The room featured Hansen Emperor speakers on Tenor 350M monoblock amplifiers, with dCS digital, Clearaudio turntable, using Kubala-Sosna cables on Critical Mass Systems racks.

Hansen Audio has changed the look of their speakers. Instead of the old cool deep black melted cabinet look they now have a more normal-shaped speaker cabinet. These new Emperor speakers look to have the same number of drivers as the old Kings.

They played the turntable while I was here – through the Tenor phono stage through the Tenor amps into the speakers.

Unfortunately, I found the sound here strangely disconnected – uneven from top-to-bottom, some areas sounding harmonically normal, some sounding a little dry, some dynamic, some flat.

I like the Hansen speakers [one of our friends has the old Prince], and the Tenor amps sound good a few doors down in the YG Acoustics room, so… this room was disappointing for me.

Hansen preamp, phono stage, DCS digital, all on Critical Mass Systems rack

Hansen Audio ‘Emperor’ speakers and Tenor’s 350M amplifiers

Hansen Audio ‘Emperor’ speakers

Hansen Audio ‘Emperor’ speakers from the side

Hansen Audio ‘Emperor’ speakers from the rear

Hansen Audio ‘Emperor’ speakers from the rear at an angle

dCS Scarlatti CD /SACD transport

dCS Scarlatti DAC

dCS Scarlatti Master Clock

Tenor Audio’s Line-1 preamp

Tenor Audio’s Power 1 preamp power supply

Tenor Audio’s phono stage front panel, close-up

Korg MR 2000S Studio Recorder

Clearaudio turntable [not sure which one]

Clearaudio turntable

Clearaudio turntable playing an LP

Tenor Audio 350M amplifiers

Tenor Audio 350M amplifiers

Tenor Audio 350M amplifiers on Critical Mass Systems amp stand

Rear of Tenor Audio 350M amplifiers and Kubala-Sosna cables

On static display: Tenor Audio 175S amplifier

On static display: Tenor Audio 175S amplifier open chassis

On static display: Tenor Audio 175S amplifier open chassis

On static display: Tenor Audio 175S amplifier rear panel

Room manifest…

[OK. It is about 4:00pm on the 2nd day. Done with 4 of 6 wings on the 29th and 30th floors of the Venetian Towers. We now popup to the 34th and 35th floors for a bit – not too many rooms up here but we will only do about half of them now (my camera’s memory cards filled up) – and then jet over to the Flamingo, get another memory card, and do the shorter hallway on the 4th floor before closing at 6:30pm]

It is hard to communicate, and almost impossible to overstate, the spectacle of the setup in this room.

This was very, very impressive visually – this is a large, large room. The IsoMike / EmmLabs room is like this, but there the Sony speakers are normal sized, and even the previous setups with the big SoundLab speakers there in years past was… well, that was close. Not quite as dynamic or relentlessly engulfing as this was however.

I included several photos of the room [should have taken one with the people and the seating] to try and convey the sense of being there. When we put this in the Gallery Photos, the full-screen photos should do a better job.

It was also impressive sonically. As an aside, I cannot remember a single room playing their system too loud at this show – including this one, one of the prime offenders in years past.

The sound was very well-balanced top to bottom, good even handed dynamics, Enjoyable… I remember thinking that a casual listener, and what I imagine to be the desires of many non-audiophiles out there – would be quite satisfied with this sound – especially for entertaining their friends, at parties etc.

The real problem, from an audiophile / avid listener / music fanatic point of view is that there is not enough subtle details / micro-dynamics etc. for there to be much transparency at all – it is just extremely hard to imagine that there is really a piano ‘out there’, or a guitar, or whatever. To determine if it is a keyboard playing or a piano. Disbelief does not get suspended.

Not sure how important any of this is to the average person [I would guess NOT], but these speakers just do not do these things that we take for granted with other high-end speakers.

But it is really fun to listen to.

The MBL 101 X-treme loudspeakers

The MBL 101 X-treme loudspeakers

The MBL 101 X-treme loudspeakers and MBL amplifiers

The MBL 101 X-treme loudspeakers and MBL amplifiers

The MBL 101 X-treme loudspeaker

The MBL 101 X-treme loudspeaker and 101E MkII speakers

The MBL 101 X-treme loudspeaker

The MBL 101E MkII loudspeaker without cover / cage

The MBL 101E MkII loudspeaker cover / cage

The MBL 101E MkII loudspeaker with cover / cage

Some unknown, potentially faux, MBL Audio component

Some unknown, potentially faux, MBL Audio component

The MBL 1621 Redbook CD transport

The MBL 1621 Redbook CD transport

The MBL 1611 DAC

The MBL 6010 D preamplifier

The MBL 6010 D preamplifier

The MBL 9011 amplifiers

The MBL 9011 amplifiers (white) and 9008 A amplifiers (black)

The MBL 9011 amplifier

The Nola room is more or less the same year after year – as is their room at RMAF. Their Baby Grand Reference II speakers, Nordost Odin cabling. Audio Research equipment.

They do sound Enjoyable. They sound big and relaxed. In a sense they sound like big and relaxed Vandersteen Sevens – not having a real strong personality – i.e. they are not super transparent, of ultra high resolution, or super detailed bass.

Given their setups, the speakers must be at least somewhat forgiving – i.e. not super revealing/transparent to upstream components.

Having racks on the side of the room is somewhat problematic with respect to me photographing them if there are other people in the room because I would have to stand in front of a speaker to take the photos – severely mucking with any listener’s ability to hear one of the speakers.

The Nola Baby Grand Reference II loudspeaker

The Nola Baby Grand Reference II loudspeaker

The Nola Baby Grand Reference II loudspeaker

The Nordost Quantum Qx4 [creates strong, directed magnetic fields]

Yet another Audio Research ‘Reference 250’ monoblock amplifier