LA Audio Show 2017: Day 2

[amirm]

PBN Audio, Liberty Audio, Purist Audio

La Cinquantaine by Aage Kvalbein. https://shz.am/t56626100

Can't find a preview. It was an LP and sounded nice and warm.

 

[DonH56]

Power amp is way over my price range but is one of the very (very, very) few I have seen that is actually spec'd to deliver 4x the power in bridged (mono) mode. Some serious current capability in that one...

 

[amirm]

PBN Audio, Liberty Audio, Porterhouse Audio, Purist Audio, Shrimp Audio (just checking to see if anyone is reading)

 

[amirm]

Madisound Speaker Components. These guys are a great distributor for DIY speaker building. If I were into that kind of thing, I would not leave their suite for a couple of hours.

 

[amirm]

I wrote extensively about those nice sounding scanspeak speakers/drivers in my AXPONA 2017 write up.

 

[amirm]

Silverline Audio, Brown Electronic Labs, Furutech, Symposium acoustics.

 

[amirm]

This was a neat find. These little speakers built in bay area sounded surprisingly good. Well above a lot of well-know brands. They were staged correctly with wide separation which gave them big soundstage but at the same time, they produced pretty focused and detailed representation of instruments and their location. And the presenter, Alan Yu had great selection of music to show them off.

 

[amirm]

Silverline Audio, Brown Electronic Labs, Furutech, Symposium acoustics.

Regular Pleasures by Patricia Barber. https://shz.am/t20051742

Nice with the characteristics I mentioned above.

Playing it on my main system now... The bass is stunning! It is extremely deep and reference quality! Get this album even though she is overplayed.

 

[amirm]

Silverline Audio, Brown Electronic Labs, Furutech, Symposium acoustics.

Take Me Down by Larry Carlton. https://shz.am/t40159630

Superb. Lots of detail. Excellent expansive presentation.

Sadly can't find it on Tidal so no reference to my system.

 

[amirm]

Silverline Speakers.

The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Pat Metheny & Charlie Haden. https://shz.am/t10835652

Superb.

 

[amirm]

Nordost.

He went through his series of USB cables from "his wife's printer cable" to their > $1,000. All sounded the same to me by tuning out what he was saying in between.

 

[amirm]

Nordost.

Still Feel Like Your Man by John Mayer. https://shz.am/t342059084

They usually play very nice track but this time, this selection was just "OK." The Amati speakers were too close as with many other suites causing tiny soundstage between them.

Tidal only has a compressed soundtrack as part of a video. It sounds better on my system due to wider distance between speakers and more dynamic but still a non-reference track.

 

[amirm]

Nordost.

Retrograde by James Blake. https://shz.am/t80398239

Good ambiance.

On my system it has the same ambiance and deeper but muffled/distant bass (poor recording). Vocals really stand out from the background of instruments. Overall it is very good track.

 

[amirm]

Stein Music

 

[amirm]

Stein Music

Dat Dere by Rickie Lee Jones. https://shz.am/t56381113

Very nice with open soundstage.

On my system it sounds very good with better bass and warmth.

 

[amirm]

Stein

Pictures At An Exhibition : I. Gnomus (Arr. J.V.A. Guillou) by Jean Victor Arthur Guillou

As usual classical hits are not necessarily correct. Regardless, it had nice deep notes with strange flutter.

On my system, it also has deep bass with much larger soundstage, and the flutter that I heard is extreme low bass that my system is resolving independently of the other notes.

 

[amirm]

Stein

Kyrie (Vidala-Baguala) by Mercedes Sosa. https://shz.am/t44427923

Great track. Deep drums and excellent vocal and ambience.

On my system, it has the same characteristics but again, with larger presentation. The guitar presentation at 1:30 or so is delightful. Get this music.

 

[amirm]

Stein.

Violin Concerto No. 1 In A Minor Op. 99, Nocturne, Part 1 by Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra & Yevgeny Mravinsky & David Oistrakh. https://shz.am/t57049858

LP. Lots of groove noise. Not a good match for this system (matches a larger system better). Dynamic but big step down from digital.

On my system,hmmm, it has the same problem . It just doesn't sound orchestral as one imagines. There orchestra is buried in the background with prominent violin in the foreground. But no groove noise!

 

[amirm]

Micromega, Focal. I have seen the same configuration at half a dozen shows and was pretty bored and walked out.

 

[amirm]

Volti Audio Horn Speakers, Perla Audio Electronics, Triode Wire Labs Cables, Fidelis Music System