Amir's 2023 Pacific Audio Fest Report Continued

[Spocko]

My thought is that at some point we want to have our own show with proper seminars, tutorials, and of course, exhibitors that believe in audio science/engineering.

Will you prohibit demos that employ $30,000 cables?

 

[JayGilb]

Will you prohibit demos that employ $30,000 cables?

No, but I would allow systems hidden behind black curtains and allow people to see the systems only after they rated their sound reproduction.

 

[RenPa]

oh man! no serious people in there except Amir...

 

[poxymoron]

Thanks Amir. At those prices they have to be good, correct?

 

[Hayabusa]

Nice you put all the songs with it!

 

[Spkrdctr]

Amir, seems like the opinion is that just about every speaker sounds bright. Is that typical showroom sound?

Many (most) high end speakers are very bright. It is a selling point so the old guys with buckets of cash can hear the highs and then wants to buy. Their target market is not people in their 20's. So, you pay an extra $40,000 to get the sound that a $10,000 set up would do and just EQ the highs to where you like it. Different methods to get to the same place. Also, in high end there are many quite ugly speakers. I am amazed that Amir still has the raw courage and guts to attend a snake oil show. Amir goes where others fear to tread. A man's man! He takes the mental assault on your senses, eyes. and hearing so that we do not have to do it. A selfless hero in my book. Move over Chuck Norris, Amir is your replacement!

 

[sarumbear]

If there ever was a speaker designer that has no idea whatsoever about how speakers work, here it is.

Daedalus Audio

 

[Mathijs Kok]

If you are into thick cables, nirvana!

Power at show events is almost always catastrophically bad, with everybody plugging in whatever they have. So it is good that the 2 meters of power cable to the devices will 'filter' out all the noise.

 

[Drengur]

JR Sure is the name of the man and speakers! Said he was designing speakers in 1950s and back at it now. It uses an array of small drivers running full range with a long pipe going through the very think box and shooting out the top:

Look close... what do you see? Yes, Topping and Hypex amplifier! I asked him how he learned about them. He said "on some site they were showing very good measurements of them!" Told him who I was and we then had a very nice conversation. He wanted people to buy the whole system and get done.


I thought it sounded good!

This sounds like a very interesting man. I went to the Purifi booth in München and they had the Topping 90 DAC. Asked them about it and they were quite diplomatic until I made it quite clear that I thought science was cool and all.

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Andrew Jones' Mofi Speakers:

It was being shown by Just Audio which is an outfit which refurbishes old gear in addition to selling new. In the middle is a Sansui receiver. They were selling it for $5,000! It was in excellent shape.

This Hifi Rose streamer was in a few rooms:

Interesting use of very wide aspect ratio display. Might as well use the whole face of the unit.

Beck - Heart Is A Drum​

Nice strings (this may be the wrong look up). Sadly their wifi went down and I could not listen to anything else.

How come there is no wide slot for bagels on that DAC, who needs six slices at one time, talk about over engeering.

 

[ajax247]

My thought is that at some point we want to have our own show with proper seminars, tutorials, and of course, exhibitors that believe in audio science/engineering.

Great idea!!!

 

[Soria Moria]

An event like this would be perfect for hosting a large scale blind test study.

 

[bobster]

PureAudioProject. Interesting company. You get to build your own speaker configuration by purchasing modular pieces that you put together yourself (cost $8,500). Very nice folks. They had a Denafrips (Terminator II 12th) DAC they were using for digital playback.

Don Byron - Frasquita Serenade (1997)​

Sounded good (wrong look up?)

What you heard was probably from "Bug Music", a wonderful album, IMO - delightful jazz (and in the case of Raymond Scott, jazz-inspired) pieces from the 1930s, top-notch performances and gorgeous sound quality - one of the best-engineered albums I've heard.

 

[Spocko]

Many (most) high end speakers are very bright. It is a selling point so the old guys with buckets of cash can hear the highs and then wants to buy. Their target market is not people in their 20's. So, you pay an extra $40,000 to get the sound that a $10,000 set up would do and just EQ the highs to where you like it. Different methods to get to the same place. Also, in high end there are many quite ugly speakers. I am amazed that Amir still has the raw courage and guts to attend a snake oil show. Amir goes where others fear to tread. A man's man! He takes the mental assault on your senses, eyes. hearing and financial so that we do not have to do it. A selfless hero in my book. Move over Chuck Norris, Amir is your replacement!

This makes sense given that "old guys" suffer from high frequency hearing loss as a natural consequence of aging so the "bright" speakers may actually sound just right to them!

 

[krabapple]

If you only listen to one track from one album, the review of the *speaker* is going to be very influenced by the production of that track.

 

[JDS]

Andrew Jones' Mofi Speakers:

It was being shown by Just Audio which is an outfit which refurbishes old gear in addition to selling new. In the middle is a Sansui receiver. They were selling it for $5,000! It was in excellent shape.

This Hifi Rose streamer was in a few rooms:

Interesting use of very wide aspect ratio display. Might as well use the whole face of the unit.

Beck - Heart Is A Drum​

Nice strings (this may be the wrong look up). Sadly their wifi went down and I could not listen to anything else.

Gotta love the vintage receiver on demo duty (Sansui?)

 

[Short38]

If there ever was a speaker designer that has no idea whatsoever about how speakers work, here it is.

Daedalus Audio

Amen. A genuine oddity.

 

[pseudoid]

Forget all talks of audio hardware and music... yak, yak! blah, blah! yadi, yadi, yaddah!

What I really want to know is who does your time-management scheduling.

That's it for day 1. Man, I thought I grind through this quick and post all the day 2 pictures and music. I am beat now so that has to wait until tomorrow. Google says I took 75 pages so that will take a while to post.

How do you do it?

My thought is that at some point we want to have our own show with proper seminars, tutorials, and of course, exhibitors that believe in audio science/engineering.

... but wait, there is more...!

 

[lewdish]

waiting to see if tekton will ever make it to amirs desk

 

[egellings]

Wells Audio. TAD speakers:

Over the top on cables I would say although that is quite common at these shows:

Yello - Kiss in Blue (feat. Heidi Happy)​

Superbly recorded track. Sound was fine in this suite.

Prices are preposterously stupid. You're paying for membership in an elite club, and the membership comes with a piece of audio equipment.