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T.H.E. Show Newport 2016, Part Two

06-17-2016 | By Dave Clark | Issue 86

T.H.E. Show coverage continues... with a second page.

From Part One... 

Second year at the same location, the Hotel Irvine, room 441, and with us arriving late Wednesday afternoon after a full day of teaching. Tired, exhausted... and bittersweet as this was the next to last week before we retired as educators. Daunting task. Set up a room—a hospitality room with an audio system hitting well over a $100K—make the room a place to sit and chill. Adult beverages, 8 different bourbons and scotches, best coffee around (burr ground on demand, filtered water, special blend of beans courtesy of Ristretto Roasters in Portland... all brewed via the Moccamaster), soft lighting, comfy chairs... yeah, we pulled it off... of course to really pull it off, we also have to visit the exhibitor rooms. Meaning we need to report on the show, get around to people we know and people we are glad to get to know, all the while hosting the PF Hospitality suite.

What this really means is that spending any serious time in any room, other than our own, becomes hopeless. The best we can do is drop in, take a few images, grab some literature, give a cursory listen where if it sounds okay, it is probably way better than okay... and then onto the next. For sure it gets old, and we are old, and so each day becomes a seemingly longer and steeper hill to climb. Stop for lunch, say hello to friends new and old in the hallway... by Sunday we are physically and emotionally gone. But on Monday we were back at school for our last five days...ever...with kids.

So what you got here is a hundred plus images, a list of what was shown in the rooms, some people we ran into... and a few comments about this and that. Enjoy. Part two of five...

T.H.E. Show Newport 2016

Eclipse, distribution by On a Higher Note.

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Sean Casey of Zu Audio. Talk about the real deal. We have known Sean since he and Adam first started Zu way, way back... so far back that Sean would sleep on the floor of our house when they were in SoCal... someone we think of as family.

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Weak try on my part with capturing the beauty of this new finish option.

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Zu Audio.

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Music Reference, Ram Labs/Tube Audio Store.

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Music Reference, Ram Labs/Tube Audio Store.

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Carol, "Dave, are you taking a picture of me?"

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Back in the PF Hospitality Suite to take a load off my feet.

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Peter Grzybowski from Triode Wire, pausing for a moment in the PF Hospitality Suite. Good people, family ran...

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Malachi and Kirsten Kenney along with their delightful daughter Ciara. Start them early!

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Zu Audio Omen...

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Brian Hunter from AudioHead. A normal expression...

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Cool turntable, green vinyl. Emerald City... not Kansas.

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Blue Coast Records, DSD-Guide, Downloads Now!, Blue Coast Music Group, Sony, Merging Technologies.

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Pure Audio Project, Wyred4Sound, SST Audio, Synergistic Research. I liked what this room was doing sonically.

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Pure Audio Project, Wyred4Sound, SST Audio, Synergistic Research.

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Profundo! Blackbird Audio Gallery, Genesis Advanced Technologies, Heed Audio, Transfiguration, Trenner & Friedl, Viva Audio.

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New Heed components...

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Profundo! Blackbird Audio Gallery, Genesis Advanced Technologies, Heed Audio, Transfiguration, Trenner & Friedl, Viva Audio.

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Bob Clarke, the jovial man behind Profundo. Much love to Bob... as honest as you get. A true friend. 

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A new audio tweak? Bob and I joked that he could offer these as speaker 'treatments' for $500 each.

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A fine Funk.

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The new updated Heed Audio loudspeaker.

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More Profundo! Syncopation, Heed Audio, Genesis Advanced Technologies, Transfiguration, Trenner & Friedl, Viva Audio.

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Bob Clarke and Carol Clark, no relation.

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Optimal Enchantment. Audioquest, Audio Research, Basis Audio, Vandersteen.

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Packed house to hear this system!

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Richard Vandersteen. Such a guy... soft spoken but cuts no corners.

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Stein Music Ltd. With the V6 loudspeaker. BAM!

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Stein Music Ltd. With the V6 loudspeaker.

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Holger Stein. A true gentleman.

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Venice Audio.

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Venice Audio. Harbeth loudspeakers, Naim Audio preamplifier with integrated streamer, power amplifier, and phono stage,  Well Tempered Lab turntable, Crimson Audio Cable, and Quadraspire equipment rack.

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High Fidelity Cables. Magnetic wonders.

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High Fidelity Cables.

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Rick Schultz, High Fidelity Cables.

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Rick Schultz's son, Brechen Lawley, quite knowledgeable about the magnetic cables. Knows nothing about the Blue Man Group.