Enter elevator for floors 4 and 5. Someone has pressed 5. 5 it is
then.
Atrium floors once had second-class feel. No longer.
Sound not like previous years. Sound is sparse. Missing quieter
notes. Less resolution. Think needs galaxy-class amp. YG rep uses
100 watt integrated. Personal idiosyncrasies aside, sound coming
out the other end does not a well-driven speaker make.
Small sweet spot and soundstage. Wave head around for fun.
Pleasantly detailed and non-offensive. Wonder about separation of
notes vis-à-vis note-to-note dynamic range being compressed.
Wonder about all planers. Component circuit construction
excellent. Perhaps sound excellent like Inner Sound electronics?
Do not understand. Much, very much, oh so much bass. Must work to
hear midrange. Not rewarding to hear midrange. Respect Krell
speakers. Understand Krell electronics. Do not understand point of
this room.
Waste time attempting to explain personal ethics of exhibiting and
show reporting. Prefer wasting time doing almost anything else.
Stylistic appearance. Attractive. Sound mostly same Lowther sound.
Maybe less beamy.
Yellow headlight-like speaker system sounds good. Full sound. A
little warm. Not snappy bass/low-mids like self-powered [active]
Yamaha monitors, but better in all other ways.
Soundings is a local dealership.
Soundings is a local dealership.
Old timey sound. Like in classy used bookstore 30 years ago.
Digititus still a futuristic nightmare. Muddy. Rolled off.
Compressed. For nostalgics. For fun. But not the high-end.
Many rooms use Wadia ipod player. Exhibitors are here for many
different purposes. ipod generation not at show. Dealers at show.
Many show-going dealers do not care about sound quality at show.
Playing percussion. Percussion very unrevealing of system
problems. Very sneaky playing percussion. But stupidly like system
anyway. Bass well-defined. Upper mids clear with some complex
harmonic structure.
Usually show larger Kharma Midi Exquisite in this room. Usually
have bass overhang at suspect frequencies. No bass overhang this
year. Speaker able to sing. Sooloos front end not horrible.
Wondering why not. Maybe using external DAC. Or maybe losing mind.
Uneven dynamics and harmonics. Unmusical. Gossips hint system
design changed at last minute.
Think all good components except front end. Missing holistic
synergy. Good exercise listening around components. Keep ears fit.
Not happy with sound. Sound dull and rolled off compared to
expectations. Expectations set by ASR on TIDAL speakers. Like Lamm
better than ASR [personal preference]. System should sound better.
Play game: hide and seek with dull sounding culprit. You play
game. Think in enough trouble already with report.
Several rooms try to convince digital as good as analog. Fan of
Emm Labs* but first analog must sound its best to be fair fight.
Also 'red badge' gear old. EmmLabs sound now more complex, denser
harmonics and quicker dynamics. Like analog but better separation
and less continuousness, Description very inadequate.
This room perhaps most integrated. All pieces working together.
Doing their part. Sound is sophisticated. A wee bit polite.
Suitable for a listening room and mixed company.
Another demonstration: digital to beat analog. Short demo. Sounded
neck-and-neck. Why? Best digital in the world can barely beat
well-setup less expensive turntable.
Partner thought digital
louder. Perhaps very bad turntable. Or phono stage. Perhaps very
badly setup turntable. Both digital and analog almost mid-fi.
Lacking harmonic color, dynamics, separation, acceptable note
attack and decay, etc. but more linear about it and complex
passages handled much better than typical more-expensive systems.
Think WLM reasonable speakers so not their fault. Think why
misleading demo? Just play music and see if people like.
Room locked.
Grant Fidelity in many rooms. Seemingly well-funded. Tube DVD
player good idea. Not as flexible as tube DAC. Sound typical upper
mid-fi salon sound. Not naming salon. Was juicy part of high-end
market until president announced depression.
Very important people talking. Music is over. Turn out the lights.
