This room was very interesting. The sound was very nice and unconstrained, apparently due to the near zero box colorations of the Vivid speakers.

It was a big sound, open, with nice timbre.

The only drawback was that you could definitely hear the limitations of the amplifier and, less so, the CD player. There was fuzz and smear around the notes, both tonally, timing-wise, dynamic-wise and and imaging-wise, and there was little of the subtle expressions of the music that a higher-end source and, specifically, that a more upscale amplifier and preamplifier, would contribute.

But, I liked the sound here, although Neli has her reservations.

At least, that is how it sounded to these hungry ears.

This room was very terrible.

After a certain point, it becomes more efficient to describe a system's sound as it differs from noise, as opposed to how it differs from the absolute 'real thing'.

I blame the speakers.

The hearsay is that when asked how they decided how many tweeters to use ( counted over 100 per speaker) they said they put as many on as their big amplifier could handle.

Look, if they want to throw a bunch of drivers and a big box together and call it a speaker, that's fine. I bet a lot of people are impressed by the hugeness and by the overwhelming SPL-ness of it and that some people will buy it.

But if you are reading this - I hope you have better sense. I mean, unless you really do not want any females, dogs, audiophiles, Martians and I do not know what else within 100 yards of your system.

I really wonder whether B&O, and McIntosh are going for the upscale Bose crowd by building bigger heavier Bose-like speakers - keeping the same sound - just making it louder. Who knows, maybe they will make a bundle with this approach.

At least, that is how it sounded to these poor old ears.

This room was a little mystifying.

First, there is a ton of Jadis equipment in this system. Top-of-the-line wall-to-wall sweet sounding electronics.

Then you have these new speakers. $190K speakers. OK, I can see you are now sitting down and ready for this.

Well... There isn't much to get ready for. After all is said and heard, this turned out to be more of an Impressive system than anything else. There was a little emotion, and a little imaging, but....

And it only sounded sweet in a small frequency range, the upper midrange area. Otherwise it sounded neutral and a little confused. They cranked some kind of percussion track and the speakers do do bass. Yessiree.

I suppose it was kind of enjoyable, but I would rank a dozen systems of the show higher on the enjoyability scale.

But, impressive? Yes. As a purely impressive speaker it is right up there with the big JM Lab and Dali and Genesis etc.

Personally I prefer the Wilson Alexandria X2, as it is both Impressive and almost real. I like real. But for those who hate Wilson, and want a primarily impressive speaker well... you might want to check these out.

At least, that is how it sounded to these bored ears.

I'm writing about this room when it was using the ELAC speakers. It also used the Bluenote speakers - during the first few days.

I think I prefer these ELAC speakers.

This system was actually pretty fun to listen to. It had s sense of detailed dynamic about it - it was able to render the attack of the notes pretty darn well - something I think only the little Kharma system did as well. The note's follow through wasn't anything to write home about - but it wasn't bad either.

Tonality, balance, everything was as enjoyable as many of the better systems at this show.

I liked this system. Neli spent a lot more time in this room, so maybe she will have more to say.

At least, that is how it sounded to these satisfied ears.

The Raysonic system was yet another enjoyable system.

A little on the sweet and warm side, it was nonetheless sufficiently detailed and with a continuousness that I found myself liking the sound in this room.

I didn't get a chance to check out the top to bottom frequency response of the soundstaging - so I can't say much about them things.

I think Neli also mentioned liking this system when she visited it at a later time.

At least, that is how it sounded to these soothed ears.

We were happy to see the Tenor OTL amplifiers at the show. We have heard these amps many times on the Kharma speakers and think that the two were an amazingly synergistic pair. We have also heard them on a number of other speakers as well.

Unfortunately, there wasn't as much synergy here with the RL Acoustique Lamhorn speakers.

The sound was kind of thin and dead sounding, with many of the notes not so much clipped off, as damped off near the end of each note -fading away much too quickly.

All in all, this room was a disappointment. No matter how hard I tried to like the sound (and we think the Audio Aero CD player with the Tenor is another match made in audio heaven - but you need the right speakers) it just wasn't all that enjoyable.

At least, that is how it sounded to these patient ears.

This was a fun room.

It kind of surprised us. And not just seeing the electronics who we usually associate with their traditional usually belt-driven transports.

The sound was rich and lively, the bass was able to fill up the room nicely, and all in all we both enjoyed it quite a bit.

Never been sure about their bigger speakers, but we can certainly understand now why some people really like these little puppies, uh, monitors.

At least, that is how it sounded to these four ears.

This should of been a kickass room.

Not that it was awful or anything. But each of these components has earned some amount of respect. Some of them a tremendous amount of respect (the Weiss, at the very least).

But this was a blah system. Kind of flat and dull, plodding along. Well rounded, nice frequency balance, it had all that. But richness, PRaT, emotion, delicacy, quickness, etc. were not present during my listening.

Maybe the room was too small. Maybe the cables sucked, I don't know. But each time I hear the Vitus or Focus Audio, I expect the world and get a pea.

We really would like to find other solid state that would compete with the Edge that we carry - we like to offer our customers choices. But over and over again we get disappointed.

And the speakers look awesome, great build quality. But.... we are still wanting.

So, all in all, this room was a disappointment.

At least, that is how it sounded to these curious ears.

This system surprised us. It could play Frank Zappa.

Now, we do not play a lot of Frank Zappa. A little bit too much anger and angst at the lack of intelligence in the world - we got enough of that in our lives right now, thank you.

But it is great music. And it is hard for a system to get right. Heck, it is hard for a system not to totally fuck it up.

The Naim system did not fuck it up. It was lean, but well-balanced. It didn't collapse into a muddle or wall of sound.

Not sure how all much all of this cost - and throw enough money at the problem and a system will render Zappa sufficiently well, if you are lucky.

Anyway, kudos for playing Zappa and double kudos for it sounding decent.

Neli and I both thought this system had potential and we enjoyed it during our stay.

At least, that is how it sounded to these his and her ears.

Uh Oh.

Hey, I liked the old Linn Klimax amplifiers. Clean and fast. I loved the old Linn CD-12 player.

But this system...

The problem was with the midrange and down. It not only hugged the speaker, it was like it was trapped in the speaker. Very much like there was a lot of resonance in the speaker enclosure and very mid-fi sounding.

Dull, incorrect frequency and tone, incorrect note envelope, yadayadayada.

Well, Linn made great speakers at their price points in the past - I am sure they will do it again. But this system...

was a big disappointment.

At least, that is how it sounded to these sad ears.

These guys got something going for them.

With speakers using hemp, called the HempTones. With speakers in the $500 to $1500 price range. With an enthusiasm  that is contagious.

The sound was rich and tuneful and enjoyable.

No, it probably didn't do anything really well, and there was something out of phase or something because there wasn't a center image at all.

But this is what enjoying music and the pursuit of its reproduction is all about. Whether it is a quarter of a million dollar system or a pair of $1500 speakers - if you don't have the passion, where is the fun in it all?

Neli spent a lot more time in here than I. Perhaps she has some more comments on the sound.

But I give this room a thumbs up and hope to hear it again at the next show.

At least, that is how it sounded to these happy ears.