Does anyone else feel this way or is it just me? It seems the bigger the speaker the lousier the sound. For me, best sound at the show for the second year in a row was the Legend speaker driven by their Nirvana tube monoblocks. I heard incredibly real, almost organic, liquid sound out of these small speakers.
On the other hand, every horn speaker (and they were all big) sounded very colored, very honky. Also, huge dynamic systems like those demonstrated by Dynaudio, Viola, Airfoil, and Pipedreams were, at best, average sounding.
I'd say the somewhat large speakers by Piega and Joseph Audio were terrific. The Joseph speaker was wonderful playing "St.James Infirmery" by Louis Armstrong. The Innersound electrostatic ranks as well.
As for video, why do exhibitors insist on showing noisy and explosive blockbuster scenes? The Krell video presentation gave me a headache. I found the rooms showing musical fare like the Eagles and Talking Heads videos much more revealing of audio quality. A dramatic scene highlighting spoken voice would also be demonstrative of true audio quality. And while we're on video, I think animated films are cheating a bit. The real way to determine video quality is in judging fleshtone accuracy. In this regard, the Loewe flat screen direct tube monitor was stunning.
All in all, I liked the show but exhibitors need to stop being so juvenile with their software choices. And bigger is not necessarily better.
Finally, did anyone catch "Dave's True Story" live performance on Friday? Wow, I'm in love with Kelly Flint!
On the other hand, every horn speaker (and they were all big) sounded very colored, very honky. Also, huge dynamic systems like those demonstrated by Dynaudio, Viola, Airfoil, and Pipedreams were, at best, average sounding.
I'd say the somewhat large speakers by Piega and Joseph Audio were terrific. The Joseph speaker was wonderful playing "St.James Infirmery" by Louis Armstrong. The Innersound electrostatic ranks as well.
As for video, why do exhibitors insist on showing noisy and explosive blockbuster scenes? The Krell video presentation gave me a headache. I found the rooms showing musical fare like the Eagles and Talking Heads videos much more revealing of audio quality. A dramatic scene highlighting spoken voice would also be demonstrative of true audio quality. And while we're on video, I think animated films are cheating a bit. The real way to determine video quality is in judging fleshtone accuracy. In this regard, the Loewe flat screen direct tube monitor was stunning.
All in all, I liked the show but exhibitors need to stop being so juvenile with their software choices. And bigger is not necessarily better.
Finally, did anyone catch "Dave's True Story" live performance on Friday? Wow, I'm in love with Kelly Flint!