Home Entertainment Show in Los Angeles

Saturday I spent the day at the VTV Expo. My impression was that traffic was very poor and certainly below Charlie's expectations. Hope he and the other exhibitors do better today. There was a bit of cross-traffic from the Sheraton.

There was a ballroom on the first floor that had the look and feel of a swap meet with tables full of NOS tubes and boxes. One popular theory was that this was pretty tangible evidence of the impact of ebay and the Internet - why go see tubes when you can let your fingers do the walking around the world online...

There were a few surprises upstairs, high profile companies who by virtue of reputation and pricing I would have expected to see at the Sheraton - starting with DeHavilland. But the one that really blew me away was Audionote which was comfortably esconced in two suites.

I knew something was up when I walked in the room and the speakers were literally touching the walls on both sides of the room. The gaggle of electronica (some of it hors d combat courtesy of a overly diligent shipping company) was boggling. And then there was the sound. The gentlemen spinning the discs (Peter?) had a fondness for old LPs and one got the slightly eerie feeling that Satchmo was indeed back in town - though why he would stay at this hotel was beyond me.

On the new end of things, the American Electronic Project was there with their new line of three Cheer Amps and a tube CD player built of course in China. We listened to the EL34 and the 300B units and for the price they were pretty nice. IMHO the key to their success was a stunning pair of speakers ($800 including lovely wood stands) Not an inch of fancy cable anywhere - let's talk zip.

Given my interest in all things computer based, for me the most interesting room was Bauls Audio, showing the 100db efficient Bastanis open baffle Prometheus speakers with the Gemini tweeters that put a prodigious sound stage with tremendous detail.

As it turned out, the reason for this was that they were running a just modded Empirical Audio I2S (as opposed to SPDIF) P3 DAC. It was my first chance to hear Steve Nugent's work up close and personal and folks, it rocks. No skips, no pops, just lots of music.

Bill Allen reported that the speakers sounded excellent with Vinnie's battery powered 6w Clari-T amps, though they were being demoed with 300B monoblocs. Bill is on a mission to figure out how to bring the best of the new technology into simple low cost systems that make music. I think its fabulous that someone is bringing together this kind of talent.

Their were demonstrating Audio Aero's Prestige Monobloc Amplifiers - 40 wpc SET moster amps with 813 output tubes driven by 211's and 6SN7's for driver/input.

These amps sounded gorgeous AND had big cojones. They truly got out of the way to let the music through on every note.

Nilthepill,
I listened to the mBL's, Acapella's and the Dynaudio's.
Again, IMHO the Lamm room was extraordinary with better integration etc. The Mbl's and the Acapella's were impressive, however, I felt that the Mbl room was too loud and the speakers were very bright. The Acapella's seemed to be in too small a room; they sounded a little boomy ( possibly due to the room) and again the room was too loud.
The Dynaudio room was poor, the speakers sounded veiled and closed in.
The combo of the Lamm amps and the metronome and the Sophia's have put the Sophia's and the Lamm's on my short list.

I was there all day Friday and Saturday.

Thought the MBLs were amazing - very tizzy on the pop recording but an amazing sense of being right there at a live event on the orch tracks.

Since I'm a Joseph Audio owner I spent a lot of time in that room - great sounding room and Jeff Joseph is a great guy to talk to. Personally I like the style of demo that has the designer/owner right there answering questions, telling you what he's playing, what's new, etc. So many rooms were just salesman standing there looking bored with no insight to offer.

The surprise of the show for me was Dr Hsu of Hsu Research/subwoofer fame. He was showing a new 2 way bookshelf with horned tweeter. Very nice midrange, stable deep vocal image. They sell for $250/pair and he was running home depot speaker cable and a cheapo sony CD player - that was kinda depressing... will be available soon.

I also speant Sat. at the show. Reading some of the above comments just shows why we need so many different brands. We all have a different idea of what sounds good. I thought, in regards to high end speakers, that the Peak Empress were so bad to be unlistenable, while others thought it was the best room. I thought the Optimal Enchanment Room, The Brooks Berdan Room, and The Lamm Room were the three best sounding. Each was different so, it would be hard to give "best" to any of the above three.
There were some bargains with good sound there. When asked, the Usher room was willing to hook up their newest model, retail $700. A audiophile's dream speaker, no of course not but, very pleasant sound and more truthful to the music than some of the multi-thousand dollar speakers I heard. Excellent buy for a starter system, vation rental, second system, etc.
I also thought that the speakers in the Acoustic Zen room were quite good for the price. They were to heavy on the low end but, I bet that with a little foam rubber to tune the ports that could be overcome.
In the Rethim Room was a fascinating turntable. I would be willing to bet that few asked about it because it simply looked over the top expensive. Thick, 3 or 4 inch Ebony platter and Ebony plinth. Very impressive machined stainless steel (I believe, should have asked) for the rest. Two arm capibility, Maxon motor with controller designed by Tom Evans on the way. I think the builder said it weighed 160lbs. It rested on a very beautiful matching stand with cable suspension. I knocked on it while it played and the arm was unaffected. Total cost $8000. Not cheap but, if you bothered to take a look at it and then considered the cost of other TTs at the show it seemed a bargain. Of course, the most important part is how did it sound. I have no idea, never heard the speakers before, or the rest of the equipment so can't say anything except that in show conditions I couldn't say that the Coliburn sounded any better.