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Best sound at Stereophile show.

I got to rate the Dynaudio room as the best sounding Room. They used the Dynaudio C4 speakers which listed for 16,000. All I can say is, they sounded incredible. They sound very smooth with an amazing soundstage. Bass was really good.

I also liked the Gamut Room. Gamut used probably the largest Amp I'v ever seen. The Amp weighed 400 pounds. Speakers were the Pipedreams with the Gamut CD Player. The system sounded very 3 dimentional with a good bass response. I also got to thank Ole Lund Christensen. He's the designer of Gamut. He played by far the best music. He played upbeat classical, where you could judge the midrange and bass of the speakers. He also played brick in the wall by Pink Floyd. I felt to many rooms played to much Jazz and violin music, where you just couldn't judge the speakers. Also, Ole played what ever CD you gave him.

I also loved the Wilson Watt Puppies 7. What totally amazed me. Wilson played alot of the time, the Watt Puppies 7 with the massive Wilson Sub. I thought that Sub would totally boom up the bass on the Watt Puppies. But it was the exact opposite. The Wilson Sub blended in so perfectly with the Wilson Watt Puppy 7 speakers.

I also liked the Tact room. They had those new Tact speakers that must have been 7 feet tall. They sounded great.

Most amazing home theater performance had to be in the Audio Video Creations room. They used a Pioneer 50 inch Plasma TV. Krell multichannel Amps, Krell Preamp processor, Krell DVD Player, Piega speakers and Piega Sub. They played clips from Jurassic Park and Matrix. Holy Moley did this system sound unbelievable. It was so incredible sounding.

Another thing that really impressed me. In the NAD room, one of the people there downloaded a Jewel peformance from the Jay Leno show on High Definition TV. They downloaded the Jewel performance to a hard drive, then transferred it to a DVD recorder. This picture quality was amazing. It was so perfect the picture.

I also really liked this Antique Sound Headphone Amp with Senheiser headphones. It listed for 1200 dollars. You could also used this as a preamp. The Antique Headphone Amp used 2A3 Tubes. It sounded so perfect and could go very loud without breaking up. Plus it had that nice tube sound.

Also alot of the designers were really nice. I mentioned Ole. Al from Dynaudio, Mark O'brien from Rougue Audio, Dale Fontenot from Roman Audio speakers, Alan Yun from Silverline, Tash Goka from Divergent technologies and Gilbert Young from Blue Circle were really good guys.
twilo
cellorover
417 posts
 
Let's twist the question.

We always say what was best, which is subjective and possibly not even attainable. Instead, what surprised you the most and was something you could live with? I agree that the vonSchweikert sounded great, but how would it sound at low volume in your system? Roy Hall's Epos sounded nice. And, I liked what I heard from 10 others. But, I was completely floored by Meadowlark's new Swift speaker. It will take a lot to beat this 995 marvel! The floor is re-opened.
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
HaHa Cellover!!! try to turn on Pipedreams quiet and make a judgement!
I assume that it all depends on speakers' dynamic curve: some are more revealing at the low volume levels and less pleasant at high volume levels and some speakers are just the other way arround in general.
I judge the speakers to be able to reproduce the volume level of a real live music with ability not to create fatigue inside the room walls.

I always test speakers on the following scale:

-- acoustic guitar (on the level how it has to sound live)
-- than piano
-- than sax, percussion or any small jazz band or instrumental band
-- drum or percussion solo to check imaging and bass depth along with the speed.
-- than slammy electric rock guitar to check if it's dynamic and fast enough to take it.
-- symphony orchestra test(Symphony #5 Beethoven as an example) is the one that i refuse to do since if I did than I wouldn't buy any speaker that I can afford. Besides I'm through with classical music and have very limited collection since there is no limitation on spending bucks on different performances and releases every time -- much cheaper and more reasonable to visit them live from time-to-time:)

Most of the demands in my system are small bands, instrumental jazz and sophisticated electronic music.
But I love anything that I can call music and that can be a big bunch of a different kinds.

Certainly I did not try to dictate this test sequence on the show rooms of NYH since seats and time was very limited and I believe that there were not only I at the show.
cellorover
417 posts
 
Let me rephrase it. Forget trying to figure out what was best. What surprised you and why? Or, what did you hear that you didn't expect to? This is not analytical. It is about what you liked.
kevinkwann
85 posts
 
The reason so much variety of opinion is most of people who attend these shows are ony hobbyists and therefore not experience or competent to judge. That include orginal poster. It not that "ears are all different." It that most have no idea how/what to listen for and have no qualification. Hobbyist does not = competant or qualified.

One persin that does "get it" is czapp. Grand Utopia/Lamm set up ony one at show that remotly soun like live, intead of canned, music.
unsound
7,329 posts
 
Kevinkwann, are you suggesting that manufacuters are marketing equipment to compentant, qualified judges and not to hobbyist? Who cerifies these "experts"? Who determines the criterion? Do you think that these "experts" could carry the tab for all the rooms at the NY Hilton? This forum is designed for hobbyist to do exactly what you seem to be objecting to. I think that most hobbyist realize that this type of venue is inappropriate to make any real judgements and are only sharing their impressions cognitive of the compromised situation.
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