My buddy and I attended Friday for the first time and had a fun time and meet some cool people.
Granted there is some very high end equipment on display but it is fun to check it out...and at least dream alittle about owning it.
Here are some thoughts for the group.
Press got in at 11:00 AM so we had to wait but we decide to go visit John and Eric from Ohm during this time and spent over an hour spinning some SACDs and listening to the
Ohm Walsh's, which offer full room stereo. My buddy and I are big fans of Ohm speaker since the Tech Hifi days. I currently own three pairs. L2's, C2's and a pair or Ohm refurbished super H's, which are the anchor of my HT rig.
We put on the Mofi SACD of Jefferson Airplane's final album,Volunteers. One of the writers walked in and smiled and said "someone is playing some real music." The Walsh's sound full and vibrant and handled Jorma's distortion and Jack thundering bass of the rockin' opening track " We Could Be Together" with no problem. There was no sub-woofer added either.
I also found out John was an opera fan, like me, and I offered another SACD I brought to play. Handel's La Maga Abbandonata featuring Simone Kermes and Maria Beaumont with Alan Curtis conducting the ensemble. This is where the Walsh's blew me away, they did have a Carver amp/pre as part of their rig, as the female voice is always a wonderful indicator of the true depth, capability, and beauty of a loud speaker. The Walsh's offered up exquisite spatial separation of the soprano Kemes and contralto Beaumonte and when Kermes unleashed her operatic power it was extremely satisfying hearing the Walsh's deliver the goods of this wonderful recording.
I will offer up some of my personal highlight of the afternoon from here on out not trying to wade into territory outside of my technical wheel house.
The loud speaker that really stole the show for me, no it was not the $430K
ESD rig; although I thoroughly enjoyed hearing The Stones " Satisfaction" playing off a stellar reel to reel in that set up, was PureAudioProject"
Trio15 Classic. The vendor, sorry I forgot his name but he was very informative and down to earth, played some classical and some French female vocal jazz that was simply sublime sounding. These speakers, at $10K a pair, blew away all the other speakers we heard at dramatically much higher price points. He was playing digital tracks off his lap top that were not going through a DAC either. Myself and others were shocked how good it sounded. He was using a
Roland Pro AR-200R I believe as he said it cost only $700. These are 2 way, although I think he used the term 1.5 way the way they are designed and they sound full, vibrant and completely present. They a have an wonderful classic look as well.
Value Electronics also had a great set set up that featured
Technics high end reference series which sounded impressive.
Blink High End Audio featured much going on as the rep from the store in Republic of Cambridge was trying to educate as well as sell. He was comparing vinyl and digital in real time along with showcasing the stunning performance of the
Borg, yes resistance is futile, and the Julieta from
Kroma Audio, which is a Spanish company. The Julieta had alot of natural punch and as did the Borg. Both were very alive and made you take notice and filled the room with chest pounding bass., The white modern look of both speakers was not the most aesthetically pleasing to this reviewer but I will leave that to you to decide.
The
Tweak Studio also had a wide array of killer sounding equipment as well.
Room 700 may have been the music lover's room to stop by and sit and listen. With
Sound By Singer staging a $90 K system it was quite impressive. The digital hub was an impressive CH Precision up-scaling
DAC along with amps and pre that drove a stunning pair of
Stenheim Infinite loud speakers that were a workhorse of handling a wide musical variety. Whether it was the classical guitar version of Stairway to Heaven by
Rodrigo y Gabriela, what a treat! To the
Mofi 45 RPM release of Dylan's Blood on the Tracks these speakers could deliver!
It was also fun to hear the rep from Mofi talk about the laborious and time consuming effort to reach an agreement with record companies to get the rights to remaster and re-release the classic albums we would like to hear. Next step is to to work with the artist to bring the product to market. He cited that it took 4 years to bring the Dire Straight albums to market. It is also difficult to always get the 33 RPM rights as well, as the record companies now see gold in them dem hills and are now choosing to re-issue the vinyl themselves, often with lack luster results. That explains why many Mofi are now 45 RPM, of coarse they sound better too.
The dude did turn us onto a stunning vinyl re-issue from 1974 of the
Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio playing Misty that was incredible through the Stenheim's I believe it is on a label called Impact but could not find the pressing he had online.
I finally got to hear a pair of
Harbeth Monitor 40.2's too and they lived up to all that I have heard.
Fidelis AV was playing that new Neil Young solo acoustic album and it sounded sooooo good.
In wrapping it up there was a clock maker from the UK, named Paul who was promoting his built from scratch turntable and phono amp. The company is called
Onkk and his story is truly amazing, he has been working for over three years to bring this incredible, and unusual looking piece of engineering and clocking making technology to fruition. I have a feeling you will be reading about his story soon in one of the mags or online.
The value of the show was the self powered speakers from
Vanatoo. Staring at $349, 45 watts per channel, these little speakers pack alot of wallop and sound very good and can also be hooked up to any subwoofer as well for more full room bass. They can be set up very easily and can connect via USB, bluetooth, coaxial, or optical and the two guys who created them are very passionate about what they are trying to do. Another great story as well.
Look forward to hearing more from others.
Best regards in stereo,
Idigmusic64
