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Posted by Paul S on
06-01-2014
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fiogf49gjkf0d A local GSC member took me up to THE Show, in Newport Beach, CA. This was the first audio show I've attended in over 25 years. It was way more frenetic than any audio show I remember. Lousy sound everywhere, of course, and no good music, and the continuous noise from salesmen spewing ridiculous "specifications" and incredulous gratitude for their products was like an overlying buzz. I saw and "heard" the latest Walker TT, and Lloyd never stopped tweaking it during the limited time I spent in the room. Still, I repeat, Lloyd has the best-looking platter and mechanical LP hold-down system I have ever seen. I also saw the TechDAS AF1 (silent) and AF2 (listen via headphones), but I did not wait around to listen. The Big Boy looked very well thought out, indeed, very high apparent quality, and it silently absorbed all taps I applied to it. It might have been a ""control box", but I think it was the air pump running on the AF2 that was sitting on the bench, right next to the TT. If it was the air pump, I am impressed; it was DEAD silent. Nice. But no way either TT should cost as much as a car. I also saw but did not hear a "solid-looking" TT from Palmer, which also absorbed knocks and looked about as simple as possible, except it was "un-sprung", so one would need to add a Vibraplane, or something.
The only electronic gear I "noticed for good sound" (rather, it was not terrible) was the FM Acoustics stuff, and also a pair of 75 Watt SET amps from Ayon. The speakers Ayon used in that room are still unknown to me, but - remarkably - they made the "best sound at the show", IMO, for whatever little that's worth, especially under the circumstances. They were wooden horn/backhorn of some sort, with nice "presence" and useable transients, and even some tone, also incredible LF. I asked the Ayon engineer how he got the LF from those SETs and he said, "You don't need much power for efficient speakers." I said, "Right... so you're telling me you're driving a heavy 15" woofer or 12" long-throw woofer (or two) with that amp?", and he just looked at me. Come to find out, there was a pair of self-powered (plate amps) subs also in play, 1,000W apiece. Ok, n-o-w I get it... Someone had a frequency sweeper on hand, and that output was up at 60 Hz and tapered off below that. But it "sounded good".
To be fair, the big Audio Research Amps I "heard" seemed not bad if the volume was kept down. Naturally, this rarely happened, anywhere during the show, since the main objective of every demo is always to "get the listeners' attention".
No big Wilsons that I saw or heard, but plenty of the "mid-sized" models, sounding uniformly bad, no matter the ancillary equipment or sources.
As for the most "AMAZING" sound at the T.H.E. Show, it was... MBL, and no doubts about it. A true, and truly "gigantic", audiophile wet dream!
As little as I've said, I might have been more of a gentleman by saying even less.
Paul S
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