Finished day 1. It's 9pm here and i arrived at 9am. I just had drinks with the owner of Volti speakers - what a nice guy!!! My flight left at 5:30'ish AM and I finished in the OR about 4 hours before that. I'm beat!
I ran from top to bottom and did everything in 7 hours. But I need tomorrow to actually reinforce everything and give the rooms that deserve it more time. Here are my first super initial impressions:
JM Labs Utopia and Vac put together what I heard as the best room at the show. It was live music. One of the most live sounding systems I have ever heard. It was also about a half million dollars I believe.
JM Labs also put a room with Stella Utopias and 3 full preamp/amp systems in the same room and switched between them: Soulution, Air Tight and Accuphase. I only heard the Stella's with Soulution and it was spectacular!
Vivid Giya 1 and Mola Mola put a great room together that was warm and musical. I was impressed considering I have not loved either Mola Mola or the Giya previosly.
Viper/Antipodes/Lampy had a bigger room. To me, the speakers were too big for the room and the Joule would have been a much better choice. The room sounded BIG. The music was BIG, everything was warm and Big. In a bigger room I could see that system being sensational. I just wish he had the Joule as I think it would have been a great room as opposed to a big room.
I finally heard Cessaro horns and now get what the full is about. They were wonderful!!!
Von Schweikert VR-55/YFS music servers/Constellation hit it out of the park for a small room. I can't wait to hear what it sound like broken in!
Rowland's new Daemon integrated is a tour de force of technical and acoustic mastery and made the YG Sonya sound the best I have heard them.
MSB DAC V and MSB amps with a pair of big new Quads showed how good Quads can be when fed a healthy diet of crazy expensive amazing gear!!!
ELAC introduced a floor standing speaker for well under a grand that sets a new level for everyone to keep up with. The tonal color and layering were dead on and they way outperform their price level.
Although I'm not a huge fan of either, VTL and Wilson made some nice music together.
Boulder's new music server is sick and it's $65k !!!
Cary Audios new music server is nice and it's $6k, or something like that.
AudioMachina and Einstein made killer may if together a that wa clean, accurate, with a deep soundstage and engaging music.
German Physics speaker has a soundstage I could jump into a swim around in. It was HUGE.
Volti is not only a nice guy but makes great speakers that sound terrific with Boarder Patrol gear.
That's not to say that others weren't great, just that I either forgot or didn't give them enough time. I'll be more rested and thorough tomorrow.
