AKFest 2010

[woofersus]

Nice writeup. I agree on the Marantz room - it was excellent. My favorite was the Tyler Acoustics D1's however. I'd peg Marantz/Paradigm as second. Probably third, and one of the biggest values, was the Fritz Audio room. There were other good sounding rooms, but frequently that came at a monstrous price tag, like Dynaudio/Wadia or McIntosh. The Audio Note room was ok, but I felt like not enough to justify the pricing. The big 211 amp was really nice though. (better be for 20k)

My biggest surprise of the show was the big classic 1.3's (the unnamed "big ones" noted above) I thought that system sounded really nice, and I don't usually like big horns or vinyl. (of course the proprietor got a little irritated with me when I suggested almighty vinyl might not be where its at, but I was trying to impress upon him how exceptional HIS vinyl/horn setup was)

Room acoustics tend to be bad, so I try not to judge too harshly, but the most disappointing rooms for me were the Focal/Monster/Micromega setup, the Jolida/MBL/Tascam setup, and the Bamberg 5 series system. Oh, and a room that was hosted by a local club where I heard some vintage Klipsch speakers that sounded godawful. Almost like something was broken. I'm guessing it wasn't Klipsch's fault, whatever it was.

Great writeup. Wish I'd taken so many pics.

[poppachubby]

Nice writeup. I agree on the Marantz room - it was excellent. My favorite was the Tyler Acoustics D1's however.

Thanks for the kind words Tim. Welcome to the site! I hope an experienced enthusiast, such as yourself, will stick around and join our small but passionate group. There is a ton of experience here, of all interests.

It's funny you mention the Tylers. They were a pair I wanted to like, but didn't end up enjoying. When we went into one of the member's rooms, he had a smaller pair of Tylers set up with a Rita tube amp and SACD player. I enjoyed those quite a bit. We had a similar experience with Mac/Classic Audio.

I missed a few rooms which is my biggest regret now.

The room with the big azz horns and tubes looked phenomenal, but sonically was unappealing to me. I think interaction helps fuel interest. The Rogue Audio/Harbeth would have been lame if the tech hadn't turned control over to us. It was only then that we were able to see what it could do.

I think some rooms were concerned if they pushed the volume too hard, the speakers might break. Heck, turn the darn thing up, let people hear AND feel it. Show the world you are here and ready to make some noise!! This approach may have changed my view of a few rooms.

[Geoffcin]

I think some rooms were concerned if they pushed the volume too hard, the speakers might break. Heck, turn the darn thing up, let people hear AND feel it. Show the world you are here and ready to make some noise!! This approach may have changed my view of a few rooms.

Actually it's simple respect because that they don't want to step all over each other at the show. If everyone just played as loud as they liked or could then the whole place would be an orgy of noise.

Most speakers open up over 80dB or so. Lord knows my maggies are like night and day when you get them cranking, but at shows it's just not done at shows unless you've rented the big hall just for yourself.

I remember being totally non-plussed by a pair of VonSwiekert VR9-se's in a small room. They were hooked up to massive amps, but playing at like 70dB although I'm sure that we could have pealed the wallpaper off with them. The tech (who happend to be the designer) said we could have "pressurized the whole floor"! However the smaller VR4-sr sounded better in it's slightly larger room playing just slightly louder. Go figure.

[woofersus]

Actually it's simple respect because that they don't want to step all over each other at the show. If everyone just played as loud as they liked or could then the whole place would be an orgy of noise.

Most speakers open up over 80dB or so. Lord knows my maggies are like night and day when you get them cranking, but at shows it's just not done at shows unless you've rented the big hall just for yourself.

I remember being totally non-plussed by a pair of VonSwiekert VR9-se's in a small room. They were hooked up to massive amps, but playing at like 70dB although I'm sure that we could have pealed the wallpaper off with them. The tech (who happend to be the designer) said we could have "pressurized the whole floor"! However the smaller VR4-sr sounded better in it's slightly larger room playing just slightly louder. Go figure.

That's true, but I thought some rooms found a nice medium level that allowed for decent listening and didn't shake the walls. I specifically remember the Von Schweikerts in Denver last year sounding basically pleasing, but being played so quiet I couldn't really evaluate them. One of the quietest rooms at the show actually. I think it's a combination of the preferences of whoever is running the system/room and the perceived strengths of the speakers.

[poppachubby]

Actually it's simple respect because that they don't want to step all over each other at the show. If everyone just played as loud as they liked or could then the whole place would be an orgy of noise.

Point taken, but some of these rooms were really quiet Geoff. Also, the rooms were quite isolated in terms of sound leaking into the halls or through the walls. Perhaps we were on the newlywed floor...

[woofersus]

It's funny you mention the Tylers. They were a pair I wanted to like, but didn't end up enjoying. When we went into one of the member's rooms, he had a smaller pair of Tylers set up with a Rita tube amp and SACD player. I enjoyed those quite a bit. We had a similar experience with Mac/Classic Audio..

I think the Tylers were a bit too big for the room they were in, which made it a little tough to judge some of their characteristics, but I'm familiar with the designer's (Danny Richie) other work and most of his hallmarks were there. I thought that they had the cleanest and fastest bass at the show, and the top end was totally non-fatiguing. Very easy to listen to a little too loud.

I did feel similarly about the Macs. I didn't spend a ton of time in that room since it was crowded and it didn't immediately do anything for me, but I expected something great and found it to be just ok. Nothing bad really, but not exceptional by any means.