WOW; great stuff at THE Show, Newport this weekend


First time ever audio show for me; got to THE Show Friday morning; stood in a line of over 150 people waiting to get badges; instead of being a lonely audiophile; now I had company; everyone had high energy; and were great to chat with. tons of gear. Brief thoughts on my one day visit
1. The Ayon room was simply magical; such eye candy on their amps and preamps; the recent review in TAS was spot on. The Evolution Acoustics mini's sounded just great; incredible base response; but powered by very expensive front end.
2. TAD room; penthouse: magnificiant speakers; great designer rep; friendly; let you play your cd's; their large, $75k floor standers were among the best of show in my opinion; just a tad boomy in base in that room; the monitors dispeared; and sounded cohesive top to bottom
3. Brooks-Berdan room; never heard the Sasha's sound so good; powered by VTL tubed amp and pre amp; better than I heard them in their show room.
4. Revels sounded a bit disjointed; a bit disappointing; even when powered by the new $50k Mark Levinson mono blocks
5. Magico V3's in the synergistic research room; on groud level; with the $40,000 galieo speaker cell wires; sounded very good; but was amazed with the effect of the acoustic treatments; the little wooden shere hanging above them in the center; and tiny base 'cups' and side wall cups; they played a track with these diffusers in place; then removed them; I didn't believe the big difference in sonic improvement with them in; but it happened in front of me.
6. Venture Audio: I've heard these speakers before sound much better; their room was just horrible, and Didi kept playing a scratched lp of Keith Jarrett; which was not top notch. the speakers are beautiful; and are capable of sounding better than that
7. Great to Zingali's back in the USA; unfortunately; they were not set up when I stopped by.
8. The YG caramel's had a very impressive sound stage; and great dynamics; first time I've heard them
9. the MBL room with the 101'es sounded great as well; but room a bit too small to allow them justice.
too much to see and hear in one day; congrats to Bob Levy; and the LA/Orange county society for bringing this great event to SoCal...I hope it returns next year...
hard to evaluate separate pieces; ie; amps vs preamps, or cables; as all system dependent.
Also loved the sound in the Veloce room; battery powered preamp and amp..
Just some quick and random thoughts by a newbie attending first show; loved hearing all this gear in one place; and meeting great and warm fellow audiophiles;...wow again. curious to learn other's responses to this show and gear...
mribob
One thing that was very disappointing was the band in the courtyard that forced many rooms to shut down their demos. The sound permeated and competed too much for the room demos to work without being compromised by the external sound.

Too bad, I was looking forward to hearing the Maggie 3.7's and some other setups that literally just stopped.

I've already mentioned on a few threads my love for the Blue Light room, surely the Dartzeel/Playback Designs ultra expensive front end had something to do with it but those Evolution Acoustics Speakers are still something else.

Like Jafox, I also noted the rooms that used Cary were the better sounding rooms (on average). Quite surprised by that as well. Worst sounding room to me was the Vivid room...just dead sounding.

I missed the Napa room, that's too bad, it sounds interesting for an office setup.
Jafox, is NAPA a dealer or manufacterer? Sorry, I've never heard of them before. If a dealer, what is the brand of the amp and speakers you bought? Thanks!
See Michael Lavorgna's coverage of the Napa room:
http://www.stereophile.com/content/napa-acoustic-0
Napa Acoustic aka Xcellus
US Representative for Mistral Audio tube gear and the US importer for NBIEN loudspeakers and JIB-Germany cables.
Did you guys airdrop in or take a bus....

I drove up from 60 miles South and parking was awful. None on site or next door, where they caught on pretty quick.
I ended up down at the bank. worked well and no charge, but I wish I had been warned.

I liked EVERYTHING but a few rooms. I didn't like the VMPS ribbons and those gigantic Focals? Small room? (for them, at least) The other system I didn't like had horn drivers. I walked in and out within 30 seconds.

Joe Rogers, a Southern California favorite is back with a new, small stand mount RSL mini monitor. This little slot loaded beauty sounded terrific. I don't know how he did it, but he bought his name back and is now a going concern.

Audience, another SouthernCalifornia operation also showed there huge tall linesource with like 16 identical drivers. The SAME driver, used 2 at a time with a passive radiator made some nice sounds. I was impressed at the clean boom free low end.

And for you SDFR guys, Voxitiv made an appearance. NOT Lothar or Foxtex. A proprietary driver in an enclosure made by Shimmel, the Piano folks. Fit and finish? Befitting a grand piano.

I loved the room with Pass amps and those inexpensive AudioEngine A5s....were a terrific value. If I had a youngster in college, you can bet that'd be part of a dorm system.

I loved the Sanders / Magtech room, too.
Other things that caught my eye were lots of R2R and computer based systems, some showing the PSAudio product.

no way to post a photo?

I think they should move it down to San Diego. Where you can find parking.