Pursuing the Ultimate Music Experiences

For many rooms, I have been using a ‘tag cloud’ like this to represent the type of sound the room is going for:

This has proven to be a very interesting exercise.

Some rooms, it is obvious what they are going for.

Some, many, it can be really hard to tell. Get some kind of sound out for the show, anything!, probably. So, in all likelihood , Workhorse.

Some are very flexible, and it is hard to pin down exactly what these rooms, this year, are going for.

One of the main goals of this categorization system has been to help people clarify what they are talking about. You see people say ‘The MBL room was best!” [Not the first day it wern’t] and another say “The EPOS room was best” [whatever ‘best’ means – which really means they liked it for some reasons often unbeknowst to us and themselves… but we digress].

But these two systems have completely different goals [ignoring the cost differential] – one is purely Impressive – Bass and Room Pressurization and that is it. The other serves to be Enjoyable for playing back your average piece of music.

So *our* readers can read these posts, and, assuming that the posters were trustworthy AND have ears, know that among Impressive systems [and among people who like Impressive systems – but this is a a little shakier interpretation], the MBL system was approved of. And among those who are looking for an [Economical] Enjoyable system, the EPOS system was approved of.

I think, that until we can get people to understand and reveal their sound style preferences, this is the best we are going to be able to do [and we can’t even get the ‘professional’ reviewers to do this yet].

Another goal of including these tag cloud is to help people understand the systems from afar. Another is to help people who heard the rooms think about what they heard with respect to what the goals of the system were. Another is to categorize the show in some way… did you notice that many Impressive systems were in the larger rooms [smart] but not all [cheapskates :-)].

[More later…]

Yes. Please. Corrections. Clarifications. Say whats? People feel free to post your comments, questions here [also, feel free to email them as well].

There will be a lot more posts on the show here too, just as soon as the main report gets much more complete. Someday.

Thanks.

I received an email today [I think it was today] feedback on the CES 2008 Show report, such as it is at this point. I am posting it here, anonymously, because I think many people may also be curious but not want to email us [me] such a, uh, potentially inflammatory question.

“Hi, it would be interesting to hear more about the definitions you are using to describe the sound in the report section. VTL/Wilson a big mid-fi stereo!!!???

Different hearing and different opinions as to what live music sounds like?

“VTL’s room is always an oasis at shows, playing music at levels that actually match rather than trying to impress the listener with mere volume, the system meticulously set up. The same was true at CES 2008, a pair of Wilson WATT/Puppy 8s being driven by the new MB450 Series II tubed monoblocks”

Your input would be highly appreciated.”

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I use “Mid-Fi” as an abbreviation for a system that has so many problems I grow weary of describing them.

[BTW, The quote is by Robert Deutsch over on the Stereophile blog. Nice guy, doing his job. If you read what he said, he is 100% correct: the room was not played too loud, and they did pay attention to setup – at least with respect to choosing nice ancillary components.]

In this case, the notes were attenuated more quickly [dampened] than what I consider high-end [and some died out more quickly than others], the dynamics was more uneven top to bottom than what one might expect from the high-end [the upper-mids had more midi-dynamics than the rest of the frequencies, which had little to none], there was no micro-dynamics to speak of, harmonic color was almost non-existent, separation was problematic and uneven across the dynamic and frequency band more so than is standard… and I didn’t listen to check the imaging, soundstaging, air, emotion, etc.

In my mind, there is a line that separates high-fi and mid-fi – the minimum system that is high-fi is prototypically the Acoustic Zen Adagio loudspeaker being driven by a decent amp [Red Dragon, Kharma MP150, both are digital amps – approximately a $10K system plus source]. But systems with the Von Schweikert VR4, even sometimes systems built around the EPOS speakers, often, but not always, qualify in my opinion as high-end. Some of Odyssey Audio systems as well might qualify – which makes them so intriguing to me as they total around $5K.

What these systems all have is balance – they do a lot of high-end audio-like things ‘good enough’, and these things are things that go into making a system enjoyable for the long term. Big Mid-fi systems have a wide frequency range and they go loud. That’s about it.

And VTL + Wilson systems sound like this at every show. So do BAT + Wilson systems. I have no doubt that individual audiophiles can make similar systems work. At least inasmuch as they say they are happy and that they sometimes mention that they also think the show systems suck, and that their systems sound nothing like them.

anyway, thanks so much for your question – I am sure there are a lot of people who wondered the same thing.

Take care,
Mike.

Took about 4400 photos it looks like. 8 DVDs full. All 3 shows, or 4 locations depending on how you look at it.

Will try and get some photos and commentary each day as we spend tonight and tomorrow packing and Saturday driving back.

Oh, and sleep.

It was a upbeat show – but nothing too spectacular. Well, the Lamm ML3 but that was on the Wilson MAXX II which requires some listening around – and besides, it will take years to get the full measure of these amps – which doesn’t mean we didn’t hear things that shed light on how music can and should be reproduced.

Funny, show-to-show, some years are very different, and some are very similar.

Some rooms NEVER change, and some are always experimenting.

Some have new stuff to show, and others just want to reiterate that their stuff still passes muster.

At the main conference at LVCC, things look very much the same. They all seem to be broadening out their product offerings, as opposed to being the ‘best ever for a day’. How many 103″, 105″, 108″ announcements does it take until people grow bored. We are up to 150″… How about wall-sized LCD high-res monitors that do not give off much heat and cost about 2 grand?

But to stop digressing… there were a number of ‘retro’ offerings at the show… olde-looking radios and turntables. Can’t be long until the consumer starts looking to get something real… hopefully.

At the high-end audio part of the show, well, I’ve more to see, but like the main show, it seems like one of evolution, not revolution, of companies broadening their offerings. Cable companies adding turntables, turntable companies offering solutions for different arms, etc.

Face it, just about every company on earth now offers an iPod docking solution. That market is what they call saturated. And even more are offering media server solutions – though some are calling it media distribution solutions, blah blah blah. Where you store the media, who has the licenses, how you get it in the system, how you get it to the speakers, what GUI the user uses to access the media [what people really care about, oh, and price/performance], all these details vary slightly from product to product to product…

For example, the number of turntables being used this year seems WAY, WAY down to me. [Is it just our culture that lets teen-somethings set our media and entertainment priorities?] Anyway, the rooms with turntables care about the sound and the music, the ones without care about establishing a beachhead in the new ipodish-marketplace. No good or bad here, just a real bifurcation of rooms at the show, it seems to me.

Oh, and then there are the confused who don’t know what they are doing or why – who ironically are hardly any worse off because of it, since there is a lot of prognostication (guessing) without any real sense of just what IS the best way to stay alive.