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Stereophile's Stephen Mejias (left) is given the hard sell by the youngest audiophile at the Show, Shane Censullo. Shane was tireless throughout the weekend, handing out flyers on behalf of his father's company, Avatar Acoustics.
In a second Brooks Berdan room, we heard Aesthetix Atlas monoblocks driving a pair of Sonus Faber’s beautiful Amati Futura loudspeakers. An SME turntable equipped with a Benz Ruby Z phono cartridge spun the tunes, while an Aesthetix Rhea phono stage, Calypso preamp, and Cardas Clear cables and interconnects completed the system. Everything sat upon Grand Prix Audio stands and racks. Somewhat surprisingly, the sound was more literal and less lush than what we heard in the dCS/Wilson/VTL/Cardas room, but nonetheless lovely, delicate, and engaging.
Zach Galarza is a 20-year-old audiophile and music lover. I’ve met Zach a few times at different shows across the country, and I was happy to learn that he’s now working with AV Showrooms.
When people ask me about the future of the high-end audio hobby, I always become at least slightly annoyed. I’m tired of the question. To be honest, I was tired of the question from the very start. Because, first of all, I’m not a fortune-teller. Second, everywhere I turn there are obvious signs of growth in high-end audio, and even more potential opportunities. The biggest problem faced by the…
Pay no attention to the gentleman snoozing in the front row. The crowd at JA's seminar on loudspeakers measurements was riveted, captivated, enthralled.
Several excellent seminars were held throughout the course of T.H.E. Show Newport, including Friday afternoon’s seminar, “What Speaker Measurements Mean,” hosted by John Atkinson.
John discussed his measurements techniques and used a number of slides to show not only how individual graphs relate to one another but also how they can be used to interpret a speaker’s performance.
While describing the unusual frequency response of one unnamed loudspeaker, John commented that the speaker sounded “unacceptably colored” with nasally highs, too much energy in the upper midrange, and a…
First of all, I loved the way On A Higher Note’s Philip O’Hanlon coordinated his outfit with both his demo room and the Vivid B1 loudspeakers—the dude can rock a Hawaiian shirt, khaki shorts, and slippers like nobody’s business. Second, it was awesome to hear O’Hanlon say, “Up next is a song by Destiny’s Child, with Beyonce, called ‘Bills, Bills, Bills.’
“And what’s interesting about this,” O’Hanlon continued, “is that you’ve probably heard it a million times on the radio, but you’ve never heard it like this.”
Philip O’Hanlon was right: I had never heard it like this…
Carlsbad dealer Audio Revelation put together a beautiful little system: Vivid Audio V1.5 loudspeakers ($7650), Luxman SQ-38u integrated amp ($5990), Wavelength Cosecant DAC ($3500), and Well Tempered Versalex turntable ($4400) with a Dynavector XX2 phono cartridge ($1950)—all you need to make music.
Also on display was Luxman’s cute D-100r digital docking station ($495) for your iPod.
Beside the D-100r was the handsome Luxman DA-200 DAC ($2800) with two analog line inputs, digital inputs (coaxial, optical, and USB), balanced outputs, and a front-panel…
My very favorite gear of T.H.E. Show Newport was presented by Ross Blomgren of RJB Electronic Services. Blomgren specializes in the repair and restoration of antique jukeboxes, radios, and hi-fi, and the products he had on display were, in my opinion, some of the most beautiful to be found at the show.
I was very tempted to buy this second-generation RCA RP-190 45rpm changer. It’s been fully restored with a new AC cord, resurfaced idler and cycling wheels, and a new cartridge for its plastic tonearm. That’s right: plastic. Suck it, carbon fiber. The $195 price, which seemed…
One of my favorite displays of T.H.E. Show Newport: Focal’s sleek XS Book multimedia speaker system ($399) was making big sound, playing music from a laptop (through plain-old iTunes, I think) and connected to Cambridge Audio’s smart DacMagic Plus ($599). My mind raced, counting all the friends who could use a system like this.
Focal makes it easy: The XS Book system includes RCA and mini-jack cables for connecting the speakers to your existing stereo, television, computer, iPod, or smart phone. No speaker cables are needed: The “master” right-channel speaker contains the 20W…
T.H.E. Show Newport was also home to a car show and wine tasting, held each day in the Hilton Courtyard. I must have missed the wine, but I did see this awesome little guy—a BMW Isetta, I think—from the collection of Upscale Audio’s Kevin Deal.