Made it!
Thursday-Sunday
I'm still recovering from the drive home to S.cal Three major highway closures on our way back from accidents, mudslides and flooding made our 4.5 hr trip well over 10 hrs! Rain like I've never seen.
My quick pics were easy.
1. The Ascendo M-S's driven by Ken's amp's (CAT) and preamp with a Ken modded Audio-Note dac using Ric's cables (Virtual Dynamics) were as good as I have ever heard reproduced music sound. In-the-room real and my absolute favorite sound this year.
2a. The Star Sound caravell speakers were outstandingly Musically "absent". Vanished! For a $3500 speaker these sounded fantastic. They sold the amps driving them before the end of the show. A Harmonic Precision 100w Mono-pair.
This was definetly one of the very best sounds from a tubeless system!
2b,c,d. The Overkill "Encore" speaker was really something special. A nearly perfect design from my point of view. Actively crossed-over using a digital x-ovr from DEQX and being driven by a Belles amp designed as an OEM product for Overkill. An awesomely real sound again without tubes.
c. The Loricraft Audio room. Playing one of the prettiest turntables I've ever seen. Wood sides with a Rolls Royce color "sunset" painted on the top. Gorgeous! Just like the sound. The speakers were Tyler Acoustics Linbrook Sig Monitors. I could have stayed there all day.
d. Not the last word in musicallity, the EDGE electronics room had an effortlessness and purity that was startling. For a large system without tubes this system had a realism I preferred to the other "big" systems like the laughably huge Von Shweikert 11's or the Genesis ones or the Soundlabs. Although the genesis One's were very captivating and powerful they still had a bit of "boom/sizzle to me. Probably because they were using an SACD player when playing regular cd's.
My eyes are slamming shut so I'll sign off for the moment. All in all I had a fantastic time and added to the list of my favorite people in this industry. I'll share more soon.
