NY Audio & AV 2012

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NY Audio & AV 2012
Sony speakers #2
John Atkinson  |  Apr 17, 2012  |  0 comments
Sony’s Motoyuki (Yuki) Sugiura adjusts the volume on the Pass Labs preamp. Although the room was a bit too big for the SS-AR2s, the top-octave balance of the 1" soft-dome tweeter being optimized for a smaller acoustic space, these $20,000/pair speakers, derived from the SS-AR1 that so impressed Kalman Rubinson last July, produced one of the best sounds I heard at the 2012 NY Show. Despite the mellow balance, there was a wealth of recorded detail to be heard, with a huge, stable soundstage. Commendably for a speaker with a modest footprint, the sound didn't appreciably harden at high levels. I will be reviewing the SS-AR2 in the November issue of Stereophile.
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NY Audio & AV 2012
Sony speakers #1
Art Dudley  |  Apr 17, 2012  |  0 comments
Sony Electronics launched their new SS-AR2 loudspeaker ($20,000/pair), seen here with the X600.5 mono amplifiers from Pass Labs. The SS-AR2 is a three-way, four-driver floorstander that’s crafted from select Japanese maple laminate (the front baffle) and Finnish birch plywood (the remainder of the cabinet). Twin aluminum-cone woofers are said to extend bass response down to 42Hz.
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NY Audio & AV 2012
Friday night with Attention Screen #2
John Atkinson  |  Apr 17, 2012  |  0 comments
Don Fiorino on guitars (left) and Chris Jones on stand-up bass get down and dirty.
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NY Audio & AV 2012
Friday night with Attention Screen #1
John Atkinson  |  Apr 17, 2012  |  0 comments
Friday night at the NY Audio & AV Show, Stereophile sponsored a concert featuring Attention Screen, the jazz quartet led by reviewer Bob Reina (right). In the four improvisations lasting almost an hour, covering musical genres that ranged from the blues through space music to salsa, Bob had a blast playing a rather nice Steinway piano. Drummer Mark Flynn provided some of the most intelligent percussion I have heard, playing in lock step with bassist Chris Jones, yet taking risks that propelled the music forward, outward, and upward. The Steinway was provided by Peter Becker, of NYC dealer Klavierhaus. It was brought in specifically for the show and sponsored by the ever-generous Robin Wyatt of Robyatt Audio, who also sponsored the Elio Villafranca concert.
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NY Audio & AV 2012
HiFiMan & Oppo
Stephen Mejias  |  Apr 14, 2012  |  First Published: Apr 17, 2012  |  0 comments
Also on hand in the Ultra Systems/Cable Company room was the HiFiMan EF6 ($1599), seen here atop an Oppo BDP-83 modified by Exemplar Audio ($2500). We first saw the EF6 at CES. The 5W, solid-state, class-A design is HiFiMan's answer to the most difficult-to-drive headphones. The Exemplar Audio-modded Oppo has a new linear power supply, upgraded op-amps, and high-quality polypropylene capacitors.
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NY Audio & AV 2012
Lesson Learned from Lighton
Ariel Bitran  |  Apr 15, 2012  |  First Published: Apr 17, 2012  |  0 comments
On Day 1 of the New York Audio & AV show, I let the exhibitors play their demo tracks in hopes to hear some cool, new music, but I just ended up hearing Stevie Ray Vaughan, Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries or ZZ Top’s “La Grange” over and over and over again, so on Day 2, I brought my own records.
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NY Audio & AV 2012
Zellaton from Audio Arts
Art Dudley  |  Apr 16, 2012  |  2 comments
At the Audio Arts suite I was enchanted by the sound of my favorite 1960s-era folk trio (although I confess that that wasn't the Corries, whose debut album is seen here in the hands of Audio Arts proprietor Gideon Schwartz). "Tiny Sparrow" and other selections from the cannily titled Peter, Paul & Mary album Moving sounded colorful and clear on a system comprising the Holborne Analog 2 turntable ($5275), Holborne Analog 2 tonearm ($3475), Holborne MC1 cartridge ($1975), David Berning ZOTL preamp with phono stage ($12,300), David Berning ZH230 mono amplifiers ($18,400/pair), and the very interesting Zellaton Concert loudspeakers ($59,750/pair), the drive-units of which—even the tweeter—are all descended from the Pawel laminated metal-foil cone woofer.
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NY Audio & AV 2012
Audio Note Compels
John Atkinson  |  Apr 16, 2012  |  3 comments
The corner placement required by Audio Note speakers always raises my eyebrows—there was even a mirror next to one of the speakers!—but the sound of Ivan Moravec performing Brahms late piano works, the Op.118 Intermezzi, on a secondhand Turnabout LP, was extraordinarily engaging on the Audio Note AN-E Lexus Signature loudspeakers. This was the last room I visited Saturday night and I didn’t feel the need to visit any more rooms for more music.
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NY Audio & AV 2012
Long Lines at Registration
Stephen Mejias  |  Apr 13, 2012  |  First Published: Apr 16, 2012  |  0 comments
The lines to the registration booth stretched way down the main corridor of the 18th floor at the majestic Waldorf=Astoria. We were all very happily surprised to see so many anxious attendees arrive on a beautiful Friday afternoon in NYC. As people received their badges, they picked up complimentary copies of their favorite magazines, including the latest issue of Stereophile.
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NY Audio & AV 2012
Sexiest System of the Show
Stephen Mejias  |  Apr 14, 2012  |  First Published: Apr 16, 2012  |  0 comments
Art's already mentioned the glorious sound of the Robyatt Audio room, so with this picture I tried to capture a bit of the system's overall look and feel. This was, to my eyes, the sexiest system of the show. The only thing missing was the pinup girl. The sound was just as easy on the ears: When "Sing, Sing, Sing" came to the end, everyone in the room clapped and cheered.
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NY Audio & AV 2012
Cat Stevens: Tea for the Tillerman
Stephen Mejias  |  Apr 14, 2012  |  First Published: Apr 16, 2012  |  0 comments
As Art mentioned below, traffic was heavy in the Liberty Trading room. When I visited, I had the good fortune of browsing vinyl titles alongside this happy attendee.

"Ha!" she exclaimed. "I was just talking about this record the other day!"

She bought it and several other choice titles, convincing me that I was in the presence of someone with great taste in music.

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NY Audio & AV 2012
Towering Legacies
Art Dudley  |  Apr 16, 2012  |  1 comments
A Legacy Audio Whisper XD loudspeaker ($20,500–$22,500/pair, depending on finish) stands next to a life-size picture of a Legacy Audio Whisper XD loudspeaker. One of these has eight drivers, dual 500-watt ICE subwoofer amplifiers, and a 24-bit room-correction processor. The other does not.
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NY Audio & AV 2012
More sightings
Art Dudley  |  Apr 16, 2012  |  0 comments
Seen outside one of Innovative Audio's demonstration rooms (L–): Luke Manley and Bea Lam of VTL, Peter McGrath of Wilson Audio, and Elliot Fishkin, proprietor of Innovative Audio.
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NY Audio & AV 2012
Sightings
Art Dudley  |  Apr 16, 2012  |  0 comments
Renowned journalist (and owner of originally Wilson speakers and now Audio Note speakers) Carl Bernstein (left) and reviewer/set-up specialist Michael Trei, seen browsing the 18th floor during the show's first evening.
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NY Audio & AV 2012
Innovative Audio at the NY Audio Show
Art Dudley  |  Apr 16, 2012  |  0 comments
The combination of Wilson Audio loudspeakers, VTL amplifiers, and Peter McGrath's digital recordings—and setup skills—has provided some of the finest music I've heard at literally every show I've attended in the past several years, and this show was no exception. The Wilson Sasha W/Ps ($27,900/pair) were installed along the long wall of one of Innovative's two rooms at the Waldorf=Astoria, and were driven by the VTL MB450 Series III amplifiers ($18,000/pair) and VTL 7.5 Series III preamp ($20,000), all hooked up with Transparent cables. The sound was colorful, dynamic, and tactile—string bounce was especially fine—on all selections played, especially a high-resolution excerpt from Carmen that McGrath recorded in Miami not long ago, converted to analog with a dCS Puccini DAC ($18,000).
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