Agree. Old Forge / Sound Kaos / Pure Audio was the absolute best in the show. I think this may have even beat 99% of the rooms are RMAF last year (at least in my opinion and preferred sound).
I had the opposite reaction to the Tidal / Bricasti room. It seem really harsh and thin to me. Not sure what happened. Maybe a bad pairing between electronics and speaker. The Bricasti M28 sounded a lot better in the Sound Lab room, but the electrostatic panels are probably more forgiving speakers than the Tidal.
The Focal room was not bad. However, I did not get all the resolution and texture that should have been coming out of those speakers. Sound was very smooth without any brightness/harshness (which is hard to do with Focal), but it lacked the grit / bite / resonance from the voices and instruments. The whole setup was done with Nordost cabling which could be the culprit for hiding that high frequency texture/tonality. Silver tends to smooth out the grittiness in the sound.
I never really focused on Wired 4 Sound before, but I agree with your responses. I don't think it's the new Wyred speaker that's the problem. Ribbons are generally very high resolution and bright. I think it's just the sound of that Class D ICE in the Wyre 4 Sound. It sounded low resolution and boomy to me. I got the same warmer / rolled-off highs in the Unisinger room across the way, which also used Wyred 4 Sound amps.
I had the opposite reaction to the Tidal / Bricasti room. It seem really harsh and thin to me. Not sure what happened. Maybe a bad pairing between electronics and speaker. The Bricasti M28 sounded a lot better in the Sound Lab room, but the electrostatic panels are probably more forgiving speakers than the Tidal.
The Focal room was not bad. However, I did not get all the resolution and texture that should have been coming out of those speakers. Sound was very smooth without any brightness/harshness (which is hard to do with Focal), but it lacked the grit / bite / resonance from the voices and instruments. The whole setup was done with Nordost cabling which could be the culprit for hiding that high frequency texture/tonality. Silver tends to smooth out the grittiness in the sound.
I never really focused on Wired 4 Sound before, but I agree with your responses. I don't think it's the new Wyred speaker that's the problem. Ribbons are generally very high resolution and bright. I think it's just the sound of that Class D ICE in the Wyre 4 Sound. It sounded low resolution and boomy to me. I got the same warmer / rolled-off highs in the Unisinger room across the way, which also used Wyred 4 Sound amps.