Pursuing the Ultimate Music Experiences

Episode Audio makes on-wall speakers and a couple different freestanding loudspeakers speakers like these.

Clement Perry of Stereotimes was having a good time …as always 🙂

Episode Audio loudspeakers

Episode Audio Kobra on the left, Episode-V on the right.

An Episode-V loudspeaker

Episode Audio loudspeakers

Another interesting speaker from Episode Audio, the Kobra

The interesting drivers and driver configuration of an Episode Audio Episode-V loudspeaker

The interesting drivers and driver configuration of the Episode Audio Kobra loudspeaker

They were using a Yamaha RX V1400 DVD CD player

They were also using an Onkyo amp / preamp combination

An Episode Audio on-wall speaker

Static display of some Episode Audio speaker drivers

Von Gaylord was demonstrating their new ‘Return of the Legend’ speakers which sit on their ‘VG-1 Plus’ woofers driven by their ‘Uni Earth’ amplifiers.

I remember the original ‘The Legend’ speakers getting good write-ups in the forums when they were played loud but not LOUD [which also sometimes happened at those shows]. Funny, this show was a very quiet show this year – in all the rooms.

The Von Gaylord speaker

The Von Gaylord ‘Return of the Legend and VG-1 Plus’ speaker

The Von Gaylord ‘Return of the Legend and VG-1 Plus’ speaker

The Von Gaylord ‘Return of the Legend and VG-1 Plus’ speaker

The Von Gaylord ‘Uni Earth’ amplifier

The Von Gaylord ‘Uni Earth’ amplifier

The Von Gaylord ‘Uni Earth’ amplifier

The Von Gaylord ‘Uni’ preamplifier

A Marantz CD-80 CD player with the logo blacked out [why do some rooms do this? have no idea.]

This room was missed late on day 2, but we caught them this morning, early day 4.

Chapman had their speakers driven by Cary electronics using MIT cables

A closer view of the speaker system

The Chapman T-8 loudspeaker

The Cary SA 500.1 amplifier

The MIT Powerbar power distributor

The MIT Oracle MA-X speaker cable network box

Whew!

OK.

I do not think there are any more photos of the Venetian rooms – although I took many on the 4th day, they were just to follow up on rooms I had already visited and have already been posted here already.

That is about 160 room and almost exactly 2000 photos, so far.

Now, on the 4th day, the final day, we go back to THE Show [actually that was where we were staying, so we actually just do not go back to the Venetian until around noon], where we still have a little more than half of that show to cover.

Sorry about the hiccups in posting the last few days – there are a LOT of things going on here, most of which will become wonderfully obvious [although a few are not so wonderful] in a few weeks.

So… on with THE Show … 🙂

Cambridge Audio had a room with some of their gear on static display

ADAM makes loudspeakers that typically feature their ART (heil) driver for the higher frequencies.

The ADAM ‘column’ speaker

The ADAM ‘column’ speaker drivers

The Cary ‘SLP-05’ preamplifier and power supply

On static display – the ADAM ‘Tensor Delta’ speaker

On static display – the rear of the ADAM ‘Tensor Delta’ speaker

The new Hansen Prince E speakers driven by Viola amps [although there was also a Wavestream amp here too] . Everything was on an HRS SXR equipment rack.

Wes Bender, of Wes Bender Studio, whose room this is, trying to turn the tables on me 😉

The Hansen Prince E speaker

The Hansen Prince E speaker

The rear tweeter for the Hansen ‘Prince E’ speaker

The binding posts on the rear of Hansen’s Prince E loudspeakers

HRS SXR equipment rack with Red Point turntable and Viola Audio amplifier

The Red Point turntable from above

The Red Point turntable from above

The Red Point turntable in white

The Red Point turntable in white and closeup of what looks like a Dynavector XV 1S cartridge

The Lindemann 825 CD player

A Wavestream amplifier

What looks likes a Viola preamplifier

The Viola Forte power amplifier

The laptop used in this room

This room was interesting. Like the Kondo room, which this year was a perfect example of their sound – I though this room was a perfect example of the Magico sound.

The sound was tight, punchy, dynamic, high energy – enough harmonics and resolution so a person did not feel cheated. To me, this is what most manufacturers think people want to hear when they enter a dealership. This may even be true, especially for non audiophiles, although I cannot remember about the ultimate impressiveness of the deep bass of this system, also a requirement for people walking into dealerships, and which 1) I do not pay all that much attention to unless it is especially well done, and 2) would be really hard to do anyway in these rooms at this show unless a person a) got lucky or b) spent a lot, A LOT, of time on setup.

There was some confusion, on my part – corrected by you all 🙂 – about which amp was being used in this room. As it turns out , the two CH Precision A1 amps here were not being used – in fact they are off – and the Luxman amps were being used instead [as you all can see by tracing speaker cables in this and the following photo].

Because the Luxman amps have sounded soft and laid back and tonally confused in several of the past rooms I have heard them in [and in the Vivid / Audio Aero room down the hall at this show] I can only speculate on whether they are uniquely able to drive the Magico speakers [and there has to be some degree of truth to this, having heard the Soulution and Technical Brain and several other amps fail at it], or perhaps they just do not mate so well with their own Luxman preamps [but do mate well with the CH Precision preamp] – to my way of thinking, anyway.

Another photo of the room setup

The Magico Q3 speaker

The Magico Q3 speaker

What appear to be Brilliant Pebbles strewn under the cables to the decorative lamps…???

The CH Precision C1 DAC

The CH Precision C1 DAC

The CH Precision A1 amplifier

The CH Precision D1 CD / SACD player

The CH Precision D1 CD / SACD player

The Luxman M-800a amplifier

The Luxman M-800a amplifier

On static display, the CD Precision A1, C1 and D1

Sony had a room this year and were showing the same SSAR1 speakers that they show in the IsoMike room [over the last several shows]. The source was Emm Labs and the amps Pass Labs, also similar to the IsoMike room.

A cutaway, empty cabinet view of the Sony SSAR1 loudspeakers

The Perfect8 ‘The Point’ Mk2 loudspeakers

Last year they brought their larger speakers, which were interesting, although there were issues with the cone drivers keeping up with the ribbons. This year, after what were described as significant modifications, the speakers were not as interesting, perhaps because they were driving the system with the Slim Devices, which is perhaps not the best thing to use when trying to demonstrate high quality speakers – although one ‘should’ still be able to hear around it…

The Grand Prix Monaco rack had a Zanden CD player and BAlabo electronics.

A Perfect8 ‘The Point’ Mk2 speaker

A Perfect8 ‘The Point’ Mk2 speaker closeup

A Perfect8 ‘The Point’ Mk2 speaker

A Perfect8 ‘The Point’ Mk2 speaker

A Perfect8 ‘The Point’ Mk2 speaker from behind

The Zanden 2000 Premium transport

The Zanden 2000 Premium transport

The Zanden 2000 Premium transport

The Zanden 2000 Premium transport power supply

The BAlaba BC-1 MK II control amplifier

The BAlabo BD-1 DAC

The BAlabo BD-1 DAC from a different angle

The BAlabo BP-1 MK II amplifier

The Slim Devices transporter

The Blue Smoke Entertainment Systems music server