New York Audio Show 2019


My  buddy and I attended Friday for the first time and had a  fun time and meet some  cool people.
Granted there is some  very  high end equipment on display but it is fun to check it out...and at least dream alittle about owning it.

Here are some thoughts for the group.

Press  got in at 11:00 AM so we had to wait  but we decide to  go  visit John and Eric from Ohm during this  time and spent over an hour spinning some SACDs and listening to the Ohm Walsh's, which offer  full room stereo. My  buddy and I are big fans of Ohm speaker since the Tech Hifi days. I currently own three pairs. L2's, C2's and a pair or Ohm refurbished super H's, which are the anchor of my HT rig.

We put on the Mofi SACD of Jefferson Airplane's final album,Volunteers. One of the writers walked in and smiled and  said "someone is playing some real  music." The Walsh's sound full and  vibrant and handled Jorma's distortion and Jack thundering bass of the rockin' opening track " We Could Be Together" with no  problem. There was no sub-woofer added  either.

I also found out John was an opera fan, like me, and I offered another SACD I brought to play. Handel's La Maga Abbandonata featuring Simone Kermes and Maria Beaumont with Alan Curtis conducting the ensemble. This is where the Walsh's blew me  away, they  did have a Carver amp/pre as part of their rig, as the  female voice is always a  wonderful indicator of the true depth, capability, and beauty of a loud speaker. The Walsh's offered up exquisite  spatial separation of the soprano Kemes and contralto Beaumonte and when Kermes  unleashed her operatic  power it was extremely satisfying hearing the Walsh's deliver the goods of this wonderful recording.

I will offer up some of my personal highlight of the afternoon from here on out not trying to wade into territory outside of my technical wheel house.

The loud speaker that really stole the show for me, no it was not the $430K ESD rig; although I thoroughly enjoyed hearing The Stones " Satisfaction" playing off a stellar reel to reel in that  set up, was PureAudioProject" Trio15 Classic. The vendor, sorry I forgot  his name but he was very informative and down to earth, played some  classical and some French  female  vocal jazz that was simply sublime sounding. These  speakers, at $10K a pair, blew away all the other speakers we heard at dramatically much higher  price points. He was playing digital tracks off his lap top that were not going through a  DAC either. Myself and others were shocked how good it sounded. He was using a Roland Pro AR-200R I believe as he said it cost only $700. These are  2 way, although I think he used the term 1.5 way the way they are designed and they  sound full, vibrant and completely present. They a have an wonderful classic look as well.

Value Electronics also had a great set set up that featured Technics high end reference  series which sounded impressive.

Blink High End Audio featured  much going on as the rep from the store in Republic of Cambridge was trying to educate as well as sell. He was comparing vinyl and digital in real time along with showcasing the stunning performance of the Borg, yes resistance is futile, and the  Julieta from Kroma Audio, which is a Spanish company. The Julieta had alot of natural punch and as did the Borg. Both were very alive and made you take notice and filled the room with chest pounding  bass., The white modern look of  both  speakers was not the most aesthetically pleasing to this reviewer but I will leave that to you to decide.

The Tweak Studio also had a wide array of killer sounding equipment as well.

Room 700 may have been the music lover's room to stop by and  sit and listen. With Sound By Singer  staging a  $90 K system it was quite impressive. The digital  hub was an impressive CH Precision up-scaling  DAC along with  amps and pre that drove a stunning  pair of Stenheim Infinite loud speakers that were  a  workhorse of handling a wide musical variety. Whether it was the classical guitar version of Stairway to Heaven by Rodrigo y Gabriela, what a treat! To the  Mofi 45 RPM release of Dylan's Blood on the Tracks these  speakers could deliver!

It was also fun to hear the  rep from Mofi talk  about the laborious and  time consuming effort to reach an agreement with  record companies to get the rights to remaster and re-release the classic albums we would like to hear. Next step is to to work with the artist to bring the product to market. He cited that it took 4 years to bring the Dire Straight albums to market. It is also difficult to always get the 33 RPM rights as well, as the record companies now see gold in them  dem hills and are now choosing to  re-issue the  vinyl themselves, often with lack luster results. That explains why many Mofi are now 45 RPM, of coarse they sound  better too.

The dude did turn us onto a  stunning vinyl re-issue from 1974 of the  Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio playing  Misty that was incredible through the Stenheim's I believe it is  on a label called Impact but could not find the pressing he had online. 

I finally got to hear a pair of Harbeth Monitor 40.2's too and they lived up to all that I have heard. Fidelis AV was playing that new Neil Young solo acoustic album and it sounded sooooo good.

In wrapping it up there was a clock maker from the UK, named Paul who was promoting his built from scratch turntable and phono amp. The company is called Onkk and his story is truly amazing, he has been working for  over three years to bring this incredible, and unusual looking  piece of engineering and clocking making technology to  fruition. I have a feeling you will be reading about  his story soon in one of the mags or online.

The  value of the show was the self powered speakers from Vanatoo. Staring at $349, 45 watts per channel, these little speakers pack alot of wallop and sound very good and can also be  hooked up to any subwoofer as well for more full room bass. They can  be set  up very easily and can connect via USB, bluetooth, coaxial, or optical and the two  guys who created them are very passionate about what they are trying to do. Another great story as well. 

Look forward to hearing more from others.

Best regards in stereo,
Idigmusic64





idigmusic64
I liked the Bache speakers with Alexus Audio amp and preamp with Brinkmann turntable.This system had great stage depth,great detail wonderful highs and midrange.
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.

The Alexius audio/Bache room was and is always extremely 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
I attended the show for the first time this year with a friend who runs a speaker restoration shop. Between the two of us, we have heard a lot of very good systems. And we heard quite a few here too, but not as many as I expected. We got an exclusive listen to an early Joe Jackson master tape on the giant RTR/horn system late Friday that was exceptional. But aside from that the only room that really did it for me was the QLN and Vinny Rossi setup. Seeing as he lives close by I have a feeling I will be talking to Mr Rossi often. 

I am already looking forward to next year....
Hi idigmusic64
Thanks for the report...

Ohm is a favorite of mine as well...  There factory is around the block from my office...

I  agree with what you said below" This is where the Walsh's blew me away, they did have a Carver amp/pre as part of their rig, as the female voice is always a wonderful indicator of the true depth, capability, and beauty of a loud speaker."

What John and Evan was presenting at this show was a Retro system that has been upgraded to current standards.... 
So you saw what looked to be Walsh 2 but they were upgrades to Super 2's .... you can see them at Ohm website ....

The Carver rig you noticed has been gone thru by Nelion Audio  ....  check Greg's site too...
This is actually a Carver M-1.0t mkII opt002 Restore and Upgrade by Greg at Nelion Audio
with the following specs..

Power into 8 ohms:
Stock: 200 watts  
MKII OP002: 460 watts

Clipping into 8 ohms:
Stock: 350 watts
MKII OP002: 500 watts

Dynamic into 8 ohms:
Stock: 550 watts
MKII OP002: 700 watts


and the Carver Pre-Amp had the Carver C-1 Bill D Mod done by Greg at Nelion Audio..

The idea was vintage gear that was brought up to todays standards and people can get this level of sound for a reasonable amount of money....

I happen know this level of detail cause the Carver equipment is from one of my home systems !  and yes  I have it hooked up to a pair of Super 2s and a TD-125MkII

Good Listening !

Best

Bill Sohne



@bsohne1 thanks for the inside scoop.It sounded quite sweet. What other surprises are  in your system?