Hifi show 2011 & 2013 - listening impressions

[Paul Spencer]

In 2011 I visited all the rooms at the hifi show in Melbourne, but as an exhibitor this year, no real chance except my own. I'd like to hear listening impressions from people. What did you think of the sound of the rooms this show vs two years back in Melbourne? I know it's a tricky question because you never get to listen to a room without also hearing the equipment, but even so, what did you notice? Did you think the rooms were better or worse? What did you think about the bass?

 

I'm considering writing a related article and I'd like to get a feel for the impressions SNAers have had - whether you went to either show or both.

[tubularbells]

Great topic however the only comment I'll make is how it re-affirmed the inportance of room acoustics and how just throwing money into your system wont necesarilly result in better sound as there were many mega buck rigs at both shows that sounded pretty average to me not that im sure they were bad its just that there respective rooms did not allow them to "sing"

[Paul Spencer]

Any more specific things you noticed? Imaging? Reverberation? Brightness? Boomy bass?

[shmb]

I found in general, (there are some exceptions of course) the smaller slimmer 2-3 way type speakers generally sounded better to my ears than most of the monster mega buck models, ......more than likely because the room sizes (and possibly acoustics too) suited those types of speakers?

 

I think most would agree, the rooms were by far better than 2 years ago, in general slightly larger and more open planned, maybe a little 'deader' too?

 

But since not all rooms are ever the same size and shape, I feel there's also a bit of luck involved, some will be better than others.

 

My 2c

[Kaynin]

Interesting thread.  I noticed that the TAD room had soft curtains all along the rear and side walls.  Most other rooms were trying to make do with what they had, and many brought along acoustic treatment only for corners and small sections of the walls.

 

In your opinion, are the soft wall furnishings of the TAD room the reason they've received such positive reviews?

[Gee Emm]

Audio Note room sounded very good to me.

 

I also really liked the stereo imaging achieved in the VAF room. Something I did notice missing from a lot of rooms, irrespective of number of people in the room.

 

I noticed the TAD room was really good on echo, eg curtained walls.

 

I thought the Osborne room wasn't as good this year. I couldn't get a steroe image no matter where I sat. He had a lot of gear in there. His room in Sydney 2012 was much better IMO.

 

It wasn't clear to me if room treatments were on display for sale, or strategically placed to treat the room, or both.

 

Overall, considering all factors, eg venue, rooms etc I thought 2013 was the best of the 3 years so far.

 

Graham

Edited October 29, 2013 by mr-happy-pants

[Guest yamaha_man]

Doesn't matter how good a room sounds, if the speakers are crap, no amount of room treatment will fix that.

TAD sounded outstanding because they are an outstanding speaker.

And these are the baby TAD we are talking about, can only imagine how the R1's sound.

[Paul Spencer]

Feedback so far agrees with what I heard from visitors to my room shared with Earle. Anyone disagree? Anyone think 2011 was better?

[buddyev]

2011 was my intro to high end gear and I came away unimpressed and happy to get back to my own humble set up. I thought almost all the rooms sounded really lively and awful. This time I went with low expectations and just to look at the gear but was surprised that most rooms were a little bigger and sounded pretty good. I thought the local speaker makers - you and Earle, vaf and Osborn - did a great job and set up your rooms with proper care.

[acg]

Hi Paul,

 

I'll concur that the smaller speakers sounded better in most cases than the larger counterparts in most rooms.  Considering the $$$ of the equipment in some of the rooms I was in general quite disappointed.  For example the Wilson/D'agastino/DCS room was brutally over-energised when I was there but having never heard the gear before I am unsure whether some of that is the 'house sound' or if it was mostly room related.  TAD was interesting because of the curtains but I really don't know if they were there for acoustics or aesthetics and I don't recall any bass traps, diffusers or the like...but it was my favourite sound of the show.

 

Cheers,

 

Anthony

[gainphile]

Both in 2011 and 2013 the Kyron room was a real differentiator for me. Which shows how much the acoustic radiators influence perceived sound, rather than the room.

 

No bias of course    

 

I also do not subscribe the 'hotel rooms are horrible' mantra. They look allright and I think they resemble most people's living area compared to dedicated studio rooms.

[THOMO]

I thought it was a fantastic venue.

The two Victorian buildings that go together to make up the Rialto are architecturally very beautiful and historically important.The building on the east side was originally the Australian Wool Exchange.A great reminder that Australia used to "ride on the sheep's back".

I thought the room acoustics were pretty good.Certainly better than in 2011.

Some of the very expensive systems in the big rooms did not sound great but I put that down the exhibitors trying to impress with sonic fireworks rather than musicality.Targeting cashed up bogans and BMW X5 buyers perhaps?

Edited October 29, 2013 by THOMO

[Addicted to music]

I spent the Saturday scouting as many rooms I could to get a feel of the equipment and to see what was available. The room that stood out was the Manaplanar room. The SQ was stunning, big bold detail transparent sound, I spent possible an hr in this room and notice that quite a number made the comment that the 1.7 will be there next speaker as it was under $4k. The kyron had acoustic absortion panels and that was impressive rig. The moon and TAD rooms had curtains hung on all walls. Andrew Johns did commented that he was satisfied in the treatment and how the rig sounds, but I'm sure there's a sales pitch in it somewhere, but I have to agree with him!

On Sunday I brought my own file on a stick, because I know the environment and material played cannot give you an accurate account of what a rig can do.

I was fortunate enough to play a file I had in the Magnaplanar and the Dcs/momentum/ Wilson Elexia. In the Manaplanar I was able to hear the difference with DEXQ calibrated vs non calibrated. the calibrated SQ was sweeter and it had the smiley curve SQ. in the Dcs/momentum, the rig went from edgy, glassy SQ with whatever material was played at the time, but with the file I had it basically showed the full potential in all its glory of $350k, bloody impressive, not once did it stuffed up. At the end I had a request for a copy of the file being played, so I had a bit of an ego boost!

Andrew Jones was a true pro, really passionate about his gear and it shows! possible the highlight of the show for me.

There where many other rooms that were good as well so I had a ball!

I did walk into Earle's and your room but you guys are just tooo bloody popular, there were to many people getting attached to you guys so I made a quick exit hoping to return later!

One thing I have to say is that this is an audio show, people go to an audio show to have equipment demo to them, they're not into the looks because they can get pictures anywhere, but to hear it you have to be there. People from all over the globe gather here to have speakers and equipment demo to them, I understand if we get there and the equipment fail, but when potential clients go to a gathering like this and there is no effort or will to demo the equipment then that is a catastrophic failure business wise!

[shirane]

TAD room had no room treatment other than the curtains which were there for ambience and to ensure that the speakers could be pulled out from the front wall and that the chairs weren't too close to the back wall. Smart way of ensuring that the crowd stays in the sweet spot. The Pioneer guy commended Andrew for his skill in effective speaker positioning to get the most out of the system and room.

 

Big props to the exhibitors that put some love into the set up, whilst there were many that seemingly didn't.

[Guest guru]

the rooms were smaller this year but better for sound in terms of acoustic isolation and less influence of the air con. we didn't move the speakers from where we sat them down initially and used no room treatment so we count ourselves lucky from that regard of fighting the room acoustics. I tend to set speakers up so that the midrange energises within the room and voices have a sense of breath giving the recording a chance to engage if that's important. other folk look for fireworks and such, good luck to them.

regards,g.

[analog brother]

which amp were you featuring?

ongaku? or gakuoh?

Edited October 29, 2013 by analog brother

[Jventer]

Not the best opinion as I have only attended the 2011 show. It was also my first show in 27 years. My opinion, based on what I heard at the show is as follows.

 

And I do qualify my thoughts with the confirmation that this is through my own "coloured glasses"

 

At that show - if i had enough money I would have bought the top of the range Cabasse speakers. They were IMO fantastic, but at about $110K one would hope so.

The top of the range SGR's at about $100K was a total let down. 

Loved the Maggies - pity the amps were way more expensive than the speakers.

Bryston - good but clinical

As a long term Linn tragic I loved the Linn room - at first glance it was clinical, but then it became a lot better, especially regarding convenience and looks.

Osborn room was OK, the room caused havoc with the bass - I had my own music there on cd and usb and Greg played everything I asked. I followed it up with sessions at his home and bought amps and speakers from him.

Vaf room was nice, but I heard better sound in their showroom in Adelaide.

Another room that was memorable had Whatmough speakers.

[Guest guru]

which amp were you featuring?

ongaku? or gakuoh?

Ongaku kensei, level 5 stereo power amp.

[Super Mustud]

I only went to the 2013 show. I did not have great expectation of sound quality in the rooms and thought the results were better than I expected. One or two rooms overloaded the rooms with volume and I found that unattractive.

 

A great opportunity to see some wonderful gear and talk to interesting people. I would definitely recommend.

[Kaynin]

TAD room had no room treatment other than the curtains which were there for ambience and to ensure that the speakers could be pulled out from the front wall and that the chairs weren't too close to the back wall.

 

I didn't look behind the curtains, so can't really comment on other treatments.  I can't agree that the sole purpose of the curtains were for speaker and chair placement though.  It would definately have softened the acoustics of the room, and I believe Andrew Jones is too experienced not to know this.

 

 

I think the TAD room stood out because of the strength of its parts - i.e., top notch speakers paired with TAD components = synergy, larger room treatment with the curtains, speaker placement etc.  There were other top notch speakers at the show that failed to impress many, so I think the whole presentation of the TAD's put them a step above.  Just my thoughts...  .

[gainphile]

The curtains were for the illusion that you could buy these speakers and placed them against/near the walls and to expect them to sound good!

 

Speakers need lots of breathing space, especially direct radiators like these TADs which would be an omni at ~ 800hz.

 

The Gaia also sounds good because they were pulled away like 2m from the walls. It's not normal we can achieve this in typical living room!

 

Then the Kyrons, and so on. It is a matter of direct-to-reverberant sound ratio.

[Addicted to music]

The Maggies 1.7 where also placed away from the wall, my only drawback in getting these as the better 1/2 hates placing speakers 1/3 into the room, damn!

[Guest yamaha_man]

The Maggies 1.7 where also placed away from the wall, my only drawback in getting these as the better 1/2 hates placing speakers 1/3 into the room, damn!

And you listen to her??? Such a shame.

[Gee Emm]

The Maggies 1.7 where also placed away from the wall, my only drawback in getting these as the better 1/2 hates placing speakers 1/3 into the room, damn!

 

and you tell her clothes to wear, and she complies?

[Juicester]

Wilson room was fairly well treated - unsure if the vari-bass units were making much difference, but I'm confident the bass traps they had in the corners where helping - bass bloom was a lot better controlled in their room (Admittedly they had a larger space). The Kyron room both this show and the last Melbourne show sounded excellent and as others have referred; I assume did so because of the way sound can radiate out of those speakers.