See the smiling woman in this photo with a dazed-amidst-all-these-rooms yours truly? Meet T.H.E. Show’s fabulous Director of Social Media and Marketing, Emiko Carlin, a former classical pianist and musician whose 3000 songs include some #1 pop singles. I don’t know how this dazzling woman comes across to others, but for me, discovering Ms. Carlin was like meeting an old friend.
Ah, mbl. This time, making music not in its usual large room, but rather in an 11-foot wide space. Mbl North America’s Jeremy Bryan had asked for a larger exhibit room, but none was available. After hearing the havoc wrought by air wall subdividers in many of the Hilton Long Beach’s conference rooms, I think Bryan is lucky to have been refused.
After Emiko Carlin of T.H.E. Show basically ordered me to check out AirHush’s display at T.H.E. Show, I spent a few minutes speaking with company CCO Michael Quinby.
It took two tries over the course of two days to find a seat, but on Sunday afternoon, I finally squeezed into the room shared by EAR and PranaFidelity. The wait was worth it.
To these ears, the pairing of Vandersteen Quatro loudspeakers ($15,499/pair) and the company’s smaller M5-HPA monoblocks ($15,800/pair) with the Jeff Rowland Corus Stereo preamplifier + PSU ($21,900) and Conductor phonostage ($8500) is a winner.
If Scott Walker Audio had staked out a mini-empire on floor 3, Sunny Components of Covina, California, did the same on floor 6. The first room I visited, of the four from Sunil Merchant, included Egglestonworks' 87dB-efficient Nico speakers ($4250/pair), ....
Eye candy, eh? Tune Audio’s Anima 3-way fully horn-loaded loudspeakers ($58,000/pair) claim 109dB sensitive. THEY certainly were drawing in listeners, to the extent that I had to visit twice before I could get into the room then slowly inch my way closer to the sweet spot.