… complied, collated, cooked and curmudgeoned.
Looks like about 1500 photos of earotica for HE 2006 and about 100-150 for VTV to follow at a later date.
Does your turntable cartidge glow? [No, ours don’t either].
… don’t know when we’ll be back again.”
About 2700 photos later… including HE 2006, the VTV show and a special tour /audition of the latest revolutionary Cogent True-to-life horn loudspeakers.
As always, right after these shows are finallllly over, I feel like … WAIT! I’m not done yet. Can’t I have one more day, there were things I needed to hear a few more times…. Whaaaaah!
Anyway, to tide people over… Dave and Carol at Positive Feedback did another great show report this year. Check it out here and here.
That was pretty darn fast you two….!
A tour of the rooms at VTV this year in Los Angeles, which is only part of the full show report is up on the web:
The Vacuum Tube Valley Show Report 2006 Day 1
Only a few exhibitors that I am familiar with are there this year: Audio Note, DeHaviland, Jumping Cactus…
Audio Note U.K. Ongaku 211-tube based SET integrated amplifier
5 pairs of modified Zu Audio ‘Druid’ loudspeakers. Filled the room up completely with sound and vibes.
I like techno music (and it various offshoots that some people are insistant sound way different from each other). A lot.
So I thought this was great fun. I only got to spend an hour or so here, and Neli was off trying to get into trouble and drinking too much Saki 🙂
The room was hard to estimate, but at least 100 feet (30 meters) square.
If you like the Zu speaker sound you would have loved this event. In absolute terms, the bass was not the tight, tight bass usually associated with techno, there being an overhang and perhaps some resonance. There was also a little too much energy at a thin band in the upper mids – which hardly ever called attention to itself.
At around 11:30 the music started to loosen up and get into my head like it is supposed to – perhaps DJ Ming getting used to the fact a lot of the showgoers seemed to be at the Dodgers game or somethin’ – or maybe these things just don’t get going until after this fogey goes to bed, the show lasted until 2:00am
Acoustic Signature’s new statement turntable, SME V tonearm, and ? cartridge.
The SME V tonearm on the Acoustic Signature statement turntable
The Acoustic Signature statement turntable
Everybody needs a statement turntable these days, don’t ya know?
Neli has more to say about the sound in this room, but I will just say that with the VTL amps, we got the typical BIG sound alright, but not a heckuva lot more.
Chord static display:
Yes, part of this has to do with the fact that silver-colored matte finishes are the eawsiest to photograph, at least with the digital cameras I have had experience with. But still, a nicely designed display, designed to fire up that ole equipment lust, is a (dangerous) thing to behold.
Wilson X2 loudpspeaker (static display):
Wilson X2 Alexandria loudspeaker – close-up of top 3 modules.
There is just something impressive about the way this speaker looks – I do not care if some people say it looks like a robot, I like it.
MBL 101E:
MBL 101E loudspeaker up close with colored spotlight
The MBLs were being played WAY LOUD (what? What did you say? I can’t hear you at all!), as usual. The bass seemed a little detached from the rest of the music, and still with the trademark inner-detail-less sound – but also still quite impressive.
Have taken about 2300 photos, comprising 19GB on disk, using two lenses.
Can barely string two words together….. luckily my fingers are able to continue to function normally… [well, depending on your point of view – maybe that isn’t so lucky 🙂 ]
Metronome’s new ‘Gaia’ turntable in the Lamm / Wilson room
People always ask me what sounds good. I always presume this to mean “… besides the Lamm room.” Their rooms always sound good, and sometimes soundgreat. It must be kind of monotonous, winninig best of show all the time… 😉
To beat the crowds expected tomorrow, we think we’ll sneak over to the VTV show which is a couple of blocks away. Audio Note is there and hopefully a few other systems that we can hear…
OK. Time to process and upload the daily pictures: Day 2 of the Stereophile 2006 Home Entertainment Show
Continuum turntable
Berning amplifier
Peak Consult speakers
Like Montreal, the Berning sounded really nice on the Peak Consult – in control, harmonics, even top to bottom… not a heckuva lot of inner detail though. But it was music!
For awhile we were having concerns about this show… but today things are sounding a lot better. More later.
