlink converter.  My kinda setup, beautiful, sonorous, a bit dark, with a deep, deep soundstage.  On Sunday the had the same electronics driving the Joseph Audio Pulsar bookshelves, detailed, dynamic, a more direct sound than the floorstanders.



It was wonderful finally meeting Mapleshade's Pierre Sprey, I’ve been a customer for many years.  That the room had one of the very best sounds at the show is a testament to the validity of his somewhat radical theories.  With Sonist Concerto 4 speakers at $5895 driven by his modified Scott integrated (about $1,100 or so depending on options) and a modest preamp and CD player it produced a sweet, lovely sound.  Very detailed yet musical with the speakers completely disappearing if you were able to squat low enough to get in to the prime listening stool (how many of you could?)  Pierre believes you should listen from very near to the floor, he had a 6” stool in front of the traditional couch.  I talked James (pansixt) into buying a Mapleshade CD, everyone should have several, Pierre’s recording technique sounds like no other, very real and alive.



I briefly heard the Clairaudient 2+2s ($5,000) as I walked into the Audience room, too short a time to really make an evaluation, but then the big surprise when they hooked up the tiny Model One’s ($995.00) you see in the background.  Unbelievable sound from a 3” driver in front paired with a 3 ½” passive radiator in the rear, they actually drove the medium sized room to realistic, if not bombastic, levels with a very pleasant, coherent sound.  A must listen for those needing a small speaker solution.



The Philharmonic line was displayed in the Salk room as Dennis has done a lot of the crossover design for Jim Salk.  Here the Model 3’s ($2800) are playing to universal acclaim, sweet, direct, detailed, with a very tight bass.  No listener fatigue in these babies, a very full and relaxing sound.  On Sunday I was in as they transitioned from the Philharmonic 1’s to the Salk Soundscapes.  The 1’s are a screaming bargain at $1600, but having heard the 3’s, I would recommend spending the extra $400 for the 2’s to get the RAAL tweeter.  The Soundscapes were beyond reproach, my notes are remarkable, coherent, dynamic, sweet, detailed, excellent soundstaging.  They sounded like they were worth the $11k asking price.  All driven by AVA amps and Dacs.

That’s about as many pictures as I dare include so as not to draw the ire of admins or slow bandwidth people.  You can look at more pics in my album at http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v467/Letitroll98/Capitol%20Audiofest%202011/ 

Some other impressions include the MBL Reference system with vocals to die for and outstanding imagery, but a bloaty, indistinct bass, overpriced for the sound.  The Polk room had the floorstanding LSi707 on Saturday, which I though sounded like Polks and were nothing special for $4k.  On Sunday they had the much better integrated LSi703 bookshelves that were just as dynamic, but had a much better sound for only $1500.  The Wilson Audio Sasha’s were holding court in the larger JS Audio room, driven by the Dan D'Agostino amps and some Meridian player/processors.  Unrestrained dynamics in a badly set up room that drove many showgoer’s back into the hallways.  The GOTO horn system at $150,000 was very nice and pleasant sounding, but not $150k nice.  Volti Audio showcased some horn driven Vittora speakers that had a sound reminiscent of Klipsch La Scala speakers.  Command Performance AV had another room with Carnegie CST-2 speakers that were OK for $6k, but had a wonderful digital setup with a Hegel CDP driving a DaVinci DAC sounding very analog like.  Audio Note UK had their amps driving their mainstay speaker which is really a highly modified Snell Type E Series 1 for $16,000.  I like my Snell Type E Series IV just as well and it cost $1200 new.  The other Audio Note had their much less expensive kit based amps driving Alex Rivera’s Cathedral speakers with WyWires cables throughout.  Sounding coherent, musical and open, they are not super detailed speakers, more like smoothies.  Classic Audio Loudspeakers T3.4 driven by Atma-Sphere tube electronics were dynamic, detailed and sweet with a big impact from the twin 15” woofers.  Living Voice speakers at $11-12k driven by Border Patrol electronics were bassy and indistinct.  Onkyo electronics drove some nice Carnegie CST-1 speakers ($1999), the Onkyo products were mehhh, okay.  Same for the McIntosh room with the XRT-1 line array speakers, nothing offensive or to write home about.  Déjà Vu Audio had two rooms with the larger vintage system sporting a large field coil speaker, custom 4.5 watt amps and pre amp totaling $108,000.  Sorry, this bargain was sold, but had a completely relaxing sound that while very detailed sounded quite like actual music.  Their smaller room had some hi fi sounding Italian two ways that had no bass to speak of and kewl looking tube amps.  DIY Audio had the most fun room with their, of course, DIY Swan speakers, Tetras turntable, modded Hafler bass amp and SET mid/tweeter amp.  Great guys that had fun talking about their gear and selling nothing, just there for the fun of it.  MA Recordings gave everyone a free CD sampler and offered free DVD ROM samples in their large room.  Hi Rez recordings of Classical and Samba that were oh so sweet.  Lastly the swap meet had some great folks with gear that mostly looked like any of our closets emptied out.  I wasn’t tempted to buy, but had some nice conversations with some wonderful folks, I wished them all well and was glad I didn’t bother to reserve a space.

[tesseract]

3 way bookshelf, latest generation KEQ UniQ 5" in its own internal subenclosure, then a JBL 8" sub 200hz>25hz, powered by a sub plate amp. Cab is 17hx10wx12d. I'm trying to get all the details worked out to make it available for sale at $1000/pr. Guess I need to start with a website .
The response at the show caught me a bit off guard, my intent was just to demo what a frugal DIYer can do against the big boys under possibly the worse conditions (a hotel room!). That'll teach me

cheers,

AJ

Well, I will have to keep my eye on you. Those monitors intrigue me greatly, I could let the JBL drivers assume the midbass while I let my subs do the real lows. The KEF are what my room needs, instead of room treatments.

Congrats on the positive response!

[AJinFLA]

Well, I will have to keep my eye on you. Those monitors intrigue me greatly, I could let the JBL drivers assume the midbass while I let my subs do the real lows. The KEF are what my room needs, instead of room treatments.

Congrats on the positive response!

Except the JBLs have been supplanted in the final production model by an even longer stroke (14mm vs 11.5 one way, over 1" p-p) driver that also operates optimally in a small sealed enclosure. I spent the weekend torture testing the mules with the new driver. And the new class d amp that almost doubles the power of the show amp (200w rms vs 110). I designed these monitors specifically not to be hi-passed (unless you are watching WOTW movie effects) with any music, but rather to run full bandwidth (below 30hz extension in all rooms tested so far), so that there is a full bandwidth LF source elevated closer to center height of room. Feel free to add subs to extend below 20hz and smooth the response where modal issues will be most likely (40hz-150hz), I would encourage that if you already have them. There will be both line level and a slave power amplifier output on the Monitor for just such purposes, so that even a passive sub can be added. Or a stand like no other.
The directional characteristics >1khz and suggested cross-fire toe-in should negate the need for any room treatments (which I eschew) in all but the narrowest spaces.
Thanks for the compliment. The perceived sound was no accident. They are designed to do exactly what they did, to sound exactly like what they are designed to do.

cheers,

AJ



At least this way, I won't have to answer to "Are those JBL's"?