Vancouver Audio Show + Audio Note UK discussion*

The rack in the video is a Quadraspire which I'm certain you already know.

 

Actually I don't keep up with equipment racks largely because the stuff I buy doesn't need them. And yes I have directly compared it on and off racks. I looked up a 4 level stand from them $700 - lol for the cheap ones. Okay then.

Not saying that certain tweaks don't improve certain products because they do - but I would rather buy equipment that isn't so "easily" disrupted by the tiniest vibration or slight fluctations in power supply from the wall. Years back I demoed a $2000 Monstr Power conditioner - the dealer connected up a Marantz receiver and had an A/B switch - the difference in noise floor was massive - so you say - hey this power conditioner is pretty amazing. I then did the same thing with the Bryston power amp that I had to cajole the dealer into doing - A/B again ZERO difference. Why because the Marantz is an utter pile of noisy crap and the Bryston, in terms of noise floor, is pretty rock solid and does whatever needs to be done internally. So you could spend $2k on the power conditioner and $1500 on the Marantz for a combined $3500 or just buy the Bryston for $2200 and use the savings to buy music.

Indeed, many a tube maker sound a lot better WITHOUT power conditioners. Most CD players are buffer stage types that read and store information and then reproduce the sound - similar in fact to portable discmans which were getting good to the point where you could shake them hard for 10-20 seconds and they would not skip - not to mention bouncy cars and in dash CD players.

Audio Note CD players in fact should be MORE susceptible to vibration because it is a read once only and pass directly to the DAC - there is no stored buffer play later system like all other CD player designs. Thus if a stand were truly needed for CD replay - it would be more needed on an AN type NOS than anything else and yet it's not needed.

This is not to say these things won't improve certain equipment - YMMV and I own a relatively pricey stand ~$600 myself but I am under no illusion that it's going to make something sound better than putting the gear on $7 (for 4) hockey pucks. I have a power conditioner that does help my Cambridge Audio CD6 in the treble range and altered the sound of my OTO - Eventually I realized that it made the CD 6 better but made the OTO worse so now I only used the conditioner on the CD6 and when I use my Rotel power amp.

 

At no point did I say there should be audiophile racks. Most of them are just silly. But I do think that the $20 ikea end table does no favours for the sonics of any amp. If all the detail is nessisary for all the iterations of AN gear don't tell me that some support for the equipment would not help.

I suspect even the floor would have been better.

Dave may have been joking and he may have been sarcastic but that just does not translate online. I was attending as a potential customer of AN. And I was frankly underwhelmed.

 

Yeah I get what you're saying - Audio Note has been doing this seemingly forever - and like I said - from a perception point of view using a proper equipment rack just avoids most of this entire thread so to me I would just use one. Soundhounds has liked Ikea and some people on forums as well because they're lightweight and solid and they liked it better than some heavy damped furniture.

 

Besides this is a Vancouver Audio Show? Was Line Magnetic there - there is a dealer in Alberta. What was there that people liked? This is a first show in many many years and I hope it was successful enough to come back next year.

 

The Ikea Lack is a very good turntable surface, which is inexpensive but works great. Lightweight rigid platforms are what many manufacturers recommend, including Rega.

 

For better or worse here are my thoughts on the AN room.

Whe we entered the room Dave the host seemed cranky. This did not change during the demo. After 13 years of the same old same old, I am not surprised. It was however disappointing.

Some context. I use low watt Shindo tube power with high efficiency Auditorium A23 speakers (755a homage), Emt cart with the A23 hommage SUT. Needless to say I was excited to go to the AN room.

I have snell type e iii in my basement system and I have heard the Devore O'96's a few times so I have an idea of what the AN's were inspired by and what they have inspired.

I was surprised by the set up of the equipment. But I put that aside. I enjoyed the tone and feel of the system a lot. It reminded me of a cross between the snell's and the Devore's. I felt that the room and sonics felt closed in. The speakers were toed in a fair bit. They crossed over well in front of the front row of seats. I asked if this was a normal setup and was told that this was normal for a show. It seemed to me that if they were toed out a little more they would have opened up.

The TT had a Denon 103 cart which is a real over achiever, however when the muddy waters lp was played it was really noisy with pops and clicks. I suspect that the VTF may have been a little low. I have found the denon is best at 2.5 grams. This was very distracting. I have heard the denon 103 with both the AN SUT and the A23 SUT and I feel that Keith at Auditorium has done a better job with the A23 denon SUT. That really does not have anything to do with the room other then there was a AN SUT in the room. If you have the denon 103 then you really need to try the A23 SUT.

The amp that was used was the the Soro se. It sounded good. I have heard the Otto and it was great as well.

The room was small and tight. The room really did the system no favours. I would still love to hear those speakers in a better room with a better setup. I have no doubt they are awesome. They were not awesome at the show, for me at least.

I will finish by saying that the system was really good. It had the tone and emotion that I enjoy. I was just a little let down and ultimately underwhelmed at the end of they day.

On another note element acoustics had three rooms and all three systems were set up with extreme professionalism and the hosts were amazing.

 

Wow. Not at all what I experienced. Dave was quiet but friendly. Dry sense of humour. He played every type of music imagimable. That did not happen in other rooms that I attended. When I asked if I could play some of my own records, the response was "no problem!"

I managed to play my records in almost every room, but there were three that were very welcoming; Sound Hounds, Element Acoustics and The Sound Room. Others were great too, but those three stuck out in my mind.

I want to say that I find most of the previous cranky comments to be rubbish. Whining about $11.00 for parking? While you listen to a $50k system? Let's appreciate the fantastic show we attended! Industry legends, great sound, tubes, solid state, electrostatic, cone speakers..... Let's be happy people!

 

I bought my VPI from Element Acoustics as an online purchase and they were very prompt and very helpful answering questions - the price of the thing was also better than others and it came extremely well packed.

Actually I don;t think whining about parking is so bad - they bloody well charge enough for the rooms but this is becoming common. Las Vegas strip hotels are now charging a resort fee. So you pay your $100 a night and then you get there and its oh by the way you MUST pay $25 (PER NIGHT) resort fee to used our pool and get internet - umm what! What a crock. I am going to Vegas this summer and I chose the Casino Royale Best Western on the strip almost entirely because there is no added BS charge. Added bonus is that it's right in the middle of the strip.

The parking fee might bother people if it wasn't advertised ahead of time. It's not the money - it's more the principal of the thing.

Anyone know if the Sound Room moved? I went to Commercial Electronics but they were gone or moved. I could only find Hi-Fi Center where I bought several pieces many years back - did they bring anything?

 

Those are good points Richard, but parking is completely out of the control of the organizers.

Again, when you listen to tens of thousands of Hifi, don't whine about eleven dollars of parking! Do you think distributors will come back when those are the sort of comments our show generates? If I go to watch hockey, I pay nothing less than $25.00!

The Sound Room was there and they were great! They played my favourite record and had one or two industry legends there as well

Commercial had some great stuff as did Hifi Centre. Hifiman HE-1000 headphones were amazing!.

A lot of rooms with great sound and nice people!

 

Whining about parking?
I guess everyone missed the LOL at the end my sentence which was meant to indicate tongue in cheek.
Perhaps a simple question like "I am unfamiliar with the area, where is the best place to park?" would have been better.
Geez.

As for Audio Note, it sounded OK. Not fantastic, not terrible....pleasant, for the short time I listened.
I went into the room twice, both times it was quiet, both times I was ignored so I didn't hang around.

Have dealt with the Sound Room a lot lately, they are great.
Had a nice chat with James Tanner of Bryston, their speakers surprised/impressed me.
Not much chance to talk with Element, the rooms were always packed, especially Acapella.

Nice to see Hegel represented in Vancouver finally, I think Liquid Sound is a bit of a secret to many Vancouver audiophiles.

The Legacy room/gear was a bit overpowering and brash visually and aurally though it was cool to see Coda gear.

Burt Goodman of Vicoustic gave a very interesting talk about room treatment in HiFi Centre's AR room.

The Sony ES room was perhaps the biggest surprise, in a good way.

Overall it was a good show.
Nice to see people I have dealt with both professionally (when I used to work in the business) and as a customer.
Hope they do another.

 

Did the Sony ES room have the bookshelf speakers, "class A" integrated and the new hi-rez player? I really like those ES speakers.

 

Yes. They had the TA-A1ES 80w integrated and HAP-Z1ES to ES speakers. Sounded decent...

I enjoyed it overall. More than enough for 1 day attendance for me.

For those who have been to other regional shows... How did this compare in size and variety?

 

The speakers I heard in the Sony ES room were $11,000 floor standers

 

Sony SS-NA2ES speakers. Sounded quite good. Unfortunately the room was a little small and I think they could have used a sub to fill out the bottom end given some of the rock material they played when I was there.

 

I hear ya but sometimes these manufacturers aren't located in the city that the show is in so they have to buy something local, easy and cheap.

 

Very true. However, in this case I don't think that would be an excuse/reason.

 

Some of my coverage from the show is up over at the http://theaudiotraveler.com/
Feel free to check it out and comment to your heart's content.
This is my first real audio coverage/reviewing gig, so be gentle with me.
Lots more to come.
Peace!

 

Gentle with you? Where's the fun in that?

 

Rafe, you know your system is better then most of the systems at the show.

 

You are exactly right. In this case, the dealer was also bringing my new speakers to me at the same time, so he had no too left in his vehicle. So, yes there was an excuse and it kept this customer happy

 

Hope you enjoy them!

 

Thank you! I ended up enjoying a great dinner with great friends, great music and a little too much red wine on Saturday night as we started to break them in. What fun!

 

I read the first three parts. Good start!