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| Lawrence Audio Cello and Violin Speakers at CES 2012 |
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| Lawrence Liao of Lawrence Audio with Cello Speakers |
More CES 2012 Show Coverage
Showing posts with label Hi-Fi Audio Shows. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hi-Fi Audio Shows. Show all posts
10 January 2012
Cello Speakers - Lawrence Audio - CES 2012
CES 2012 doesn't officially kick off until tomorrow, but today I decided to check out the layout of the High-Performance Audio floors at the Venetian. All the exhibitors were very busy setting up their exhibit rooms and it was nice to chat to them before the large crowds arrive tomorrow. Secretly my real intent of visiting the show a day before the official start was that I was hoping to get some private listening opportunities. While walking down one of the hallways the seductive voice of Rebecca Pidgeon pulled me into the Lawrence Audio room who are based out of Taiwan. Just my luck, their system was ready to play and my private listening session was just moments away. While it was the voice of Rebbeca that initially caught my attention, I was immediately struck the unique looking speakers on display and the wonderful sound emanating from them.
In the photo above are the new Cello speakers (larger, inside) and the Violin speakers (smaller, outside). The Violin ($7500US) speakers won an Innovations award at CES last year and this year the Cello ($20,000) speaker have received an Innovations award this year. The unique looking speakers resemble the instrument that they are named after which really is a refreshing change from typical boxy speaker designs. The Cello speakers each use five drivers to make a 3.5-way floor standing loudspeaker. The loudspeaker employs an air motion tweeter and an air motion mid-treble. The woofer and subwoofer units are 8-inch aluminum framed drivers with a non-woven carbon fiber cone. There is also a rear firing ribbon tweeter which I quickly identified as an Aurum Cantis G2Si. The crossover frequencies are set at 700Hz, 1.7kHz, 2.6kHz and 9kHz with preimum crossover components used throughout. The speakers have a nominal impedance of 4 ohms (3.2 ohms minimum) with a frequency response noted as 32Hz to 40kHz and a sensitivity of 90dB. The loudspeaker enclosures are vented at the bottom. Shown below with the Cello speaker is Lawrence Liao who is the acoustic designer and founder of Lawrence Audio.
The private listening session with Rebbeca Pidgeon and the Cello speakers was wonderful. I am very familiar The Raven recording and the Cello speakers did a fabulous job reproducing this excellent Rebbeca Pidgeon recording. The Cello speakers produced a very wide and deep soundstage. Most impressive was the focus and the deep bass. With closed eyes one can distinctly pick out all the instruments in the recording. With it's unique looks and excellent sound reproduction, I'm sure many will be wrting about these speakers at CES 2012. For more information see the Cello Loudspeaker at Lawrence Audio.
More CES 2012 Show Coverage
More CES 2012 Show Coverage
09 January 2012
CES 2012
I hope that all our readers had a great holiday season and best wishes for the new year. We are kicking off 2012 with a bang - a trip to Las Vegas and attendance at CES 2012. While I have been to Las Vegas many times, this will be my first time attending CES. Thumbing through the exhibitors list it certainly looks like almost all the Hi-Fi manufacturers will be represented at the show. The high-performance audio exhibits will be located at the Venetian Hotel. Floor plans for the High-Performance Audio suites are shown below (click floor plan images to enlarge).
As you can see, the show is huge, so naturally I won't be able to provide complete coverage from all the exhibitors. We will try check out most of the exhibitors and we will report back on the DIY parts suppliers in attendance and also on some of the new and interesting commercial hi-fi products on display. Updates and coverage from CES 2012 will be posted on this blog and also in the 2012 CES, Las Vegas - diyAudioProjects.com Show Coverage thread on the forum. I'm looking forward to hearing some very expensive Hi-Fi setups. It will be interesting to compare the sound from the high-end systems to that of my modest and predominately DIY system.
More CES 2012 Show Coverage
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| Floor 29 - High-Performance Audio Exhibitors at CES 2012 |
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| Floor 30 - High-Performance Audio Exhibitors at CES 2012 |
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| Floor 31 - High-Performance Audio Exhibitors at CES 2012 |
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| Floors 34 and 35 - High-Performance Audio Exhibitors at CES 2012 |
More CES 2012 Show Coverage
07 April 2011
Feastrex NF-5 and NF-5ex Drivers at SSI 2011
We are big fans of single full-range driver loud speakers so we were excited to check out the Feastrex drivers. Michael Tang of Mike Tang Audio is importing the Japanese Feastrex NF-5 and NF-5EX drivers into Canada and had them on display at the show.
The 5" Feastrex NF-5 ($2000CDN, shown above) uses a large Alnico magnet. The handmade cones are made from Japanese Washi paper (a higher density fibrous paper) which is impressed in a spiral pattern with embossed ridges. The drivers surround is made from lamb skin.
The 5" Feastrex NF-5ex ($3000CDN, shown above) uses the same Washi paper cone and a lambskin surround, but with a motor that uses a field-coil magnet (electromagnet). The field-coil magnet can be operated between 10 and 17V dc. Changing the voltage allows you to change the damping of the driver. Michael uses a 12V car battery for the field-coil magnet. 16 ohms, 95 dB, 35 to 25,000 Hz (+/- 3dB).
A Mastersound Compact 845 SET powered the 5" Feastrex NF-5 drivers which were housed in a bass reflex enclosure (enclosure plans from Feastrex, shown below), no passive filters were used. The speakers sounded excellent, wide soundstage and impressive depth. The single drivers delivered superb clarity with vocals to die for.
Michael indicated that he is working on a transmission line enclosure design for use with the Feastrex NF-5 and NF-5ex drivers which he plans to have ready for the TAVES (Toronto Audio and Video Entertainment Show) this fall.
More Salon Son & Image 2011 Coverage
Voxativ Ampeggio Horn Speakers at SSI 2011
There were a number of ultra high-end Hi-Fi systems at the Montreal show and like last year, my favorite Hi-Fi systems at the show was once again a low powered single-ended tube amp matched with high sensitivity fullrange drivers. My favorite this year were the new German made Voxativ Ampeggio single-driver rear-loaded horn speakers. The hand built rear-loaded horn enclosures are built in a collaboration between Voxativ and the famous German piano factory Schimmel Pianos. The cabinet surface is finished with a minimum of 13 applications of hand polished lacquer covered in real piano lacquer. The finish on the loudspeakers was simply amazing.
The product literature lists the following specifications for the Ampeggio:
Frequency Response: 38 - 20,000 Hz
Sensitivity: 101 dB / 1w / 1m
Impedance: 10 ohms
Dimensions (W x H x D): 16" x 43" x 14" (40 x 110 x 35 cm)
Weight: 121 lbs (55 kg)
Cost: $29,750US
The lone transducer used in the Ampeggio is the Voxativ AC-3X, which is their largest neodymium driver and unavailable for purchase. The drivers suspension is made from goat leather. The loudspeaker systems does not use any crossover components.
A Don Garber Fi WE421A ($3275) single-ended triode amplifier (a single dual triode), putting out just 5 watts per channel was used to drive the Ampeggio speakers. With a sensitivity of 101dB it was plenty loud. The high sensitivity and easy 10 ohm loads means these speakers will mate very well with low power SET amplifiers. The Ampeggio speakers sounded every bit as wonderful as they looked. Open, dynamic, excellent clarity and plenty of detail.
A Don Garber Fi WE421A ($3275) single-ended triode amplifier (a single dual triode), putting out just 5 watts per channel was used to drive the Ampeggio speakers. With a sensitivity of 101dB it was plenty loud. The high sensitivity and easy 10 ohm loads means these speakers will mate very well with low power SET amplifiers. The Ampeggio speakers sounded every bit as wonderful as they looked. Open, dynamic, excellent clarity and plenty of detail.
More Salon Son & Image 2011 Coverage
05 April 2011
The AuDIYo.com room at SSI 2011
Like last year, the AuDIYo.com room was displaying a number of high-end audio accessories, cables, audio connectors, tweaks and DIY parts from Furutech, Mundorf, DACT, TentLabs, 1877Phono and others.
The AuDIYo show setup was focused around the recently introduced Furutech GT40 USB DAC with phono stage - $495. The Furutech GT40 USB DAC with phono stage was previously used with a computer to make vinyl rips into 24bits/96kHz lossless digital files. The digital files were then played back through the DAC which fed a vintage Dynaco ST-70 tube amplifier, which in turn drove a pair of Klaro speakers. The quality of the vinyl rips was excellent and if you were not paying attention you would think that you are listening to a record as the recording preserved all the surface noise, pops and clicks one would expect from vinyl. The Furutech GT40 USB DAC also features a very good headphone amplifier and a pair of Sennheiser HD598 headphones were on hand to audition the head amp section.
The vintage Dynaco ST-70 tube amplifier on had been upgraded with Mundorf high voltage filter capacitors and M-Caps were used upgrade the signal and coupling caps. Simon Au of AuDIYo indicated that they are working on printed circuit boards and customizable kits that can be used to upgrade ST70 amplifiers. We will post an update when we get word that the upgrade kits are available.
The AuDIYo show setup was focused around the recently introduced Furutech GT40 USB DAC with phono stage - $495. The Furutech GT40 USB DAC with phono stage was previously used with a computer to make vinyl rips into 24bits/96kHz lossless digital files. The digital files were then played back through the DAC which fed a vintage Dynaco ST-70 tube amplifier, which in turn drove a pair of Klaro speakers. The quality of the vinyl rips was excellent and if you were not paying attention you would think that you are listening to a record as the recording preserved all the surface noise, pops and clicks one would expect from vinyl. The Furutech GT40 USB DAC also features a very good headphone amplifier and a pair of Sennheiser HD598 headphones were on hand to audition the head amp section.
The vintage Dynaco ST-70 tube amplifier on had been upgraded with Mundorf high voltage filter capacitors and M-Caps were used upgrade the signal and coupling caps. Simon Au of AuDIYo indicated that they are working on printed circuit boards and customizable kits that can be used to upgrade ST70 amplifiers. We will post an update when we get word that the upgrade kits are available.
More Salon Son & Image 2011 Coverage
- Orangutan O/96 High Sensitivity Speakers
- Little Horn Speakers by Specimen Products
- New Solen.ca DIY Speaker Kit
- Voxativ Ampeggio Rear Loaded Horn Speakers
- Feastrex NF-5 and NF-5ex Fullrange Drivers
- Salon Son & Image 2011 - diyAudioProjects.com Show Coverage thread
04 April 2011
Solen.ca DIY Speaker Kit - SSI 2011
On display on the Solen.ca room was a new DIY bookshelf speaker kit that is currently being developed and should be available soon.
The DIY speaker kit will use a pre-finished curved Dayton Audio 0.38 ft^3 speaker enclosure. The drivers are from Airborne, a 120 mm wood cone driver with a 25 mm voice coil (HR124B8-10L) and the high-end is covered by a Air Motion Ribbon Tweeter (RT-20021). The kit will use a 2-way passive crossover which has yet to be finalized. No word on when exactly the DIY speaker kit will be available but Solen indicated that that the price of the kit will be about $550. As more details come available about the kit we will post an update.
Also on display were a number of drivers, amplifiers, connectors and feet for you DIY speakr projects.
More Salon Son & Image 2011 Coverage
02 April 2011
Little Horn Speakers - SSI 2011
The unique looking "Little Horn Speakers" caught my eye and I was particularly excited to see they use a familiar transducer, the Fostex FE108E Sigma. While their size is far from what most would describe as a little speaker, they are little for a horn. [Click on the images to enlarge]
The custom handcrafted speakers are produced by Specimen Products from Chicago. The enclosure (base) is made using Baltic birch plywood and this acts as the compression chamber. The horn is cast using a heavy-duty resin and both the base and horn are finished with lacquer.
The overall height is 36" (915 mm) and the bell of the horn is 14" (355 mm) across. The base is an 8" (200 mm) cube. The impedance is noted as 8 ohms with a sensitivity of 90 dB. The frequency response is listed as 77Hz to 23kHz. The speakers are well suited for use with low power tube amplifiers.
The Little Horn Speakers delivered a surprising large soundstage and you get the single-driver finesse and detail that FE108E Sigma is known to deliver. The speakers retail for $2400 / pair are available in a number of colors. More information and photographs are available from Specimen Products website.
More Salon Son & Image 2011 Coverage
01 April 2011
Orangutan O/96 High Sensitivity Speakers - SSI 2011
We have arrived at the Salon Son & Image 2011 show and have taken a quick look at the various exhibits. Since we cannot cover the entire show, we have decided that our coverage will be focused primarily around our favorite topics, DIY audio, high sensitivity speaker systems, headphones and vacuum tube gear. To get the show coverage started, here are the Orangutan O/96 Oscar loudspeakers (click image to enlarge).
The DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/96 is a 2-way design that uses a custom SEAS 10" (254 mm) paper cone woofer with a phase plug. The tweeter is a 1" (25 mm) silk-dome tweeter that uses a double-magnet motor system and is gently loaded by a waveguide. The speakers are individually hand built in New York City and are listed at about $12,000US.
The sensitivity is noted at 96 dB and the nominal impedance is 9 ohms. The in-room representative indicated that the impedance does not drop below 7.8 ohms - so these speakers will be an easy load to drive. The frequency bandwidth is noted as 30 Hz to 31 kHz. The overall dimensions are 12" d x 18" w x 28.5" h (305 x 457 x 723 mm).
The speakers had a very nice coherent sound with holographic imaging. With the high sensitivity and easy to drive load, this speaker mates well with lower powered single-ended tube amplifiers.
More Salon Son & Image 2011 Coverage
30 March 2011
Salon Son & Image 2011 - Show Coverage
The Salon Son & Image 2011 show, known to audiophiles as the Montreal Hi-Fi is just several hours away from kicking off and once again diyAudioProjects.com will be in attendance providing show reports.
If you have any suggestions for what you would like to see with regards to show coverage - post a note in the Salon Son & Image 2011 - diyAudioProjects.com Show Coverage thread and let us know.
Show reports will be posted right here on the DIY Audio Projects Blog.
Here is the SSI 2011 Press Release:
The most anticipated Home Entertainment event arrives in Montreal!
Feel the sound of rhythm and image
Montreal, March 16th — The 24th edition of Salon Son & Image settles at the Hilton Bonaventure in Montreal from March 31st to April 3rd . Our spokesman François Charron is pleased to invite the general public, music lovers and audiophiles to come see and hear more than 300 brands of high-end gear, including wireless multi-zone systems, USB readers, on-wall speakers, 3D projectors, custom earbuds, the iPad2 and so much more.
Don’t miss the amazing audio and home theater demonstrations presented throughout the weekend. Free seminars are offered everyday to teach you how to select, connect, optimize and use all types of devices.
We're proud to introduce, for the first time at the show, home automation technology in all its forms. It will be displayed in an area of over 6,000 square feet. You can witness how to control lighting, temperature, audio distribution and much more. Home automation is accessible to all ... come and discover.
SSI partners with the Fondation Dédé Fortin:
This year, the president and director of SSI are partnering with the Fondation Dédé Fortin. Michel Plante and Sarah Tremblay have focused on suicide prevention by presenting the vibrant live performance "Passe-moé la puck Dédé". This benefit concert will be presented Friday, April 1st at 9pm at the Montreal Hilton Bonaventure. Featuring 20 artists, including Pierre Flynn, Bori, Charles Dubé, Gaële, Bon Débarras, the dance troupe Bourask and many other surprises. It’s not necessary to mention that the sound will be awesome! All funds raised will be donated to the Fondation Dédé Fortin.
More details: www.fondationdedefortin.com
About Salon Son & Image
SSI has been hosted in Montreal since 1984. Its reputation has long since crossed the border and has become, over time, the largest high-end show open to the general public in North America.
Its mission is to educate consumers to help them make informed choices in their future purchases, present the latest technology in high-end home entertainment, and highlight the best brands in the field and network of dealers.
More details: www.salonsonimage.com
Schedule:
*Thursday: 11am – 6pm *Thursday is reserved for media and industry professionals.
Friday: 11am – 9pm
Saturday: 10am – 6pm
Sunday: 10am – 5pm
Admission (for the week-end, including Passe-moé la Puck concert)
Regular: $15
Senior: $10
Student: $10
Free under 12 years old
Exhibition site:
Hôtel Hilton Bonaventure
900 de la Gauchetière West
Montreal, Qc, Canada
More Salon Son & Image 2011 Coverage
- Orangutan O/96 High Sensitivity Speakers
- Little Horn Speakers by Specimen Products
- New Solen.ca DIY Speaker Kit
- AuDIYo.com room (Dynaco ST70 upgrades)
- Voxativ Ampeggio Rear Loaded Horn Speakers
- Feastrex NF-5 and NF-5ex Fullrange Drivers
- Salon Son & Image 2011 - diyAudioProjects.com Show Coverage thread
29 March 2010
Salon Son & Image 2010 Coverage - 3/3
Without music, it wouldn't be much of a show and there were plenty of retailers on hand with a fantastic selection of music in all formats - LP, CD, SACD, DVD and Blu-Ray.
While Audio Basics Inc. (Canadian Distributor for Crystal Cables makers of the Arabesque Speakers which we covered earlier) may not have had the largest selection of music at the show, they did have the best prices. Below are some of the "souvenirs" I took home from the show.
All prices were in $CDN and included all taxes. Misha [XRCD] $9. Badi Assad (who is actually very good) [Chesky] $10 and $12. Rebecca Pidgeon [Chesky SACD] $20 and Roy Orbison [MFSL Gold] $27. Also included with my purchase was a free Blu-Ray sampler.
Ironically, the very last room that I visited also turned out to be my favorite at the show. I spent well over an hour in the L'Atelier-Audio room listening to great music and chatting with Samuel Furon about their wonderful hand built audio products.
Shown in the photo above Ocellia Calliope.30 Twin Signature speakers ($TBD), Ocellia Quaero 300B - PP Signature monoblock amps ($15,000/pair) and Ocellia Quaero Pre-Amplifier Signature ($9,000). All the L'Atelier-Audio loudspeakers use high sensitivity drivers from PHY-HP and no filters are used.
The beautiful hand-built cabinets have a door on the rear which allows adjustment of the open baffle speakers. The photos below show the smaller Ocellia Calliope.21 Signature speakers.
The side walls of the enclosure are only 3 mm thick and braced much like an acoustic guitar. The Ocellia Calliope.30 Twin Signature speakers were fantastic with vocals and strings and I really enjoyed listening to them.
The show and Montreal were great and I'm sure I'll be back soon.
Cheers, Gio
More coverage of the 2010 Salon Son & Image show:
While Audio Basics Inc. (Canadian Distributor for Crystal Cables makers of the Arabesque Speakers which we covered earlier) may not have had the largest selection of music at the show, they did have the best prices. Below are some of the "souvenirs" I took home from the show.
All prices were in $CDN and included all taxes. Misha [XRCD] $9. Badi Assad (who is actually very good) [Chesky] $10 and $12. Rebecca Pidgeon [Chesky SACD] $20 and Roy Orbison [MFSL Gold] $27. Also included with my purchase was a free Blu-Ray sampler.
Ironically, the very last room that I visited also turned out to be my favorite at the show. I spent well over an hour in the L'Atelier-Audio room listening to great music and chatting with Samuel Furon about their wonderful hand built audio products.
Shown in the photo above Ocellia Calliope.30 Twin Signature speakers ($TBD), Ocellia Quaero 300B - PP Signature monoblock amps ($15,000/pair) and Ocellia Quaero Pre-Amplifier Signature ($9,000). All the L'Atelier-Audio loudspeakers use high sensitivity drivers from PHY-HP and no filters are used.
The beautiful hand-built cabinets have a door on the rear which allows adjustment of the open baffle speakers. The photos below show the smaller Ocellia Calliope.21 Signature speakers.
The side walls of the enclosure are only 3 mm thick and braced much like an acoustic guitar. The Ocellia Calliope.30 Twin Signature speakers were fantastic with vocals and strings and I really enjoyed listening to them.
The show and Montreal were great and I'm sure I'll be back soon.
Cheers, Gio
More coverage of the 2010 Salon Son & Image show:
- Salon Son & Image 2010 - Part 1 of 3 (27 March 2010)
- Salon Son & Image 2010 - Part 2 of 3 (28 March 2010)
- Salon Son & Image 2010 - forum thread
28 March 2010
Salon Son & Image 2010 Coverage - 2/3
For the DIY Audio enthusiasts (like myself), Solen Electronique (www.solen.ca) from the Montreal area and AUDIYO (www.audiyo.com) from Toronto were in attendance at the show.
I was hoping that Solen would have the new Fostex FE-En series full-range drivers on display, but I was out of luck. Solen did however have a large display of drivers, subwoofer and active monitor amplifiers as well as their own air core inductors and film capacitors on display.
Solen's room featured a DIY pair of Ananya speakers. The Ananya is a two-way floor standing speaker in a D'Appolito Onken enclosure. The two-way towers use Serbian made RAAL 140-15D ribbon tweeters and the woofers are the Scan-Speak 18W/8531G00 Revelators. The crossover is a third-order Butterworth at 1.6kHz with zobel and L-pad. Denis Ouellet, President of Solen proudly went over the DIY Ananya speakers which were finished in a purple heart wood with me.
The crossover was external to the enclosure and featured Solen Inductors and Capacitors, and metal oxide resistors.
The frequency response for the DIY Ananya speakers is specified at 32Hz to 60kHz with an efficiency of 93dB 1W/1m. The Ananya speakers delivered full and accurate bass response, a very wide soundstage and an accurate image. They were quite the pleasure to listen to. The driver and cross-over parts run just shy of $2600CDN for a pair of speakers. For those looking to tackle this projects, enclosure plans and crossover details for the the DIY Ananya speakers are available for free from the Solen website.
AUDIYO shared two rooms with Audio Sensibility, Excel Stereo and Acoustic Technologies. For the DIYer they had parts and upgrade kits from DACT, TentLabs, 1877Phono, Mundorf, Furutech and Xsymphony.
My show favorites will follow tomorrow.
More coverage of the 2010 Salon Son & Image show:
I was hoping that Solen would have the new Fostex FE-En series full-range drivers on display, but I was out of luck. Solen did however have a large display of drivers, subwoofer and active monitor amplifiers as well as their own air core inductors and film capacitors on display.
Solen's room featured a DIY pair of Ananya speakers. The Ananya is a two-way floor standing speaker in a D'Appolito Onken enclosure. The two-way towers use Serbian made RAAL 140-15D ribbon tweeters and the woofers are the Scan-Speak 18W/8531G00 Revelators. The crossover is a third-order Butterworth at 1.6kHz with zobel and L-pad. Denis Ouellet, President of Solen proudly went over the DIY Ananya speakers which were finished in a purple heart wood with me.
The crossover was external to the enclosure and featured Solen Inductors and Capacitors, and metal oxide resistors.
The frequency response for the DIY Ananya speakers is specified at 32Hz to 60kHz with an efficiency of 93dB 1W/1m. The Ananya speakers delivered full and accurate bass response, a very wide soundstage and an accurate image. They were quite the pleasure to listen to. The driver and cross-over parts run just shy of $2600CDN for a pair of speakers. For those looking to tackle this projects, enclosure plans and crossover details for the the DIY Ananya speakers are available for free from the Solen website.
AUDIYO shared two rooms with Audio Sensibility, Excel Stereo and Acoustic Technologies. For the DIYer they had parts and upgrade kits from DACT, TentLabs, 1877Phono, Mundorf, Furutech and Xsymphony.
My show favorites will follow tomorrow.
More coverage of the 2010 Salon Son & Image show:
- Salon Son & Image 2010 - Part 1 of 3 (27 March 2010)
- Salon Son & Image 2010 - Part 3 of 3 (29 March 2010)
- Salon Son & Image 2010 - forum thread
27 March 2010
Salon Son & Image 2010 Coverage - 1/3
This year I had the opportunity to attend my first Salon Son & Image show which is held annually in Montreal, Canada, this year for the first time at the Hilton Bonaventure hotel. There were about 70 exhibitors at the show which included manufacturers, retailers, media, installers and parts suppliers. I will break my coverage up into three parts - this general overview, DIY Audio at the show and my show favorites - which will follow in the next day or two. Like most, I was very curious to hear how nice an ultra high-end system would sound. So one of the first rooms I visited belonged to Cabasse Speakers where they were showing off their La Sphere 4-way concentric speakers. The system shown below is in the order of about $180,000CDN and consisted of Cabasse La Sphere Speakers, a Cabasse outboard digital crossover; eight ICE Module amplifiers and McIntosh's C2300 preamp and MCD500 SACD/CD player.
Browsing through the various rooms, the Pathos T.T. amplifier shown below caught my attention with their big orange capacitors because it reminded me of Mark Houston's Synergy - DIY LM3875 Gainclone Amplifier.
Over the past few years I've had the opportunity to enjoy a number of great sounding headphones and I am currently living with a pair of Sennheiser HD 595. The Sennheiser display was an aural treat for headphiles. I took some time at this stop and listened to a set of HDR 180 which sounded quite decent for wireless headphones. But moving on to the more serious cans, the Sennheiser HD 650 were very nice and an overall improvement over my HD 595 which were also on display and sound great too. But the candy here were the $1800CDN Sennheiser HD 800 which quite frankly are the best headphones I have ever heard. Apparently I spent a little too much time with the HD 800 wrapped around my head as quite an unimpressed line-up had formed behind me while I was hogging the headphones.
The SSI show is partnered up with Stereophile and on Saturday afternoon they hosted a Stereophile - Ask The Editors forum. There was plenty of interesting discussion. One attendee asked the question: Why have active speakers not caught on? While most of the editors agreed that technically less in the signal path is better, it was generally agreed that the consumer prefers to have a choice over the amplifier - chacun à son goût as they would say in Montreal. There was also some insight into future Stereophile articles. On the topic of more vintage equipment reviews in Stereophile, the May issue is slated to contain an article on reconing of a pair of vintage Advent speakers and in the Fall, a review of a 40 year old pair of Acoustic Research AR3a speakers is planned.
Shown below are Aurum Speakers driven by Advance Acoustic components - the meters on the electronics were very eye catching - big look and big sound.
The voice of Canadian jazz artist Diana Krall performing 'S Wonderful sucked me into the Audio Basics Inc. room where I had the pleasure of listening to the literally transparent Arabesque Speakers by Crystal Cables which retail for about $80,000CDN. Driven completely by Tenor Audio components this made for a very delightful venue which was very popular amongst the attendees.
More coverage of the 2010 Salon Son & Image show:
Browsing through the various rooms, the Pathos T.T. amplifier shown below caught my attention with their big orange capacitors because it reminded me of Mark Houston's Synergy - DIY LM3875 Gainclone Amplifier.
Over the past few years I've had the opportunity to enjoy a number of great sounding headphones and I am currently living with a pair of Sennheiser HD 595. The Sennheiser display was an aural treat for headphiles. I took some time at this stop and listened to a set of HDR 180 which sounded quite decent for wireless headphones. But moving on to the more serious cans, the Sennheiser HD 650 were very nice and an overall improvement over my HD 595 which were also on display and sound great too. But the candy here were the $1800CDN Sennheiser HD 800 which quite frankly are the best headphones I have ever heard. Apparently I spent a little too much time with the HD 800 wrapped around my head as quite an unimpressed line-up had formed behind me while I was hogging the headphones.
The SSI show is partnered up with Stereophile and on Saturday afternoon they hosted a Stereophile - Ask The Editors forum. There was plenty of interesting discussion. One attendee asked the question: Why have active speakers not caught on? While most of the editors agreed that technically less in the signal path is better, it was generally agreed that the consumer prefers to have a choice over the amplifier - chacun à son goût as they would say in Montreal. There was also some insight into future Stereophile articles. On the topic of more vintage equipment reviews in Stereophile, the May issue is slated to contain an article on reconing of a pair of vintage Advent speakers and in the Fall, a review of a 40 year old pair of Acoustic Research AR3a speakers is planned.
Shown below are Aurum Speakers driven by Advance Acoustic components - the meters on the electronics were very eye catching - big look and big sound.
The voice of Canadian jazz artist Diana Krall performing 'S Wonderful sucked me into the Audio Basics Inc. room where I had the pleasure of listening to the literally transparent Arabesque Speakers by Crystal Cables which retail for about $80,000CDN. Driven completely by Tenor Audio components this made for a very delightful venue which was very popular amongst the attendees.
More coverage of the 2010 Salon Son & Image show:
- Salon Son & Image 2010 - Part 2 of 3 (28 March 2010)
- Salon Son & Image 2010 - Part 3 of 3 (29 March 2010)
- Salon Son & Image 2010 - forum thread
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