EAR/Technics RS-1500 tape deck, EAR Acute Classic CD Player, Helius Designs Viridia turntable, Omega Standard tonearm, Denon DL-103R cartridge, PranaFidelity purna/ca preamplifier, purna/ma amplifier, and Vayu/fs loudspeakers;, Etc.
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.
Egglestonworks Nico speakers; Technics SL-1200G turntable; Bryston Amplifiers 7B3 amplifier, BP17-3 preamplifier, BP-2 MM/MC phonostage, MPS-2 power supply, and BDP-3 digital player; Audience cabling; Target stands
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), ....
EleKit TU-8600R integrated amplifier, Sparkler Audio S503 Spiral CD Player/Transport, AER Excenter Loudspeakers
You’re going to need to indulge me a bit, because, due to some communication difficulties, I’m not totally confident of some prices and components in this room. If I understood correctly, the handmade-in-Japan, 1-bit Sparkler Audio S503 CD Player/Transport costs $1650, and the build-it-yourself EleKit TU-8600R integrated amplifier, also from Japan, goes for $1785.
Evolution Acoustics Exact Maestoso Loudspeaker and Cabling, Dartzeel NHB Stereo Amp and Preamp, Wave Kinetics NVS turntable, Merging NADAC, Durand Tonearm
See that weird looking thing? It’s the outboard crossover to end all outboard crossovers, and it belongs to the relatively slim Evolution Acoustics Exact Series Maestoso 3-way loudspeaker system ($18,900). Heading an impressive and hardly bargain system from Blue Light Audio of Portland and The Audio Association of Anaheim Hills, the Maestoso made one of its first show appearances since I covered its debut at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest—was it three years ago?
Gryphon Pandora Preamplifier, Magico S5 MkII Speakers, Sonorus Reel-to-Reel Deck, Acoustic Signature Storm Turntable, Synergistic Research cables, Artesiana Racks
Oh boy, was soundstaging excitingly three-dimensional in the Scott Walker room that headlined Gryphon electronics. Listening to 15ips tapes played on a Sonorus reel-to-reel deck ($19,500) by Philip O'Hanlon, of Gryphon distributor On a Higher Note, the extraordinary depth on Sarah Vaughan's "When Your Lover Has Gone" certainly seized my attention.
Legacy Calibre Monitor, Wavelet DAC/Preamp/Crossover/Correction, and Legacy Powerbloc2 Amplifier
On an electric guitar track, the name of which I failed to get, the Legacy Audio Calibre Monitor ($5500/pair) got down, dark, and dirty in a good way while fighting one of the most wicked upper bass room resonances known to humankind.
Magico A3 Speakers, Constellation Argo Amp, MSB Discrete DAC, Aurender ACS10 Server, Synergistic Research Accessories
In the second Scott Walker Audio room I visitedsince I visited five of them, I know it's going to start sounding like "Five power cables, four balanced interconnects, three phono cartridges, two mighty monoblocks, and a speaker shaped like a pear tree," but it really did sound like Christmas in most of these roomsthe Constellation Argo integrated amp ($29,000), Magico A3 Speakers ($12,300/pair), and MSB Discrete DAC ($12,500) vied for pride of place with an Aurender ACS10 server ($6000) and Synergistic Research PowerCell 12 UEF SE Power Conditioner ($6,495), Atmosphere cabling ($18,500), and various room acoustics products ($3,500), plus a Solid Tech Rack ($2,600).
MartinLogan Masterpiece ESL13A speakers and Dynamo 800X subwoofer, Hegel H-590 integrated amplifier, Wolf Audio Streamer/Server, Audience and AudioQuest cabling and conditioning, and Quadraspire Stand Bamboo
Who would have expected to hear a theorbo reproduced in 24/192 at an audio demo?
mbl N31 DAC – CD player, N11 stereo preamplifier, N15 monoblocks, 120 Radialstrahler hybrid loudspeaker with Wireworld Eclipse Series 8 cabling
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.
Pro-Ject RPM 10 Turntable, Sumiko Songbird MC Cartridge, VTL TP-2.5i Phono Stage and VTL TL-5.5 Series II Line Stage, Meridian 218 Zone Controller, Vandersteen M5- HPA Monoblocks and Vandersteen Quatro Loudspeakers, AudioQuest Cabling
It always helps to end 7.5 hours of show coverage on a high note. That was certainly the case in
the Audio Concepts room, where the midrange sounded gorgeous on a recording of
Beethoven’s Paris Trio