First impressions at California audio Show

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Before I get on to the other systems I heard on today I just want to give a note to Richard. I went back the audio note room, and my opinion(nor my buddies) was changed from the day before. In saying that my buddy was probably a lot less critical of this system than I was, and I think it is based on the fact that I had very high expectation of this system (probably beyond what the system was truly capable of) based on your opinions and experience with the system. If I had went into the listening sessions with the same expectations as my friend(which was none), I would have probably enjoyed it a lot more. In saying that, the same issues I had with it on Saturday, I had with it today. I do not think this speaker is capable of 20hz signals, even when tucked into a corner. I say this because my understanding of the ear /brain mechanism tells me that we absolutely cannot tell a 60hz signal from a 40hz one, and cannot tell a true 20hz or so(which you feel far more than you hear) from a 40hz (of which we can hear and and still feel as well). Not even a person blessed with perfect pitch can do it because our ears are just not as sensitive to pitch as it is at 120hz and up. What may feel like the low 20hz could really just be around 35-40hz unless you truly feel the pressure wave of 20hz, and the excitation of the air which is caused by the change in pressure. I just don't think a 8" woofer is capable of those kinds of excursions, even when ported and pushed into a corner. A 15" definitely, but not a 8".

The Electrocompaniet Room.

Generally I liked the sound of these speakers, but I had two problems with its presentation. They had two different speaker on display in two different room, and both of their presentation were totally opposite to me. The Model 1 was too low, so the presentation was a little bright without much bottom to it. The other model(can't remember) had the opposite effect - it was aimed its tweeters dispersion over my head, which made the sound just a little to dark for my taste. However, when I stood up, or sat down lower to the floor, it corrected both of the problems, but in the case of being close to the floor, brought up others.

The Acapella Room.

Featured the Acapella High Violoncello with a pair of huge tube mono blocks(if I am not mistaken). I love the sound of this system. It was very natural, relaxed, at times exciting. The presentation was not exactly forward like some horn designs I have heard, but it was just as dynamic. Driver integration was excellent, so what you heard was wave after wave of very coherent sound hitting your ears. This was another presentation that I thought was at the top of everything we had heard overall.


The High Value AV Room.

This room featured the Emerald Physics CS2.3 point source dipole speaker partnered with some very impressive electronics. The same impression that I had of the Lotus Granada speaker, I had of this one. Beautifully realistic sound, excellent tonal, timbre, and textural rendition, and nice wide open sound from top to bottom. It had dynamics to spare, and an excellent tight as a drum bass response that plummeted to the deep depths. It is no secret that both the Granada and this speaker system are dipole designs, and I really do like the way the dipole sounds with these driver implementations. Linkwitz is definately on to something, but one really has to properly place these speakers to get the best out of them.

The Eficion Room

This is another presentation dogged by the speakers being too low. The speakers frequency response seemed tilted upwards when at a seated position, leaving not much body to the sound on some of the recordings I heard on it. Once again I had to get lower towards the floor to appreciated its sound. A note to some presenters at this show - getting the right imaging height is just as important as getting the right frequency response. This is where the systems that really sounded excellent had it right, and where everyone else had it wrong.

The Highend Electronics Room.

This room featured the Conspiracy Loudspeakers by Consensus Audio. These speakers and associated equipment sounded superb. They sounded authoritive, exceptionally clean and clear, and just the perfect portions of bass, mids and highs. Great sound staging that made the performers feel like they were standing right in front of you when in a seated position. That didn't change much even when standing up. Some big band music was playing when we walked in, and it was a very realistic presentation to say the least. The depth and lateral width of the soundstage was excellent, and I could imaging this system sounding better in a larger room.

The Fritz Speaker Room.

This room had a variety of Fritz speakers on display, but the focus of the presentation was the Carbon 7's(if I am not mistaken). This speaker shares some of the same design principles in terms of crossovers as my mini monitors such as no capacitors or resistors in the crossover to the tweeter, and just one small inductor on the mid/bass driver. It uses ScanSpeak drivers, and had a very nice presentation. While this speaker went just a little deeper than my own, my had a much more precise imaging, better tonal, textural and timbre characteristics, more neutral in presentation, and quite a bit more open and extended at the top (thanks to their beryllium tweeters). Very good sound from a relatively compact speaker.

Just to curve the length of my review, I will just make small comments on the rest of what I saw.

The Sonist Rooms.

This speaker was voiced just a bit hot for my taste, as it seem like the tweeter was more prominent than the mid/bass driver. The sound was not rejectable at all, just a little more bright than I would have liked.

The Legacy/Win Room.

One of the things I noticed when walking in this room was how low the volume was, but how very balanced the speaker sounded regardless even down to the low bass. However this speaker snapped to when I put in the High Altitude drums disc. This system had great coherence, but was able to separate the individual elements when passages got thick and complex, always remaining exceptionally clean and clear and keep its composure. Imaging was excellent, and the Whispers had where very balanced from top to bottom. One of the best of show IMO.

The Salk room.

Very good sound coming from this room, but because of the choices in music I couldn't really hear what these speakers could do. The system was very competent in reproducing what I did hear.

The
Genesis/Soundscape Room

This system sounded good, but not remarkable, and once again the choice of music really didn't give me a fair evaluation of this system.

The Magico/Audio Image Room.

Man what a sweet sound from this system. I heard a four part acapella gospel group on it, and what a gorgeous sound, nice and smooth but highly detailed without sounding clinical or etchy. Another speaker that got the bass right, without it being overly ripe. Good stuff here.

Overall I really enjoyed this show, and really heard some outstanding systems, even when placed in small rooms - far too small for the system to stretch its legs. If I could take the Emerald Physic, Acoustic Zen, The legacy Whisper, YG Acoustics, or The Lotus Granada system home with me, I would be in heaven.

[PeruvianSkies]

Is Hansen Audio represented at the show?