They had a piano back behind these large VMPS speakers, though I did not hear the back and forth demonstration.

But I didn’t really have to, these speakers did piano quite well. I was fortunate enough to hear a cut with piano in it while I was here and it was quite good. Especially the dynamic aspects of the piano keys. Even the decay was good – especially considering a real piano would have all that carpet, people and chairs to dampen the sound quite a bit.

Funny how the mind, seeing the piano, immediately jumps to the conclusion that the piano must be playing all the piano parts of the composition [so some of this is kind of a neat optical / aural illusion :-)].

Unfortunately, this system disproved that old audiophile tale that all a system has to do is get piano right and everything will follow from that. On other, modestly complex passages, the sound was uneven and confused – in harmonics, dynamics, resolution, … some notes were muddied with others, or became uncharacteristically prominent etc.

Ampzilla should make some other things.. like giant ‘powerzilla’ power cords… [or maybe call them ‘amperezilla’ .. :-)]

The VMPS Ribbon loudspeakers

The VMPS Ribbon loudspeaker ribbon, close-up

The VMPS Ribbon loudspeaker side view

The VMPS Ribbon loudspeaker rear view

The bevy of Ampzilla amps

An Ampzilla amplifier with open chassis

A Spread Spectrum ‘Trinaural Processor’ with open chassis

This is the first time we have been able to photograph the Acapella / Einstein room in about 7 years, having gotten into a spat with the previous distributor over what constitutes good business ethics [with respect to the distributor / dealer relationship – a relationship which our industry is handling badly and which you will see a good deal more about it on the blog in the future], causing us to avoid, by mutual consent, going into their exhibit rooms.

We were the largest dealer of Acapella in the U.S. for several years, and it is good to hear them again [although, it also seems like just yesterday we were listening to them all the time – middle age does have its time-scoping benefits].

The Violin VI speakers here are a good deal more efficient than the Violin II speakers were many years ago. In a room this size we would have recommended a top-of-the-line 400 watt solid state amplifier [which was about $30K, back in the good old days of 7 years ago when top solid state amps didn’t all cost upwards of $100K] .

Here in this room they used a 60 watt OTL tube amp.

Almost worked, too. But there was some struggling in the bass at the volumes they tried to play it here, however.

It *is* a really, really large room, although horn speakers like these are easily capable of filling it with sound without any muss or fuss.

The Acapella ‘Violin Mk VI’ loudspeakers and Einstein electronics

The Acapella ‘Violin Mk VI’ loudspeaker

The Acapella ‘Violin Mk VI’ loudspeaker

The Acapella ‘Violin Mk VI’ loudspeaker rear

The Acapella ‘Violin Mk VI’ loudspeaker ion tweeter rear

Einstein ‘The Final Cut’ OTL amplifiers

Einstein ‘The Final Cut’ OTL amplifiers

Einstein ‘The Final Cut’ OTL amplifiers

Einstein ‘The Final Cut’ OTL amplifiers

Einstein ‘The Final Cut’ OTL amplifier back panel

Einstein ‘The Source’ CD player

Einstein ‘Octopus’ power distributor

Einstein ‘The Tube’ linestage preamplifier

Einstein ‘The Tube’ linestage preamplifier

Einstein ‘The Tube’ Mk IV linestage preamplifier

Ugh. Finally. Day 3 is a full day. Day 4, the last day, was a lot more mellow, so we are close to being 2/3 done with this report, even though we are only 1/2 done, timewise.

The THE Show music vendor area in down on the 1st floor, where we will spend the morning. This is where most of the big systems were this year.

THE Show serves lunch down here. Have never partaken myself, so all I know ism that it beings a lot of people downstairs which the exhibitors down there appreciate – even though there was always a steady stream of people coming through all the rooms down here – the traffic being comparable to typical rooms at the Venetian [though sometimes at the Venetian you will get a mad rush where everyone wants to be in the same room at the same time]