Had a choice between this way and the 1-post-per-room way and, well, decided to do it this way for this show.
Because this blog currently shows 10 posts on the front page, I am going to try and add 9 small posts before I add the next humongous photo post (for floor 30 at the Venetian) [after that post, we will only have a little more of the Flamingo to do]. The idea is that this way everybody won’t have to sit through the loading of TWO of these long posts on the same page.
The typical question is that you have a great component you want to impress people with at a show. How do you do that? The answers to this question will help explain why we see some rooms setup the way we do, and conversely why some great products do not get the show accolades they deserve.
The answers are different depending on the type of component if the component is a:
AMP: you want speakers and sources that do not detract from the fact that the amp is the most important piece in the system [i.e. not too hyped or visibly impressive]. You want well known components, that people already know the sound of so that they can attribute all of the above and beyond extraordinary goodness of the system to your amp [i.e. the other components are plain jane well known components that everyone knows the sound of]. DON’T put your amp on speakers that the amp can’t drive [please please please. But so many do anyway]. DON’T use amp stands that rob your amp of much of its goodness.
CD PLAYER: You want a state-of-the-art, GREAT sounding system and to play the CD player all the time. People then attribute the fact that the system sound does not suck to the fact that the CD player must really be pretty darn decent. Putting your CD Player in a mediocre or bad sounding system is only a slight negative – unless the turntable ‘fixes’ many of the problems with the system due to its warmth or whatever sonic characteristics – then they will think that digital sucks, especially your CD Player.
CABLES: Well, you can either do the Nordost thing, with wonderfully explanatory presentations that let you hear the sound of the cables, or you can have a static display like Kimber Kable, or you can have a mixed static display and demo system like Gutwire. DON’T put your cables into a bad sounding system with great components – especially not with signs all over the place indicating that the cables responsible for this sound are yours.
SPEAKERS: You want as good a sounding system as you can get with components that are as generic as possible [but even with famous or hyped components – they speakers will still get most of the credit for the sound].
Tidal
D’Agostino
A smooth, tuneful sound but lacking some midi- and micro-dynamics [the absence of which seems very popular in many of today’s very $$$ solid-state amps ]. The opposite of Krell. Very striking looking amps, as solid-state amps go – and thankfully not so much the uber-masculine look that, again, is very popular in many of today’s very $$$ solid-state amps]
Sonus Faber
A dense, dark, congested, confused sound. The appearance of these speakers also seemed to me to not be what somebody would expect from the high-end of Sonus Faber, which are typically gorgeous works of art.
Magico
Impressive midi-dynamics, good separation, various kinds of even handedness up and down the freq spectrum but somewhat soulless i.e. everything was as expected – see previous show reports. Surprisingly the deepest bass was somewhat uncontrolled, and seemed to interact with the floor of the room [unlike RMAF 2010 where the Q5 was very (electronically) controlled]. Impressive soundstage in sweet spot, but not so great soundstaging/imaging in other seats [i.e. I would expect some people to have vastly different opinions about this room based on whether they sat in the sweet spot or not]
