Our CES 2008 large exhibition room
ExhibitionPortfolios“… We were happy with the sound here. Very much so. However, the depth of the soundstage was not what we have come to expect from AN, which creates a very deep and accurate portrayal of what was recorded. My thoughts are that this is because the speakers were very un-broken-in, and the hemp drivers are very stiff drivers until they are broken in, so much so that some nano details were not coming through that go into communicating this information to the listener.
We also did not work hard enough on the positioning of the speakers – if just to see if we could get an even better sound for, uh, no money and little effort. I wanted us to try to move them back a few inches. Neli wonders about moving them forward a couple of inches. Peter wondered about putting them up against the left and right walls. All good ideas – but our room was actually almost always busy – and we just didn’t find time. Next year, when we bring these speakers, they will be broken in and we will know a lot more about their particular characteristics and setup [and some of the other issues that occupied our playing-with-the-speaker positions time will also be handled upfront – because 60-70% of the system will not be hot off the U.K. presses…. right everybody? Everybody????].
Our room, the more uptown of the two Audio Note rooms, was not like our usual room at RMAF. Peter Qvortrup, founder of Audio Note, has a lot of friends and business associates who come to visit. He will also just sit down and talk to dorky people like Neli and I [well, like me, anyway]. So there would be lots of times when no music was playing, Neli was talking to someone with questions and I would be gone doing the show report or in the room uploading photos. So there would be quiet times, talking about what have you.
Then it would be 110dB. Unusually, someone would request this or that, and then this, that and the Other Thing would be played. I think next year we need to have a sign that says, “Want to hear something? Ask!” because some people just did not want to interrupt and Neli was busy and so they did not get to hear the system. …”
