T.H.E. Show has plenty of jazz in the demo rooms, including Dave Brubeck's "Take Five," which I heard via Roon in the demo featuring Ayon Audio and Lumen White demo in Emerald Bay 1, a large banquet room, presented by USA Tube Audio Labs.
The demo system featured equipment that's been around for a while but has received iterative updates, including tube amplification from Ayon, including the Kronos Signature preamp/DAC ($10,995) with a pair of Orthos EVO Gen 4 monoblock amplifiers, which drove a pair of Lumen White Kyara speakers ($49,000), which have ceramic drivers and "cell" ceradome woofers, with Lumen White's novel overhung motor technology and voice coils of their own distortion-reducing design. Music data was served up by an Ayon S-10 II Transport streamer running Roon ($10,000) and accessing files from an RSX Music Server. Physical media played on a CD-35 II HF CD player ($21,000).
The Lumen White representatives running the room seemed relieved when I asked whether they took requests: It gave them a reason to play something other than "Take Five.". Tonal and timbral qualities were believable on piano, especially in the midrange. Attacks were quite quick, as on the initial percussive wood strikes in first movement of Dessner's Concerto for Two Pianos, thrillingly performed by sisters Katia and Marielle Labèque on dual pianos.
Just as that track was ending, Mike Wolverton, one of the room's reps, came in and (perhaps accidentally) tapped on Phoenix's "Lisztomania" for a moment. Phoenix is fun, so I told him to go ahead and play it. The sound suited the song—peppy, fast, and lively.
The demo system featured equipment that's been around for a while but has received iterative updates, including tube amplification from Ayon, including the Kronos Signature preamp/DAC ($10,995) with a pair of Orthos EVO Gen 4 monoblock amplifiers, which drove a pair of Lumen White Kyara speakers ($49,000), which have ceramic drivers and "cell" ceradome woofers, with Lumen White's novel overhung motor technology and voice coils of their own distortion-reducing design. Music data was served up by an Ayon S-10 II Transport streamer running Roon ($10,000) and accessing files from an RSX Music Server. Physical media played on a CD-35 II HF CD player ($21,000).
The Lumen White representatives running the room seemed relieved when I asked whether they took requests: It gave them a reason to play something other than "Take Five.". Tonal and timbral qualities were believable on piano, especially in the midrange. Attacks were quite quick, as on the initial percussive wood strikes in first movement of Dessner's Concerto for Two Pianos, thrillingly performed by sisters Katia and Marielle Labèque on dual pianos.
Just as that track was ending, Mike Wolverton, one of the room's reps, came in and (perhaps accidentally) tapped on Phoenix's "Lisztomania" for a moment. Phoenix is fun, so I told him to go ahead and play it. The sound suited the song—peppy, fast, and lively.
