New York City Audio Show 2019

I liked the Bache speakers with Alexus Audio amp and preamp and Brinkmann turntable wonderful room.

PAP, for me, no contest. Wall of sound, No room treatments, need only 5-10 watts,  could follow every note. For the first time I didn’t want to leave as it was just the music, not the equipment. That said it all for me. 

I enjoyed Vinnie Rossi’s room with the Qln speakers, which I’d never heard before. Such a holographic sound from his L2 integrated. And a really cool playlist (He played savior from St. Vincent’s all-piano MassEducation).

Gorgeous, warm sound in the Luxman room with their tube gear. I believe it was the CL-38uC preamp and the MQ-88uC amp, which they daisy-chained into a mono setup to power some Triangle towers. 

Regarding ESD, I agree it was neat to hear such a massive and expensive system. Those horns are huge. The tape playlist was a nice touch, too. But sound was a little brash for my taste. 

I also liked the Harbeth 40.2s, but thought the room could have sounded better. 

And, I have to say, those cheap-as-hell little speakers from Vanatoo were mindboggling for the price and size. Fully powered, preamp, DAC and DSP all built in. They’re like 10 inches tall and I think they said $550 for the big model. Smaller one was like $360. 

For me, Laufer Teknik room. For the first time, I can say I felt like a performer was in the room and I did not want to leave. I liked it way more than that zillion-dollar system at CAF.

re rooms: I usually ignore these things but if you sat in the back of the Blink room, you could hear a large hollow echo on the demonstrators(owners?) voice when he spoke :Also, the ONKK room was lively with some reverb. Triangle and one or two others  had some vocal distortion on the first day. Also, problems in the sound by singer room. The music played  in the Harbeth room was so good that I didn't notice problems.

ohm,vanatoo ,voxativ,Pure and orinda had no obvious problems.
Rooms with stein dots were Harbeth, TA and laufer tek.