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Several of Stereophile's editors were excited about the compact and inexpensive Audioengine 5 amplified speakers ($349/pair), which were bringing forth some sweet sounds playing files directly from a laptop. New to the Audioengine line is the tiny 2 (seen here, $199/pair), which offered a sound surprisingly similar to that of its bigger brother. The music was clean and clear, and conveyed an emotion that belied the speaker's size. Like the A5, the A2 keeps all of its electronics in the left speaker but, unlike the A5, it uses a front slot port for bass performance.
The Audioengine team is also looking at alternative cabinet materials. On display was a prototype A5 housed in lovely, sustainable bamboo. While the electronics remain the same, the bamboo models will incorporate added dampening.
"We were afraid the sound wouldn't match up to what we'd achieved with the original A5, but, when we were all finished, we were surprised to find that it sounded very similar."
We can expect this model to be released in the coming months, with a price somewhere around $599.
She was dancin' so hard, she danced herself into a diamond.
—Bill Callahan, "Diamond Dancer"
***
"What was your favorite part of the show?" Kelli asked me.
"Watching Morgan Jet dance like mad to the John Atkinson Trio," I said.
I encountered the same difficulty while talking with Red Wine Audio's Vinnie Rossi that I'd experienced the day before when chatting with Audio Advancements' Hart Huschens. Happy customers kept frigging interrupting us. "Vinnie! Vinnie!" they'd announce again and again.
I take this as solid evidence of the great service these gentlemen provide to the audio world.
Basically, all I could do was drop my pen, lean back against the wall, and smile. Might as well take a picture, I figured.
And so: Here's Vinnie Rossi with a very happy customer of the Red Wine…
"Have you heard the little Ushers?" I was asked Friday. "Have you heard the little Ushers?" I was asked repeatedly on Saturday.
No!, but not because I hadn't tried. I just couldn't get near the room. It was that packed. Finally, on Sunday I not only got in, I got the sweet spot.
Hmmm, I see, umm, hear, what what people were buzzing about. And, again, it ain't just the speakers, of course, but the Oracle Audio Technologies gear and JPS Labs cables as well—yet even we sophisticated audiophiles tend to think of that last link in the chain as being what we're hearing. In one…
Late Sunday afternoon, with only about an hour left before the show closed, it was still standing room only in the Music Hall room. Perhaps that had something to do with the choice of music. I walked in to be greeted by the naughty sounds of the Bear Family Records compilation, Eat to the Beat: the dirtiest of them dirty blues, featuring song titles I can't even mention here.
Such as: The Blenders' "Don't Fuck Around With Love," Wynonie Harris' "I Like My Baby's Pudding," and many more much better than that.
The music, coming from Music Hall's very attractive, all-in-…
When I finally made it through the crowd and into the Music Hall room, I took one look at pasty party animal, Leland Leard, and cried, "Good god, man! How are you feeling?"
He looked at me, a bit of the previous night still trembling in his glassy eyes, and, holding onto a styrofoam cup of matzah ball soup, he responded, "Better now."
"That's good," I said.
"Want a whisky?" he asked.
Stereophile hired good friend (and talented artist) Jeff Wong to cover HE2007 in his inimitable style. Jeff's three-page hand-drawn impression of the show will appear in the August issue.
Watching Jeff sketch the proceedings was a humbling experience—he's fast and he's good. Here, he's capturing JA attacking the bass solo of "So What." Yes, Fearless Leader does glower at his hands while he's playing.
They were a hit at last year's Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, so I asked Bob Cordell (resting his dogs in the photo), Peter "PJay" Smith, and Darren Kuzma to give a repeat performance of their seminars on amplifier and loudspeaker performance at HE2007. These ran throughout the Show, and I kept being stopped in the corridor by audiophiles who would say something like "Now I know what tube amplifier clipping sounds like" or "Now I know what is meant by 'dynamic range.'" I was reminded by something I had been told years ago, perhaps by Jon Iverson: that the only difference between an…