Best Speakers at Stereophile show


These were the best sounding speakers at the show. There was these speakers called Impact. They list for 35,000 dollars. It used 9 drivers per speaker, that are very similar to the manger drivers. The speakers also also used 2 subs, that use 2 12 inch woofers per sub. Let me tell you, these speakers sounded incredible. They were so smooth and silky sounding and the bass was unbelievable. The midrange was so perfect sounding. The subs were just awesome, they blended in so perfectly to the main speakers. I advise people to hear these speakers. I heard the new Dynaudio speakers. They cost 30,000 dollars. They sounded so great. They sounded so smooth with a great midrange and the bass was good. The Vandersteen 5 speakers sounded really good. They have a very airy 3 dimensional sound with nice bass. They were being played on the Cary V12 Tube Amps and the Cary Tube preamp. I heard these speakers called Dali in the Tact Room. I never heard of these speakers. They listed for 5000 dollars. They used 2 8 inch woofers, which act as subs and a MTM design at the top. The Mids were 5 inches. These speakers sounded great. They had a very large soundstage with nice detail and the bass was amazing. I'll take these speakers any day of the week over the Merlin VSM se and Verity Parsifal speakers. Then I heard these speakers called RL Acoustique. They had a built in Horn in the cabinet, which acted as a sub. Then they used this Lowther driver, which looked like a 6 ½ midbase. There was no tweeter. There was no crossover in this speaker, similar to the Reference 3A speakers. All the mids and highs came out of the Lowther driver. No sound came out of the horn. The horn just acted as a sub. Let me tell you, I couldn't believe how good these speakers sounded. That Lowther midbase was so articulate and sweet sounding. They were being played on the Tenor OTL Tube Amps, which cost 15,000 dollars and were 15 watts. These Tenor 15 watt OTL Amps, could play so loud. I couldn't believe how loud they could play and how smooth and sweet they were, even at loud levels. The CD Player was the Audio Aero Capitole 24 bit CD Player. Whats interesting, I heard the same setup, except the speakers in the Verity Parsifal room. But let me tell you, the RL Acoustique sound so much better then the Verity Parsifal speakers. The RL Acoustic just had a full bodied sound, with a very articulate midbase and the bass was great. I heard the 4 Gershman speakers. I heard the RX 20, The Opera Sauvage speakers. These are the Gershman speakers, where the Cabinet looks like a boat. I heard the X-1 SW-1 Sub Sattelite speakers and the Gershman 520 Gap speakers. Without question the 520 Gap speakers were the best sounding at of the 4. The 520 speakers sound very sweet with nice detail and the bass was great. The cabinet was incredible on the Gap 520 speakers. The RX 20 speakers sounded nice to. I finally heard the Perpetual 24 bit Dac, there speaker correction unit with the upsampling. Let me tell you, you must hear the difference in sound quality, with the speaker correction unit used. The speaker correction and upsampling unit work as a tandem. Perpetual would play Martin Logan speakers with the speaker correcton on and with the speaker correction off. The difference in sound quality was astounding. The Martin Logan speakers, when using the speaker correction software on, sounded so much better with the Perpetual speaker correction on, then off. Also, when the Speaker correction was on, they were upsampling a 16 bit CD song to 24 bit, The 24 bit Perpetual dac was being used on a Sony DVD CD Player. You need a separate 24 bit dac to do the speaker correction. But I was told, if you have a 20 bit Dac, you could still use the speaker correction unit. The Perpetual upsampler only worked on a 24 bit Dac. Also, this really cool looking Nakamich intergrated Amp was being used for the Amp and preamp. Nakamichi came out with these 20,000 dollar Amps and a new preamp. This stuff looks so cool.
Innovative Audio had the Sonus Faber Amati Homage speakers, but they didn't list them, as one of the speakers in the exhibitor directory. Innovative should have listed them in the exhibitor directory. I bet a lots of people didn't know, the Sonus Faber Amati Homage were in this room. I got to this room with 5 minutes remaining in the show on Sunday and really didn't have time to listen to them.
The Swan Diva speakers, the ones that look like the BW speakers. Diva had these prototype speakers, that looked exactly like the Sonus Faber Amati Homage and another speaker, that looked exactly like the Guarneri Homage. The cabinet was gorgeous on both of these speakers. I heard the Stax headphones with the Stax tube headphone amp. These Stax headphones sounded so great and the Stax headphone amp was incredible sounding. Stax also had a solid state headphone amp, which sounded nice. The Senheiser 600 headphones definitely feel better then the Stax headphones. But Stax came out with these new headphones, that have a beter feel, then the ones Stax usually makes
I also want to thank Akira Taguchi, who was promoting JVC XRCD CDs. Akira is a very funny person. He would play regular CDs, you would buy in music stores. Then he would play the Same CD, but one that was mastered by JVC using the XRCD technology. I got to tell you, these XRCDs sounded so much better, then the regular CDS. Whats interesting, Akira told me, XRCD can be used for 24 bit and SACD cds. I hope this XRCD technology gets more known. This technology is amazing. Also, Akira had a great set up. He was using Levinson 332 Amp, Levinson 38s Preamp, Levinson36S Dac and Levinson 37 Transport. He was using the Wilson Watt Puppy 5.1 speakers. He also had the Harmonic Combak blocks under the Levinson 332 Amp and Harmonic Combak blocks under the Levinson Dac and transports. His system sounded really sweet with nice detail. I really couldn't judge the bass response, because, Akira was playing Tony Bennett type music. I was curious, because a couple of people have told me, the Wilson 5.1 speakers, the bass could get boomy. I also like the Coincident total eclipse speakers. I Heard them on the Audio Aero Tube Amps and the Audio Aero Capitole 24 bit CD Player. These speakers used 2 Seas midbases per speaker with the Scanspeak Revelator tweeter. They were not the Seas Magnesium midbases. They also used 2 8 inch Scanspeak woofers, on the side of each speaker. The 8 inch woofers acted as subs. These speakers sounded tremendous. They sounded really smooth and the soundstage was really large. The bass was very impressive. I would be curious, to hear the Coincident speakers, that use the Seas Magnesium midbase drivers. I also want to compliment Nordost designer. He was from Denmark. He was the coolest guy. He A/Bed every Nordost Interconnect he had, starting at the ones for 99 dollars to the Nordost interconnects that go for 2000 dollars. What was great, he played Rock Music, he played Euro Dance music. He played this one song called Dance with the Devil by D Devil. This is an awesome Euro dance song. The BW Nautilus 802 speakers sounded great. I find the Nautilus 802 speakers are so much better then the Nautilus 803 speakers. The Nautilus 802 speakers sound more upbeat and the bass is superior then the 803 speakers. The Nautilus 802s have a sweetness that has to be heard. The Nautilus 801s also sound great. Dynaudio came out a version of the 1.3 speaker, that used a black gloss cabinet that looked really nice.
doug99
I have to admit the HIRO monoblocks and preamp with the B&W 801 Natilius speakers were wonderful,but also the setup in the HARLEM room,Wisdoms with the VTLs and the other equipment was nice sounding but only a 5 minute listening session wasnt enough,but at the price of that system,I would buy a house.I also listened to this DIGITAL amp with the 802 Natilius,sounded nice.
Of all the threads posted here about the show why is it not one of them has not mentioned the new Nearfield Acoustics 5' (I won't call them pipedreams because I understand that they are not yet named) speakers that look like Pipedreams. Was I the only one to hear them? And what about the Avante Guard trios? Or the Audio Virgo Sparks? I was very impressed with the Nearfield speakers (they are supposed to cost around 10k.) Any opinions?
Niro Nakamichi's 801s sounded great, Singers Utopias also were great & so was the Avante horn speakers in the BAT room. Rogue had some great sounding little speakers. Headroom had a great display!
Did anyone think the Talon's were all that great? I know I wasn't that impressed at $14k. I also thought the new Joseph Audio's were ok, but again at $7400, there are alot of choices. However, I thought the biggest bang-for-the-buck were the Gershman Accoustic Avante Garde. At $4500, these were excellent! Also, good point on the Rogue AP Spark. I have heard these a number of different time at Audio Outlet with at least three different amps, and they never sounded as good as they did the the Rogues.