Lone Star Audio Fest 2012 Show Report
Report By John Semrad

  Downstairs at the hotel there were larger conference rooms with some very elaborate setups. Let us start with the Legacy Audio room. They have become well-known in recent years for their four-way Whisper XD speakers. The electronics were the Coda CSX amplifier and Coda pre-amp. The front end was an Ayon CD 7 CD player.

 

The second system featured the Focus SE loudspeakers again driven by a Coda CSX amplifier and Coda preamplifier but this time with an Oppo BD 95 disc player.

 

The Lewisville Room was home to a pair of local designers who have made a big splash on the national scene, Danny Ritchie of GR Research and Gary Dodd of Dodd Audio. Danny has designed a number of outstanding loudspeakers and sells kits for his GR Research designs, including this open baffle driven by Gary's superb electronics.

 

The last of the big rooms was home to Raven Audio. Danny's GR Research LS9 line array loudspeakers were used and more of Raven's great sounding gear was on display. They also had one of the show's few analog front ends featuring the T-20 turntable with a Black Widow tonearm and Denon DL-103 cartridge.

 

The amps were Reference Grade Silhouette utilizing 6550 output tubes and a very nice tubed Silhouette preamplifier. The CD player was a Raysonic 238.

 

They also showed some good Texas attitude.

 

Last but by no means least was the Emia Audio room hosted by audio madcap permalloy guru Dave Slagle. Unfortunately absent this year due to a European commitment was his business partner and audio Jesus, Jeffrey Jackson. That didn't stop it from being one of the most popular rooms at the show, owing no small part to the presence of Barrett Tillman and his Blackman Brew beer on tap. 

  

The speakers were an open baffle design with Dave's very fine Lowther field-coil conversion available from Lowther America and a Tone Tubby hemp-cone 12" woofer on the bottom. The amplifiers were Emia Audio Type 50 single-ended with 80% nickel core transformers not only in the interstage and output but in the power supply chokes as well. The analog front end was an Artemis SA-1 turntable designed by Frank Schroeder and a Miyajima Shilabe moving coil cartridge on Frank's TA-1 tonearm. The other tonearm was an RS Laboratory RS-A1 with a Panasonic strain gage cartridge. There was one conventional Emia phono stage and Dave's strain gage amplifier. Lots of good off-the-wall music was heard. Thanks to Ian for the use of his snapshots.

That is all for the 2012 Lone Star Audio Fest. I'm sure I probably missed some rooms. If I missed yours, my apologies and I'll try and do better next time.

--- John Semrad

 

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