Capitol Audio Fest Speakers?

"In any event, I am always struck by how different people reach different conclusions about the sound quality of rooms at the same show. That just shows that we have different tastes and different priorities, and there is nothing wrong with that. The world would be much less interesting if we all had the same aesthetic tastes."

Yes, the evidence speaks for itself there in the variety of audio gear and options out there and doing well.

At shows, I shoot for a simple conclusion when listening to many things in a short period of time: has potential or not.

Potential is all that one can really discern with many fast auditions under a single circumstance at a show.

Potential is only the initial requirement to meet. In teh end, many factors would determine what I would actually buy, having to choose among many excellent options.

In general, the bigger, heavier and more expensive something is, the less chance I will see "potential" in it for my use. I like well designed and reliable gear that provides flexibility in general.

I love my OHM F5s, but they are quite heavy and bulky, and I would prefer it if they were not, but at least they are mounted on casters, which makes life a lot easier.

Charles1dad,

I think most of us would like "natural" sounding systems, but given the limitations of ALL gear, we differ in priorities and compromises we are willing to accept (or find intolerable). I demand systems to be very dynamic and lifelike at LOW volume levels. I am somewhat intolerant of systems that have an artificially hard initial attack to notes and truncated decay of same. This generally means low-power tube-based amplification and high efficiency speaker systems (usually horn/compression driver midrange systems). The challenge for me is finding such fast and lively horn systems which manage to reasonably avoid horn colorations and excessively sharp peaks in the upper midrange. The system I have assembled manages this balancing act reasonably well, but it still does have horn coloration and it does have a tendency to "shout" if pushed to high volume (I rarely listen at high volume, but, I know this is a "problem").

The horn driver in the Deja Vu vintage system at the show utilized the same midrange driver/horn that I use and sounded very good, to me, at the show. That system was never played at high volume and it certainly did not need to be played at excessive volume to get one's toes tapping. I think Salectric and I probably appreciated the same qualities of the midrange on this system (his profile indicates a use of very similar horn and midrange drivers).

To some extent our differences of opinion on the Horning system has to do with tolerance of the upper midrange peakiness of the system. I described it as a peak, he describes the sound as a lack of midbass; because perception of frequency response has to do with relative levels of different parts of the spectrum, we are probably talking about the same thing. I did not like the peakiness, but, I found it tolerable when the volume of the system was lowered. I also tolerated it because I really appreciated the great dynamics of the system. Like Salectric, I like my own system more so I would not consider the Horning, but, it is, to me, something worth auditioning for someone in the market. I would have liked that display at the show a lot more if the volume level were kept lower; but then again, the crowd often requested higher volume levels in rooms that I thought were already far too loud.

Larry thanks much for your further detailed impressions. Excessively loud volume at shows is a recurrent pet peeve of mine, they just end up sounding worse.
Charles,

Regarding the Horning sound and using shows as a sound gauge, I've heard these at various shows, but then in a home system with a quality 845 SET. This was a game changer for me, so I bought the Aristoteles. I will be replacing my amp next. I too, don't like it too loud, and at lower volumes everything is there for me. That's the real test, and what does it for me. I was not at CAF, but recently at RMAF.