Finally got out of the room today.
Our other Audio Note room features the Jinro integrated amplifier, the baby brother of the Ongaku in room 557.
The Jinro in black.
Mario and Dave are having a special after-hour treat with some reel-to-reel tape action in the 501 room. We just heard about it today, and we have to get back to Boulder anyway [we miss ALL the fun. This sucks! Next year we are staying at the show]. Saw a good number of people headed towards 501 as we were leaving
The room…
I snagged this photo on the way out the door as we headed home for the evening.
Didn’t see nor hear of any great rooms this year… so far. The grand tour starts tomorrow…
… will be setup by tomorrow morning [one of the AN speakers had shipping damage].
This is the first year that we decided to not stay at the show but instead to drive home to Boulder each night. It will allow us to drive another speaker to the show tomorrow morning… but…
Right now, me sitting at my desk and Neli emptying the dishwasher, we are missing the late night music and conversation that we enjoy so much at shows.
Didn’t see anything that stood out today… but most exhibitors are hidden away in their rooms trying to setup their rooms for tomorrow at noon. It does seem, to me, that exhibitors are more relaxed each year at these RMAF shows, we being no exception, and that probably means a more enjoyable, if not exactly leading edge, show for audiophiles to attend.
Which is fine, except that me personally, I want to hear some no-holds-barred systems besides ours – and besides a few experimental systems from Kimber and , and some attempts by Lamm, Continuum-fronted systems [by several exhibitors], and Magico – – there hasn’t been all that many of them over the years – and very few at RMAF. Many of these did not sound all that good [many do to the fact that a lone component or cable was chosen for economic expediency rather that sonic characteristics – ruining the whole effect].
So, what am I looking forward to seeing this year?
Joe Cohen of Lotus Group’s new speakers (sorry forgot the name and my memory is eating her supper right now. Grenada! It is the Grenada speakers. She laughs at me my inability to remember things. Can’t wait until SHE is old and has… issues. ‘course, I’ll never remember this post to get back at her about…) – hope this is in fact here.
YG Acoustics on Soulution amps. Last year this was very disappointing [just ignore the reviewer$, please] and I would like to see if a better source and more break-in time helps this system move out of the ‘are you nuts?’ category.
I did not see the JBL horns in the Kimber room during setup, but if they have the horns I want to hear them this year [missed them last year the several times I visited that room].
The big Clearaudio turntable, if it is here, would be nice so that I can cross -reference it against other systems I have heard it in in order to triangulate to a more accurate degree just what it is bringing to the party [for the greater-than-average maintenance effort that their arm seems to require. This is currently one of my favorite turntables to sonically peek in on, but…]
And… hopefully… I’ll think of more.
As always, if you are a severe budget, check out the Odyssey Audio room in 555 Atrium or something [next to us. About $4K for a complete true high-end audio system] and the Grant Fidelity room on the 9th floor in the tower [reasonable pricing and very musical]. For a little more, Tri and Acoustic Zen always put up a good system [higher-end audio for $10 a system – with the Adagio speakers – tho not sure which speaker they are bringing this year. My memory banks are still eating her supper. in Rm 1113 in the tower]. Other very inexpensive rooms can sound good too – but they are a hit and miss kind of thing and it is not something I can safely recommend without hearing exactly what they are doing this year.
Our Audio Note system has the Jinro integrated amp – the baby version of the Ongaku. This is a killer deal at $20K. Not quite the finesse of the $95K Ongaku, but it really kicks ass – and we get it here after the show. So lots of yummy photos and shootout reports will be forthcoming.
Our mixed system this year is one of our favorite designs – one which we have not heard for a year or so. Personally, I’d be happy just locking the door and listening to this system for the next 3 days and going home. This is the system I want for my office when we hit the big time and can afford to put a $220K system where only I get to enjoy it [yes, I talk about putting the Supremes in my office, but seriously, you really think Neli would let me get away with that? I mean, she would just move her office in with mine, and togetherness is great and all, but… ;-)]
No, there will be no photo extravaganza this year, but I’ll take a couple of photos of the more serious rooms…
We got the Edge Reference ‘pyramid’ amps driving the Marten Coltrane Supreme speakers (the Audio Note Ongaku there is being extracted for its appearance at RMAF)
The EDGE NL Reference amplifiers. Well, one of them anyway.
The HRS MXR rack for this system. Emm Labs going into the Audio Note M9 Phono preamplifier
The Walker Proscenium Gold turntable.
My old, pry them from my “cold dead fingers if you can, but if you do I’ll curse all your middle ‘C’ notes from the grave” Audio Note Kegon amps
The more succinct point of the last post: Reviews are hard to write well [assuming an honest, attentive, diligent reviewer], and even potentially well-written reviews are hard to glean relevant information from.
Some sort of formalized yet subjective review (different but analogous to JA’s technical measurements) would be called for if people really wanted reviews to be more than ‘mild entertainment’.
Should be titled:
“Lists of Everything That Got Sent to Us”
“Everything We Have Ever Heard”
“Random Components Randomly Selected by Randomly Qualified People”
———————————
Oh yeah, Neli says I am supposed to be in a good mood when I post. Oops.
It is not as if the stuff we carry doesn’t make all the lists – but it is the principal of the thing…
OK. Here is something:
Why Good People Often Write Random Information-Free Reviews
The problem is with their associated components [and to some much lesser extent their room].
Let’s say a reviewer, let’s call him [yes, 99% are hims] X. X has dull-sounding speakers. To balance these speakers he has a bright sounding amp. Together the sound kind of doesn’t scratch his ears out nor does it put him to sleep. However, the amp is very lean, so his CD player is very warm and harmonically rich, if somewhat veiled with exaggerated syrupy macro-dynamics – to help balance the leanness of the amps.
Now, whenever X reviews a speaker, amp, or CD player, he is going to prefer it to have the same handicaps his current components have – in order to maintain the balance of his system.
But, perhaps X is smarter than your average bear. So perhaps he is not completely ignorant of the compromises of his system – his reviews will still not be accurate [because he cannot provide a clean signal to the component under review, nor a clean transducer to hear the result]. I propose that, unless X is a genius, the review will be almost random – that the best one could hope for is a comparison with the previous component in the system [more bright, less bright, more harmonic less harmonic, etc.]. Of course, very, very few reviewers do this.
Now X gets a pair of cables to try….
Another example: Suppose Mike Fremer gets an amp to review [haven’t picked on Mike for awhile]. Let’s also assume he still has the Musical Fidelity amps that I last heard that he had.
OK. So I know A) what his previous amps sound like and B) that he must actually like that type of sound. I know that he can hear and that he can more or less describe what he hears [within the limits of his responsibilities and persona at Stereophile].
Let’s say that Mike says that the amp under review is dull-sounding. Now, the Musical Fidelity sound to my ears is akin to Bryston and last generation Pass Labs and Krell and might be described as bright and aggressive. So would Mike have meant that the amp under review is dull sounding compared to the MF, or to the average amp, other amps in the same class, or to the sound of real music?
I personally think Mike would, in my way of thinking , well… I am not sure. I think the correct answer would be to compare the amp to a weighted average of real music and the average amp at the given price point, as well as to other amps in general [because amps do some things pretty well close to real – and others not so well at all, compared to real music].
So, let’s say for sake of argument that he takes the time to describe it with respect to all 3 benchmarks. The question still remains, assuming the rest of his system is neutral and revealing – which I think it is – how do I, as a reader of his review, adjust whatever his conclusion is against the fact that his preferred sound is not aligned with my preferred sound?
I had even more issues with Roy Gregory’s reviews. His favorite CD player was Wadia, back when they were deeply, deeply flawed [they are much better these days]. I read his reviews to try and get a glimmer of what certain things sounded like, but it was very difficult to pin down just what his associated equipment was and what his preferences were [though we DO like the same cables :-)].
So, I hope this helps describe why reviews are so random. The best you can hope for is someone who has a very good, mostly neutral system to place the component under review into; someone who has some experience with all ranges of components, but especially those of comparable quality of the component under review; someone who has the freedom and balls and integrity to print what they hear; someone who has the ability to hear and ability to describe what they hear and to describe exactly what they are describing [which hearkens back to our discussion a few weeks ago about how to describe sound].
Sorry for the lack of posts. Been busy around here… and lazy at the same time. Funny how that happens 🙂
Yeah, we quite unexpectedly lost our 9030 room where we have been for the 6 years of RMAF.
So, after a good deal of contemplation, we are now on floor 5, in the Atrium section of the hotel, in room 557. The 100% Audio Note room is also moving to floor 5 — rm 501, at the end of the hall..
557 is a much smaller room than the suite we had before, and we are really looking forward to filling it with very, very high-quality music at what can’t help but be a more reasonable [ 🙂 ] price point.
If you look at who is on our old 9th floor, and who is on our new 5th floor home, I think we will fit in here much better. Many rooms here on the 5th, looking at who is there this year, have actually produced decent sound in the past [well, we will see, won’t we? Shows… Lots of good people selling bad equipment. *sigh*].
Room 557: Audio Federation – Audio Note – Marten – Emm Labs – Nordost – HRS – Jorma Design
Audio Note Ongaku integrated amplifier
Marten ‘Coltrane’ loudspeakers
Emm Labs XDS1 CD/SACD Player
Nordost ODIN interconnects and power cords
Jorma Design ‘PRIME’ speaker cable
Harmonic Resolution Systems (HRS) M3 isolation platforms, SXR 1V amplifier stands, and Nimbus/Couplers
Room 501: Audio Note – Audio Federation
Audio Note ‘Jinro’ integrated amplifier (baby copper Ongaku)
Audio Note AN/E LX Signature loudspeakers (w/ high efficiency hemp drivers (HE) and outboard crossovers)
Audio Note CD4.1x CD Player
Audio Note SOGON speaker cables, SOOTTO interconnects and SOGON power cords
Nordost has announced the availability of their new USB cable. Built completely in the USA. And yes even terminated in the USA unlike virtually every other USB cable out there.
About $250 1st meter, $100 additional meters
[Just because the USB connector and specification sucks doesn’t mean we shouldn’t optimize the signal where and when we can when we are stuck using USB for reasons of convenience or necessity. And obviously using the best cable available will help the same way using the best cables always helps. This may be the best USB cable we know of now – but we are thinking that perhaps an… Odin USB cable… might be interesting as well ;-)]
click click click click.
…
click click.. click click?
…
click CLICK CLICK!
…
CLICK??
=> Overheard: The sound of an audiophile working with selector switches – trying to figure out why no sound is coming out of them big ass awesome speakers.
[what was wrong? There were two preamps in the loop and one had its volume set to zero. Yep, that’ll do it]
No, silly, this isn’t the report. The show isn’t for another month yet… 🙂
The show report is going to be a little different this year. Yes, one reason is that we have not got a new server for Spintricity yet and so the report is going to be here on the blog. But a larger reason is that the report itself is going to be quite a bit different.
When we started out, we were the first to write long show reports and then the first to include several hundred then 1000s of photos. Now Audiogon, Stereophile, Positive Feedback, Stereotimes, Stereomojo, sometimes sixmoons, and last year AVSForum and Audio Circle post upwards of 1000 photos in their show reports.
That is quite a few reports now, and, although only Audiogon, like us, tries to cover every single room, there are quite a lot of photos now for people to kind of see kinda sorta what was there at the show.
What they do not do is talk about the sound. Whether they are incapable, afraid [of their advertisers], shills, or just ideologically opposed to it [see Steve Roclin’s perennial comments on Enjoy the Music] by and large [a phrase I added to make this nicer sounding] what comes out of these show reports is either sound bites for advertising copy or drivel.
So in this show report for RMAF 2010, you can ‘expect the same level of disdain for superficial media analysis and unfettered devotion to exploring’ the details of the sound and impact it has on the music being played – as always.
But more so.
[I plagiarized the quoted section from a small sports blog. Seems like they got quite a bit of poop to cut through as well].
Without all those photos, and the 140 – 200 hours of post processing they consumed, there will be time to write a few detailed comments. The show report will focus on the ‘high-end’ rooms, which is where Audio Federation’s interests are and where the reporting community makes their most egregious mistakes. [Oh, I am being so much more polite than I might otherwise be. I just came here after reading Romy’s ‘critique’ of yet another idiot review of the Lamm ML3. I differ from Romy in that I do not despise the people involved, but I do indeed despise the shallow level of discourse that passes for detailed analysis of the sound of high-end audio equipment these days. And I am oh so tempted to use some of the same flowery language :-)].
So…. it is my expectation that in several years we will NOT see 9 clones of THIS style of show report.
For one, some of these people get several months to listen to and analyze then describe a particular sound – and they have a lot of trouble with even that [for reasons that may involve anemic work ethics and just not really giving a damn to all sorts of other nefarious and dastardly nasty interpretations of the world which do not really belong in politics, much less our little happy hobby].
For two, talking about the sound is risky. Manufacturers and distributors are not any smarter, on average, than anyone else, and perhaps [very much seem to] have more than their fair share of paranoid schizophrenics. Very few know how to set up a room, or understand what they are selling well enough to know what it works well with, or really care about the sound in their room [so they think WE should not care either. Sorry. We do]. So once in a blue moon they get pissed. But on average, it is really the owners of similar systems that get pissed. And this is just sad. The junk systems people are sold these days by unscrupulous dealers… shows should make this a lot harder to get away with as people get to hear systems that don’t… actually… suck. [or ‘Suck Less’ anyway, if for you the glass is not ‘half empty’, but completely bone dry and has been sitting in the Sahara desert for several hundred years].
The greatest risk is that other reports start doing this, and make up shit in ever larger volumes – and that they have someone who knows HOW to write, albeit not WHAT to write [nor how to listen]. There is one very famous reviewer [not at any of the pubs above] who just makes up stuff. It sounds real but if you heard the system he is writing about you would realize that what he wrote has nothing to do with the sound in that room [I mean, every room has positives and negatives, right? and someone who can hear and who wants to lie would naturally want to focus on the system’s strengths and ignore the often severe weaknesses. That way they could lie and more or less get away with it by saying those weaknesses were not aspects of the sound that they personally care about, or that they were not as egregious as I, say, make them out to be.]
Well, we’ll see. Hope there is something at the show actually worth spending some time listening to. Hmmmmm….
