Full Report
THE SHOW Part 1
January 8th-11th, 2007

* product carried by Audio Federation

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All pictures in this report are freely copyable and distributable.

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T.H.E. SHOW aka The Home Entertainment Show hereafter known simply as THE SHOW, was held at the St. Tropez hotel again this year. Whereas last year THE SHOW was next door the the Alexis Park, and in fact it still is, this year CES was not. Next door, I mean. At the Alexis Park. And was instead at the Venetian Hotel / Sands-Expo Convention Center, which was a good 35 minute swift walk or 30 minute bus ride (if you caught the bus just right) and probably about a 15 minute taxi ride (if you could get a taxi, getting a ride from the Venetian, at say 5:00 pm, was a fantasy shared with 10,000 or so other people). In fact, at the real busy times, the official CES busses rocked and you could get a bus pretty darn fast - but it still had to fight the traffic jams - much of it caused by extensive construction around the major hotels and Conventions.

THE SHOW had several vans to help the flow from here to wherever - which I never got to use, nor did I hear of anyone using them.

Neli and I, ironically, were staying next door at the Alexis Park this year. Contrary to the rumors, they insisted that they are not being torn down, turned into either condos or a high-rise, or prohibited from being used as a hotel in any way. Sure was quiet and not as full as it has been in years past - well, the last day was not so quiet.

They were filming a gay porn movie around the main swimming pool and had a DJ playing live techno music very loud. It was actually of very high quality - the sound I mean (and I like techno music). Not harsh, strong well-controlled bass, good tone - lacking a little in finesse and resolution. Think of a big well-driven horn sound and you will get the picture. Oh, sorry, no photos :-)

The weather was around 60 during the day. And no snow. Well, it may have snowed on Friday, the day we left - the snow ended up chasing us further into the south southwest before we made it home.

I took the number 9 CES bus to the Las Vegas Convention Center, LVCC, where the main conference was held. It took about 25 - 35 minutes. From there I took the shuttle or taxi to the Venetian, which took about 20 minutes. And from there I walked back to the St. Tropez, which took 35 minutes [not counting the time to figure out how to get out of the darn hotel, *sheesh*]. At about 1.5 hours each day just traveling between locations, I wasted at least 6 hours just putting around through traffic out of the 36 or so hours of the entire convention. And then there is the waiting for the busses, figuring out HOW to get from one place to another - and well, have to do better next year.

There were a lot of rumors that the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, RMAF, and THE SHOW were merging, all untrue. Marjorie from RMAF was here helping out THE SHOW, and Al from RMAF had a room over in the Venetian exhibiting his Red Rock Audio amps, and seemed to run into yours truly everywhere except his room, but RMAF 2007 in Denver is a go and we expect to see all of you there :-)

THE SHOW runs simultaneously with CES in Las Vegas and CEDIA in Denver.

Much more of a down-home feeling to the St. Tropez versus the Venetian - as one compares their lobbies and registration areas.

The St. Tropez is laid out as a set of 2-story buildings surrounding a courtyard that has a grassy area and this pool you see here.

This year, as the *Audio Note U.K. importers / distributors for the U.S., we brought equipment and helped staff (mostly Neli, her husband ostensibly off photographing things traipsing around Las Vegas) the Audio Note rooms.

The equipment in this room evolved rapidly after accounting for all the shipping damages. Perhaps it was all the cold weather on top of the holiday rush which was making shipping a very chancy affair of late in this part of the country.

Anyway, thanks to Constantine Soo at Dagogo we were able to come up with two working systems.

This is the photo I took the first day. My photos get better during a show, taking a few thousand pictures helps one get in the groove. Especially at the St. Tropez where the lighting was not quite as bright and consistent as at the other venues.

A very old TT2 turntable that has been to more shows, I think, than we have.

The Audio Note S 4 step up transformer that does actually improve the sound quite a bit.

The blue woofer is the new Hemp driver Audio Note is using.

The Audio Note room with the smaller priced system.

The finish on these is really amazing - but then Neli and I are partial to all kinds of figured woods.

The Audio Note Conquest Silver monoblock amplifier.

This picture was taken the last day. See? Much better than the first day. I did go back and retake the Montana room, and Escalante Design room, but forgot to revisit the VMPS room. Oh well, the photos don't completely suck.

Uh Oh. Dust. Usually we dust before putting things into the show system - but this year things, or us, were too chaotic. Oops.

Anyway, this is the Audio Note Ongaku integrated amplifier. Larger and heavier and better sounding than expected. You can read more about this amp on the blog over the next several weeks.

Another photo of the Audio Note Ongaku.

Playing with my Canon D20's various portrait and landscape modes...

The Audio Note U.K. system that almost costs less than the DAC next door. Here, on the last day, we see one answer to not having a room equipment list handout. Funny, but I didn't see one room with a handout listing all the equipment in their room. Am I blind, or were there really none to be found?

The VMPS, Atma-Sphere, Audience, Vendetta Research room. This room sounded better than VMPS rooms have in the past, to me, a more fuller sound to counter-balance the treble region.

The big Atma-Sphere amp...

Can't help but wonder at the effect of the vibrations of the sub-woofer on the equipment sitting on top of it.

The Capricorn Audio, DC GOLD, McCormack Audio, VPI room.

The Capricorn Audio, DC GOLD, McCormack Audio, VPI room next door with a 5 channel, no .1, HT setup. At first I thought they said they had a 9.1 setup in here and so I actually listened to it for awhile.

The Herron Audio room.

The Acoustic Signature, Raidho/Eben room. Using Plinius for amplification and *Nordost cables.

An Acoustic Signature turntable and Plinius pre.

The Smart Devices / Garrard and *Loricraft Audio room.

This is the new PR6 Loricraft record cleaner. It is much quieter than the PR3, that we have, and the tone arm is of better construction, the motor significantly more powerful, and, oh, it has a transparent cover. It is also around $4K.

The motor can now go in reverse, which theoretically cleans the groves from the opposite direction. Apparently the Clearaudio record cleaner has this and so, well, now Loricraft does too.

OK, Yes, Kevin, there is now a special rubber-like disk that sits on the record label to protect it from splatters and is resistant to any chemical that one is likely to use to clean an LP. Goes for $5 if memory serves.

The Garrard part of the Loricraft company had a room next door that had a system up to demonstrate their not-quite-ready modded Garrard turntable.

The prototype modded Garrard table.

The PBN Audio, Montana Loudspeakers room.

Those big boys are the Montana speakers.

Resolution
Level of detail: 5=perfect		3 to 6 [varied, depending on frequency]
Micro-dynamics		4
Midi-dynamics		6
Macro-dynamics		9
Harmonic resolution		5
Harmonics
Body / richness		5
Tonal accuracy		6
Dynamics
Separation		7
Consistency top-to-bottom		4
Control		7
Authority		8
Imaging
Correctness		N/A
Separation		N/A
Transparency		5
Depth		N/A
Width		N/A
Off axis behavior		N/A
Solidity		N/A
Character
Enjoyability		7
Emotionality		4
Reality		6
Magic		3
Impressiveness		8
Sophistication		4
Comments
Different behavior at different frequencies. sometimes there would be nice tone [upper bass], sometimes and little etched and forward [upper midrange], the music they were playing was single enough that only a few frequencies were heard at one time [and I didn't get in to hear them for the 3rd time when I heard DSOTM wafting from their room later in the day]
Legend
N/A means Not paying Attention [I wasn't paying attention to this] For most scoring, 9 = best we ever heard. On Level of Detail, less than 5 implies a rounded note presentation, greater than 5 implies a distinct note presentation. These impressions are just impressions, and apply to the whole system in combination to the room. Please do not misconstrue it as something else, especially you speaker manufacturers. Impressive - Exaggerated bass and/or detail and/or dynamics Sophisticated - Detailed and with finesse Enjoyable - Nice to listen to, pleasant Sweet - Exaggerated harmonics and/or warmth Emotional - Music often pulls at heart strings Real/Truth - Transparent, accurate Magical/Spiritual - Precipitates psychological effects other than what might be expected