Archived from groups: rec.audio.high-end (More info?)
Was able to spend the day Friday at the HE2005NY show and thought I'd pass
along two observations that were for me the highlights of the show.
First let me observe that the sound quality at the show was of reasonably
high quality. There were only a couple of rooms I considered "poor", fewer
than my recollection of the past (although I haven't been for a few years).
A fellow audiophile friend, whom I met for the first time in eight years,
and has attended more recently, had the same observation.
But while the sound quality overall was quite good, very little stood out.
I use the "boy, wouldn't I like to have that sound" wow factor as a gauge,
and frankly, only one room created that for me. Otherwise, my current
system is at least "in there" with the best of the rest.
The surprise is.... the room that impressed was by today's standards a
pretty modest system....probably not costing much more than $10,000 or
12,000 dollars. It was the most modest of the three Van Schweikert rooms.
It featured an Oracle CD transport (CD2500) feeding an Oracle upsampling
preamp/DAC (DAC1000 used as DAC) which upsampled the transport to 192khz/24,
in turn feeding the modest DK Design Group's Integrated Amplifier (VS-1
Reference MKII feeding Van Schweikert VR-4jr Speakers. The sound was
incredibly transparent and dimensional, with equisit tonality from deepest
upright bass to most delicate treble..cymbal brushwork and such. The Van
Schweikert speakers for $4000 the pair strike me as exceptional
values...kind of like Thiel 2.4's only more so. The Oracle stuff is
gourgeous to look at, mimicing the look of the turntable. And the DK amp (a
hybrid tube preamp/transistor power amp design) has got to be the bargain of
the decade at only $2000. It is built like the proverbial brick .....house
but eschews fancy faceplates, etc. Since the Oracle transport was used in
the next roomm as well, and the speakers were simply bigger versions of the
4jr, the main difference had to be either/or/both the Oracle upsampler or
the DK integrated. The person attending the room seemed to feel it was the
DK. Somewhere in the last two weeks I saw a rave review of this unit (was
it IAR online?) and it may be justified. In any case, this was a system
that had it all. Thought you'd like to know.
The other really impressive thing at the show was Mark Levinson's demo of a
software-DAC package designed by Dick Burwein, and which Levinson is helping
bring to commercial fruition. It is called the "Burwein Bobcat" and in its
current guise, is a software package running on Windows XP in conjunction
with Media Player 10 and the dedicated DAC, which is connected via USB. The
unit is designed to decode 128k mp3 files and yet make them sound like a
master tape. The demo appeared to fulfill the promise, although we could
not a-b against the original which seemed a little strange. Levinson is the
consumate salesman, so I will wait and see. But what we heard (opera,
classical piano, and a pop piece chosen at random by the audience) was
smooth, emotionally engaging, and sounded exceptionally good in an analog
sort of way...very much like a master tape in fact. My guess is their is
some addition of second harmonic distortion among other things...but what
those other things are we will have to wait and see. I can only say that
these 128k excerpt were a far cry from the 192k samples that made my ears
bleed a few weeks ago on my own main system. If the technology is real and
patentable, my guess is the bigger market will be built into portable
devices, music servers, etc. rather than just being restricted to pc
software. But an interesting technology to keep an eye on.
BTW, Levinson demoed using his own small Red Rose integrated amp and some of
his larger speakers...but sitting on unfinished student bookcases. The
system sounded fine, and better than it should for it's size and price. All
I could think of is "where were these when *I* was in college?
Was able to spend the day Friday at the HE2005NY show and thought I'd pass
along two observations that were for me the highlights of the show.
First let me observe that the sound quality at the show was of reasonably
high quality. There were only a couple of rooms I considered "poor", fewer
than my recollection of the past (although I haven't been for a few years).
A fellow audiophile friend, whom I met for the first time in eight years,
and has attended more recently, had the same observation.
But while the sound quality overall was quite good, very little stood out.
I use the "boy, wouldn't I like to have that sound" wow factor as a gauge,
and frankly, only one room created that for me. Otherwise, my current
system is at least "in there" with the best of the rest.
The surprise is.... the room that impressed was by today's standards a
pretty modest system....probably not costing much more than $10,000 or
12,000 dollars. It was the most modest of the three Van Schweikert rooms.
It featured an Oracle CD transport (CD2500) feeding an Oracle upsampling
preamp/DAC (DAC1000 used as DAC) which upsampled the transport to 192khz/24,
in turn feeding the modest DK Design Group's Integrated Amplifier (VS-1
Reference MKII feeding Van Schweikert VR-4jr Speakers. The sound was
incredibly transparent and dimensional, with equisit tonality from deepest
upright bass to most delicate treble..cymbal brushwork and such. The Van
Schweikert speakers for $4000 the pair strike me as exceptional
values...kind of like Thiel 2.4's only more so. The Oracle stuff is
gourgeous to look at, mimicing the look of the turntable. And the DK amp (a
hybrid tube preamp/transistor power amp design) has got to be the bargain of
the decade at only $2000. It is built like the proverbial brick .....house
but eschews fancy faceplates, etc. Since the Oracle transport was used in
the next roomm as well, and the speakers were simply bigger versions of the
4jr, the main difference had to be either/or/both the Oracle upsampler or
the DK integrated. The person attending the room seemed to feel it was the
DK. Somewhere in the last two weeks I saw a rave review of this unit (was
it IAR online?) and it may be justified. In any case, this was a system
that had it all. Thought you'd like to know.
The other really impressive thing at the show was Mark Levinson's demo of a
software-DAC package designed by Dick Burwein, and which Levinson is helping
bring to commercial fruition. It is called the "Burwein Bobcat" and in its
current guise, is a software package running on Windows XP in conjunction
with Media Player 10 and the dedicated DAC, which is connected via USB. The
unit is designed to decode 128k mp3 files and yet make them sound like a
master tape. The demo appeared to fulfill the promise, although we could
not a-b against the original which seemed a little strange. Levinson is the
consumate salesman, so I will wait and see. But what we heard (opera,
classical piano, and a pop piece chosen at random by the audience) was
smooth, emotionally engaging, and sounded exceptionally good in an analog
sort of way...very much like a master tape in fact. My guess is their is
some addition of second harmonic distortion among other things...but what
those other things are we will have to wait and see. I can only say that
these 128k excerpt were a far cry from the 192k samples that made my ears
bleed a few weeks ago on my own main system. If the technology is real and
patentable, my guess is the bigger market will be built into portable
devices, music servers, etc. rather than just being restricted to pc
software. But an interesting technology to keep an eye on.
BTW, Levinson demoed using his own small Red Rose integrated amp and some of
his larger speakers...but sitting on unfinished student bookcases. The
system sounded fine, and better than it should for it's size and price. All
I could think of is "where were these when *I* was in college?
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