Audio Note room II at CAS 2023

This is a photo of the larger room, highlighting the Audio Note AN-E SPx LTD field coil loudspeakers.

Previous commitments prevented me from attending this show except to help Neli setup and teardown the room. But I did get to hear this room for an hour right before closing [after a nice 4-day warm up, things were sounding good. There is something super-efficient [albeit with a side of guilt] with swooping in to hear everything at its best at the end of a show, amiright? :-)].

The biggest surprise for me was that there was a enhanced sense of resolution that, for me, when it reaches a certain level, has always become addictive emotionally as well as intellectually: my mental defenses are somehow lowered I am more aggressively sucked into the music. With none of that diamond driver or slight etchiness (spell correct suggests itchiness, and maybe that is a better word? It is not usually in-your-face, but it is always there somewhere in the sound mix when listening to these particular drivers).

The main takeaway was the increased dynamics of the midrange (and maybe lower, the low-end of various tracks seemed to respond differently to the set up in that particular Frankenstein hotel room). If it was this dynamic with a Meishu Tonmeister, can’t wait to hear it with a even better, more dynamic, amp (and in a decent room). But that will have to wait until we rearrange things in the dining room in our latest digs (photos forthcoming).