Amir's 2023 Pacific Audio Fest Report Day 2

[DuncanTodd]

Great reading and seeing all the posts.

These kind of shows make me wonder if there is really room/market for so many expensive brands.

 

[amirm]

It is a very fragmented market. A few companies get bulk of the business and the rest divide the pie into hundred pieces.

 

[DuncanTodd]

It is a very fragmented market. A few companies get bulk of the business and the rest divide the pie into hundred pieces.

Which companies dominate the market?

 

[Purité Audio]

The ones who advertise the most.
Keith

 

[Oldasdrt]

Thanks for the great reviews,
With some great tunes also,
An old classic with Neil too

You've got a lot of reviews to do

 

[CleanSound]

Which companies dominate the market?

The brands that Magnolia at Best Buy and Crutchfield carries.

B&W, McIntosh, KEF, Focal to name a few.

You can also tell by what brands floods the used market.

The ChiFis are starting to (or has already) dominate the DAC market.

 

[JohnBooty]

Going to a "high end" audio show a few years back definitely cured me of my upgrade-itis.

I had a great time, but 99% of that crap was just "audio jewelry."

Some of the speakers were impressive, but not much more so than some well implemented DIY designs I've heard.

(I'm sure that some of the speakers would have been more impressive in a proper listening environment. Hotel rooms are not ideal acoustical spaces and were nearly always too small for the speakers on display)

 

[JohnBooty]

Great reading and seeing all the posts.

These kind of shows make me wonder if there is really room/market for so many expensive brands.

I was thinking that too. Looking at a lot of these products I have to wonder about their sales figures. How many $4,000 DACs are these guys selling? Maybe 10 if they're lucky? Obviously the "screw measurements, I just want to drop megabucks on gear" audiophiles exist, but because I avoid those kinds of communities I sometimes forget they exist.

 

[Geert]

The first suite I hit was from a company with a new approach to system design: active speakers with full streaming and DAC built in! The company was Cabasse and their Rialto speaker:

Spoke to them about getting a sample for review.

The Rialto is a lifestyle product. Expect it to measure compromised according to ASR's standards. It would be more interesting to measure their Murano bookshelves. That would give a better impression of the quality of the coax technology the company has been known for more than 70 years.

 

[CleanSound]

I had a great time, but 99% of that crap was just "audio jewelry."

If it's audio jewelry with no substance, then that's just silly, but if it's audio jewelry with legit engineering behind the hood, that's another story.

I feel like there are just too many in the camp that races to the bottom of the barrel and are happy with an amp that measures great but encased in a cardboard box.

 

[Ricardus]

I feel like there are just too many in the camp that races to the bottom of the barrel and are happy with an amp that measures great but encased in a cardboard box.

I'll take it, but cardboard is a horrible RF shield so at least make it a cheesey metal box.

 

[amirm]

Which companies dominate the market?

For speakers Wilson rules. For amps, it is more fragmented. I would say VTL, Pass Labs, VAC, D'Agostino enjoy a larger share.

 

[AdamG]

It took me a few days and some deep searching to get the best and exact match’s to the Music/Songs listed by Amir over this three part Thread(s). I had to improvise a few tracks that I was unable to find exact matches for. I did give it my best effort. Without further ado. Here is the updated Complete Playlists for Apple Music and Tidal. The Somgs are arranged in the order they were presented in these three threads. (69 Songs)

Amir’s 2023 Pacific Audio Fest Music Selections (Apple Music)

Amir’s 2023 Pacific Audio Fest Music Selections (Tidal)

 

[JohnBooty]

If it's audio jewelry with no substance, then that's just silly, but if it's audio jewelry with legit engineering behind the hood, that's another story.

I agree that there's nothing wrong with audio jewelry. It is not wrong for an audio enthusiast to want their gear to look and feel nice. I love me some milled aluminum and luxurious controls.

But there's something rotten in the way it tends to be marketed in the luxury audio industry. It's usually hopelessly entangled with vague snake-oily claims of audio performance superiority.

For a counterpoint I would point at the watch industry/hobby. A $15 Casio watch will objectively outperform any Rolex when it comes to timekeeping. And it's fine. Rolex doesn't market their watches as some sort of objectively better watch relative to affordable quartz watches. There is an understanding that the luxury features of a Rolex are almost entirely unrelated to actual performance and that there are many other reasons to consider a Rolex.

I guess I've got some pretty subjective gripes here, but the "luxury audio" industry absolutely rubs me the wrong way, in ways that other luxury goods don't.

 

[brandall10]

How many $4,000 DACs are these guys selling? Maybe 10 if they're lucky?

I'd be surprised if Chord sold *less* than 300 or so Daves, and those things are $14k now. And anyone who owns one has certainly been through a whole slew of DACs in the 4 digit territory.

 

[JohnBooty]

It took me a few days and some deep searching to get the best and exact match’s to the Music/Songs listed by Amir over this three part Thread(s). I had to improvise a few tracks that I was unable to find exact matches for. I did give it my best effort. Without further ado. Here is the updated Complete Playlists for Apple Music and Tidal. The Somgs are arranged in the order they were presented in these three threads. (69 Songs)

Amir’s 2023 Pacific Audio Fest Music Selections (Apple Music)

Amir’s 2023 Pacific Audio Fest Music Selections (Tidal)

Oh, nice! I'm sure quite a few of us will (at a minimum) find some tracks to add to our "gear testing" playlists.

 

[lewdish]

Hope you can make time to do a more in- depth review on these speakers.

That and Mesavonic would be great too!

 

[CleanSound]

I'll take it, but cardboard is a horrible RF shield so at least make it a cheesey metal box.

No need to wish, there's plenty of them on the market to choose from! You will find many of the class D assemblers and DIYs with plain black metal box. And you you can't just have any type of metal, you will need ferrite metal to do the job.

 

[Ricardus]

No need to wish, there's plenty of them on the market to choose from! You will find many of the class D assemblers and DIYs with plain black metal box. And you you can't just have any type of metal, you will need ferrite metal to do the job.

Love my Buckeye amps! I'm not out to impress my friends with CNC machined cases, giant heatsinks, and pointlessly large electrolytic capacitors.

 

[CleanSound]

There is an understanding that the luxury features of a Rolex are almost entirely unrelated to actual performance and that there are many other reasons to consider a Rolex.

Exactly, I don't own a Rolex, but I do own couple of decent mechanical watches, although I only wear my Fitbit nowadays.

Rolex will never be more accurate in time keeping than a Casio. But the mechanical movement is mesmerizing and adoring, the brand has a history that give you a pride of ownership, the fact that it's hand made by a person who had to master his craft is satisfying. The Rolex is heavy, big and clunky yet it's exquisite, hence, it's luxury.

Not to say that's how I would feel with HiFi, I don't think I will get that kind of feeling with a d'agostino amp.