Pacific Audio Fest

Overall Goebel system driven by CH precison amp wth Wadax source is the most authoritative and balanced sound.

But to me Genesis gave more excitement.

I will get back to Goebel again on Sunday.

Asylvox speaker in rather small room still sound organic and textured as excellent planar speaker.

It was pleasure to meet Bob.

I had used Apogee Duetta Sig from 1990 to 1999.

Asylvox seems to sound better than Duetta in texture and relaxed harmonics.

This room also give clean and neat sound.

My guess is that LTA amplifier works well with Spatial Audio speaker.

I had gone through all the rooms today.

it was lot of fun.

Half of them sounds good.

30% of them so so.

20 of them problematic.

The best sounding speakers is Genesis system driven by Merril Audio pre and power amp, source was VPI turntable.

In very large room, this huge Genesis speaker gave live sound of big band with clariry.

Thomas

The most intimate and musical sound is from Kroma Julieta speaker (white one)

I had planned to attend all three days.

But I am too tired after dropping more than 40 rooms today.

I will take a day off Saturday and be back to it on Sunday.

The sound is coming from smaller speaker which cost 400$ which include internal Dac and amplifier.

All you have to do is to connect USB from your laptop.

It also has bluetooth connection
 

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STEREO SYSTEMWITHOUT THE NEED FOR A GIANTVANATOO SPEAKERS MAKE YOUR MUSIC BIGWITH MUSICFILL YOUR HOMESHOP NOWSHOP NOWAWARD WINNING SOUND, KILLER CONVENIENCETRANSPARENT ONE ENCORETRANSPARENT ZEROSHOP NOWCLEAR SOUND FOR DISCERNING EARSAND SHIMMERING HIGHSWITH FULL DEEP BASS, CLEAR ARTICULATE...

 vanatoo.com

The larger one cost 600$.

This kind of speaker wil be good for young people.

Thomas

I dropped in Voxative room expecting to listen to their field coil full range speaker.

Instead they display Hagen full range unit (96db/W) supplemented by Alberich subwoofer.

They also have black box which contains Dac streamer and amplifer which need to be connected to laptop or tidal.

Cost of Hagen  and Alberich is 18k$.

But even with blakc box, the total cost is 22k$.

To me the sound quality is up to audiophile standard.

Hagen which is run full range without any netwoerk give nice details while Alberich subwoofer. give nice woomph.

It is worth as serious total package.

Acora speaker sounds clean and detailed driven by Vac amp and Lampi Horizon Dac.

It use Scanspeak drivers including berrilum tweeter.

It's inert cabinet using real granite contribute to clean sound.

Considering its weight (250 lb for each) and expensive driver units, it does not appear to be expensive at 27000$.

The most important thing is that it's sound is enjoyable.

Estelon showed lot of promise in small room.

It sounds clear and dynamic.

It was driven by Kreall pre and power amp.

it would be worthwhile to try warmer sounding pre amp on it to give mor body on the sound.

This speaker called Linkwitz looks funny but it sounds clear and holographic.

This system sound very musical.

The most notable thing is the cost of amplifiers is modest compared with that of speaker.

Raidaho speaker cost 70k$ while Margules power amp and pre amp cost 10k$ and 7k$ only.

I got the feeling that Margules pre is good.

Thus I bought it at show discount price of 6k$.

After installing in my system, I am happy with it.

It use 4 12AU7(ECC82) and one 6922(6jd8) tubes.

Thus lot of room for tube rolling.

I replaced the stock Elextro harmonic tubes with NOS Amperex.

It really sound gracious.

This room also gave very musical sound.

Well Audio is making excellent amps and dac.

I almost pulled the trigger for its new tube Dac called Cipher.
 

http://www.wellsaudio.com/cipher-dac

The Songer speaker is modern field speaker but in Vintage style.

I enjoyed its intimate and fast sound in Pacific Audiofest.
 

home | Songer Audio

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songeraudio.com

5a3 push pull amplifier was also interesting.

http://whammerdyne.com/

During Pacific audiofest, I enjoy sound from vinyl than digital source.

This modest priced Modwright component with vinyl give very musical sound.

But I had quit vinyl 25 years ago, no turntable, phonoamp and vinyl.

Alas it may be too late to go back to vinyl.

One of the component that I am eager to listen to is Lamphi Horizon Dac.

Von Schickert speaker driven by Vac amps with source of Lamphi Horizon Dac sounds clear and musical.

Then I asked the gentleman to play vinyl for comparison.

Wow vinyl sounds much more convincing from Cronus turntable.

Thus i got the feeling that as good as Lamphi Horizon Dac sounds,, it does fall short of best vynil playback in analog ease

But I do not mean that Lamphi Horizon Dac does not sound good.

Acora speaker driven by Vac amps with source of Lamphi Horizon Dac sounds clear with nice impact.


About 4 years ago, I had done comparison between MSB Select II and Cronus turntable in the same set up using same music.

MSB Select II match analog easeness of Cronus turntable at that time.

The only two Dacs that match best analog to my taste are Wadax and MSB Select II.



In the meantime you can tune the sound of Lamphi Horizon Dac through tube rolling.

Thus I will keep watching Lamphi Horizon Dac .

I enjoyed Pacific audiofest very much.

It had been 10 years since I attended any audio show.

CES audio show 2011 at Las Vegas was the last time that I did.

This audio show let me spend 30k$.

6k $ on Margules pre amp which I bought just after the show close.

After listening to lot of exceelnt sound using Aurender music server, I auditioned N20 at home.

But I had decided to buy N 30 instead for further upgrade.

I listened to " Ketith don’t go" at many rooms.

I am happy to listent to the music at my home using new pre amp and N20 that I auditioned at home.😃

Thomas