New York Audio & AV
Show 2012
Report By Steven R. Rochlin
It is the
final day of the New York Audio & AV Show, so let us get right to the
goodies shall we. But before we pass 'GO' and collect $200, due to some time
constraints as I had to drive home and post my coverage....
this means little time for hellos and goodbyes. Anywho... First up is the Scaena speakers
that were being driven by the conrad-johnson ART tube amplifiers. Front end
duties were the amazing Kronos turntable with it's innovative two identical high mass platters -- one above the other rotating in opposite directions -- was used for vinyl replay.
Also used was the
Verity Audio model Amadis speakers and
VAC Statement 450S amplifier ($30,000 and $39,000 respectively) were
delivering really smooth, clean sound at the New York Audio & AV Show.
Must admit, those VAC amplifiers always seem to deliver the goods. Of course
the Verity Audio speakers excellent in greatness too.
Burmester was playing some violin music and it
was silky sweet and nice.
Cool stuff in the VPI room with their Classic 4
turntable ($10,000), the new VPI Traveler and VAS Industries model Citation Sound-1 stereo control center.
What caught my eye is how the VAS tubed unit has controls like my old Dynakit
tube preamplifier as it has the usual multiple inputs yet also has a
phonostage that has many adjustment. This unit allows users to control Roll-Off and Turnover
plus has six positions including MC-High, MC-Low, MM, CD, Aux and Tuner. The Blend
control acts as crossfeed in Blend position or third channel gain control in
Stereo mode. Tube compliment is four 12AX7 and five 12AT7 while overall
frequency response is from 5 Hz to 80 kHz.
The Audio Note system, with a variety of tube
amplification, of course a turntable, the usual (for Audio Note, which means
darn good) tubed phonostage and much more. Seen here is the Audio Note E/LX Lexus Signature
speakers ($19,000) that have an external crossover filled with high-end
quality Audio Note parts. Driver compliment is a 1" soft dome tweeter and
8" midrange/woofer. These highly efficiency speakers benefit from AN copper foil
caps and Lexus cable. Frequency response is from effective 18 Hz to 23 kHz (-6dB)... and yes
I still own the Audio Note AN-J/SPx speakers for those curious, which are perhaps now 20 years young and still delivering great music.
This system had all the amazing Audio Note traits and word on the street is
some big print magazine editor spent quite a bit of time enjoying this room.
Todd Garfinkle of M•A Recording is
seen here holding his Voices disc that features various vocal tracks.
Am sure you are familiar with M•A Recording, and if not you really need
to check out their great music, which is recorded to very high-end
standards.
Original Quad speakers were being driven by the Miyajima 2010
OTL stereo amplifier that can be switched to mono ($10,000 each) in the Robyatt Audio
room. It is always great to see Robin Wyatt, whose wife I sold my Nixie tubed
watch to because he wanted my watch after seeing me wear it at a show. So she
contacted me, we made a deal and the rest is HIStory as his wife gave it to
him for him birthday. He is a very lucky man! Naturally OTL
amplification and Quad speakers are like a duck to water and play very well
together. I recall tapping my toes as the music played, so guess I enjoyed the
music.
As this show was held in New York City, i did
find time to have a truly magnificent meal at The Pierre, then walked through
Central Park to enjoy a nice cigar. This was followed by a visit to Greenwich
Village for shopping. Whilst I virtually never post pics of myself, and no it
is not me wearing the long tail tux and top hat from Friday (see other magazines for those
photos), here is me chillin' out (above) having a nice cigarillo. My photos from a
few hours of fun and play in New York City are below.
Street musicians in Greenwich Village.
Time Square on a Saturday night at 11pm. And on
that note, thanks for reading my show report and as always, in the end what really
matters is that you...
Enjoy the Music (When it comes down to reality, and it's fine with me 'cause I've let it slide... I'm from New
York. Concrete jungle where dreams are made of...),
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