As fate would have it, on my third attempt to enter the Venice Audio Suite—intense conversation made the other passes futile—Mark Waldrep of AIX Records/iTrax had brought in some of his hi-res files for store proprietor Peter Selesnick to hear. The room was quiet, and for good reason: the sound was too beautiful to talk over.
Mark was playing Robert Prosseda's 96/24 DVD-A of Chopin's Ballade in G minor and The Old City String Quartet's 96/24 Blu-ray of Mozart's Clarinet Quintet. The music was heavenly, and the lovely sound of the system supplied perfect end-of-day solace.
Doing…
Ever wonder how Sunil Merchant of Sunny Components managed to set up all that equipment in his four different rooms? This peak behind his shower curtain tells the tale.
Oh, did I love the sound in this room. When I initially entered, Sunil Merchant, aka Sunny of Sunny Components—one of three Sunny's displaying at the show, but the only one with four rooms—was playing a so-called jazz LP that, for worse rather than better, whisked me back to the time that my very nuclear and highly combustible family of three joined my Uncle Herman and Auntie Anna at a resort in the Catskills. The music was so late 1950s that I could almost hear the women at the card table as they commenced yet one more round of canasta.
Realizing that I was about to jump out of my skin,…
Closing the live program Sunday at the Atrium Hotel was a concert by Audra Lee, daughter of the LA&OC Audio Society's Bob Levi. Leading a rocking trio, with a woman drummer, Audra belted her way through rock standards, including Huey Lewis's "The Power of Love." You can get a free download of Audra's single "I'm All In" here. Audra's debut album will be available in July from iTunes.
There was a continual program of live music at T.H.E. Show Newport Beach, to allow Showgoers to recalibrate their ears. A quintet led by trumpet player William Artope Jr, son of Bill Artope, the Sales & Marketing Director for cable manufacturer Dynamic Design AV, played some excellent straight-ahead modern jazz poolside at the Atrium Hotel.
Marten Design’s Getz loudspeakers made good sound within an all-ModWright system: KWA 150 Signature Edition monoblocks, LS 36.5 tubed line stage, and modified Oppo BDP-95 disc player. Everything was supported by Stillpoints feet, and cables were provided by Dynamic Design. I noted a smooth, solid overall sound, with a stable soundstage—very easy to listen to and enjoy.
Inconspicuous but attractive, the Chapman T-8 Mk.II loudspeaker ($9995/pair) holds a 1” silk-dome tweeter, 5.5” midrange unit, and a 10” woofer beneath its black grille cloth.
The T-8 seemed to partner well with Cary’s CAD 211 Founder’s Edition amplifiers ($20,000/pair), SLP-05 preamp, and CD306 disc player. Also on hand was Light Harmonic’s distinctive DaVinci DAC. Cables were from MIT. We listened to an organ piece and I noted impressive bass: relatively taut, well-controlled, and well-extended.
One of my favorite demos of T.H.E. Show Newport was provided by Mike Zivkovik and Garth Leerer, respectively of Teresonic and Musical Surroundings, who presented the Teresonic Ingenium XR loudspeakers ($15,000/pair) with Teresonic’s Ref 211 amplifier ($28,000), AMG’s beautiful V12 turntable ($16,500) with Clearaudio’s Goldfinger cartridge ($15,000), and Musical Surroundings’ Fosgate Signature tubed phono preamp ($2500). Cables were all Teresonic: Clarison Silver EXP loudspeaker cables ($3500), fully balanced Gold XLR interconnects ($4000), Clarison power cables ($395), and the Clarison…
Bijan Vahhaji of Definition Audio Video in Santa Monica presented a system made of Sony’s SS-AR1 loudspeaker ($27,000/pair; reviewed by Kal Rubinson in July 2011) with Simaudio amplification and front-end. A laptop running the Foobar media player fed signals via USB to the Sim 650D ($7999; reviewed by Mikey Fremer in November 2011). Cables were Nordost Tyr 2.
This is just a guess, but I think the Sony’s rather warm tonal balance was wonderfully complemented by Simaudio’s speed and Nordost’s clarity, providing an engaging overall sound that was marked by superfast, precise starts and…
So said the flyer drawing attention to Room 1022 at the Hilton. Intrigued, I went in, to see two pairs of Acoustic Zen Adagio mounted side-by-side, driven by an inexpensive Samsung DVD player and a Rotel amplifier. The sound was good rather than great, but considering the sub-optimal arrangement —side-by-side speakers with widely spaced pairs of tweeter, no acoustic treatment, very inexpensive ancillaries, etc —the sound was very much better than I was expecting, with precise stereo imaging. It turned out that the speakers' interaction with the room was optimized with a digital-signal…
