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Capitol Audio Fest and the New York Audio a trend is emmerging


Just returned from the Capital Audio Fest Last week and the New York Audio Show this week.

Very few systems at either shows sounded great there were a few memorable setups.

I saw two distinct trends one was to setup up a system with really expensive everything no matter if that was a realistic pairing and the other was to setup affordable based systems that were well matched in price.

For example: at the Capitol Audio Fest, a pair of new Focal Kanta bookshelves at $6k a pair was put together with a Naim Uniti Nova, a $7.5k integrated amp/dac/streamer with inexpensive Wireworld cabling, about a $15k system that sounded fantastic.

At the New York Audio Show, Golden Ear’s Sandy Gross, was playing the Triton Reference a $8,5k set of speakers with a $3k Peachtree integrated amplifier, this system was a little soft to my ears but was still very musical. We have been kind of fans of the Golden Ear for years especially for Home Theater so were intrigued to hear them sound quite decent vs a few other demos where they sounded either way to peaky or just plain bloated and dull.

Compare these two excellent pairings vs at the New York Audio Show a set of the new Magico A3 at $10k with a $14k AVM amp but with Nordost Valahalla 2 speaker cable at $11k and a Nordost Vallhalla interconnects $8k and power cables $5k which then pushed the somewhat affordable pairing of the A3 and AVM amplifier at $24k to a system close to $60k! 

Magico A3                           $10k
AVM int                                $14k
Nordost Vall speaker Cable $11k
Nordost Vall interconnect    $  8K
Nordost Val power cable     $  5k
Nordost Power cond            ?
Source components             ?
  
                            total           ?

 I just don’t understand the logic of that pairing when the Magico A3 is being heralded as the most exciting $10k speaker a somewhat reachable price for many aspiring audiophiles and then paring the speakers with $40-50k plus worth of electronics and cabling.

As both an audiophile and a retailer we have always tried to recommend intelligent pairings your thoughts?

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
128x128audiotroy
audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy OP
3,816 posts
 
Twoleftears you actually got that wrong,

the two setups that we mentioned the Naim/Focal setup was from a dealer and the Magico/AVM/Nordost setup was also from a dealer.

The manufacturer setup was from Golden Ear.

The point was one dealer's setup matched what we would have considered a normal pairing, $6k speakers with a $7.5k amp and matching dollar level cables while the other setup in our minds was wildly off.

We would never recommend or pair $20-30k worth of cabling for a $10K set of speakers, hence the what were they thinking puzzlement.
geek101
284 posts
 
I would wildly speculate that Nordost must have paid Magico to advertise their cables.

Apart from that it puzzles me if the speaker cable is $10k then speaker should probably be using same cable internally so the speaker is a steal if discount internal cabling. Essentially pay for cabling the drivers, cabinet etc are free.

But hey it begs the question what is the internal cable used for Magico. 
inna
7,296 posts
 
Yeah, $10k speakers with $11k speaker cables is either stupid or extravagant. Overall cost of system cabling as much as the cost of active components is almost certainly always stupid.
I do use speaker cables that cost as much as speakers, though. Both cost $500 used.
inna
7,296 posts
 
Nordost should be a poor choice for Magico, anyway, regardless of cost.
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,318 posts
 
@audiotroy I’m sorry, you got that wrong. Were you actually at CAF? I was referring to Command Performance sets ups and Deja Vu set up, two highly recommendable stores by the way.  Tenacious also probably falls into that category.
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