NY Audio Show 2019 - impressions of what I heard (nearly everything).

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Benzion, Nov 10, 2019.

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  1. Otlset

    Otlset I think I am I think

    Location:
    Temecula, CA
    Yes, thank you. It just struck me funny as Benz described it.
     
  2. Neiro

    Neiro Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    Well that is a completely different question, did the Audionote guys think they had a channel imbalance? If you heard it I'm guessing others must have heard it. Obviously to demo equipment with a channel imbalance would be a pretty poor show. Guess there could be any number of reasons, duff tube, poor connection etc. Hopefully the AN guys spotted it or it was pointed out to them and it eventually got resolved.
     
  3. Chris Schoen

    Chris Schoen Rock 'n Roll !!!

    Location:
    Maryland, U.S.A.
    A "premium" brand is only as good as it's quality control. As far as no balance knob, along with tone control, etc. I just think it's a lot of pretentiousness.
     
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  4. unclefred

    unclefred Coastie with the Moastie

    Location:
    Oregon Coast
    I wonder of tweakaudio was using their IceEdge amps or the new Ncore modules that Bruno has been getting raves over?
     
  5. DigMyGroove

    DigMyGroove Forum Resident

    I’ve always been disappointed that there wasn’t much vinyl playback at the NY Audio show. That said last year I heard the demo of the VPI Direct Drive table, and they played an MFDL pressing of Willie Nelson’s Stardust by request. I also attended Chad Kassem’s demo of several titles AP has done reissues of compared to original pressings output to Quad speakers, that was fun! The artists included The Beach Boys, Jimi Hendrix and Dean Martin.
     
  6. Supercool!

    Supercool! Well-Known Member

    Location:
    East Coast
    Loved the QLM room...probably.....definitely...MOST! I could have stayed in that room all day!
    Also met lots of nice peop!e, got to spend some time with good friends as well...and yes, it is amazing what music is played in some rooms..how is one to establish the frequency range and dynamics of a system with piano and accompanying "precious" female vocal.alone (just one example)..c'mon! ...and then the same old rock chestnuts. That was something else I liked about the QLM, Rosso etc....room they played a diverse range of music, some of it current and innovative like Yosi Horikawa...disliked the Ohm room..sorry...YMMV...enjoy! The music really is an issue and I just don't get why.
     
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  7. layman

    layman Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York, NY
    Thank you for the write-up Benzion.

    I will add my thoughts:

    I was disappointed in the sound of the Triangle/Luxman room but I would love a pair of those Luxman tube mono-blocks!

    I finally got a chance to hear the legendary Ohm Walsh speaker and I was deeply impressed. These omni's had a vast soundstage, wonderful imaging and just sounded natural and realistic...very un-hifi. I could have listened to these all day long.

    The Harbeth Monitor 40's sounded disappointing to me (I think the room was too small for them or perhaps they lacked synergy with the electronics with which they were paired).

    I did get a chance to hear the Rogers LS 3/5a's (courtesy of Robyatt Audio) and I thought they sounded wonderful, one of the best sounding speakers at the show.

    I was very, very impressed with Vinnie Rossi's room. His electronics sounded superb with Ohm speakers. I stayed a long time in his room.

    Alexus and Bache Audio were a standout room to me as well, as they had been at my last visit to the New York Audio Show. These humble, quiet Russian engineers let their equipment do all the talking. I could have stayed in their room forever.

    The Voxativ room sounded really realistic and natural. I am a big fan of the Voxativ drive units.

    There were some small saucer shaped dual concentric speakers on integral stands paired with proprietary DSP engines that sounded astonishing. Everyone entering the room searched for the (nonexistant) subs. It was hard to believe that speakers that small could go down easily to 20 Hz and they shook the room with some beautiful organ music.

    These, plus the Ohm Walsh, the Roger's LS 3/5as, and the Bache Speakers all vied for best sounding of the show.

    I was pleased to find some really nice Analogue Productions SACDs (Chesky was there too but I did not see any SACDs from them). Analogue Productions come to this show every year. They are warm, friendly people and they really add something nice to the show.

    This was a small show but it was smoothly run, everyone was really friendly and I really enjoyed it. I am looking forward to next year's show.
     
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  8. Benzion

    Benzion "Cogito, ergo sum" Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    Ohm? Vinnie Rossi was paired with QLN speakers, Ohm was a separate room. But the QLN's did sound mighty fine, indeed.
     
  9. Benzion

    Benzion "Cogito, ergo sum" Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    Agreed, for the most part, as I've pretty much given up on tone controls and balance knobs on all my preamps, and the only integrated that has them is boxed up for now. Yet, balance control would have been useful on this one occasion in that room.
     
  10. Benzion

    Benzion "Cogito, ergo sum" Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    On the other hand, he could have given me the same well-informed explanation as you did, but instead he chose to tell me I was seeing things. No matter now, anyway.
     
  11. Benzion

    Benzion "Cogito, ergo sum" Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    I'm glad to see other people's impressions are mostly in line with my own. That tells me my ears are still OK.
     
  12. Benzion

    Benzion "Cogito, ergo sum" Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    I believe this was the amp, judging by looks and memory alone:

    A 3000 HV Power amplifier

    And the speakers, I think, were from the Criterion line, not sure of the model:

    Criterion CTL
     
  13. Benzion

    Benzion "Cogito, ergo sum" Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    These were the QLN speakers:

    Prestige Three | Qln
     
  14. hvbias

    hvbias Midrange magic

    Location:
    Northeast
    I think getting piano to sound acceptable, pleasant and even good is not that difficult. But to get it to sound like it's a real instrument, is IMHO extremely difficult.

    Speaker needs great bass and treble extension, dead even midrange with great tonality/midrange presence/magic (most midrange drivers fail here), capability of great dynamic range and it will expose all flaws in crossovers. I estimate one or two speakers that I've heard in my life are capable of reproducing piano well. Solo piano recordings are my favorite "subgenre" of classical so it's one of my holy grail life quests.
     
  15. jfine

    jfine Forum Resident

    Please God no.

    Bolded.
     
  16. Helom

    Helom Forum member

    Location:
    U.S.
    Devialet Phantoms?
     
  17. DaleClark

    DaleClark Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, Ohio
    Great report. Did you happen to see what phono ore was paired with the Technics 1200GR?
     
  18. Benzion

    Benzion "Cogito, ergo sum" Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    Honestly - no, but I think they were using the built-in phono of the integrated.
     
  19. Richard Austen

    Richard Austen Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hong Kong
    A man after my own taste - back in the day I always visited a dealer called Soundhounds on Vancouver Island and I was seeking to buy one of three standmount speakers and I asked the dealer to throw in a ringer (a speaker they liked) and ultimately I went home with the speaker they added. It was Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata that easily won the day. I don't care what else a speaker may bring to the table but two of the speakers were downright abysmal - Top of the line Paradigm and B&W standmounts. The metal drivers and lack of cohesion were their undoing.

    The Reference 3a MM De Capo was reasonably good but a little too affected in the end. This was my front runner at the time (2002).

    I can't speak to the NY show but I sat with two professional pianists at the California Audio Show and when I asked them which three rooms they felt were best - they agreed with me on all three rooms and especially piano - SoundKaos speakers with Pureaudio - played Sarah McLachlan's 45 LP Surfacing album - track "Angel" which is "gulp" girl at a piano but hey at least it's Sarah McLachlan so not terribly overplayed in the USA. The Audio Note room I played piano recordings and so did the show organizer. These were quite easily the two best rooms at the show of the smaller rooms.

    Acapella where there were several piano pieces - unfortunately I had packed the wrong CD case - I have a certain case I use for audio shows but I also have an identical one so I was without some of my better "recorded" albums. Still I had Jackson Browne's Acoustic Vol 1 and 2 and the piano is really nice on the track "Pretender." The key is to play the same track in multiple rooms so you get an idea of what the systems are doing. There were not a lot of big rooms but Acapella speakers are some of the best in the world and their plasma tweeters an impressive cohesiveness for large speakers with multiple large woofers is quite a feat in a room not really that well made for their size.

    I also remember having an audition at Soundhounds where a woman (a pianist) popped her head around the corner looking at me sitting in the chair - she looked at me - the stereo, left and right and said "Wow I thought there was a piano"

    Piano is the first thing I want to listen to. Now of course when judging smaller standmount speakers I can't expect full range frequency extension but good ones can suspend one's disbelief a lot better.

    The piano is why I traded my KEF LS-50 speakers for my AN K/SPe speakers.
     
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2019
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  20. hvbias

    hvbias Midrange magic

    Location:
    Northeast
    I can't say I am as impressed with Acapellas. I think they sound nice and dynamic for the parts that are horn loaded, but for me at least the all important midbass that gives you that percussive element of strong left hand playing is missing. And that discontinuity in dynamics between the horns and the direct radiators sounds a bit off, but this is getting nit picky, but maybe it's allowed given how much they cost :) I also hear discontinuities in the crossovers and frequency response and probably most egregious they fall into the horn speaker category where I am well that I am listening to horns (though no where nearly as obvious as some other horns), so that last part loses some of that suspension of disbelief aspect.

    I agree with you on the LS50.

    For a currently available speaker that I think handles piano very well in all but the dynamics are Vivid Giyas. G3s are at the top of my list of considerations for one non-dedicated room.

    I listened to the music you listed, IMHO a bit on the easy side to reproduce :) Here is an example of very good interpretation of a Beethoven sonata and recording I've used to demo some speakers. It's not reference level sound quality since it is recorded live, but I saw the pianist play some Schubert and it is a decent approximation.

     
  21. layman

    layman Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York, NY
    You are absolutely right. Vinnie Rossi was demoing QLN Prestige Three speakers.
     
  22. layman

    layman Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York, NY
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  23. jjhunsecker

    jjhunsecker Senior Member

    Location:
    New York city
    I thought that was Steve Gutenberg. I recognized him from Youtube. He was chatting to aguy sitting by the elevator on Sunday
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
  24. Benzion

    Benzion "Cogito, ergo sum" Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    I saw him on Saturday, too.
     
  25. Benzion

    Benzion "Cogito, ergo sum" Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    Yes, these are the ones I heard - these little puppies filled the room with tremendous sound.
     
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