Audio Troy Capital Audio Fest the good, the bad and the ugly!

Hello all,
I just wanted to clarify a post by pops regarding our Pass Labs amps as being down on Friday at CAF.
The XS150 monoblocks were not down.
As anyone who was in the hotel Thursday night may have heard, we had a wicked thunderstorm move into the area.
Lightning actually hit the hotel....awesome noise !!!
Anyway after that, the power was down for a bit in certain areas. as well as the wifi.
Friday morning just before the show we tried to play a record, we found the Pass labs phono and preamp units blue lights were suspiciously low in intensity and nothing would work. One of the active subwoofer amps would not work as well.
I remedied that problem by running both sub channels off of one sub amp and running the subs in mono.
Low voltage was the cause, no doubt the massive power supplies in the Pass XS150’s were hogging all the juice.
Alex the engineer from our partner Basis, a New Hampshire company employed the help of another N.H. company LKV Research to lend us a phono unit , MANY THANKS !!
This unit drew less juice than the Pass and it got us through Friday.
Regarding the sound, the whole system was running on low voltage , something those massive Pass XS150’s dont like. Also it was not sufficiently warmed up on Friday.
By Saturday everything was warming, the voltage stabilized and the system started to bloom.
Wish pops could have made it back, the system was really shining.
Many visitors loved it as did reviewers.
I got a call a few days after CAF, a gentleman purchased the speaker and subwoofer system.
It was a shaky start to CAF 2019, I had a few heart stopping moments, but it turned out to be our best showing to date.
See you next year.
Greg
GTAW

Why can't you guys start your own thread and argue and not muck up every other thread.....just the 2 of you!  

Greg I am kicking myself for not getting back by your room - love your speakers!  Your room was the first one I visited on Friday. Congrats on a great show.

gnjtack,

For whatever it is worth, your room sounded just fine to me (on friday). If that was the low, you are doing good.

Hey all we will be all set up and ready for auditions with the GT system in Massapequa Long Island by next week-  
Give us a jingle would love to audition the system for you.
 Thanks 
steve
Sound Insight

I attended both RMAF and CAF this year. Although, RMAF was huge, CAF seem to be better organized. 

I thought Acora Acoustics two way floorstander (sc-2 I think) was by far the best sounding room/speaker in the entire show. Surprising that no one is talking about it. It's $25k ish, I couldn't find any speaker at any price that had the clarity, realism of this speaker in the show.

A very close second was Joseph Perspective 2 Graphene. I have to give my hats off to Joseph given they were using much cheaper gear ($6k unison integrated) as oppose $70K ARC amp for Acora Acoustics and $$$ Esoteric front end. I know that Perspective 2 was brand spanking new and wasn't broken in; also the room had setup issue. Despite all that, it managed to sound sublime.

My girlfriend who has golden ear, thought Perspective 2 sounded as good as Acora on some songs and the top 2 best sound in the show. As a reference, we both agreed that new Joseph Audio Pearl in RMAF was the best sound of that show.

This is crazy because I used to own Pulsar and sold it in 6 months as I thought it was too polite for music genre outside of vocal/jazz. The new Joseph totally took me by surprise. So much so that I just couldn't resist. I ordered a new pair Perspective 2 on the spot in CAF. I should have it this weekend.

If Acora Acoustics SC-2 was not this heavy (250lb for a medium size two way made of granite) and $10k cheaper, I would have given them a serious consideration.

radiohead,
What music convinced you that the Perspectives could do more than polite music?
I'm finding my Perspectives (original) have great dynamic punch and can really rock out.  Was listening to Genesis and Phil Collins' drums were very dynamic, clean and propulsive.
I hear the Perspective 2s increase the sense of dynamic power even more!

All right you guys, why did you go and make geoffkait mad?  He's a great guy and very funny and knowledgeable.

See what happens when Dave and Troy say something?

I wish they sounded like my tubes-- silent.
Do I hear a second?

The surprising thing with the New York Audio show was despite its minisule size 23 rooms the show had good attendence. 

The exact amount of people is hard to determine because the show was so small so the same number of people spread out on only two floors made the show appear quite packed.

The reason why we have been sitting out on this show is that the costs from Chester group are high and they don't promote at all.

Compare this to the new Florida show, which was started by retailors so the cost of the room rental was low, and instead of charging for tickets they were given away.  Their show was filled with tons of new people that could become customers and hence grow our industry.

This is what the industry needs to grow, to find new people to show how amazing music can sound on a great audio system.

Also systems for different price points that are more affordable to the starter guy or gal would be fantastic.

Also having an area for the wives and girlfiriends to have fun and look at things they might like like couture, or a tea lounge or something that might make a woman feel like a show like this would be fun for them as well. 

The nice thing for the first time there was a few press people at this show, Julie Mullens from the Absolute Sound, Steve Guttenberg the Audiophiliac, Stereotimes was there, Mike Trei who writes for Sound and Vision, Ken Metcalf from Stereophile was there but was not sure if Stereophile would allow him to cover such a small show.

When we did the show in 2012, 2013, and 2016 the show coverage was nearly non existant.

There were a few very good rooms: 

Vinnie Rossi's new integrated amplifier is expensive but absolutely magical to hear one is to want one, the QLN speakers are also excellent. 

The Luxman/Triangle room was very musical.

We discovered an amazing new turntable the Onkk from Great Britan that was so magical we bought the display sample and are going to become the US importer, it is a $19k table with arm $25k but even at that price it may be unbeatable even at double the price.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

@audiotroy 

Did you happen to hear the Spatial Audio / LTA room? Impressions?