There were plenty of CD players at the NYC show on Friday. In fact, I wondered about so many rooms using them en route to putting the best sound forward
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@mgolpoor, "One of the worst and most boring shows I have ever been to."
You're absolutely right. Second worst show I've attended. Eclipsed only by the first show this group put on when they returned to NYC in the early part of this decade.
Both quantity and quality of the rooms were about as low as things get. All but a few rooms didn't have it together, at all, sonically
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@mapman the Ohm room disappointed me more than any other. Honestly, if what they displayed represents the product accurately, I cannot even consider these speakers to offer anything approaching high fidelity.
Now, it's not that I don't consider myself an Ohm supporter. My friend has one of the few (11?) pairs of Walsh A, that Lincoln Walsh began putting together prior to his sudden and untimely death. My friend is a well known loudspeaker magician, and got the speaker working as he felt it should. I've been around more speakers than I can count, and these are the single most impressive loudspeaker I've encountered. In fact, when he illustrates how the speaker works in comparison to everything else, every other loudspeaker design doesn't seem to have a prayer. Now, that's all well and good, but the important and obvious question is how do they sound? Well, it's the only loudspeaker that I've experienced that can take hold of your insides and literally scare you to death. And going up from the low frequencies, everything sounds as good as it gets.
For what it's worth, I found a couple of rooms that offered what I considered good sound, despite their usual affordability, Cambridge among them
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@mapman you're right. So far, I've read nothing but praise for the room.
During the time I spent at the show, playing the material they did, at the volumes they did, the Ohm room won my title for worst sound of the show. And the distance between that and second place is more than I can put into words. I even visited again after a while just to see if anything had changed. Often, as in the Audio Note room, among others, you catch them at a bad moment, and one that doesn't properly convey the capability of a component. I feel such a situation deserves a second listen. As stated, I hope this sound represented some sort of anomaly, as no one could consider that high fidelity, or so I hope.
Both times I listened, the Ohm speakers played at a (not all that high) volume that completely overwhelmed the drivers. The best description I can use is how a television or clock radio sounds when my family turns it way up so they can listen 3 rooms away. Distortion attained a level I've not heard in a high-end audio loudspeaker in a very, very long time at those volumes. Within that, low frequency extension didn't seem a heck of a lot better than the aforementioned non-audiophile implementations. This coming from someone who's familiar with a properly set up pair of Ohm A that seem to go all the way down to DC.
What am I comparing it to? Just 40+ years of hearing countless audio components in a variety of settings. If that wasn't what you were asking, could you rephrase the question, please?
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@asvjerry My favorite rooms:
Rethm Bhaava driven by Linear Tube Audio ZOTL amplifier. BEST OF SHOW. Luscious, full, coherent, and beautiful sound. Perhaps only let down by the Aqua CD player front end. Considering this amplifier and loudspeaker combination comes in at just $6550, wonderful sound comes in much more affordably than we normally get told about
Trio loudspeakers driven by the Pass Labs Integrated. Would have loved to also hear them with the 2A3 amplifier they were saving for later
Martin Logan
Cambridge Audio. As we know from the first listing, price does not always correlate with sonic quality
Perhaps, I left a room off, but you can consider any not listed above to have sounded poor or worse
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@asvjerry, thank you for your insight.
Ohm did have a room at the show. They earned my WORST OF SHOW award going away
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@willemj, I happened to see it prior to removal. Agreed with some of it, disagreed with some of it. But felt it added greatly to the discussion here, and feeling baffled as to what motivated removal. Stifling good, honest opinion that does not contain profanity, business or other impropriety, or threatens harm yields bad results for all of us. Definitely not healthy in terms of discourse or pushing the hobby forward
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@willemj, as you can see, folks would appreciate you reposting. Of course, who saves these things? And you may feel it more trouble than anything else.
I can reiterate, he said NOTHING warranting moderation or removal of the post. Mostly talked from a common sensical approach to audio, closer to the objectivist camp than a lot of folks here. There were things I didn't agree with, mostly regarding tube amplification's inferiority, as well as things I don't get into dogmatic / philosophical disagreements with others over like "snake oil" audio components / products / tweaks. But overall, I felt it interesting, insightful, intelligent, and most definitely, welcome.
Color and conversation make the world go 'round, and we all benefit from the perspectives of many, not few. And I can't believe I'm the only person who feels that way
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