At the end of each day of the New York Audio Show, I asked attendees, "What's the best sound you've heard today?"
search
Robert Baird mentioned the seminar program presented at the New York Audio Show by The Sound Organisation. I applaud the Chester Group for featuring educational sessions like these at the Show. At the session I attended, renowned recording engineer Jim Anderson (above), past president of the Audio Engineering Society and Chair of the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music at New York University's Tisch School for the Arts, compared the original and revised versions of Patricia Barber's Cafe Blue, as well as playing tracks from her new album Smash, which he mixed at Skywalker Sound. The…
I am a big fan of the hi-rez audio files made available by Lessloss, so one of the first rooms I visited at the NY Audio Show was theirs. The system featured a pair of Kaiser Kawero Vivace floorstanding speakers from Germany, which combine a custom-made Mundorf AMT tweeter with ScanSpeak Illuminator midrange unit and rear-facing woofers. With the source Lessloss's new Laminar Streamer, which plays audio files from SD cards, and Pass Labs amplifiers, the sound in this room was delicate and full-bodied, though perhaps too sweet overall.
Filtering the power was Lessloss's Firewall…
Belgian manufacturer Venture, whose products are distributed in the US by Precision Audio & Video, was demming its new Vici 2.1 loudspeaker ($36,000/pair with one AW500 woofer), driven by Venture V200A+ MOSFET monoblocks ($120,000/pair), a Venture VP100L preamp ($35,100), and reinforced below 60Hz by a pair of Venture AW500 active woofers ($12,000 each), which each use two 10" drivers. Front-end was the XX High End music player running on a Windows laptop feeding a Weiss Medea FireWire DAC ($21,799). Cables were all Grand Reference Diamond and Diamond Signature.
The Vici 2.1…
The first room I visited at the NY Audio Show was one of the best-sounding. The third of three rooms displaying brands sold by Manhattan retailer Sound by Singer—click here and here for our reports on the other two—it featured the world premier of Danish Manufacturer Raidho's D2 loudspeaker ($43,500/pair in black, $48,000/pair in gold walnut). The D2 combines the ribbon tweeter used in Raidho's well-regarded D1 minimonitor with two 4.5" woofers that use a diamond-coated cones.
Driven by a Soulution 5400 SACD player, a VAC Signature Mk.2 tube preamplifier and 450S tube power amplifier,…
Photo: John Atkinson
My friend Jason Victor Serinus asked, reasonably, how I and other Stereophile reporters might rank this most recent outing by the Chester Group against other shows. I said I thought that NYAS 2013 was very well organized and, when all was said and done, gratifyingly well attended. People did their jobs and luck mostly held: Con Ed workers created noise and logistical mayhem as they peeled away the pavement, yet hundreds of audiophiles flocked to the show nonetheless. The men were tearing up the street.
My friend Jason Victor Serinus asked, reasonably, how I and other Stereophile reporters might rank this most recent outing by the Chester Group against other shows. I said I thought that NYAS 2013 was very well organized and, when all was said and done, gratifyingly well attended. People did their jobs and luck mostly held: Con Ed workers created noise and logistical mayhem as they peeled away the pavement, yet hundreds of audiophiles flocked to the show nonetheless. The men were tearing up the street.
There are more and more shows each year, it is true.…
Trumpeter-composer Dave Douglas turned 50 last month and remains one of the most exciting and versatile musicians in jazz. Time Travel (on his own Greenleaf Music label) is his 40th album in 20 years as a leader. And, as has often been the case, it's a brash departure from his previous record, even though the bandmates are (with one exception) the same.
That last album, Be Still (reviewed here last fall) was a pensive collection of spirituals, with a singer on several tracks (a first for Douglas, not repeated here: that's the one exception). Time Travel is raucous, uptempo, head-…
Tempo High Fidelity's John Quick, dCS's US distributor, stands beside a dCS Vivaldi stack at Lyric Hi-Fi's annual audio show.
The Lyric Show 2013 was held at Lyric Hi-Fi & Video (1221 Lexington Avenue) in Manhattan, on Friday and Saturday, April 12 and 13. An informal VIP presentation, held on Thursday, April 11, was open to members of the press. Last year, Ariel Bitran and I covered the event; this year, I was on my own.
This year’s event, much like the last, was well-attended. Most guests made their ways casually from one demonstration to the next. Some lingered in between…
Gibboni and the Gibbon: At Stereo Exchange’s annual Spring High-End Audio Show, Roger Gibboni (left) of Rogers High Fidelity debuted his EHF-200 Mk.II tubed integrated amplifier. Meanwhile, DeVore Fidelity’s John DeVore provided two surprising NYC debuts: the new three-way Gibbon X loudspeaker and a two-way mohawk.
Stereo Exchange’s annual Spring High-End Audio Show was held Friday, April 12, through Sunday, April 14, at 627 Broadway in Manhattan’s bustling SoHo neighborhood. I visited on Sunday afternoon, just as the weekend festivities were winding down, but nevertheless in time for…
As they had in 2012, Manhattan dealer Innovative Audio both participated in the Chester Group's NY Audio Show and held an open house at their 58th Street location after the show closed Friday and Saturday.
While Innovative's rooms at the Show had featured Wilson Alexias and Sasha W/Ps, driven by D'Agostino and Lamm/VTL electronics, at the store they had set up Wilson Alexandria XLFs driven by VTL Siegfried monoblocks and hooked up with Transparent cables, Sasha W/Ps powered by Spectral electronics, and Wilson Sophia 3s, driven by VTL's new fully balanced S-200 Signature stereo amplifier…