R
RR
Guest
I visited the SV Expo on Saturday afternoon, with some fellow audio enthusiasts. All in all quite an enjoyable show with interesting offerings allround. For me the following stood out:
? The Boston Vista floorstander speakers displayed by AVS sounds like extremely good value for money. The set of speakers we listened to costs R35k, and for that money you get a set of very enjoyable and listenable speakers. At that price point it?s probably gonna put the cat amongst the pigeons.
? The ?Listening Room?s? demo of the Van Der Steen speakers proved again that these are serious contenders in the market.
? The new ?Project? Micro system was moerse interesting, and sounded fair on the set of super B&W 686?s. (Actually, for the money, it sounded very good?)
? Louis from Le Range has some new materials for his stands, looks delectable. Time unfortunately ran out a bit, would?ve liked to listen to the Trichord phono stage as reviewed recently in AVSA.
? The Martin Logans displayed in two different soundrooms stole the show, especially in the ?LifeStyle Audio? soundroom. Here the set of ML?s were played on Valve Audio Genesis pre and Black Widow Balanced monoblocks on a Transrotor ZET-3 TT via VA Whisper. Those ML?s are wickedly good, obviously supported by a rather stellar set of ancillaries. Great stuff, very listenable (Bar the surface noise?.(had to jab at the Vinyl die hards
)). Undoubtedly one of the very best soundrooms at the show, I?d say a very close second on my list.
? AV Cables?s soundroom was a real attention grabber soundwise. The EMMLabs SACD player is as good as the media lauds it to be. There was only one way of knowing that; the rest of the system had to be up to it. It was. The Maestro Balanced pre and A220 Balanced power Class A power amps are to die for. The system was completed with a set of Spendor speakers, (I haven?t a clue which model). Classical music was detailed and immense instrument separation was displayed. For me personally this system sounded the best at the show, being the most neutral sounding (my personal goal for what I prefer hifi-wise).
There was a couple of disappointing rooms as well, with a type of sound that sent our group speeding for the door. Won?t elaborate here.
The rest was good, but not attention grabbing as the list above.
To all the showroom hosts who were concerned that our little group was gonna bliksem each other?.relax, the bickering is all in good fun. I took endless beating about B&W and digital sources, whilst the TT owners were given extensive jabs about surface noise etc etc, and how Croak?s clock upgrade could improve the sound of their Vinyl rigs.
Finally great to meetup again with some of the prolific members of Audio Society, specifically AV, Amp and VA. Also great to walk about the show with Devil, Clean, Chris and Darren (No, not wackhead.)
Would be nice to hear other?s opinion of the show and what you liked as well.
Cheers
RR
PS. Ampdog finally admitted that he know cables can make a difference. Hypothesis? Disconnect the cables and listen to how ?absent? the systems sounds then. Case closed. Conclusive proof that cables make a difference.
? The Boston Vista floorstander speakers displayed by AVS sounds like extremely good value for money. The set of speakers we listened to costs R35k, and for that money you get a set of very enjoyable and listenable speakers. At that price point it?s probably gonna put the cat amongst the pigeons.
? The ?Listening Room?s? demo of the Van Der Steen speakers proved again that these are serious contenders in the market.
? The new ?Project? Micro system was moerse interesting, and sounded fair on the set of super B&W 686?s. (Actually, for the money, it sounded very good?)
? Louis from Le Range has some new materials for his stands, looks delectable. Time unfortunately ran out a bit, would?ve liked to listen to the Trichord phono stage as reviewed recently in AVSA.
? The Martin Logans displayed in two different soundrooms stole the show, especially in the ?LifeStyle Audio? soundroom. Here the set of ML?s were played on Valve Audio Genesis pre and Black Widow Balanced monoblocks on a Transrotor ZET-3 TT via VA Whisper. Those ML?s are wickedly good, obviously supported by a rather stellar set of ancillaries. Great stuff, very listenable (Bar the surface noise?.(had to jab at the Vinyl die hards
)). Undoubtedly one of the very best soundrooms at the show, I?d say a very close second on my list.? AV Cables?s soundroom was a real attention grabber soundwise. The EMMLabs SACD player is as good as the media lauds it to be. There was only one way of knowing that; the rest of the system had to be up to it. It was. The Maestro Balanced pre and A220 Balanced power Class A power amps are to die for. The system was completed with a set of Spendor speakers, (I haven?t a clue which model). Classical music was detailed and immense instrument separation was displayed. For me personally this system sounded the best at the show, being the most neutral sounding (my personal goal for what I prefer hifi-wise).
There was a couple of disappointing rooms as well, with a type of sound that sent our group speeding for the door. Won?t elaborate here.
The rest was good, but not attention grabbing as the list above.
To all the showroom hosts who were concerned that our little group was gonna bliksem each other?.relax, the bickering is all in good fun. I took endless beating about B&W and digital sources, whilst the TT owners were given extensive jabs about surface noise etc etc, and how Croak?s clock upgrade could improve the sound of their Vinyl rigs.
Finally great to meetup again with some of the prolific members of Audio Society, specifically AV, Amp and VA. Also great to walk about the show with Devil, Clean, Chris and Darren (No, not wackhead.)
Would be nice to hear other?s opinion of the show and what you liked as well.
Cheers
RR
PS. Ampdog finally admitted that he know cables can make a difference. Hypothesis? Disconnect the cables and listen to how ?absent? the systems sounds then. Case closed. Conclusive proof that cables make a difference.
