VSAC 2008 Impressions

[jp11801]

I posted these over on HF and wanted to share them with you all as well. We spent 2 days at this insane event, what a great time I am beat but here are the first set of pics and thoughts.

Sonist Speakers these were in many of the rooms and they make 2 types of speaker both use a ribbon tweeter and a standard bass speaker. They are fairly efficient which is why many used them but IMHO they are mediocre at best. They image poorly and seem slightly off tonally I really wanted to hear the electra print amps and get a good impression of them but it was impossible as they used the floorstanders of these and it left me feeling flat.

Cold War Amp this amp was a beauty and the craftsman that built these also ran the amp building workshop. The amps were powering Klipsch speakers and had a great turntable as a source with a top of the line bottlehead phono pre amp sweet. What a great guy he wound up spending alot of his time hooking up people from the seminar with tips on troubleshooting the amps they built ensuring each and everyone worked.

Goto speaker room Not sure who built these beauties but they were massive and were right up there for sound of the show for me but were edged out by the Exemplar room (more on that later). The Horns were sourced with a Garrard turntable and when they played a Louis Armstrong record you felt like he was right there in the room with you. This was spooky good stuff but you need a huge dedicated room to make these work and a big budget to match.

Two Bald Guys Room This room featured a single driver DIY speaker kit that cost $65 plus the price of cabinets you build with plans they provide. This room was really good not up to the exemplar room or the giant horns but showed what you could do on a budget. This speaker would provide most people with tons of pleasure. They need a sub as they go down to about 65hz.

HeadFi Room We saw a lot more traffic than I thought we would. HUGE thanks to Steve for setting this up and providing my amp with round trip transport to the event. Now there is a fair amount of skepticism regarding headphones at events like this an I feel like we made a few converts. Both Eddie Current amps sounded great the Zana and the HD2 really provide two views of the sonic picture that are stunning in their own way.

I fell back in love with the Audio Technica AD2000 all over again and will be soon on the hunt for another pair. They scale well with better amps Dave P was there and brought along some great headphones the Denon's with the Markl mod was in attendance and I can say yes the mod makes a big improvement in these cans. They still do not do it enough for me to put them in the line up and they are not close to the R10 but they are really good headphones and I could see many liking them. The had an immediacy that was really nice and staged well side to side but sis not provide stage depth. Soundstage is a big deal for me probably more than most. Dave also brought the ED9s with him and they were a hit with many that stopped by. They are not my cuppa tea but they are top flight cans. Don had a pair of Beyer 770s and after he cajoled me into it I put them on my head. I have never liked Beyers as they great at the top and bottom but were only so so in the mids on past listens. These 770s had the midrange mojo and I am not sure if there were changes along the years with this model or not but the version Don has are great. I brought along my RS1s and 650s balanced with APS cables and others can tell you what they thought. I love them but and they each suit moods and music for me but I may be biased as I own them.

As I stated before the Stacker amp was a revelation for me at the show and is on the radar and will be my first DIY project. Better buy Band-Aids now for the solder burns that I am sure to get.

We had a S.E.X amp there was well that was good sounding and mated with the RS1s well. I shared a ride with the builder to the airport leaving the event (sorry I forgot your name after a long day at the airport). I did not get a pic of this build it had character and had taken some hits on the plane ride in. It had MASSIVE oil caps in it that stuck out the bottom. I would recommend to anyone that has the miniaml skills or want to learn to pick up a kit from Bottlehead as this amp does sound great and can be modded/upgraded easily. We also had a benchmark and PPX in attendance but I did not spend time with them as they have been well talked about in the past. Here are pics from our area.

Eddie Current Amps with Steve's tape source

stacker amp and some of Don's other builds.

More to come tomorrow

Exemplar Room, Teres 265 turntable, Modwright room and seminar thoughts.

[Dusty Chalk]

Thanks for the impressions, more when you feel like it, please.

[luvdunhill]

any pics or details about the Garrard?

[jp11801]

any pics or details about the Garrard?

unfortunately no other than there were two in use in different rooms one done up nice in beautiful wood plinth and another in a what appeared to be a birch plywood plinth unfinished (looked ghetto sounded top flight) that was used in the GoTO big horn room

[gruggles]

What day did you visit the Electraprint - Sonist room, Saturday or Sunday?

[n_maher]

What day did you visit the Electraprint - Sonist room, Saturday or Sunday?

What makes you ask?