[Jon L]

Wow, what a meeting.  I learned a lot from this meeting, especially since I was able to park my behind in front row center the whole meeting.  The usual suspects were there including Mad Dog and John Casler.

First, I was totally impressed by some of the pioneers in Audio who were present.  Robert Lee of Acoustic Zen and Steve McCormack proved themselves to be honest, true-to-the-craft, true artisans who care about music and not egoes.  Too bad Albert Von Schweikert couldn't make it, but his representatives sure didn't miss a beat.  It's not every day you get to personally interact with people like these in one sitting.  The gear present weren't too shabby, either:

Von Schweikert VR2 with VRS subwoofer x2
Griphon Mikado CDP
Electrocompaniet ECD-1 DAC
VAC Standard LE tube preamp
Spectron Musician II
McCormack UDP-1 universal player
McCormack DNA125 "Platinum" version
All Acoustic Zen cabling
Also a secret "prototype" all-out preamp by Steve McCormack

Somehow we got to listen to all of them, some too briefly.  Certain things stand out in my memory, in no particular order:

24/192 DVD-A sounds good, REALLY good.  Played over UDP-1, the sound quality was such that you really CAN forget about the gear and enjoy the music.  My new year's resolution is to pray all that my redbook CD's suddenly turn into 24/196 DVD-A discs.  

Carefully produced redbook CD's (done by people who care) also sound darn good.  I keep getting reminded every day that it's the poor quality of CD's that is the main culprit of Audiofool's unhappiness with their gear.  

Von Schweikert speakers still produce speakers that produce bass Way out of proportion to speaker/driver size.  It was the same when the origianl VR4 came out, and now the smaller VR2.  Many of us preferred the VR2's without the subs, but a lot of it was b/c the subs didn't have low-enough x-over point.  At $2500/pair, VR2 is a true bargain.

Steve McCormack's prototype preamp is one impressive pre.  As I recall, it is an attempt to have the best of passive and active designs.  Something like, transformer-coupled phase-splitter-->shunt-type resistor volume control-->Fet buffer stage.  Remember, Steve is the guy who invented the original McCormack passive preamps many years ago...

And yes, I lust after the $12K Griphon Mikado CDP.  Some people preferred the Electrocompaniet ECD1 (Mikado as transport), but for me, the Mikado had the tonal density and bass right.  Its bass was as good as 24/192 DVD-A bass, I thought.  Time to start buying lottery tickets again.

I'm sure no one else was paying much attention to the VAC pre, since there were so much equipment.   But I was damned impressed by VAC Standard LE tube preamp.  Given the exceptional company (prototype McCormack pre), I thought the VAC really had that "something" I like.  No wonder, since my main amp is the VAC Renaissance tube amp.  The fact the Standard is one of the lower-end preamps in VAC line astounds me.  I need to investigate further, since I no longer have my Bent TVC.

All in all, it was great fun and educational.  Those of you in the area should definitely check it out for later meetings.

[John Casler]

I'll weigh in a bit too.

I agree with Jon and his report.  There is just something about speakers with the letter V in them that I like.

VMPS, Von Scheikert, and Vandersteen are 1,2, and 3 on my list most of the time. (even A-"V"-123)

I also have to say the Griphon Mikado CDP was the equal of the best player I have heard todate (the Linn Unidisc) but at $12 Large it should be.

The surprise (to me) was how well the McCormack UDP-1 universal player (at $2999) held up against such high priced competition.

No contest however in the "coolness" and "looks" dept.  The Griphon was drop dead gorgeous!!!

And I concur with Jon's assessment of the VR-2.  It had plenty of good tight bass on its own.  Adding the subs caused the bass to "blur" a bit and it lost much of the clean articulation it had on it's own.  This may not be the fault of the speaker/sub combo as much as setting it up in a strange Hotel room (shades of CES).

The VR2s did have some shortcomings from my seat (front row beside Jon L).  I heard some very "icyness" in the sounds of some of the piano recordings.  They were quite evident on Diana Krall's "Case of You" which has been one of my reference tracks for some time.  As well the leading edge of Krall's voice was "over the top" in attack, in some places on that cut.

Now keep in mind that this cut is a torture test for systems and is "engineered" "HOT" in those areas.  My home system just barely makes them listenable, but this set up did not (again from my seating position, which was more nearfield)

But on the track that I spun up, (BlackLight Syndrome's "Duende") the VR2s did an admirable job of maintaining the cohesive delicacy of the sound mix.  Even the very difficult "fuzz tone bass" passage was well reproduced.

They also shoed themselves to be good instrument to "evaluate" and certainly allowed one to hear the differences in some of the components.

When we switched from the Electrocompaniet ECD-1 DAC and used the "onboard" DAC of the Griphon it was quite apparent to me that the Griphon sounded best using it's own DAC.

And I might add over the last 3 meetings we have heard a speaker that cost $13,000, one that cost $7900 and these VR-2's that cost $2500.

While there are a couple speakers I might select over the VR2 in the $2500 price range, let me assure your they (to my ears) sounded much better than the two "over priced" speakers we had heard in the previous meets.

In any event, the only real gripe was MD and I missed the FOOOOOOD!

I was starved, and ended up with a toothpick fruit kabob, and three little postage stamp sized triangle shaped turkey canapes.

Must have been a lot of "HUNGRY" audiophiles on hand (and it did appear that there were around 50-70 people there)

A good time was had by all and another of our "lurking audiophile buddies" (Marvin) also put in an appearance.

Hope more from the Circle make it the next time.

Great bunch of guys, and even just the sharing of music and hearing "new reference cuts" is worth attending.

[Russtafarian]

Sorry I missed it, though I had one hell of a great race day down in Long Beach.  Next month's meeting is on my calendar.

[rlcordeiro]

I missed the meeting because of my son's confirmation. My wife would have killed me, or rather as our esteemed governor said "no sex for a week"

[Mad DOg]

Thanks for sharing your impressions which are right on as usual!

This was definitely a GREAT LA & OC Audio Society meeting...The VSA VR-2s really surprised me w/ their performance! After hearing the VR-4jr at CES, I wasn't expecting much, but these are definitely worth a serious listen as major bang/buck speakers...In fact, after chatting w/ the VSA guys about the sound I heard from the 4jrs at CES which I wasn't impressed with (and the VSA guys said I wasn't alone in leaving w/ this opinion, I'm now anxiously looking forward to reviewing the 4jrs in the near future as I now know that the setup at CES was not optimal...

The Acoustic Zen cables were AWESOME! I've been a fan of AZ cables since I heard the Silver Ref MkII and meeting Robert Lee in person only went to strengthen my positive feelings about the products!

The McCormack stuff?  

In addition, Jim Merod was present and I was able to pick up some well recorded CDs produced by him! EXCELLENT stuff!

[dave clark]

I would like to correct the spelling, it is "Gryphon" and not "Griphon." Griphon sounds rather like a mountain climbing accessory.
And Yes the player is very nice - but very $$$$!
Dave Clark

[Sa-dono]

In any event, the only real gripe was MD....

What did MD do this time? He sit in your sweat spot?

[Sa-dono]

This was definitely a GREAT LA & OC Audio Society meeting...The VSA VR-2s really surprised me w/ their performance! After hearing the VR-4jr at CES, I wasn't expecting much, but these are definitely worth a serious listen as major bang/buck speakers...In fact, after chatting w/ the VSA guys about the sound I heard from the 4jrs at CES which I wasn't impressed with (and the VSA guys said I wasn't alone in leaving w/ this opinion, I'm now anxiously looking forward to reviewing the 4jrs in the near future as I now know that the setup at CES was not optimal...  

Cool! Now you need to try and get a pair of VR-4 III SE's to review, so you can hear the big boy sound (although more furry looks).

In addition, Jim Merod was present and I was able to pick up some well recorded CDs produced by him! EXCELLENT stuff!

It's about time you realize who he is. So which recordings did you get? I've been meaning to pick up some of the discs he recommended.

[Mad DOg]

I would like to correct the spelling, it is "Gryphon" and not "Griphon." Griphon sounds rather like a mountain climbing accessory.
And Yes the player is very nice - but very $$$$!
Dave Clark

i should have corrected it earlier!  

[John Casler]

I would like to correct the spelling, it is "Gryphon" and not "Griphon." Griphon sounds rather like a mountain climbing accessory.
And Yes the player is very nice - but very $$$$!
Dave Clark

i should have corrected it earlier!  

Me too, I just copied and pasted    

[HarleyMYK]

I too thought the afternoon was pretty great.  Having over 30K worth of upstream gear with $2500 speakers was kind of like CES all over again.  The cables alone must have cost over twice what the speakers did.  I agree that the VR-2s sounded pretty darn good.  More open than the 4jr that I heard at CES that sounded heavy.

An interesting point that Mr. Lee made is that he believes that the weak link we audiophiles are putting up with is the lesser cables used by most recording engineers.  So no matter how good the reproduction equipment is in our listening rooms, the software has lost something due to the negative impact of the industrial pro cables used in creating the software.  He also repeatedly talked about cables as filters - they will always take something away, never adding anything.

Unfortunately I had to leave after the raffle, but I bought 15 tickets and there were about 100 items given away.  My first ticket was called well after all the great stuff was picked up, but still I can't complain.

--Michael

[Sa-dono]

Steve McCormack's prototype preamp is one impressive pre. As I recall, it is an attempt to have the best of passive and active designs. Something like, transformer-coupled phase-splitter-->shunt-type resistor volume control-->Fet buffer stage. Remember, Steve is the guy who invented the original McCormack passive preamps many years ago...

Just a FYI comment, this will not be under the McCormack line, and will not be cheap either. Steve is going all out with this unit!