naamanf

For my downstairs TV I picked up a refurbished Onkyo and a Infinity HT-in-a-box (Amazon deal) and it gets the job done just fine. Reference anything it isn't but it sounds just fine for TV or playing tunes in the basement. Those Pioneers would probably sound a ton better at close to the same price.

Agreed. It's smart to add the sound control to the room, but a bad is speaker is going to sound bad either way. Not having it can hinder a good speaker, which was the case in many rooms For the price might as well give the Pioneers a whirl. See as Best Buy carries them, and would be easy to return I don't see how it could hurt giving them a try. Edit: The floor stander version is on sale at BB for $200 a pair. Wouldn't really need a sub with those. Heck I might go down to my BB and see how they sound.

Not even close. Stay safe.

MBLs

Please say they are MBLs

I just want a pair of those MBLs.

Happy Birthday!

Audio powered skateboard?

Ferrari on a ultra low mile lease.

Can't complain much about the 335d, mainly wish they had but the LSD from the M3 into it to deal with all the torque. As a daily driver it's a much more practical car due to the way it delivers it's power and gets decent gas mileage. I get about 29 mpg and I drive it pretty hard. As for less power, I put a JBD on mine and could go for a bit more. Rumor mill is that they might introduce a F30 diesel. I really wish they had the M550xd stateside.

Yes, sucks.

I approve of both of these comments On the car note, my rental is a Convertible Mustang. V6. Automatic. Red. It's a total chick car, but I just feel so fabulous driving with the top down, bald head blowing in the wind.The newer V6 is actually almost good compared to the older ones once you get it up into it's power band. Other than that it kind of sucks. Driving feel just doesn't compare to the BMW, but that is to be expected.

Look up the Rumba 12 and contact Murrel

Second picture looks like a nice old house. Weird, looks like there are Sea Sparrows built into those chimneys.

I would like to rent Ray's Lamborghini and Tracy Lords, but pulled from back in time on her 18th birthday. Thank you.

How about you just rent out whiskey instead? I'll return what I process.

That sucks, I was hoping to pick up a pair in the future. At 4k there are some other serious contendors.

Didn't see the Magicos, and I was looking for them. As for the Wilsons I actually usually think they are quite horrible so them sounding okay is a step up No 2.7, just the 3.7.

Yup, the MM3 is a favorite here as well.

I figured I would chime in with my thoughts and favs of the show. I did the tour of the rooms this year with my friend Dave who has pretty much the same ear and taste in speakers. We usually sit down and take a quick listen, and know relatively quickly if the speakers are worth a further listen. There were some systems that we didn't listen to because we had a relatively good idea what they would sound like based on driver selection. I would say we gave 95% of the systems there a shot. Of those there were really only a handful that we thought sounded good. In my opinion the MBLs were the best at the show, just an amazing speaker with a sound stage like no other. At around $100K they are not cheap. I really liked the Tad speakers with the Tad driver Pioneers being a real standout due to the price and the fact it was a "Pioneer". They were priced at about $5K Next was the Evolution Acoustics MMMicroOne. They just sounded amazing and were one of my favorites of the show. Such an amazing sound stage and dynamics from a small package, a good looking one at that. $2500 puts them in the realm of affordable, I really wouldn't mind picking a pair of these up. Last but not least where the Hsu HB-1 Mk2s. I almost didn't go into the room because I figured he was just showing off his subs and the boring black box bookshelves were just there to fill in the upper end of the sound spectrum. Boy was I wrong. They sounded really good, better than 90% good. And that isn't even taking into consideration their price. At $300 a pair it almost made the rest of the rooms seem silly. The rest of his system was super simple and very un-audiophile. Sony DVD player source, Onkyo integrated, zip wire cables to the speakers. It was almost comical how cheap it looked compared to all the rest of the rooms. One thing he did have that many rooms didn't was lots of sounded panels around the room. There were many rooms that probably have sounded much better if they would have used an appropriate amount of room treatment. Actually kind of amazes me that companies will bring 1000lbs of gear costs as much as a house but not a single sound panel. There loss I guess. Some others speakers I thought sounded pretty good were the Focal Be Utopias (I have always really liked these), Thiel CS 3.7, and Lawrence Cello. Wilson Audio actually sounded okay for once but nothing to get excited about. Best part of the trip was Saturday night drinking some fine Montana brew provided by Todd. Had a great time hanging out with Dinny, Tyll, Todd, Pete, Steve (who I don't think remembers anything), Val, Dan, Jude, Jerry, and everyone else.

Get really drunk while wearing snow shoes.

It was a weird situation, I was stopped in the turning lane right next to a motorcycle accident. Police car pulls up as I get ready to turn and pulls in front. I move to lane next to mine in front of a Semi and the cop gives me the hold just a minute finger. I hold as the light turned green but I guess the Semi wasn't paying attention or even looking in front of him. Plows into me and pushes me a couple feet. All with the cop watching. Can't think of a better witness. I just hate dealing with all the BS that goes with dealing with insurance companies and driving a rental. I guess if your going to get hit by a semi it can't get any better than this.

That is good news, hopefully celebrating a happy birthday with you. My day ended not so good. 18 wheeler not paying attention.

Happy happy birthday!

After listening to some of the best speakers on the market this weekend, there were a couple standouts, but one that really stood out because with was only $300. Sounded better than 90% of the stuff there. Hsu HB-1 mk2. Off an Onkyo integrated fed by a midrange Sony DVD player. All hooked up with zip wire.