I did not go to the show to file a report, so I'm just jotting down a few opinions and observations on what I saw/heard. If I had to describe the sound at the show in one word, it would be "Wow!". But OTOH, if I had to be at all honest or accurate in my description, then the word would be "underwhelming".
These comments should be taken with two pinches of salt. Which are:
1) In the interest of full disclosure, I'm a Beltist. And not the in-the-closet type you never hear from, but of the unabashed variety. Perhaps this shouldn't matter, but I think it does. Because I suspect Beltists are used to a better degree of sound quality than most audiophiles. I say this because if what I heard at the show is what manufacturers and dealers (and some customers from what I overheard) think is a great sound, then it appears that I and most people don't have the same standard, when it comes to what the experience of reproduced music should be like. My biggest complaint throughout the show, from demo room to demo room, was "where's the emotional connection to the music?". This quality that I was often getting from an mp3 player that I had been listening to last night (during an evening where I was installing Beltian tweaks around the room), just wasn't with me at the show. Despite that I was listening to systems that must easily have cost over $40,000 dollars. Even the NAIM room, which, having a soft spot for NAIM I expected much more from, just didn't do it for me in this regard. (They were demoing the new NAIT integrated, with a NAIT cd player, for which I've always heard good things about, and speakers from Audio Physic. The "Avanti" model).
All I know is I would have done a LOT more to improve my room's sound, than what I saw at that show, if I was a distributor trying to sell audio gear. I'm not just talking about treating the room and media with Belt devices to give myself a competitive edge, or even making sure you take stuff out of the room that degrades its sound. But just basic Audiofile 101 crap that these people couldn't be bothered with or simply haven't the wherewithal to think of.... ie. like not using Circuit City-grade Onkyo or Sony CD players as the source to demo my company's flagship products.
2) I didn't hear every type of music on every type of system, nor always under particularly relaxed conditions (ie. people chattering in the background). So it didn't always allow me to "fine tune" how well I could accurately guage the system's performance, especially when comparing one system to another, in different venues. But even having said that, I found myself pretty confident that my opinions of these systems are unlikely to change even if the rooms were vastly different, and the source materials were as well. I felt each system had its own characteristics that spoke more of its integral components than it did of these extraneous factors. So could sound better yes, but unlikely to sound very different, if the components remain.
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La chambre FURUTECH: Just across from the Stereophile booth, this was the first room we walked into. We heard Buena Vista Social Club, an album I'm familiar with as I have it. And the sound playing was "polite". Very "polite". As in "very boring". As my re-introduction to the Festival Son et Image (after years since I had visited the show), it was a pretty underwhelming one. Little did I know that this was going to be the theme of the show, for me. This sound, despite the very mean looking turntable playing; a name I'd never heard of, called the "Rossner & Sohn" KLM-15 from Germany. The agent told me the designer spent three years working on the platter. I didn't have the heart to tell him it hardly seemed worth the effort. I could just as well have been listening to a CD, and if you know me, you know that's not meant as a compliment. The best thing I could say about the sound, was that it was very transparent. In no way did it appear to be coming from the small quality bookshelf speakers (don't remember what they were, but they looked like Dyn's and were probably Totems, and were on substantial stands). The speakers were partnered with quality electronics (sorry, the guides and brochures I'm trying to refer to don't clue me in to what they were). The system's biggest problem was that it was "distant", meaning it had zero presence. On a positive note, it's probably the best office system going.
It seemed the room was dedicated to a local dealer called "Acoustic Technologies", and FURUTECH was just part of their line. From what I saw, FuruTech makes a lot more than just the DeMag unit they seem to be most known for (which it appears they also won awards for). Among some of the other audio accessories that bore their name in this room, were "audiophile grade" AC outlet covers. Substantially heavy, they came in stainless steel or what looked like a carbon fibre. Not sure what, if any, claims they had to this product improving the sound, since it was not the outlet itself where your machines plugged into (of which they also produced, in audiophile grade).
But the (in)famous DeMag unit was also present. I was considering asking if it might be more appropriate for the company to call itself "FurorTech". I mean considering how much resent has been generated toward the company, from all those ignorant mugs you see on the internet audio forums. Y'know, those guys who are maybe two Jabba The Huts short of a complete Star Wars figurine collection. Those guys who trip all over themselves getting to their keyboard, to make sure they don't miss any opportunity to denounce the company for its "DeMag" vinyl demagnetizer. And as per their usual MO, pronounce themselves all-knowing experts on a product they've never tried. I noticed there's definitely a complimentary relationship between the cost of a tweak product, and the outrage it generates from clueless dorks who seem to feel it's their job in life to denounce it. But wait, they don't have to know how it works, they've got "graphs" to prove it doesn't! All you've got is your ears, chump! Too bad for you!
Well, true, all I brought with me to the FurorTech room was "my own two ears". Besides (sigh), there was just NO room left to plug in the oscilloscope. So (sigh #2), using no more in measuring equipment than what the good Lord gave me, which I know from having read so many rants from said forum dorks is just madness (and asking for trouble) when we're talking about evaluating audio components, I asked for a demonstration of the FurorTech DeMag vinyl demagnetizer. But at least I can say I had an acquaintance next to me undertaking the test, with two more pieces of woefully inadequate measuring equipment, that nature had wrought. Between us, we had 4 chances to get it wrong, by my calculation.
Despite the fact that I featured the Furutech Demag UFO on my website a year or two ago, I've never actually heard the thing or seen it in person. It's a lot larger than the photograph. Looks I'm gonna have to upscale that photograph. I asked to listen to the same album track that I had just heard, after they demagnetized the album. Took about a minute per side (they did both sides). And yes, I heard a difference, and my test partner heard the same difference. I wouldn't call it "profound", but only because those are not my words. I would characterize the difference as "no question that there's a difference". The difference was best exemplified by the increased contrast between the sound shapes. Making for a sound that was livelier and less boring to listen to. Which in fact was my biggest complaint about the system before the demag test.
Since the aforementioned dorks all whine and kvetch about the cost of the DeMag, I guess a fair question would be... "Assuming it does what you say it does, is it worth nearly 2 grand?". The answer to that I'd say is: "depends". If your turntable still has some of Mickey's head on the label attached inside the box, then no silly, get yourself a proper turntable first. If your hifi system is worth more than $10k and preferably at least $20k, then it makes perfect sense to invest in a tweak that's in keeping with the overall quality of your hifi system (just as you would with cables or all the other of its components). Or if you have a lot of vinyl but a decent system nonetheless, then hearing more out of your records might interest you more. I think it's safe to say most of the clueless nimrods who spend their lives whining about the DeMag, which of course they've never heard, probably don't have record playback systems that would warrant it in the first place.
La chambre TOTEM: Totem won my award for the nicest designed room. Tasteful post-modern, that went well with their bright red 5.1 surround sound speaker system. They brought their own walls (with Totem logo designs), and it looks like they even brought in their own flooring (beige shag carpeting), as well. Very professional. Nice halogen mood lighting, and little glass bowls of red sand in between the speakers (which reminded me of the glass bowl of red sand and pebbles that I recently tried growing my bamboo plants in, until they started turning white on me). I couldn't tell if they were just decorative or not, but knowing Totem and their bullet beaks, I figured probably not. They played every stoner's old standby, "Money" by Pink Floyd. I've never been interested in Pink Floyd (although I once bought a copy of their Moon album just for audiophile test purposes), but still I gotta say, the opening cash register sounds were the best I've heard from this song. It was all impressive, until the song actually started to properly play, and a singer and drummer and such were heard. Then it all fell apart. Suddenly I was no longer interested in what the singer had to say, because he was boring me half to death with his monotone playing, and I was more interested in what the hell the drummer was doing in back of me. I've never been to a concert where the drummer was in back of me, and others were playing off to the side. No, this "surround sound" crap is just amateur hour, for me. It's "Quadraphonics" for people who don't know what the hell "Quadraphonics" was, and why the format died so many decades ago. It's fine for movies when you need to simulate action all around you, but people ought to know better than to use these systems for music. The lack of video in the room implied you were supposed to substitute this for a proper 2 channel music system. Needless to say, I didn't stay to hear what the rest of the song sounded like.
La chambre KINGREX/JOHN BLUE: The best deal at the show was the "KingRex" amplifier, a Tripath. The dealer asked if anyone knew what a Tripath amp was. Well yes, more than I wanted to know. Years ago, when I took interest in Tripaths and Gainclones, I had bought two Sonic Impact T-amps when they first came out (with the intention of recasing them, and pimping them out, and then maybe at some point, figuring out what to do with them). Only problem is I blew both of them up real good, before I ever got to put them in a system and listen for longer than 10 minutes. I guess it's fair to say I lost interest in these cool little amps after that.
When I first walked into the KingRex room, I thought "something good is happening here". The sound was better than many other rooms I'd recently been to. The dealer kept saying we were listening to a $350 amp (KingRex T20 integrated). Well that's impressive, because I'm sure no other dealer at the show could say that. Especially since the show deal gave you an additional 20% off, making it a high end amp under $300. But was that all we were listening to? At first I wasn't sure which speakers were playing, as there were two sets right next to each other, one large pair of floorstanders, and another much smaller but similar pair (JB3). Turns out they were the larger $5,000 pair (flagship JB8 model), with the "super tweeter" attached (optional, but you could use it with other speakers). Ok, that went a long way to explaining the sound we were getting. The speakers were "JohnBlue". Like "KingRex", another audio brand I'd never heard of, but they looked very interesting. Apart from the large floorstanders that were playing, they also had cute little tiny baby white models, with a similar design, and numerous sizes in between. All of which used full range drivers, hence the optional supertweeter (for those who like a lot of sparkle in their music). These JohnBlues definitely seemed like something you'd want to hear more about.
They were playing Katie Meluah's first album, which I was quite familiar with, as I've often used it in testing. I thought to myself that "most people would like this sound". A large, full sound that was easy to get into, and didn't send you running from the room. The dealer extolled the virtues of Tripath amplification, stating that despite its warm sound, it was always cold running. Considering that you could cook breakfast on the top of my Class A amp and it requires two fans just to cool it to "scorching", I could definitely see the advantages of this kind of amplification. The cute tiny integrated amps are allegedly designed to emulate tube amp sound. The sound was a bit too hard for me to be convinced it was tubey, but I might be kind to the little Class D (which it appears they're calling "Class T" now) and say it was maybe something in between solid state and tubes. My partner was already lined up to buy one. Though the sound wasn't helped by what I saw as the source they were using: what appeared to be a cheap $60 Sony dvd player. Not only was it the worst source I'd seen at the show, I seem to recall it was just sitting directly on the floor, like it had been thrown there (and landed on some cables). When I asked the rep if that's what it was, he corrected me. So I stand corrected, it's actually a "cheap $99 Sony DVD player".
When I suggested the sound of the system they were trying to win people over with might be compromised by the cheap DVD player, he replied with the utmost confidence, assuring me that the reason they didn't go with anything better, was because they were circumventing the Sony's DAC by plugging the player into their own KingRex DAC. So you see folks, it didn't matter. They simply didn't need anything better. Except that the transport you use does matter. It matters a LOT. In fact, it matters more than the DAC, since its up the stream from that. You don't catch cowpatties rolling down a hill, then attempt to turn it into Oh Henry bars, then say it doesn't matter where it came from or what it was before. The DAC can only work with the quality of the signal it got off of the transport, and it will never provide the missing information. And the sound coming off the transport is as affected by vibrations as any turntable, yet they had no consideration for what they were putting it on. When I suggested that they use a better transport to demo their products, the rep looked offended by my suggestion. Hardly the first time I've noted that audio people who like to think they're experts where they're not, don't like being 'corrected'. I don't know, but if this business of being ignorant of and/or ignoring the utmost basics in long proven sound audio practices is typical of the attitude of newer generations of young audio staff in young audio companies, then this hobby is doomed, for sure. Bring on the iPod docks, yeeha...
JohnBlue JB8, JB3 (in black):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21180446@N05/3416416843/
La chambre SENNHEISER: Back in the 80's, my brother told me he was planning to make a million bucks, and that he would buy me any audio gear I wanted. I said thanks but no thanks. I was fine. I didn't want any other audio gear, I was happy with what I had. Except okay, maybe I could use a new pair of headphones. The model I'm interested in is the Sennheiser Orpheus. (Ha! Little did he know these were $20 grand. Now $25 grand, I'm told). Well well, I finally got to see them at the show, at Sennheiser's booth. Except they were no longer for sale, and were hardly ever for sale, according to what I was told! In fact, not only were they not for sale, they were not even for listening to! I guess they were just there to say "See! We once had high end aspirations of great sound....". I asked why the Orpheus were no longer for sale and what had replaced them. Well apparently, they were out of date. Okay, I realize they were giant wooden cans fitted to an even 'gianter' tube amp, but the representative was talking like as if they had been originally designed by Thomas Edison and stopped production over a hundred years ago. So apparently they're no longer made because technology has moved on, and people are now interested in the newer technology.
What was this "newer technology" I wondered? That's when they referred me to their latest flagship model that had just come out. The HD800. When I asked what it retailed for and was told about "$1,750", I was very skeptical to say the least! A regular dynamic plastic model that retails for $1,750 has supplanted the hand made $25,000 dollar model with the tube amp as the company's flagship, and I'm supposed to believe it sounds better?? When pigs fly, maybe. Still, I had to try them out. I felt like Commander Keen with these things on, though. I had to be careful not to bend my head backwards too much, for fear of falling over from the weight. But at least they did sound very good, from my brief experience. When I saw the Onkyo gear driving them, I really couldn't complain. My partner however owns a pair of Sennheiser PX100's and was unimpressed with the HD-800, preferring the sound of the PX100's! Mind you, they are PX100's to which I had recently tweaked with a run of Belt treatments, but still... this was one time where we diverged in opinion on the show. I mean while it might not be that insane to compare the tweaked PX's with the HD800, upon consideration, I would certainly not refrain from trading in a pair of PX100's for the HD's!
La chambre DynAudio: I've always liked Dyn's for their "wow factor" (my first demo of them was in the early 80's, and they were these tiny speakers standing next to giant monoliths. This was intentionally done to fool people into thinking it was the monoliths playing. And they were). But Dyn's never turned me on, probably just too clinical. The DynAudio room reminded me of those car speaker booths you find at dept. stores. The speakers playing were floor standing Dyn's, but the sound was aggressive, and only inspiring me to leave. The dealer quickly switched to a more mellow track, and it was a lot more tolerable. But not particularly musical. It was here I decided to whip out a Belt 'tweak' I had brought with me, and just see if I could improve things on my own. I treated the chair in front of me, which took about a minute. Then, that boring (but refined) sound got a lot more involving, and my partner seemed to think so too. I suppose the Dine line could be a lot more interesting to me, if they were properly "fixed".
La Chambre DIMEXS: This was a larger room, featuring a large pair of dynamic speakers; blue and black with a ribbon tweeter and two drivers. The closest model I can find to what they looked like, is the flagship Verity Loudspeakers model, Lohengrin II. The electronics used were from PS Audio, and also very serious looking - PS Audio "PerfectWave" DAC/Transport/etc. Yeah, everything was grandiose, and had all that revealing detail you pay kilobucks for, but for me, the sound just didn't measure up. I went over to the electronics to wonder why it didn't sound any better than it did, thinking it might be one of those "music servers" that was supplying the source, but it looked more like it was a conventional cd player, with a music server screen. Then I went closer to the speakers to try to suss that out, and concluded that at the very least, that ribbon tweeter was serving up mids and highs that were not natural, too hard and aggressive. In whole, the sound just didn't impress nearly as much as the equipment did visually, and we both agreed on that as well.
La chambre Son Id
I did not go to the show to file a report, so I'm just jotting down a few opinions and observations on what I saw/heard. If I had to describe the sound at the show in one word, it would be "Wow!". But OTOH, if I had to be at all honest or accurate in my description, then the word would be "underwhelming".
These comments should be taken with two pinches of salt. Which are:
1) In the interest of full disclosure, I'm a Beltist. And not the in-the-closet type you never hear from, but of the unabashed variety. Perhaps this shouldn't matter, but I think it does. Because I suspect Beltists are used to a better degree of sound quality than most audiophiles. I say this because if what I heard at the show is what manufacturers and dealers (and some customers from what I overheard) think is a great sound, then it appears that I and most people don't have the same standard, when it comes to what the experience of reproduced music should be like. My biggest complaint throughout the show, from demo room to demo room, was "where's the emotional connection to the music?". This quality that I was often getting from an mp3 player that I had been listening to last night (during an evening where I was installing Beltian tweaks around the room), just wasn't with me at the show. Despite that I was listening to systems that must easily have cost over $40,000 dollars. Even the NAIM room, which, having a soft spot for NAIM I expected much more from, just didn't do it for me in this regard. (They were demoing the new NAIT integrated, with a NAIT cd player, for which I've always heard good things about, and speakers from Audio Physic. The "Avanti" model).
All I know is I would have done a LOT more to improve my room's sound, than what I saw at that show, if I was a distributor trying to sell audio gear. I'm not just talking about treating the room and media with Belt devices to give myself a competitive edge, or even making sure you take stuff out of the room that degrades its sound. But just basic Audiofile 101 crap that these people couldn't be bothered with or simply haven't the wherewithal to think of.... ie. like not using Circuit City-grade Onkyo or Sony CD players as the source to demo my company's flagship products.
2) I didn't hear every type of music on every type of system, nor always under particularly relaxed conditions (ie. people chattering in the background). So it didn't always allow me to "fine tune" how well I could accurately guage the system's performance, especially when comparing one system to another, in different venues. But even having said that, I found myself pretty confident that my opinions of these systems are unlikely to change even if the rooms were vastly different, and the source materials were as well. I felt each system had its own characteristics that spoke more of its integral components than it did of these extraneous factors. So could sound better yes, but unlikely to sound very different, if the components remain.
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La chambre FURUTECH: Just across from the Stereophile booth, this was the first room we walked into. We heard Buena Vista Social Club, an album I'm familiar with as I have it. And the sound playing was "polite". Very "polite". As in "very boring". As my re-introduction to the Festival Son et Image (after years since I had visited the show), it was a pretty underwhelming one. Little did I know that this was going to be the theme of the show, for me. This sound, despite the very mean looking turntable playing; a name I'd never heard of, called the "Rossner & Sohn" KLM-15 from Germany. The agent told me the designer spent three years working on the platter. I didn't have the heart to tell him it hardly seemed worth the effort. I could just as well have been listening to a CD, and if you know me, you know that's not meant as a compliment. The best thing I could say about the sound, was that it was very transparent. In no way did it appear to be coming from the small quality bookshelf speakers (don't remember what they were, but they looked like Dyn's and were probably Totems, and were on substantial stands). The speakers were partnered with quality electronics (sorry, the guides and brochures I'm trying to refer to don't clue me in to what they were). The system's biggest problem was that it was "distant", meaning it had zero presence. On a positive note, it's probably the best office system going.
It seemed the room was dedicated to a local dealer called "Acoustic Technologies", and FURUTECH was just part of their line. From what I saw, FuruTech makes a lot more than just the DeMag unit they seem to be most known for (which it appears they also won awards for). Among some of the other audio accessories that bore their name in this room, were "audiophile grade" AC outlet covers. Substantially heavy, they came in stainless steel or what looked like a carbon fibre. Not sure what, if any, claims they had to this product improving the sound, since it was not the outlet itself where your machines plugged into (of which they also produced, in audiophile grade).
But the (in)famous DeMag unit was also present. I was considering asking if it might be more appropriate for the company to call itself "FurorTech". I mean considering how much resent has been generated toward the company, from all those ignorant mugs you see on the internet audio forums. Y'know, those guys who are maybe two Jabba The Huts short of a complete Star Wars figurine collection. Those guys who trip all over themselves getting to their keyboard, to make sure they don't miss any opportunity to denounce the company for its "DeMag" vinyl demagnetizer. And as per their usual MO, pronounce themselves all-knowing experts on a product they've never tried. I noticed there's definitely a complimentary relationship between the cost of a tweak product, and the outrage it generates from clueless dorks who seem to feel it's their job in life to denounce it. But wait, they don't have to know how it works, they've got "graphs" to prove it doesn't! All you've got is your ears, chump! Too bad for you!
Well, true, all I brought with me to the FurorTech room was "my own two ears". Besides (sigh), there was just NO room left to plug in the oscilloscope. So (sigh #2), using no more in measuring equipment than what the good Lord gave me, which I know from having read so many rants from said forum dorks is just madness (and asking for trouble) when we're talking about evaluating audio components, I asked for a demonstration of the FurorTech DeMag vinyl demagnetizer. But at least I can say I had an acquaintance next to me undertaking the test, with two more pieces of woefully inadequate measuring equipment, that nature had wrought. Between us, we had 4 chances to get it wrong, by my calculation.
Despite the fact that I featured the Furutech Demag UFO on my website a year or two ago, I've never actually heard the thing or seen it in person. It's a lot larger than the photograph. Looks I'm gonna have to upscale that photograph. I asked to listen to the same album track that I had just heard, after they demagnetized the album. Took about a minute per side (they did both sides). And yes, I heard a difference, and my test partner heard the same difference. I wouldn't call it "profound", but only because those are not my words. I would characterize the difference as "no question that there's a difference". The difference was best exemplified by the increased contrast between the sound shapes. Making for a sound that was livelier and less boring to listen to. Which in fact was my biggest complaint about the system before the demag test.
Since the aforementioned dorks all whine and kvetch about the cost of the DeMag, I guess a fair question would be... "Assuming it does what you say it does, is it worth nearly 2 grand?". The answer to that I'd say is: "depends". If your turntable still has some of Mickey's head on the label attached inside the box, then no silly, get yourself a proper turntable first. If your hifi system is worth more than $10k and preferably at least $20k, then it makes perfect sense to invest in a tweak that's in keeping with the overall quality of your hifi system (just as you would with cables or all the other of its components). Or if you have a lot of vinyl but a decent system nonetheless, then hearing more out of your records might interest you more. I think it's safe to say most of the clueless nimrods who spend their lives whining about the DeMag, which of course they've never heard, probably don't have record playback systems that would warrant it in the first place.
La chambre TOTEM: Totem won my award for the nicest designed room. Tasteful post-modern, that went well with their bright red 5.1 surround sound speaker system. They brought their own walls (with Totem logo designs), and it looks like they even brought in their own flooring (beige shag carpeting), as well. Very professional. Nice halogen mood lighting, and little glass bowls of red sand in between the speakers (which reminded me of the glass bowl of red sand and pebbles that I recently tried growing my bamboo plants in, until they started turning white on me). I couldn't tell if they were just decorative or not, but knowing Totem and their bullet beaks, I figured probably not. They played every stoner's old standby, "Money" by Pink Floyd. I've never been interested in Pink Floyd (although I once bought a copy of their Moon album just for audiophile test purposes), but still I gotta say, the opening cash register sounds were the best I've heard from this song. It was all impressive, until the song actually started to properly play, and a singer and drummer and such were heard. Then it all fell apart. Suddenly I was no longer interested in what the singer had to say, because he was boring me half to death with his monotone playing, and I was more interested in what the hell the drummer was doing in back of me. I've never been to a concert where the drummer was in back of me, and others were playing off to the side. No, this "surround sound" crap is just amateur hour, for me. It's "Quadraphonics" for people who don't know what the hell "Quadraphonics" was, and why the format died so many decades ago. It's fine for movies when you need to simulate action all around you, but people ought to know better than to use these systems for music. The lack of video in the room implied you were supposed to substitute this for a proper 2 channel music system. Needless to say, I didn't stay to hear what the rest of the song sounded like.
La chambre KINGREX/JOHN BLUE: The best deal at the show was the "KingRex" amplifier, a Tripath. The dealer asked if anyone knew what a Tripath amp was. Well yes, more than I wanted to know. Years ago, when I took interest in Tripaths and Gainclones, I had bought two Sonic Impact T-amps when they first came out (with the intention of recasing them, and pimping them out, and then maybe at some point, figuring out what to do with them). Only problem is I blew both of them up real good, before I ever got to put them in a system and listen for longer than 10 minutes. I guess it's fair to say I lost interest in these cool little amps after that.
When I first walked into the KingRex room, I thought "something good is happening here". The sound was better than many other rooms I'd recently been to. The dealer kept saying we were listening to a $350 amp (KingRex T20 integrated). Well that's impressive, because I'm sure no other dealer at the show could say that. Especially since the show deal gave you an additional 20% off, making it a high end amp under $300. But was that all we were listening to? At first I wasn't sure which speakers were playing, as there were two sets right next to each other, one large pair of floorstanders, and another much smaller but similar pair (JB3). Turns out they were the larger $5,000 pair (flagship JB8 model), with the "super tweeter" attached (optional, but you could use it with other speakers). Ok, that went a long way to explaining the sound we were getting. The speakers were "JohnBlue". Like "KingRex", another audio brand I'd never heard of, but they looked very interesting. Apart from the large floorstanders that were playing, they also had cute little tiny baby white models, with a similar design, and numerous sizes in between. All of which used full range drivers, hence the optional supertweeter (for those who like a lot of sparkle in their music). These JohnBlues definitely seemed like something you'd want to hear more about.
They were playing Katie Meluah's first album, which I was quite familiar with, as I've often used it in testing. I thought to myself that "most people would like this sound". A large, full sound that was easy to get into, and didn't send you running from the room. The dealer extolled the virtues of Tripath amplification, stating that despite its warm sound, it was always cold running. Considering that you could cook breakfast on the top of my Class A amp and it requires two fans just to cool it to "scorching", I could definitely see the advantages of this kind of amplification. The cute tiny integrated amps are allegedly designed to emulate tube amp sound. The sound was a bit too hard for me to be convinced it was tubey, but I might be kind to the little Class D (which it appears they're calling "Class T" now) and say it was maybe something in between solid state and tubes. My partner was already lined up to buy one. Though the sound wasn't helped by what I saw as the source they were using: what appeared to be a cheap $60 Sony dvd player. Not only was it the worst source I'd seen at the show, I seem to recall it was just sitting directly on the floor, like it had been thrown there (and landed on some cables). When I asked the rep if that's what it was, he corrected me. So I stand corrected, it's actually a "cheap $99 Sony DVD player".
When I suggested the sound of the system they were trying to win people over with might be compromised by the cheap DVD player, he replied with the utmost confidence, assuring me that the reason they didn't go with anything better, was because they were circumventing the Sony's DAC by plugging the player into their own KingRex DAC. So you see folks, it didn't matter. They simply didn't need anything better. Except that the transport you use does matter. It matters a LOT. In fact, it matters more than the DAC, since its up the stream from that. You don't catch cowpatties rolling down a hill, then attempt to turn it into Oh Henry bars, then say it doesn't matter where it came from or what it was before. The DAC can only work with the quality of the signal it got off of the transport, and it will never provide the missing information. And the sound coming off the transport is as affected by vibrations as any turntable, yet they had no consideration for what they were putting it on. When I suggested that they use a better transport to demo their products, the rep looked offended by my suggestion. Hardly the first time I've noted that audio people who like to think they're experts where they're not, don't like being 'corrected'. I don't know, but if this business of being ignorant of and/or ignoring the utmost basics in long proven sound audio practices is typical of the attitude of newer generations of young audio staff in young audio companies, then this hobby is doomed, for sure. Bring on the iPod docks, yeeha...
JohnBlue JB8, JB3 (in black):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21180446@N05/3416416843/
La chambre SENNHEISER: Back in the 80's, my brother told me he was planning to make a million bucks, and that he would buy me any audio gear I wanted. I said thanks but no thanks. I was fine. I didn't want any other audio gear, I was happy with what I had. Except okay, maybe I could use a new pair of headphones. The model I'm interested in is the Sennheiser Orpheus. (Ha! Little did he know these were $20 grand. Now $25 grand, I'm told). Well well, I finally got to see them at the show, at Sennheiser's booth. Except they were no longer for sale, and were hardly ever for sale, according to what I was told! In fact, not only were they not for sale, they were not even for listening to! I guess they were just there to say "See! We once had high end aspirations of great sound....". I asked why the Orpheus were no longer for sale and what had replaced them. Well apparently, they were out of date. Okay, I realize they were giant wooden cans fitted to an even 'gianter' tube amp, but the representative was talking like as if they had been originally designed by Thomas Edison and stopped production over a hundred years ago. So apparently they're no longer made because technology has moved on, and people are now interested in the newer technology.
What was this "newer technology" I wondered? That's when they referred me to their latest flagship model that had just come out. The HD800. When I asked what it retailed for and was told about "$1,750", I was very skeptical to say the least! A regular dynamic plastic model that retails for $1,750 has supplanted the hand made $25,000 dollar model with the tube amp as the company's flagship, and I'm supposed to believe it sounds better?? When pigs fly, maybe. Still, I had to try them out. I felt like Commander Keen with these things on, though. I had to be careful not to bend my head backwards too much, for fear of falling over from the weight. But at least they did sound very good, from my brief experience. When I saw the Onkyo gear driving them, I really couldn't complain. My partner however owns a pair of Sennheiser PX100's and was unimpressed with the HD-800, preferring the sound of the PX100's! Mind you, they are PX100's to which I had recently tweaked with a run of Belt treatments, but still... this was one time where we diverged in opinion on the show. I mean while it might not be that insane to compare the tweaked PX's with the HD800, upon consideration, I would certainly not refrain from trading in a pair of PX100's for the HD's!
La chambre DynAudio: I've always liked Dyn's for their "wow factor" (my first demo of them was in the early 80's, and they were these tiny speakers standing next to giant monoliths. This was intentionally done to fool people into thinking it was the monoliths playing. And they were). But Dyn's never turned me on, probably just too clinical. The DynAudio room reminded me of those car speaker booths you find at dept. stores. The speakers playing were floor standing Dyn's, but the sound was aggressive, and only inspiring me to leave. The dealer quickly switched to a more mellow track, and it was a lot more tolerable. But not particularly musical. It was here I decided to whip out a Belt 'tweak' I had brought with me, and just see if I could improve things on my own. I treated the chair in front of me, which took about a minute. Then, that boring (but refined) sound got a lot more involving, and my partner seemed to think so too. I suppose the Dine line could be a lot more interesting to me, if they were properly "fixed".
La Chambre DIMEXS: This was a larger room, featuring a large pair of dynamic speakers; blue and black with a ribbon tweeter and two drivers. The closest model I can find to what they looked like, is the flagship Verity Loudspeakers model, Lohengrin II. The electronics used were from PS Audio, and also very serious looking - PS Audio "PerfectWave" DAC/Transport/etc. Yeah, everything was grandiose, and had all that revealing detail you pay kilobucks for, but for me, the sound just didn't measure up. I went over to the electronics to wonder why it didn't sound any better than it did, thinking it might be one of those "music servers" that was supplying the source, but it looked more like it was a conventional cd player, with a music server screen. Then I went closer to the speakers to try to suss that out, and concluded that at the very least, that ribbon tweeter was serving up mids and highs that were not natural, too hard and aggressive. In whole, the sound just didn't impress nearly as much as the equipment did visually, and we both agreed on that as well.
La chambre Son Id