Capitol Audio Fest Speakers?

I'm with you Elevick regarding the Tidals, just too smooth and hifi sounding to me. I am starting to wonder if big speakers do it for me. The monitors in several rooms were very impressive.

Larryi agreed, I thought all the vinyl setups sounded great and IMHO outperformed digital. I can spot digital a mile away! I also heard the same thing in the MBL room with regards to bass. He had Led Zepp II cranked! It was so impressive for a song or 2 and then the shortcomings appeared, no range in the bass but Jimmy Page in particular sounded like he was playing live in a jazz club - impressive.

Probably the best learning for me at the show was mono vinyl in the Highwater room. I never listen to mono and do not own a mono cartridge or phono preamp. But it sure sounds different than stereo, more realistic tone and at least with what I heard.

I thought the Soundsmith room was excellent also, he also had monitors that sounded great and put some major tone out! Can't remember the brand????

One thing maybe someone can help me understand. Some of the vinyl for sale was really expensive, like $50 and up.

Make me 3 or 4 for Tidal Audio Agoria speakers "not floating my boat". The Jazzy stuff was fairly impressive. But once Doug put on Classical [Symphonic].....wow!.....did the soundstage collapse, imaging went to god knows where....it was not pretty. The Contrivas were much more convincing. Actually it sounded a lot like the Wilson MAXX speakers. Different implementation of entirely different set of drivers I know, but I like Pops description: "smooth and "hifi""..... Gorgeous looking speakers, however for the same price [ I guess with the electronics] of $180,000.00, you could have a Porsche Panamera GTS with the Burmester audio system. 180 MPH AND 120 dB.....;-)). BTW.....I had the most fun talking with the vinyl dealers. Hey $50.00 is not bad for some vinyl albums but if you want excess in vinyl.....the Keggs 45 rpm is going for $20,000 and up. Go to G45Central for the rare-est 500 45 rpms. With interesting forums.

For my money, the rooms with the most natural sound were the Deja Vu rooms (both the vintage speaker described by LarryI and the room with Harbeth Monitor 30.1 speakers) and the room with Quad 57's driven by Miyajima electronics. (Not coincidentally, the music in these rooms sounded most similar to what I hear at home where I use a 2-way based on the Western Electric 753 and, less often, Spendor SP-100s.)

Too many of the other rooms (like the one with Tidal speakers) were of the hifi spectacular school.

I have really tried to like Daedalus speakers having listened to them now at a total of 4 different shows and in several rooms at most of the shows, but for whatever reason they just don't sound like music to me. Other people whose hearing I respect feel quite differently, but to me they sound too mechanical, too much like speakers.

I have also tried to hear what many people like so much in the High Water Sound room which features Horning speakers. Unfortunately, each time I have heard them they sound too thin in the midbass. Not my idea of a musical sound.

Enough negativity. The good news for me was that the very best sound I heard all day was when I returned home and turned on the stereo that I already own. That's what we all hope for, I guess, but it doesn't always work that way.

Remember that speakers alone make no music.

Same true with amps, pre-amps, wires and all the rest.

Gotta mate the right stuff together to suit one's goals. And be set up well in a suitable room accordingly.

Even then, chances are no two people will agree on what sounds best.

Lots of different sounding possibilities with exactly the same speakers. Only one or two can be heard at any particular show. It's easy to jump to conclusions based on a limited sample.

Just a reminder. I'm sure everyone knows this.

Beauty is often in the eye/ear of the beholder.

At these shows, I mostly just wonder, is making beautiful music really so complicated and really need to cost so much?

I'd second the two Deja Vu rooms. The Harbeth's sounded really coherent and - I thought - had surprisingly good bass for a speaker that's only rated to 50hz. I think this was a case of the right sized gear for the right sized room and the sound benefited from it. The other Deja Vu room was running what I think was a pair of old, modded Altec amps using a custom built pre and DAC through vintage horns. I could have packed that one right into the car if Elevick hadn't been driving. The Atmosphere Amps driving the Classic Audio speakers were also great with lots of detail and tons of slam. Unfortunately he had a shit room with the speakers arrayed on the long wall of what was essentially a box car. That it managed to sound good at all was a miracle, and it sounded really good. A lot of exhibitors had gear that was way too large for the spaces they were occupying.