This was my first Audio Fest in many years. I’m retired now and glad to be back in the hobby. I’m building loudspeakers, and Ronnie Thackeray of Carolina Audio (tm) is having me build for him now. We have a nice 2-way, and I wanted to see how it compared to speakers at the show. I’m currently building a full range based on the 2-way’s cabinet-so I wanted to hear that type as well.
I have to say—that Hilton is the most confusing building I’ve ever been in. It’s like being in a M C Escher drawing. I got lost just walking in the garage. My car was close to the entrance, and I wasn’t going to move it for any reason! Fortunately there were some nice restaurants in walking distance from the hotel.
The big rooms/systems were magnificent, ( NOLA, KROMA, VonSchweikert and others). In most every case I thought the image was unnaturally large. And why did they have the speakers out in the middle of the room? Cost? Prohibitive for most. If I wanted to fill a ballroom with sound, I’d get a set of Altec VOTs. I have a pair of Tom Tutay’s modded Altec 1570b monoblocks that would push them nicely!
Show standouts for me:
ELAC—had a great sounding small powered speaker. AptX Bluetooth and quite a good value @$300. Give Billy CRUTCHFIELD a call and get yourself a pair. The Rep said that there’s a bigger set in the works. Black Friday prices are in effect now.
ATC Acoustic Engineers—showed a 3-way that sounded great and was a good value. Available as passive or powered $5999/$10,999 per pair. The big domed mid driver might be the star here. Nice coherent image and they Rock!
MON Acoustic—showed three small monitors that I thought sounded quite good. I heard the Platimon VC One, a MTM design with AMT tweeter. These imaged well. A great natural sound with the Triangle Art and Chord electronics. I could be happy with these.
Since I’m building a full range speaker now, I was interested in hearing other FR designs:
Voxative was my first exposure. I have not favoured this “Lowther” type of driver in the past. I’ve heard a few DIY efforts and thought them to be shouty in nature. I noted a more forward presentation rather than shout with the Voxative horns and they really engaged me. Bass was surprisingly deep. Voxative’s own 211 tube integrated pushed the speakers nicely. Very attractive looking integrated! I visited Vox a second time, and I found the bass to be excessive and poorly controlled. At $12.5K a pair, it’s a No from me.
Songer Audio—on Saturday was playing their Field Coil open baffle HF driver speaker. A 2-way design with a enclosed woofer. I noted a similar forward presentation with greater detail in the upper frequencies. The bass had greater extension and was better controlled. Even so, I felt that the bass was a bit plump and excessive. At $37K for the pair, it’s a No from me.
MACO/Macaria—Did anyone notice the two ladies with a interesting looking pair of open baffle speakers out in a hallway? I did, and I stopped to chat. This is a brand new speaker and MACO didn’t even have time to arrange a room with electronics. They invited me to an after hours audition-if they could find a room to present. MON Acoustic stepped up and generously offered their electronics and room. This was pure magic. The Macaria is a 2-way open baffle speaker. Input sensitivity is 88dB. Impedance depends on the number of voice coils used. The woofer has two coils to accommodate this. Similar forward presentation, but this time it was like a direct neural injection into the music. I was twitterpated. (a Disney term) The Macarias would be a excellent tool for a recording studio-you know exactly what’s happening in the recording. Music flows effortlessly from these speakers, and it really is like having a full symphony in your room. Dynamics are a particularly strong point here. Coherent transition from top to bottom. The bass is deep, powerful and well controlled without bloom or bloat. Great texture at all frequencies. Wow……I understand that these come in different materials. Granite, Quartz, solid hardwoods, and itch ply. I’m most interested in the Birch plywood version as birch imparts a natural warmth into the sound-which I like. At $6K for the Birch, these things punch way above their price point. For me, these speakers were the very best of show at CAF. A close friend that was with me thought so as well. A true shame that more folks didn’t get get to hear the Macarias. I’ve been into audio and music since I was small. I’m 68 now and I think that these are quite special.
maco-audio.com
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