Australian AV & Audio Show 2013 Reports and Reflections

[Marine]

[Marine]

[Marine]

[Marine]

[gainphile]

I love the looks of those Accutons ... not sure about the new Kyron looks.

 

Will hear them tomorrow ...

[ZEN MISTER]

Lots of pleasures to be had. Also, a fair bit of chaff. If I hear one more exhibitor displaying their wares with cocktail lounge jazz , I will throw a wobbly. But for every exhibitor who selected their CDs from the pile scattered on the carpet, and fed it into a many thousand dollar CD player, there were many others who did it well.

Special mentions to Phillip from VAF- the i 93 would be my dream speaker, but the whole range was excellent.

The men from KYRON took the time to explain what their goals were, and had pre thought the music selections to highlight the strengths.

The Whatmough and Osborn rooms had some very good sounds to be savoured! and we're worth an extended visit.

The best budget speaker were the DAVIS floor standers- they did everything right and nothing wrong. Hearing a Janis Ian track called, I think, " Tattoo" was enchanting.

But the gold standard for room preparation, and thoughtfulness of music presentation, was the TAD room.

Working through a well chosen set of tracks highlighted the versatility of the design, it climaxed with an awesome rendition of the notorious YELLO track, " La Habenara" at visceral volume. And guess what- so clean was the sound under extreme volume, I actually wanted them to turn it up.

Pet peeves- who the fcuk takes a toddler to a Hifi show- come on people, put them on a leash and teach them what DO NOT TOUCH means.

- Exhibitors who mishandle their discs- thrown onto piles on the floor or desk, fingers all over them.......euch!,,

- people who elect to stand in front of the speakers and chat at loud volume, not listening to the system at all, then strolling into the next room to do the same.

I would suggest that people intending to go over the weekend, take your own music. It is very hard to gauge the merits of anything when fed a steady diet of lounge music.

Happy hunting.

ZM.

[wolster]

Brilliant work, Tony!

Very much appreciated, especially by us few WA members who didn't get to go.

[davidsss]

Looks good but I don't think I'll make it this weekend. I remember the worst thing about the last one was the music selections, until Joz turned up with Mussogorsky in Earle's room: real music and Earle's amp sounded excellent. Have fun y'all.

 

DS

[analog brother]

thanks for the reviews and pics guys.

 

anybody demo the allnic h3000 phono, or was it just static display?

 

also, wtf are synergy (audio research) doing putting bollards and red tape in front of their gear again?

people want to get close and touch the stuff. hi end is a treat for all senses. they are shooting themselves in the foot again.  :huh:

[henry218]

thank you Marine for the additional photos, its good to see from different angle and closeup at the gear.

 

cheers

henry

[Tony M]

I' looking forward to having a good listen tomorrow - no more pics.

 

I was able to form only some very superficial impressions today re rooms where the sound grabbed my attention and these included the TAD room, the room with the Lamboghini Yellow SGR's and Osborn.

 

Now the thing about Osborn is that I intended to just take a few pics and move on to the next room, but I was there for more than 4 tracks.  Three of them were male singers I'd never heard of (Steve Strauss, David Roth and David Munyan) and all seemed to be extremely good recordings of the type you would use to show a system off - well, I guess that figures!  But the sound with each track was definitely impressive and strangely compelling and I'm not sure that the source material was as exceptional as it sounded to me at the time.

 

Perhaps there's something in the way Osborn speakers are voiced that resonates with me in a very positive way?  I'm a little suspicious because they all seemed to be the same genre, but, needless to say, I'll be spending some time there tomorrow and hoping to hear something I'm familiar with as a reference as well as some other types of music to see if Greg's just sussed out  a group of similar recordings that shine with his speakers and the lovely valve amps he uses with them.

 

I will definitely take the opportunity to have a good listen in the Wilson/D'agostino. SGR, Bryston/Dynaudio rooms too.

 

The Yamaha room had a single NS1000 on display too (fair dinkum, but I didn't think to get a pic at the time :mad:) .  They're going to bring in the other one tomorrow and I'm going to cart them around to all the rooms, one under each arm, to use as a reference to compensate for my hopeless audio memory.   

[Guest JohnA]

Great pics guys and that Sota TT that cameron had there is a work of art. LOVED the look of it.

Maybe i'll ship my VPI HRX down there and get some tattoo's on it also

 

The show for me, was great for some eye candy, but as far as the sound goes, it was all rather dissapointing apart from a couple.

 

I must admit, running out of time to go to every room, so didnt visit them all.

 

PMC's for me sounded terrible. Thumbs up for playing real music, but man, it was simply too loud in there and sounded like some breakup happening.

Did not enjoy them at all, but i know PMC's can sound great so would not use this to judge them.

 

As for the TAD's man i was so looking forward to them, and they simply didnt blow me away.

 

The alexias, werent right in that room either, but was told the duette sounded beautiful. Never got to listen to them though

 

What was the highlight of the night for me...

 

the presentation by Mark Doehmann, that was worth the entry price alone

 

At the end of the day, i didnt go in there to audition gear, just for some nice eye candy

[THOMO]

Some great sounds.

Pretty much all the Australian made speakers are sounding good.

 

The Audionote room was making real music .The Magico speakers and system was sounding very natural and composed.

 

Best value of the show would have to be the JBL Studio 590s.The bass is a mess but the midrange/treble integration and especially soundstaging is remarkable for the money [$2500]

 

The real standout for me though was the Brodmann V7 speakers.

It seems it has taken a piano manufacturer to work out how to make a speaker that sounds much closer to the real thing.

The most natural sounding speakers I have heard-both in terms of tonality and imaging.You need to be seated in the sweet spot though.

EDIT.I have since heard the JBL Studio 590s in my local dealer's shop with my Almarro 318B SET amp driving them.

The bass is actually very good once you position them correctly.

These are very valve amp friendly.My amp is only 15 watts but drove them with ease.

These are the biggest bargain I have heard in over 30 years of being involved in this hobby.They sound much more like a $15,000 pair of speakers than a $2500 one.

Edited October 26, 2013 by THOMO

[joz]

kyron looks good, although its a JAMO clone

These left me cold, I think the Jamos were better from memory

 

I also echo the comments on TAD. This was a stand out for me, along with what I believe was Vienna Acoustics. Cannot even remember in this tired state, which room they were in.

 

Finally, the Signature i90's from VAF (pictured below), I was really blown away by, given their simplicity and small size. Admittedly, they of course lack bottom end, but what they do above that is remarkable. For an office, small apartment, or even add a "platform" sub - and you wouldn't be disappointed.

 

 

 

Although not the best sound they sure impressed my too with their capabilities from such a small box.

 

Damn I just remembered that I missed the whole bottom floor also many of the other rooms aswell. Not enough hours in a day to get through it in one day.

Sigh!

[roh008]

Ticket purchased on train heading to the show!

[Guest]

For all those heading down today, have a great time. Sadly, I can't be there today but will be back all day tomorrow.

[Gordon Macfarlane]

Brilliant work, Tony!

Very much appreciated, especially by us few WA members who didn't get to go.

Just like to add my thanks to all those who took pics ,particularly Tony for his herculean effort .

[roh008]

Am all audioed out! EnjoyBle day out.

However have a strange urge to rush home and listen to my system?!? Probably with a smile on my face thinking thinking glad I didn't spend $100k on speakers...they are good but not worth the difference IMHO. And if I used a good amount of acoustic panelling I would certainly close the gap a great deal more too (that was my biggest take home message)

Did anyone else notice the type of music played on the whole is very similar?! As though no one wanted to step out of the speakers comfort zone?

P.S. SNA members should have had a different colour wrist band so I could have met some of you lot.

[k-k-k-kenny]

Highlights:

Earle & Paul's real music room. This is gear that is within reach for anyone who is actually interested in listening to music as opposed to a singer's breathing, the bassoonist squeaking out a sly fart and such-like. For the less financial, would be saving up well rewarded. Modest pretensions vastly exceeded; kinda what hifi was once all about: just enjoying the music more by revealing more of it.

Kyron Audio. Hadn't heard dipoles before, and this system is very well thought through. Plug and play for the well-heeled. Goes all the way up beyond my pitiful range of hearing, and all the way down, and they image like demons. In fact, on piano, to a greater degree than I've ever heard when playing the instrument - no idea how it was recorded.

Osborn. The big ones, fed from the Audio Aero La Source through (I think) the AM833S room heaters. Such a system at comparable $ to the Kyron, and you wouldn't feel you had wasted your money.

PMC MB2S. Not exactly engaging, but that may be on account of the source material - RnB and so on. But easy to see why they are favoured for mixing on: you want to hear details, it's readily done.

VAF i90s. On a diet of acoustic guitar and vocals they do remarkably for their size and punch out plenty of level. Be interesting to hear how they handle more demanding source material.

My disappointments I shall keep to meself: there are a lot of folk there doing their best. Besides which, some cloth-eared idiots actually like to hear some of it, and it's not my responsibility to tell them how utterly wrong they are.

[Gordon Macfarlane]

Hi-fi shows are generally a bad place to form sonic oppinions ; rooms are usually way to small for most speakers , time to set-up can be limited etc ,etc.

Hi-fi shows are great for window shopping , catching up with pals old and new and having a chat with the folk behind the products.

[ENIGMA]

I had a great day today.

Took my own music to play and got to meet some great people.

Fantastic to see wireless, analog vinyl and digital sources side by side with wonderful results as well as tubes and SS side by side.

I was very surprised to not see any significant horn speaker setups given there are a couple of great brands based in Melbourne.

Walked away with an exciting prospect of using the Devialet amplifier technology in my horn setup as it has lots of advanced software and DSP usability.

[Guest JohnA]

Am all audioed out! EnjoyBle day out. However have a strange urge to rush home and listen to my system?!? Probably with a smile on my face thinking thinking glad I didn't spend $100k on speakers...they are good but not worth the difference IMHO. And if I used a good amount of acoustic panelling I would certainly close the gap a great deal more too (that was my biggest take home message) Did anyone else notice the type of music played on the whole is very similar?! As though no one wanted to step out of the speakers comfort zone? P.S. SNA members should have had a different colour wrist band so I could have met some of you lot.

 

 

unfortuntely that would be the worst possible way to audition or to make up your mind on any speaker system.

You really need to audition them in a properly setup room, then you will appreciate them.

Of course you may still not like some of them, as it is a very personal thing, but dont judge on this show.

 

I do agree with you, if i went there to see if i would find a speaker to replace mine, i would say, HELL NO, there wasnt a single thing i heard there that wanted me to take out my wallet and purchase.

[warrengday]

Thanks to everyone that exhibited.  Lots of quality kit, I enjoyed most of it.

 

Highlights for me:

 

SGR 3-way active speakers, got my foot tapping.

 

The Vivid Giya G3 speakers, beautiful looking and clear, coherent and transparent sounding, and on the back of a excellent $10k turntable.  I was surprised that I enjoyed this system even more than the SGRs.

 

Cambridge Audio home-cinema system for 2 reasons.

1.  It was really good, using their BluRay Player, amps and speakers, and 3 REL subs.  Cambridge Audio aim to make high quality audiophile stuff at affordable prices.  Their new speakers had just won a What HiFi award and uses tweeter technology that doesn't beam and goes down to lower mid-range frequencies.  This stuff is only normally to be found at the moment in some top end speakers like Naim.

2.  They explained movies aren't mixed in 5.1, but 5 channel full bandwidth.  Also even in an action movie like Pearl Harbour the .1 is only working for about 10 mins of the time.  So they had all their 5.0 speakers doing the full range, and the subs taking both the full range signal and also the .1 signal and doing both.  They had the best sub in the corner doing L and R and .1.  Another sub doing the centre bass and .1, the best place to put this in the room from a node point of view was near the right corner, not near the centre itself.  A sub at the back was adding to the bass of the surrounds.

 

Naim audio streaming system, got my toe tapping.

 

Kyron Audio dipole speakers, so no cabinet, crystal clear and detailed sound.  Quite a revelation what happens when you don't have a speaker cabinet to join in with the sound making.

 

I also popped into the Musical Images/Linn room.  Linn do three ranges of products, according to the brochure they were going to have the middle range, an Akurate system.  I've got Akurate speakers driven by their flagship Klimax stuff.  So I thought I'd just pop into say a quick hello to the guys I know.

 

I'm so glad I did.  Two weeks ago, for their 40th anniversary, Linn released a new top end system, EXAKT, which was also on demonstration.  This is digital crossover and-them-some technology that they are gradually rolling out through both new and old product ranges.  The system is 1 small box that has a high res digital streamer and a digital preamp.  This was connected via some old cheap cat-5 network cable to a pair of large 6-way floorstanding speakers, that in the back have:

1) a digital engine that does: 6-way active crossover, room correction, and individual driver variation correction

2) 6 poweramps delivering 1,350 watts.

The Exakt component also has 2 stereo analogue inputs, both of which are sampled at 24/192, and one of which had a top LP12 plugged into it, complete with the new KANDID mc cartridge.  First time I've heard that too.

So I planned to visit for a few minutes, I stayed for about an hour!!  And I really really punished this system.  Frank Sinatra said the best kept secret in British Jazz is Carol Kidd.  There was some of her stuff on both studio master and vinyl.  Both immediately took me back to when I'd heard Carol live.  This system got the sound of her voice just spot on.  Also on both formats was an award winning recording of Handel's Messiah by Dunedin Consort.  The demo guy stuck on an easier to do track, I stuck on one of the greatest and most complex highlights in all of music, the Hallelujah Chorus.  Effortlessly jawdroppingly mesmerising reproduction.  I then realised I could put this system to the ultimate test.  They had some Palladium Ensemble on vinyl.  I've seen this group live 15 times.  And the violinist Rachel Podger I've seen live, at the time of writing, 53 times, and 56 times by about this time next week.  It was easily effortless to follow all four members of this quartet and what they each were doing at every moment.

 

Next door was the iconic dCS Vivaldi CD system.  A CD player made up for 4 large silver boxes (transport, upscaler, DAC and powersupply).  Fed into Momentum amps: pre and 2 monoblocks driving Wilson Audio speakers.  This was good, detailed and transparent, but ultimately a disappointment.  A gritty treble and not as involving as the new cheaper Linn system I'd just heard next door.  Also at a few points on a jazz track I couldn't follow the drummer or the pianist as the system couldn't both keep reproducing these instruments and a loud trumpet at the same time.

 

So I'm now considering how I can reconfigure my mini 4.1 home cinema system with my subwoofer and how many more I need.  There is also the issue of the Kandid mc cartridge.  The fact it isn't cheap isn't the only problem.  They are handmade by just one 80 year old man in Japan, he is training his daughter how to do it, but at the moment, due to demand, there is a 6 month waitlist.

Edited October 19, 2013 by warrengday

[roh008]

unfortuntely that would be the worst possible way to audition or to make up your mind on any speaker system.

You really need to audition them in a properly setup room, then you will appreciate them.

Of course you may still not like some of them, as it is a very personal thing, but dont judge on this show.

 

I do agree with you, if i went there to see if i would find a speaker to replace mine, i would say, HELL NO, there wasnt a single thing i heard there that wanted me to take out my wallet and purchase.

I agree with you to a point.

But my living room isn't the best room to start with. In fact it was not to dissimilar to some of those rooms. Speakers 3.5m apart and I sit 4m back.

At 10 times the price of my system those systems should have blown the socks of me. Don't get me wrong they were good, very good for some rooms. But it showed $100K speakers amps and cable combinations sounds average when the room acoustics aren't perfect. Which means why chase a dream with upgrading parts when the room has the biggest impact and not the cables speakers or amps or source. Food for thought really as a lot of those rooms had a lot of acoustic treatment to take what would be an average square or rectangular room and improve the room acoustics.

 

I actually liked a retro speaker there the Yamaha NS-1000. Also liked the Vivid Giya 3 set up but would be interesting to hear how good they are with a wide range of music (that applies to most of those speakers.) The PMC demo gave a wide range of music genres which was good but failed to get my toe tapping. I would have liked to hear some ProAc speakers so I could have done a comparison.

[JeffK]

Thanks everyone for the photos and impressions. Makes up for not being able to be there. Jeff