Audio Troy Capital Audio Fest the good, the bad and the ugly!

I agree on the selection of music. Most everything I heard was soft piano and double bass with occasional female jazz vocals.

I was interested in hearing the Avantgarde Zero TAs but the only thing playing in there was very soft acoustic jazz with no drums, etc. No way to tell what the active subwoofer was capable of. Occasionally there was some Donald Fagan/Nightfly playing. I did hear Keith Don’t Go once. And all the larger systems seemed to be playing orchestra music. As a guy who went there looking for speakers, the content playing was not very helpful.

I did like the AG Zeros, as well as the Spatial M3 Sapphire, which I thought was very good. I did not really get a good feel for the Luxman/Devore system due to the room. The Daedalus room was impressive. Not as impressed with the Acapella horns, which I expected to like. I did enjoy the Gryphon room (on Saturday - I heard that Friday was a little rough), as well as the Odyssey room.

Overall lots of Border Patrol and Linear Tube Audio, which were both impressive, particularly the Z10 integrated paired with the Spatial M3s. Also spent quite a bit of time in the McGary room - I believe it was paired with Salk speakers? Very nice sound. Another high point was the Joseph Audio Perspectives.

The star of the show for me was the Volti Rivals. Not as refined as the Vittoras in the other Volti room, but impressive enough for me to buy the demos - which look absolutely stunning (as did the Vittoras). The Rivals will be replacing the La Scala IIs in my system, and to me they were the natural progression/upgrade from the sound I was looking for. All the dynamics and scale of the LS IIs with a more refined mid and cohesive, fast, dynamic bass. Goodbye subwoofers!

I was also blow away on the gt audio works. The KEF muon's were amazing but the price was also 225k for just the speakers. The tekton was a room I was hoping for better but went in there on two occasions and just did not grab me. I did try one more time on Sunday and got the volume turned up and they did start to shine though.

Im literally kicking myself for not seeing the Spatial and Salk rooms, how did i miss it?  

For anyone who has heard the Spatial's, are they good all arounders, considered them to be pretty detailed also? Or are they more of a gimmick that does a huge sound but loses things in the mix as a tradeoff? 

How about the salks which i believe are the models that sell for around 6k with BE tweeters (if i saw the photos correctly)? Are those winners at that price point?

tomic601
@pops would love to hear more on your impressions of the strain gauge system Sonics... what arm and table ? Thanks

Peter was using 2 tables made by a friend of his I believe in Germany, the arms were his, a collaboration with Reed. The amp and speakers were his and the speaker cables were Transparent, not sure about the IC’s.

For speakers, he was using his 8K Monarchs I believe they are called and they sounded great, no need for a sub.

To his credit he spun records like a DJ on 2 tables alternating between the strain gauge and his Hyperion cartridge. Both were luscious!  The strain gauge left nothing in the grooves, total detail and resolution, purity of tone,  without being in your face.  The Hyperion was very similar, organic sounding with just a touch and I mean a touch of warmth compared to the SG.

GT Audioworks were my favorite speaker last year.  I dropped by early on Friday and one of the Pass Labs mono's was not working and he was using a different amp.  Compromised his sound a bit.  Sounds like he got it together but I never got back the next 2 days.

As I mentioned above, Salk sounded good and credit also goes to a McGary integrated amp - made the Salks sing.

Also forgot to mention Joseph Audio - Perspectives were great, airy and transparent.