California Audio Show in SF

[Puma Cat]

A number of rooms were standouts...

The One Audio room with a Lindemann Integrated (very impressive), ARC Ref 250 amps (which were connected but not powering the speakers), a vintage Luxman P440 table and Sounsdmith Hyperion cartridge (with it's cactus needle cantilever) and the Zestos Andros phono stage and Voce speakers was excellent.

Also, the Tone of Audio San Francisco room was excellent. Tim Nguyen always, always puts together a superb sounding room with excellent choice of components, in this case, a Convergent Audio tube preamp, Air Tight KT88 amp, Zesto Andros phono stage with Yorke TT and Franco Serblln (founder of Sonus-Faber) speakers was also wonderful; sweet, musical and easy to listen to.

Lastly the Zesto Audio/WyWire and TAD room was great, too. Zestos Leto preamp (mmm, tasty....) and Zestos Andros phono stage, GamuT D200 amp, and TAD CR1s was excellent, albeit in a small room. We met George and Carolyn, the founders of Zestos, and they were a charming couple. Turns out the beautiful industrial design is Carolyn's! We heard the Zestos phono stage in at least four different rooms, and it was very impressive in every room. I also thought the Zestos Leto preamp was very, very impressive. Hmmm, an audiition may in order...

[Ritmo]

Thanks Stephen!

Mike

[tony-w]

Originally Posted by Ritmo

Tony,

Thanks for the update on the Wilson/VTL/DCS system. Any other standouts?

Mike

A few of the rooms were using Magico speakers, one with VAC amplifiers. The MBL room was also very impressive.

[Rilands]

Originally Posted by tony-w

The MBL room was also very impressive.

+1
MBL room was amazing.

[Puma Cat]

The MBL room was impressive last year, too.

What's interesting is that there are guys that consistently can put good sounding rooms together at various shows, e.g. Tim Nguyen of Tone of Audio and Jonathan Tinn of Blue Light Audio, Mick Tillman at Dynaudio (Best sound of show at RMAF in 2010, for example) and other guys that are consistently clueless.

[Myles B. Astor]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

The MBL room was impressive last year, too.

What's interesting is that there are guys that consistently can put good sounding rooms together at various shows, e.g. Tim Nguyen of Tone of Audio and Jonathan Tinn of Blue Light Audio, Mick Tillman at Dynaudio (Best sound of show at RMAF in 2010, for example) and other guys that are consistently clueless.

Does help they're starting with good gear too Probably would sound good in an empty swimming pool too! Just kidding.

[Puma Cat]

Agreed, Miles, but there were dealers at both shows starting with good gear but getting sound that would drive you out of the room inside of five minutes. That and they tend to play a lot of "audiophile-y" content.

[Puma Cat]

One of the products I was most impressed with yesterday was the Lindemann Integrated amplifier. This integrated sounded wonderful; lots of power, but VERY musical with a gorgeous midrange.

LINDEMANN.: Product & Features

This is the best-sounding integrated I've heard since the Dart CTH-8550.

[Puma Cat]

Some pix of the show coming up....

[tony-w]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

One of the products I was most impressed with yesterday was the Lindemann Integrated amplifier. This integrated sounded wonderful; lots of power, but VERY musical with a gorgeous midrange.

LINDEMANN.: Product & Features

This is the best-sounding integrated I've heard since the Dart CTH-8550.

I was impressed with that one too, and the Voce Audio speakers it was played through.