Here's my notes - taken on my phone from Friday, so short and brief.
YG Acoustics (big ones) - pa speakers! Forward and not nuanced
Sony - veiled
Wilson Sasha/vVTL- nice, dynamic, open , diacordant, not well integrated
Scaena- not integratwd, hole in upper mids
KEF Blades on koto drum track - nice but give me something real, on regular music very nice and integrated in a big crowded room. Bigger than life but pretty and dynamic. Bass is still detached and overloading the room
MBL - awesome. Cohesive, dynamic, detailed. Not overly loud but still port bass boom
Gradient - best sound so far, cohesive, live, full range, very nice amd dynamic, soind very big for their size
Woo audio - headphones, probably best sound at the show
Veloce and little YG's7 sounds much better than the big YG's but a bit congested and not full range
Quad 58s- sometimes its easy to say it has all been done before and its not better, just dfferent. I don't think there was anything in this room that was lass than 20 years old.
TAD - no bass, toppy high end. Crappy am radio sound. Probably the worst soound at the show.
The Clue bookshelf speakers - $999 and they are phenominal, against the wall, cohesive and dynamic and awesome I want a pair of these.
Singer Verity VAC (big system) - balanced nice on cd and spectacular on hi rez apl for about $100k, then a second system of Kudas (?) speakers and Dart Zeel integrated for about half that (small system) which sounded dynamically constrained but still more cohesive than most so far if a bit flat
Amphion Hegel - nice and open if a bit horny in the tweeter and tippy on the top end and needs a sub
Harbeths - somewhat flat and non dynamic. Not what I thought Harbeths should sound like
Robert Lighton speakers and electronics - ok bit nothing spectacular. Rather home made look and not fully finished. Also somewhat closed in and typical small tweeter and big woofer sound with a hole.
Walker Burmeister - a bit tame and over controlled but nice
Davinci Wilson Sasha Pass - might be some of the best sound at the show but still a bit congested on complex stuff
Red Wine - great synergy between all components and speakers, playing up with the best I heard
Hansen Redpoint - Wes always makes sure thing sound good, dynamic and balanced
Soundsmith on a big VPI HRX w/ Firefly bookshelf speakers - dynamic and natural. Very very sweet. Not a tube in sight but wow tube sound.
GF Audio - panels and self powered cone woofers. Sound nice but looks raw for only $2750 pair and awesome at 3 times the price. Someone just buy these.
Audio Note - boxy and closed in sound.
Arum Cantus Speakers, Avid tube amps, VPI classic 4 (new tt) - big and dynamic and beautiful in 3 speaker sound (yup there was a center channel speaker too). Awesome.
