The Mola Mola room had a clean sound, but the lower frequencies were bloated. The sound was fast, clean, articulate, but the pitch was off mark. The cymbals did not have the sure footed metallic sound. I could not confuse this sound with a life performance. I think probably the Mola Mola amps will fare better matched to a tube preamp. The soundstage was all fuzzy and I could not get a clear picture of the musicians location in space. This was a small room for the Vivid speakers, so my guess is that this system can sound fantastic in a larger room where the speakers can breath better.
The Veritas with the Sanders speakers sounded thick all over, which to me was a huge surprise. I had listened to the Sanders speakers some years back at the NY show and the sound was very fast and articulate. Pitch and definition were top notch. Back them, at least to me, the Sanders speakers were best in show driven by Innersound amps. I even consider buying them back then, but I ended up with Magnepans instead. A big note here: this room was small and narrow.
The Raidho D1 driven by the Veritas mono-blocks sounded better to me. The bass was still bloated and lacked definition, but I think this setup can sound fantastic in a proper environment. The soundstage was not well defined in terms of the performers location in reference to one another. There was better pitch definition and a more airy sound, probably because they were mated with a Kondo tube preamp. I still would not confuse the sound to live music or with the best at this show, but it certainly was promising.
Like others, I was impressed with the sound of the Martin Logans driven by Krell. When I walked into the room, they were playing Rickie Lee Jones' Show Biz Kids, which I have in vinyl. This piece sounded fantastic in this room and setup. The bass as a bit disconnected, but I didn't mind it much considering how good the rest was. I was able to pinpoint the exact location of the vocals and musicians in this room, which tricked my brain into thinking the performance could have been happening there. This was a much larger room than where the Mola Mola and the Merril Audio amps were playing, so this should be factor in when reaching conclusions regarding which amp sounded better.
Another surprise was the Audio Doctor room. They had the Waterfall Glass Speakers driven by the Aragon 8008 amp. This room sounded just fantastic. The sound had lots of composure and control. The bass was reaching out too much at times, but it was dead on on some of the music they were playing. If I had gone to the show to buy a system, this one is probably the one would put my money on. The sound was unbelievable for such a small speaker. The room was a bit larger than the Mola Mola room and the Merril Audio room, but smaller than the ML Krell room. The soundstage was not as well delineated as in the ML room, but it was very good.
My overall opinion is that if I were in the market for an amp now, I would seriously consider auditioning the Aragon 8008. I had listened many years back to the older Aragon amps in a controlled environment and I was not nearly as impressed as I am now with the new 8008.
