I noticed that many of the former active members of WS have either moved on to something else or have achieved their audio finish line therefore do not post audio related experiences or system updates anymore. Except for updates & posts by Jack, Jadis, TAS, Voltraizer, Jon Agner, Doc Endrik and a few others, WS had been really quiet. Even the Man of Steel had reached his finish line na yata, bihira nang mag update dito. And for the record, I am not protesting nor criticizing fellow members, I am just stating the fact.. While I don't post much - I now go to What's Best Forum a lot. The site is very active, with lot's of discussions by people who know a lot about audio. The site keeps me interested in the hobby, and curious to hear more stuff. The people there talk a lot about Magico, Evolution Acoustics, reel to reel tapes, ultra expensive cables etc... so I decided to go to another show. The timing of the show is perfect - June, when we are not that busy at work, and the place is sunny Newport Beach, California so pwede na ring isabay ang mini vacation. I wanted to go to RMAF, but the timing does not work for me because it happen on the busy season for our company.
As in CES 2008, my wife travelled with me. We booked 6 days at The Resort At Pelican Hill, wow this place is one of the most beautiful resort we've been to. I highly recommend this place. It is a short drive to the Atrium and Hilton, and to the beach. I bought a Magellan GPS two days before the trip, updated the map and tested it around Edmonton. It worked. Upon arrival, we rented a Mazda 2, installed the GPS and tried to start our California adventure. When I turned it on, I punched the first destination and the GPS gave me an instruction for a 50+ hour trip from Edmonton (showing as current location) to Newport Beach. I realized it was not receiving signal from the satellite so drove out of the undergound parking lot this way. Once out in the street - it recalibrated and gave us the right direction.
the swimming pool at Pelican Hill Resort. It is open for guest use 24 hours a day, but it will take a lot of guts for somebody to use it at dinner time. There's a highend restaurant overlooking the pool that get's full at around dinner time. Nakakahiyang magpa tihatihaya habang pinapanood ka ng mga nagpo formal dining
Back to audio - I enjoy coming here to WS because I enjoy reading about members' systems and members eyeballs aside from learning technical stuff and widening my musical horizon. I learned a lot from coming here. Tito once told me "time will come that it will be your turn to share or teach something". I doubt there is much to learn from me
kaya share na lang. That's one of the reasons why I keep updating my journey.The SHOW was being held at the Atrium and Holiday Inn Hotels - the two hotels are side by side and just across the street from the John Wayne Airport. We landed at 2 pm on May 31 and by 3 pm we were out on the street trying to get our GPS to work. By the time it recalibrated to give us the right direction, we missed the first turn already. So we made a loop and tried to enter the parking lot of Atrium, it was packed and we were pointed to Holiday Inn, whose parking lot was full also. We attempted to park at the overflow parking - which was full as well. It was 3:30, we were both getting hungry and thinking that the show is officially closing at 6pm, we decided to head straight to the Resort at Pelican Hills, we picked up some groceries and nick nacks from a grocery store along the way. The resort is around 10 miles away, but traffic in Newport Beach/Orange County is much lighter than LA, so I don't really mind the drive.
When we arrived at the resort, I was really impressed and quickly realized what ultra luxury means. There were rows of Escalades, Range Rovers, Ferraris, BMWs, Porsches. The clean cut uniformed valet parking attendant must be shaking his head and asking himself "what is this Mazda 2 doing here".
lobby with neutral colored decor to match the theme of the rest of the resort
The front desk staff made us feel good from the get go by upgrading our accommodation to ocean view since we booked for 6 days. We were led to our residence for the next week - a row house bungalow on top of the hill. When we opened the patio doors of our room, we surprised a pair of hummingbirds in the flower bed. My wife loved the smell of the flowers flowing into our room and was really impressed by my choice.
front yard looked like this
I have to be really careful not to bump this car parked next to my Mazda 2, later in the week I noticed that the unit next to ours was occupied by five clean cut guys driving in and out of the resort in a black Escalade and they were keeping a close watch of the Rolls Royce and the owner.
One of the reasons why I picked this resort was because it has an Italian Restaurant, and my wife love Italian food. Quick scan of the breakfast menu in our room says like this - Banana 5, Bran Cereal 16, Freshly Baked Pastries 24... then at the bottom Delivery $5 plus 20% grats, plus plus. My wife, being Mrs Practical quickly decided that we will be dining out of the resort for the rest of the week. I told her I still have $5,000 rebate on my Visa and our planned trip to Europe is at least a year away so even if we blow another $k on food here, I can easily get it back to $12k by then. She said no way.. we can get decent meals at half the money. Hookey, you're the boss
Not wanting to deal with the parking issue again, we headed out early on Saturday morning.
we had breakfast at Atrium Hotel where most of the exhibitors were staying as well, you can easily identify them because most of them are wearing their lanyard/name tags already. After breakfast - we registered and proceeded.
The very first room we hit was the Tweak Studio Room, managed by no other than Mr. Arnold Martinez. Arnold was looking fresh and energetic and quite busy already. He was setting up the Burmester amps and other gears. There were also a couple of local Pinoy audiophiles, Arnold was busy so we just browsed around the room.
I was interested to get some Stillpoints for my VR5's but decided that I will bug Arnold for a bigger (than 15% offered) discount when nobody is around. We left the room and went to the second floor. At 10:30, most of the rooms at the Atrium were still closed or just being setup. So we decided to hit whatever rooms that are close by and playing music already.
Wilson Audio's room was still being setup. We hit Snake River Audio room
those Waterfall glass speakers look really nice in person
Next room we hit was this Kharma Room
Man, their electronics are really jewelry like in physical appearance. I can sit and look at them all day. Unfortunately, the guy looking after the room was still half awake - my wife noticed there was no sound coming from the right channel. I think the guy heard her and quickly checked out the system - alas, wala ngang tunog (akala ko hanep lang sa separation ang recording). Unfortunately, even with the two channels playing, it failed to impress me.
Magico Room
the system above was playing really good music, speakers sounded much bigger than what they looked like (no, it's not bloated). I was not that impressed with what I heard from the Magico room in CES 2008, while it did not sound bad, I thought it was ordinary considering all the praises they get. This setup changed my impression of Magico, for the better.
static display on the room next door
VTL/Wilson/Sonus Faber room
sounded good as well, lot's of good bass
you guys probably know this guy
more Sonus
I targeted the next room for a couple of reasons - Vapor & Empirical. Vapor audio has their own circle at AC, made by true audiophiles and decisions were made by people who are passionate about their craft and not by pencil pushers. Another popular brand among AC goers and to our very own snz is Empirical Audio. These guys are popular among audiophiles with real world budget, and while you won't see them occupying front pages of TAS nor find too much discussion among the elitists at WBF - the room sounded quite good actually. I would prefer tighter control on the abundant bass, but it sounded good and effortless. The Vapor Audio Nimbus speaker is a good deal, for well under $10k.
Arte Forma tube stuff
Vanatoo Speakers - if you walk into this room blind folded, listen to the music they play and later see the speakers, you will not believe what you heard. I was about to ask where the subs are, but the guy doing the demo said "there is no hidden sub" as soon as he started to speak They are powered speakers by the way, and I think a good buy for $600. I think it will work very well for a small/medium size room with a computer based system
on with the show.. by the way, I am too lazy to do post processing, so pasensya na kayo kung pangit ang ibang pictures. Daanin ko na lang sa dami
Another room that impressed me was the Angel City/Melody Audio room. They were playing a volume of Best Audiophile Voices which totally suited the characteristic of their system. The female voices were clear and crisp, the strings are delineated. I stayed here for a while, just listening and not evaluating the system. The Melody stuff look very well made as well. Their system was cabled by M & G cables - which are supposed to be hidden gems in cable land. I had a chat with the cable manufacturers and I will tend to believe them when them claimed that their cable will compete with the like likes of Nordost Odins ( a friend of mine has a system fully cable with Odins and heard it many times). I also had a long chat with Bill Glenn of Spiritual Audio, who asked me whose power conditional I use, I said I am using a copper shielded isolation transformers built from ground up by Mr. Rod Teope... di na sya nakapalag.
MSB - YG Acoustics
The guy was still setting up the room when we passed for the first time. He was moving stuff from another room and pushed a chair with a DAC on top of it to open the door. Of course, he dropped the DAC on the floor, I stopped to help but the guy quickly picked it up and closed the door. When I came back ,I told the guy "I hope your DAC survived the fall".. He said with a wink "of course, our stuff are well built".
The system, with YG Sonja actually sounded really good. I am more impressed with it than the bigger model I heard at CES 2008. Tito, wala nang bakod ang YG speakers ngayon
next room
parang Bose - direct/reflecting technology
Viva Italia. I almost bought a pair of Vivas (per Tito's recommendation) when I was just starting in the hobby and was surprised to see how big they really are. They looked good and sounded good.
next room - I forgot the details pero post na rin ang pictures, nandyan na yan eh
Dan Wright was sitting in the sweet spot and was still tweaking the room, but seems to be happy with what he was hearing kaya lang biglang parada sa harap yung dalawang kababayan natin
Lotus Group room - another good sounding room
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another room, with the $3,500 record weight from Durand. Yes, that's in US $
another approach in speaker design
Red Wine Audio's room also sounded good. Vinnie is in attendance and running the room
more rooms
UHA room
next
Gallo room impressed my wife, malinis daw tingnan. nahahalatang OCC
next
Power Conditioner porn
By the time we reached this room hindi na ako hinihintay ni Esmi. She had been walking from room to room and stay longer in the room when she can tolerate the music. I caught up on her sitting down already, on the second row just off the sweet spot. The room was playing some piano pieces, I can tell my wife was enjoying the music. The host came up to her and asked - "is there anything you'd like to hear Ma'am". I was standing right behind her, but she was not aware. She whispered to the guy "can you play anything by Richard Clayderman".. Sabi ko na nga ba
So I held her shoulder to make her aware and to signify to the guy that we are together and said to the guy - "my wife is requesting Richard Clayderman but I don't think you know the guy". The guy politely said "I don't think I know him, can I play you Beethoven instead?". Within a minute, my wife stood and thanked the host but as soon as she got out of the room she blurted "wala'y Richard Clayderman tapos magpa tukar ng mag karaw karaw sa piano, mura'g binuang".
I know it's time to take a break and eat our lunch. I had to appease her with some good tasting pasta
and calamari
After resting a bit, we walked to the pool area of the Atrium
I went to try the Amarra Suite (on sale, pm me if you are interested to buy the software at discounted price, I can give you the promotional discount coupon code) and compared to the plain old itunes via Audez LCD3 headgear. Amarra sounded better than the itunes, but I am spoiled with MP64
already.
across the pool and in adjacent building, you can find more software sellers
live entertainment.. Tierney Sutton is supposed to be here, but did not got a chance to see her
the food trucks were still doing brisk business even at 4pm
We walked over to the Hilton where they also have a mini car show going on, the Atrium has the cigar show going on at the same time as well
Hilton Lobby, I know there is also cigar show & wine tasting going on here somewhere
another room popular to the AC crowd, playing good music as well. the open side design of the speaker is interesting. It is open, yet you cannot hear any sound leaking to the side
this room was manned by three oriental guys, talking to each other loud and in a language nobody else seem to understand. Both days I saw people walking in and walking right out
more software sellers at The Hilton. I could see Chad Kasem running really energized inside his booth
Ayon room, shared with Greg Beron (RtoR tape) Room sounded great too.. Hugh Masekela sounded like he's in the room
along the hallway, the Systeme Desk recork cleaners are discount by $700
Magico - Synergistic Research room - one of my target rooms. Sounded great both Saturday and Sunday, with the Q7 driven by the VAC Statement electronics and playing digital files from a music server. The room was hosted/manned by Synergistic people who were trying really hard to push their cables (with active shielding) and their active bases along with their tuning cups. I won't elaborate too much, but you can read everywhere else about how this room was handled. I understand that the Synergistic people have so much invested and trying to make a sale. The scale, depth, width and dynamics of the system is just so good. I spent quite a bit of time on this room both days, trying to put everything into perspective (including the cost) and yeah, if the checkbook will allow I will one day aspire for a Q7, I wouldn't mind building a system around it- the speakers are just the right size physically too.
Nnenna Freelon playing live, she's good
Acoustic Arts & Marten room sounded good too
TAD (the Lexus of Pioneer) - another target brand
I thought it was so-so when I walked in, but sounded much better when they played some classical lps and cranked up the volume for John Atkinson.
The Evolution Acoustics/Playback Design room is also one of my target rooms because of the high praises everywhere for the Micro Mini One that's supposed to be a great deal for $2,500 (now bumped to $ 4,000. Here it is being driven by Playback Designs $13k all in one unit, playing some jazz music and I noticed Bruce Brown talking to the host (who looked like a Pinoy) when I walked into the room. It sounded alright, deep soundstage, great imaging and totally disappearing from the room. I was expecting more and left the room somewhat disappointed. Maybe the expectation was too high because of all the hype. I think I have another picture of the room when I passed it again on Sunday.
Across the hallway from EA is the Von Gaylord room, compared to the EA room, hindi nagkakalayo with the EA being a little more dynamic on the top end but this system I think was putting out better bass... less hype - lower expectation..
Linn room (different company from the Linn TT etc)
above are picture from the Sanders Room. My first audiophile purchase (well, not counting the Bose AM-7) included the ESL 300 made by the same company. Familiar sound. My expectation was rather high as well because this room was consistently reported to have excellent sound in most previous shows, and are supposed to be best audiophile value. Yes it sounded good, but when somebody request Stevie Ray Vaughan's Tin Pan Alley, I think it showed what the system cannot do. Definitely less (much less) meaty than what I am familiar to hear on this track.
another target room with high expectation - the Rockport room with their smallest speaker in their current lineup - the Atria. I think Rockport lived to my expectation. Sonically, it is very similar to the Von Schweikert sound in my honest opinion. Ken Boyce of Cake Audio told me that they only have less than 50 hours on the pair, but it really sounded good, with ample good bass. The design and finish are just topnotch, I wouldn't mind owning a Rockport speaker as well. Ken said he has a pair of the Arakkis 2 setup close to Steve Williams' place and he could arrange a visit to the owner place if I want to, but I said no, thank you - baka mapabili pa
another target room that lived to my expectation - the Perfect 8 & BAlabo room.. more about it later
after visiting some great sounding rooms consecutively, you are basically screwed for the rest of the day
, the bar has been lifted, very high. Thanks goodness hapon na.
another target room up on the tenth floor - the Von Schweikert room. Albert was busy talking to a group of people just outside the room so I walked in. The room was being run by a younger fellow, whom I believe is a grandson of Albert and as I understood it, the maker of Your Final System music server. The guy was saying he was playing his music when Albert is out of the room, but as soon as Albert walks in, Albert will tell him to switch to audiophile stuff. He was playing some new tunes that I am not very familiar with - but honestly, I was not impressed with what I was hearing. I waited a little bit hoping to catch Albert, but when I checked again - Albert was talking with another group of people again. I saluted him on the way out, but not sure if he recognized me. We were exchanging emails just before the show and he specifically told me to come by... well I said to myself may bukas pa naman.
The McIntosh room - I heard from a number of people in the elevator and in the hallways that this could be the best sounding room for the entire show. I had to check it out. And yes, it sounded really good.
Harbeth - Audio note room was really rocking it! The easy going looking guy (he looks like a club dj rather than suit clad salesmen you see at other rooms) was playing a Nirvana album rather loud and the room was filled by people who seem to enjoy what they were hearing, walang pakialam kung nasa sweet spot o wala. He said his boss like to do shows this way and plays the system even louder.
After Hours:
I was at the MBL room when the clock turned to six o clock. That's officially the end of the show. But not on this room. They were playing from a music server just before that, but when it turned 6, a guy (I think it is Greg Beron) walked to the front and said "gentlemen, welcome to our after hour program. From now on, till 9 pm we will be playing reel to reel tapes, mostly from recording masters".
They started the program with a couple of Led Zep tunes and wow, the room sounded really good. Great imaging, very dynamic. The bass is very tight and fast but if it is my system, I will hunt for a powered subs that could keep up with the speed of the MBLs
too bad I had to leave, I have no idea anymore kung nasaan na ang asawa ko. I called her and she was waiting in the car already. We were both craving for rice already so we looked for an oriental restaurant. Our GPS found Al's Palace a couple of miles away. It was full when we got there, we stood waiting by the door, the guy in front of us told us that the food here is really good, so the expectation was raised again. When we finally got seated and got to eat - we were both disappointed and barely ate anything. The fried rice and the noodles were both sloppy. We took the extras back to our room but decided to throw it away the following morning.
Day 2 - Sunday June 2
right after breakfast at the Atrium, we visited our kababayan. He was very warm and looked like he was genuinely happy to meet fellow Pinoy audiophiles. Somebody grabbed him before I could start with the Stillpoints, so we decided to leave. Albert gave me his card and encouraged me to communicate via email
It was still a little early, so we decided to check out the cars at the parking lot.
kit car from Factory Five looked really exotic. I am also dreaming to DIY this car with my cousin, one day .. LS9 crate engine from GM, turbo charged, Porsche transmission etc..
since she was no longer with me when I checked some rooms at the Hilton the day before, I told her to come with me to the Magico room.
hallway leading to the Magico Suite
wall suspended system idea
the artist who painted everything here. quite eager to make her first sale for the day readily posed when she noticed I was reaching for my camera.
Synergistic stuff
it was still a little early and the traffic was still light. we got to spend sometime at the sweet spot, my wife seemed to like what she was hearing.
they were pushing these room tweaks hard, showing (or try to) the differences with or without. They also turn on and off the active cable shielding and the active component bases.
cable porn. As I understood it, they have cable models that cost twice as much. I could only imagine, kasing laki na seguro ng braso (or hita)... my cable is bigger than yours
next room is where the $20k Sony speakers are. good, but I just walked out of the Magico room
Meitner stuff. look at the base used for the amps
Lamm did not get their own room.. but represented here
as you can see, lot's of empty spots on the record crates. Chad (in brown) must have sold lot's
Highwater Sound room, by no other than Jeff Catalano was playing a Rodrigo Y Gabriela lp - sounded great too
Oppo room, si boss marunong nang makipag agawan ng upuan
another well reviewed room in the past shows, the Nola speakers driven by JRDG stuff. The Nola speakers did not leave a long lasting impression on me the first time I heard them and same this year.
these guys are trying to do it differently, notice the feet on the stand on one side only
cool looking all in one player from Wadia, looks like a space ship
another target room because the new Alexias are supposed to be among the best effort from Wilson. I sat there for a while, even longer than Fremer and nothing really stood out to impress me. I was seated on the second row one seat to the right of the sweet spot, and when Fremer walked in the guy in the sweet spot instantly recognized him and relinquished his spot, Fremer sat down and had a warm conversation with the room host, they played some classical music and other instrumental stuff. He made some notes, took his camera, took some pictures and left. cool. I would not say it sound bad, it is just purely personal preference.
MBL room, still full of people
another room with MBL stuff
the Sonus Faber Aida... nasaan na si Lorna at si Fe?
front seat na si Esmi
I returned to the Perfect 8/BAlabo room with my wife, they played a variety of music, from violin, orchestra, jazz and some vocals. I really like these speakers, especially in portraying the male and female voice. The big The Force gave me goosebumps in 2008, this pair of the Truth are almost as good, but in smaller scale. Jonas will answer questions with short answers inside the room, but if he needs longer explanation - he would invite the other party to step out of the room with him. The show demo pair are heavily discounted, now available for only $84k.
The second Von Schweikert room, with Channel Island electronic - sounded pretty good and way beyond it's price point
everybody had been talking about this room, with the KEF LS50 and they deserve the attention. Sounding really good, if you have a smaller room - buy a pair of this.
The Voxativ room - very good with the right music. But I still scratch my head, why so much money for a single driver speaker?
heavily discounted Valvets
I don't recall seeing any room with the High Fidelity cables, but Rick Schultz was there, I spoke with him briefly on the elevator. Static display only on this room
the big Kronzillas
second visit to Von Gaylord
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another room, the the new Sophias (?) and the tuning cups on the floor.
dinatnan ko si Esmi dito, nasa sweet spot pa. piano pieces kasi
never heard any talk about the Onda Ligeras, nor seen them on any print before but they sounded really good. The fit and finish are quite excellent too. I heard some people kept on coming back to the room because they have never heard such a good bass anywhere else before. If you google them up, you will see they arranged their bass drivers differently.
Enigma Acoustics- Light Harmonics
I stayed in the room for a little bit, hoping that the hosts will say something about the rest of the system, including the Light Harmonic stuff but no they didn't. They just kept on talking about their speakers and the $3,800 per pair super tweeters. The size of the Light Harmonics surprised me, they look a lot bigger than I thought.
ok, I went back to the EA - Playback Design room hoping they will redeem themselves. It was doing much better than the day before, then somebody request something from the Rolling Stones (I think it was Jumping Jack Flash), bagsak na naman. It showed me again what it cannot do. I think it is good with appropriate music but not an all rounder.
Silverline - Reite Audio room - can play really loud with lot's of details without hurting your ears. The guy in the sweet spot had request a few tracks and seemed to be very impressed, i think he will buy a pair of speakers and amps.
Emotiva - B & W room playing loud and proud and was really locking it too. I was impressed, considering the price.
small system sounded alright
another TAD setup. not impressed in the beginning. Then JA walked, room hosts locked the door and cranked up the volume a little more. Them played some classical lps and sounded much more alive and dynamic.
I forgot the name of these speakers but they sounded good too.
those Triangle TTs are real lookers
another good sounding room
second look at Rockport and still impressed
Mc intosh room guy expalining some technical stuff
second look at the Uni 2's - much better than the day before but I know the speakers can do better. The guys seated in front of me were claiming that they are mastering engineers from a South American country and were gushing about the performance of the VR monitors, so ok maybe I was just being a little hard on my brand. Albert was still super busy entetaining room visitors.
These Pioneer speakers were sounding really good, guys in the room cannot believe when the price was announced at $129 (I think) a pair. The bargain of the show they said.
The big TAD room with the top of the line Reference One. Wow, it sounded great too, lot's and lot's of detail with great instrument separation. They were playing some Latin music with multiple acoustic guitar players, some women were actually dancing in the back of the room, until Andrew Jones interrupted the music and explained the technologies that went into the product. He said Pioneer Corp. did not hold anything back when they hired him to develop the TAD line.
went to this room after TAD, it sounded lucky in resolution by I know it is not the case. The TADs were just damn good.
second visit to the Tenor - YG room, still sounding good
That's it folks! Hope you enjoyed the report. When Mark Porzilli asked my wife what motivated her to endure the show - she said she wanted to understand why the audiophiles go to the extremes in audio gears and with the listening and all that. I think she genuinely tried to differentiate one system from the other. It is refreshing to get the opinion of the uninitiated. Her definition of good sounding system is very close to mine. Some systems that failed to impress me failed to impress her too, some systems that impressed me impressed her too. To put things into perspective, she was able to appreciate the scale and the lifelike sound of the Q7.
When I asked her if she will come with me to Munich 2014, she said "as long as I am not paying for it, and we swing to Italy"
