what did you like at the lonestar audio fest?

marvda1

here are some of the rooms that i liked at the lonestar audio feat.
1) ultrasonic audio racks/clarity cables room, the sound of the marten design speakers driver by art audio 80 watt monoblocks was quite nice and those acrylic amp stands and rack with the blue lights were great. i purchased a 6 ft. power cord ($150) for show special 50% off that sounded real good with my preamp. the clarity people were great, they let me take home a $150 power cord and $500 pair of interconnects saturday to listen to and bring back sunday without paying:)

2) the audio note uk. room (factory assembled) sounded great (expensive) they had a nice looking gigantic audio rack ($6000).

3) the audiokinesis (spelling) room was really good with the jazz modules.

4) audio mirror room with vlad's $12,000 folded horn speakers that he had just finished 4:00 am sat. had GREAT life and energy driven by a 12 watt tube integrated amp he built 20 years ago. i was really interested in his 45 watt set monoblocks that he built at the show saturday night and completed around 1:45 pm sunday, these look and sound great for his asking price of $2100, you can see them at www.audiomirror.com . he took them to the clarity cable room to put them in the system that had the $7000 pr. art audio amps and to my ear there was not a 3x+ difference.

5) the element cable room also had pretty good sound with audio valve tube monoblocks (german) and vs vr4-jr speakers and vincent cdp.

perhaps some others can chime in as i didn't write a lot of this down and am going from memory.


marvin

sucks2beme

marvda1 wrote: »

here are some of the rooms that i liked at the lonestar audio feat.
2) the audio note uk. room (factory assembled) sounded great (expensive) they had a nice looking gigantic audio rack ($6000).
5) the element cable room also had pretty good sound with audio valve tube monoblocks (german) and vs vr4-jr speakers and vincent cdp.

perhaps some others can chime in as i didn't write a lot of this down and am going from memory.

marvin

Those were my two highlights. I went mainly to hear the Audio Note gear.
I also had a nice listen/chat with the Element cable guy.

AndyGwis

Those audio mirror speakers were HUGE! $12K a pop, and I think he was using a $50 samsung HD-850 DVD player as a source. There were some really cool rooms there, but I didn't really sit and listen to too much.

I liked the Art Arrays in Fred's room. Plus, he was the nicest guy; offered me a beer immediately upon entering the room, played some great music, and was totally energetic and enthusiastic about everything audio. Great guy. If more people were that inviting (and handing out free beers), I probably would've been there a few hours longer.

The ultrasonic racks were awesome looking. Could make a HTIB setup look like a million bucks.

RuSsMaN

Polk room didn't do anything for anyone eh?

I've heard the ART Arrays a few times, and they are always a treat. The thing I like about them the most is the seemless transition from mid to tweeter - you can't tell where one driver stops and another starts.

The Jazz Modules were interesting, not as 'forward' as some of his earlier offerings. I think they would have a lot better with a better preamp in the mix.

My favorite was the Marten speakers in the Custom Isolation Room.

Cheers,
Russ

jmwest1970

I enjoyed hanging around in general and meeting some of the forum members. Highlights for me were the Dodd Audio Pre and Amp that Russ used in the Polk Audio room. I also enjoyed the AudioKinesis speakers as well. I guess my favorite thing was the Levitator that Russ was using. It's simple and as cool as it gets.

I was a little dissapointed in the Pi setup. I really hoped they would have had more than a set of corner horns. Also, the Brines Audio single driver speaker system just didn't do anything for me.

All in all, I was very entertained and I had a bit of an epiphany regarding the LSI 9s. I've always heard them through and AVR, hence my complaint about the midbass hump in this thread. I think Russ said it best..."It's amazing what good electronics can do." That's for sure! I was thoroughly impressed by the 9s on the Dodd equipment and may purchase them instead of the 15s when I upgrade.

AndyGwis

The LSi9s did sound great. Amazingly, it was my first time to hear any of the LSis in person, even though I have chimed in with roughly 500+ posts giving advice on LSi speakers, required electronics with, etc.

But, would they sound as good on my system as they did with Russ's awesome gear? The Rti10s were good, but I didn't hear a "night and day" difference from my lowly monitor setup. I'm sure if I had them in the same room (Monitors and RTis), the RTis would shine, tho.

sucks2beme

The 9's weren't a surprize. I've heard them on Krell in a Tweeter before. I've heard them at their worst(AVR that kept shutting down) and best.
The real question is, where will Polk sell them at in markets that no longer have coverage? Fry's makes Tweeter look great. They keep playing that stupid looping high school band drumming contest. No way to bring in a decent demo disk. The salespeople at Fry's are worse than useless.

Polk needs to get LSI's back in custom shops, where they belong.

Where was the free beer, Russ? You were upstaged!

RuSsMaN

Beer?

I had a handle of Beam sitting on the bar.

sucks2beme

I don't remember seeing it. It was 10:00 A.m.
You may not have started quite that early!

dorokusai

I thought Russman was the cutest thing I've seen in a dress in ages.

reeltrouble1

I like the Polks, ok, it was tough to hear them from the house, but I liked em anyway.

When it comes to a traditional cabinet speaker, I go Polk or I go home.

Horns, different story, ribbons same deal, see variety can be the spice.

RT1

I dunno Russ in skirt, moves me.

sucks2beme

I was asked in many of the rooms"what do you want to listen to?"
My answer: whatever you thinks sounds best on your system.
I got treated to some tunes I had never heard before. One of them
was Jane Monheit. How have I gone so long without finding her?
The Audio note boys broke out an odd recording called "The Pizza Tapes".
Also a real gem. There was a different sound in the Element cable room-
some far eastern selection that I didn't get the name of-I'll have to email him
to ID it.
The exposure to new music is always a treat.