Best and Worst sound at the CES Show 2004


The Best, I would vote for the Wavac room. Amazing!!!! Well, those amps are like.. ... $350k..???
They were playing Peggy Lee "Fever" and it was amazing.
Accuphase room was good as well. Beautiful sound came out from Avanlon speakers.

The worst??? Many... I was disapointed and surprised... among the worst room:
- Burmester (no imaging, get headache if listen for 5min.)
- Lamn (terrible, so digital sound, like my computer)
- VTL (the worst of the worst). They used the Wilson Audio speakers and the sound was so bad? Why? Wrong set-up? Wrong CD????
linkoping
Labtec, I didn't mean to make it sound like $5000 speakers are cheap, since they are obviously not, but compared to many speaker systems they are relatively inexpensive. A person can spend a lot more, and a lot less. My thought was that for a dare I say, mid priced speaker they sounded very good! Unless I misunderstood Tom, the amps were $5000 too, but I could be wrong.

I'm not disagreeing, just trying to clarify
I've been involved with all this stuff for over 30 years. I can tell you that 'it's all good' given enough time to set the systems up properly and use the appropriate tweeks to maximize performance. In the end it generally boils down to room resonances, componet isolation and properly getting the source material tricked-out. All these guys know how to design great equipment. Unfortunately much of this gear does not get demonstrated in a manner that shows full capability.

I would put the Joule/Vandersteen 5A room as being the most long term listenable of all the rooms. It had a natural, easy and well balanced tone with the best soundstaging of all the rooms. The speakers simply vanished as the music began to play. That room redefined the word, "musical."

I could own that room and never want for more. Considering the price of the 5A's, they once again make a mockery of costlier speakers, a feat Richard Vandersteen has done since he started in the business. No wonder customers love him and competetors hate him.
Actually, I never do any serious listening on the first two days of the CES/The SHOW, allowing for proper setup, tweaking, and "burn-in" of the gear. The improved fidelity after the first two days can be quite noticeable!!