Newport 2014: Horning, Tron, TW-Acustic

Either:

a) this room is getting better each show

b) the other rooms are getting worse, or

c) I am going slowly mad

I prefer to think that the answer is a), the room is getting better sounding each show.

Nicely dynamic and tuneful (the Teo Cable no doubt helps with this some), this system just conveys the energy of the music quite nicely, something missing from most rooms. No hardness or over-emphasis of this frequency or that, at least during my short visit [however, most short visits in other rooms immediately reveal such problems].
Perhaps when looking at the things that make up music: harmonics, dynamics, frequency range, resolution… it is good to not over-emphasize one with respect to the others. To keep the balance, to keep it musical.
The organic harmonics and medium resolution of the Teo cable is balanced by the high resolution of the turntable. The lack of bass slam in speakers this size is balanced by careful placement and presumably those platforms they put them on.
Anyway, liked this room I did.

 

Newport 2014. Dartzeel and Evolution Acoustics


Evolution Acoustics speakers, Dartzeel electronics, Wave Kinetics turntable and Ampex ATR reel-to-reel

This room sounded good at this show [really prefer these larger speakers than the little monitors], and was in the top five or six rooms at the show, sound wise, to our ears.

Hit all the main points of music reproduction – not doing anything terribly wrong, nor stupendously right, either. A little on the neutral side, detailed, and fairly even across the frequency spectrum and, well, that kind of describes it.


Wave Kinetics turntable


Dartzeel NHB 18NS preamplifier


Dartzeel integrated amplifier


Evolution Acoustics speaker and Running Springs Audio power conditioner


Ampex ATR reel-to-reel


Ampex ATR reel-to-reel player recorder

Tape is really incomparable as a source.