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Trelja in New York

Well, here it is. My own personal show report. I guess I should be ashamed of myself. Taking up all of this space and all. First, I regret that I did not meet anyone from Audiogon at the show. The show had a MUCH larger attendance than I ever could have anticipated. I mean it was gigantic. And many people there had no idea about high end audio. Second, my lucky day! While I was standing in line to purchase a ticket, a guy announced that the show sucked, and was offering to give his away. Guess who the lucky recipient was? Well, I was able to save the price of admission. I did give my $4 coupon to the guy behind me. Now, for the show... I was disappointed in the sound of most of the rooms. Other than exhibitors displaying on the 2nd and 4th floors, the rooms were just too small. It was a joke. Virtually everyone displaying on the 9th, 10th, and 42nd floors were in bad rooms. Especially, those on the 9th and 10th floors. These manufacturers simply overpowered the rooms they were in. Sound was horrible. One exception to the "too small room" set was Talon speakers. A lousy sounding speaker in my opinion. Thin, weak, and underpowered. Anemic. They definitely get the "all show, no go" award. This is a speaker with a 5 digit price tag? I wonder how someone who owns this speaker feels. They were eclipsed in the "biggest disappointment" category however. By none other than the $85K Dynaudio Evidence. Yes, they play loud, and without strain. That is the best thing I can say about them. But, they need to go visit the Wizard. They have no heart, or soul. These two speakers are proof positive of two things. One, you don't have to spend a lot of money to get good sound. And two, brains and money do not necessarily go hand in hand. Next up for duds was the Creek demo. Nice turntable, but their amp/speakers were terrible. I have heard Creek amps sound a heck of a lot better. Poor job by a good company goes to Rogue. I forget the other companies in their room already, and they should take my lead. Their electronics are a bit pushy, and need to be mated with speakers and cables which are more mellow. It was not the case here, and the sound was bad. Linn was also getting poor sound, despite the fact that they were in a good room. Too much bass and brightness. Are they going for the boom and sizzle crowd? Silverline and Triangle speakers can sound much better than they did at this show. And what is going on with Alon these days? Here was a great speaker company. Their new products seem to be aimed squarely at Donald Trump and Fabio. Expensive would be a supreme understatement. What happened to this company, with its value oriented philosophy? They would dominate just about any room. Nice treble coming from the Raven tweeter. Guess that answers our questions. Seems to be a great, high sensitivity tweeter. Should we think of this tweeter for the SET crowd? Another disappointment, Red Rose Music. They are coming hard, but give them a good listen, and see that if you stop listening to what they tell you you are hearing, the sound is definitely not worth the asking price. Don't believe the hype. Nice treble though, ala the ribbon tweeter(just like Alon). One more. Whoever that horn speaker company is who was in the Atma Sphere room, please GET OUT of the speaker business. Now. And Atma Sphere, you did yourselves a tremendous disservice by teaming up with that company. Fundamentally flawed is all I can say about those horns. Speaking of horns, I was not able to listen to the AvantGardes(ran a demo every 30 minutes), one of the few I could not hear. As I said, most of the sound was bad. I wonder how I would feel if I was showing my products with this kind of sound. Mortified, I think. OK, enough griping, let's get to the winners. First up is Trelja's "Best of Show" award. It goes to the Vandersteen 5s, driven by the new Cary V12 amps. By a landslide. A LOT of companies should take a lesson from what these guys are doing. Impressive. Most impressive. Next up is "Most Stunning" component. This one is also a landslide. The forthcoming Western Electric 300B amps. Yes, you read that right. Art deco. They are not yet operational, but coming in the summer. Just let me put it this way, if they sound 25% as good as they look, they will be the best amps you can buy. And, actually a bargain at $16/pair, complete with WE300B tubes. JMLabs speakers sounded great. These guys are pros. Coincident took the "Best of Show" on one of the tough floors. I know I may seem to lack credibility on this one, but it is true. They did not destroy their sound, and that was enough to earn them the Blue Ribbon. The word smart comes to mind when thinking of the Musical Fidelity room. Unlike Rogue, they mated their products very well. Enough so that the whole system sounded warm and full, despite the new MF line being more neutral and analytical. These guys understand what good sound is. They used Analysis Plus cabling, and it was good(Megasam knows a good combination when he hears it). Merlin speakers struck me as something to try to hear more of, despite not sounding well in their rooms. Cary amps sounded good in most of the places they were playing. Mirage sounded good to me, despite having one of the empiest rooms in the whole show. The Joule Electra room(I forget who they teamed with) fell into the same group as Merlin for me. Not spectacular at the show, but I would like to hear them in a better setting. Dick Sequerra was a prince to me, despite being a God in this industry. Israel Blume was also stellar, though he is not yet a Dick Sequerra. All in all, not a bad time. Just that there were far too many people to be able to give some companies a really good listen. I think less attendance would be a boon to people like us. We would be able to focus more into every room. Hope everyone else who went enjoyed themselves.
trelja

Showing 3 responses by tubegroover

tubegroover
2,320 posts
 
Nice report Joe. Now if you're ever down Florida way, I'm a stone throw away from Plastic World, stop by for a Merlin demo. Show conditions are horrendous in most instances. I remember the worst I ever heard Vandersteen sound was at a show. So what does that say? I can't imagine that all these products are as bad as they sounded at the show. btw, were the Vandy 5's in a larger room? Did they have an advantage over the other set-ups?
tubegroover
2,320 posts
 
Macm and Djjd, I didn't really feel that Trejla was "reviewing" anything but rather offering his opinion on how things sounded at the show. The remarks concerning Talon speakers in particular seems to reflect what has been typically stated about their sound without the proper break-in. It seems to me that a manufacturer that is going to go through the time and expense of doing a show would do all possible to present good sound. I don't think enough of them pay attention to that very important detail. Show conditions notwithstanding, I think all Joe did was state what he heard and what he liked. It should be a wake-up call for manufacturer’s do better. If they can’t or won’t they generally lose out by lost business through lack of interest. A show is a great opportunity for manufacturers and dealers alike to strut their stuff and it shouldn’t be squandered but often is. I ask you this why does Bobby Palkovic always get great reviews of his products at shows? Because he has a better product or is it because he knows how to set up a room to optimize the virtues of his products?
tubegroover
2,320 posts
 
Djjd – Let me explain my defense of Trejla. Hi-end audio is a very specialized field with a relatively small group of individuals and a very small group of manufacturers. Most of us live in markets where these products aren’t readily available for audition without traveling a distance. My guess is that most of the smaller designers of these products aren’t in it for the money so much as the satisfaction of lending their talents to the improvement of SOTA sound. Maybe they feel they have something better to offer than is already out there. Whatever their reasons, to get attention, that is to present your product in the best possible light, all efforts should be made and no stones should be left unturned. A 101 class in marketing might just help some of these designers that don’t seem to have a clue.

Now if you have a small manufacturer that is spending several thousand dollars to present his product for hundreds if not thousands of potential customers to hear, why would you not spend THE TIME and added expense to make sure that your product is sounding its best? A very good point was made by Joekras, we all don’t have ideal listening environments. I’m going to pick on Talon again for the simple reason that I have heard exactly what Trejla has stated about what he heard, and from owners. They take several hundred hours to break-in. My question is why don’t the Talon folks break the speakers in BEFORE the show? Duh, am I missing something here? I may or may not hear their intrinsic virtues during a brief listen but I’m certainly going to give more consideration if I hear them at their best. I read exactly the same comments from professional reviewers at the CES in January. These manufacturers are asking a lot from potential customers to just write off the fact that “show conditions” were the basis for poor sound. I say let the chips fall where they will. If a manufacturer IS NOT savvy enough to realize the opportunity a show presents in showcasing his product, the fact is he isn’t going to last in this tough, competitive world of hi-end audio and as far as I’m concerned doesn’t deserve to. Hi-end audio is a hard-nosed unforgiving business, more so than many. These guys need to wake up to the fact that first impressions are the most important. They need to take advantage and seize the moment. I say if they don’t know how to set-up a room HIRE someone that does. As far as I’m concerned there is no excuse for some of the poor sound I’ve heard at the few shows I attended other than lack of effort.

One final word, Trejla or any one individual that posts here on Audiogon isn’t going to influence my opinion or anyone else’s concerning any particular product. We are as individualistic and opinionated a group as any I can think of. I certainly value yours and Macm’s opinion as well as Joe’s. I hear in Joe’s comments an absolute frustration, maybe even a general admonishment to manufacturers. They really need to do better if they want our business. We are talking about products with price tags in the multi thousands of dollars. I don’t know about you but I have both hands on my wallet and before I shake one hand loose long enough to plunk down the long green, I’m going to be certain about what I’m paying for and I won’t be influenced by anything more than my own ears.
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