Team Cavalli & guests celebrating a great time at CanJam SoCal 2016
Unlike last year when I rushed through the show in about four hours, this year I made sure I attended for two full days. On Friday I expected the crowds would be smaller, making it easier to get photos and maybe get some time playing my records as I know when a room is crowded, most exhibitors aren’t too thrilled playing the stuff I bring. Saturday was to follow up on things I wanted to get a second look at or meet up with people I missed on Friday. So overall it was a more relaxed and enjoyable time for me.
Friday was a good day from my standpoint, but light attendance meant that for several rooms I visited I was either alone or saw maybe a couple of other people. Saturday was much more crowded but mostly people seemed to be enjoying themselves, and I didn’t really run into any pushy or obnoxious types who wanted to challenge exhibitors or prove their “knowledge” to other people in the room.
I also decided not to limit myself to just low cost gear this time, as I would have been done in an hour if I had. Very few rooms showed moderately priced gear, and most seemed to be aiming for the ultra-high-end “luxury” end of the market.
Even with that, most rooms were very agreeable to playing music people asked for instead of just the old audiophile warhorses, and the use of Qobuz meant in many rooms almost anything you wanted was available. That really made for a better show experience. I brought two LPs and surprisingly most exhibitors were willing to play them; Jack Johnson’s In Between Dreams and Gang of Four’s Solid Gold.
Unlike the past several years where I listed rooms somewhat alphabetically, this year I tried to come up with the total cost of the system in each room and will list them here from lowest to highest total price. In some cases, only part of the system was included in the price.
As always, any room not shown here probably means I either didn’t get good photos or didn’t have enough information. I did miss a few rooms. Do not take it as meaning anything else.
Lounge Audio ($495 phono preamp only)
In past shows, Lounge Audio showed in the marketplace, with a simple headphone setup to showcase their high value and very good sounding phono stage. This year though they showed in a regular room, they didn’t do much to show off the sound of their product
But they did show off the construction and design, running their phono preamp without a case so you could at least see how nice it was. People might have skipped this room after quickly glancing inside, which would have been a shame, as the Lounge Audio phono preamp really is a very good unit.
Cerwin-Vega! ($1399.99, speakers being played only)
A blast from the past, Cerwin-Vega! is back, and yes, the exclamation point has always been part of their name. When I was in the room, the VEGA10SB-PR 10” 3-Way Studio Monitors were in use. They are the small speakers on top of the floor-standers, showing off their traditional red surrounds. Internally triamped with built in DSP and wireless operation, they did play loud and deep and probably sounded better than the Cerwin-Vega! speakers I remember from my 1970s college days. I was actually pretty impressed by these. I doubt they made many friends on Saturday though, as they played extremely loudly with their door wide open. You could hear them throughout the entire floor.
Shakuto Audio ($4,900.00 Speakers in use only)
I had not heard of California based Shakuto Audio before this show, and their lineup of high efficiency horn speakers seem quite nice. The floor-standing, 97dB (2.83 V/1 m) Alex-12 (front) pairs a rear-ported 12" woofer with their own design bi-radial wooden horn and a 1.4" compression driver. I didn’t feel I got a good listen here or that I heard much of what these speakers were capable of doing, but they certainly are a design to look into, especially at their $4,900 introductory price.
Oriaco Audio ($6,300.00 Speakers only)
Once again Oriaco Audio showed their largish D6 stand mounted speakers ($6,300) with a beautiful Denon integrated amp and using their own sensibly priced cables. Also as usual, they played mostly CDs from their own recording company, which are all beautiful for both their music and their sound. I’ve been hearing various Oriaco speakers (previously as Tonian Labs) for years and really admire them.
There will be a substantial jump in price moving on from here, so I’m putting in a room where I did not get pricing information.
Dynamic Sound Systems (didn’t get a price)
High-end audio and home theater specialists from Carlsbad, CA, Dynamic Sound Systems was showing an interested system that included Prodigio electrostatic speakers, AGD Productions electronics and Bacch Labs 3D Spatial Audio processing. The processing does some kind of magic to cancel crosstalk and create a 3D soundscape from two channel systems and source material. Standing in the back of the room the sound was nice, but I didn’t really get it. Then at my request they played the track “Addis” from Om’s album Advaitic Songs from Qobuz and I sat in the sweet spot. The width, depth and coherence of the soundstage was truly impressive.
The AGD amps have always been pretty impressive at all the shows I’ve heard them.
T.H.E. Vintage Lounge ($17,500.00 Speakers only)
T.H.E. Vintage Lounge was mostly just a place to hang out. Never actually spoke to anyone there about the gear and had to go back a few times to hear music actually being played. Using a beautiful vintage Denon DP-59L table and a tube amp whose brand I didn’t get, the 95 dB (2.83V, 1m) Simco ONE speakers ($17,500.00) sounded quite nice showed great potential if placed in a more appropriate room.
Odyssey Audio ($25,800.00 complete system)
Over the years I’ve come to expect excellent sound, great music and reasonable prices from Odyssey Audio. Even showing their new statement amplifiers, the Meilenstein Mono amps ($13,900) and using a Symphonic Line CD player ($5000), their Kismet speakers ($4,900) and Candela preamp ($2,000) kept the total price pretty realistic. I also appreciate their speaker placement and have at times used the near-the-sidewall-widely-spaced configuration myself. It can give a huge and immersive soundstage if the speakers can manage it. A full set of Stella Acoustics cables tied the system together.
Audience AV ($36,000.00 Speakers only)
Audience AV’s new Bellare speaker was very impressive. Using a pair of their three-inch full range drivers on both the front and back above 130 Hz and internally powered DSP corrected mid-bass and woofer drivers with claimed output to 22 Hz. How they get such a large, room filling sound out of those drivers is baffling, but driven by an LKV Research Veros PWR+ power amp and fronted with an Origin Live turntable, Herron and Atma-Sphere electronics certainly got the job done. I stopped in this room to listen a few times and enjoyed every minute of it.
Sunny Audio video Room 2 ($57,750.00)
SoCal dealer Sunny’s AV always shows well with great sounding rooms, but any room that has a standard LP of King’s Crimson’s In The Court Of The Crimson King queued up deserves extra special mention. We played “21st Century Schizoid Man” from the LP and then “I Talk To The Wind” from the 24/96 stream on Qobuz, and they both sounded wonderful. The system included the following: Moon 491 network player preamp ($6,500), Moon 461 stereo power amp ($5,000), Technics SL-1210GR2 with a Koetsu Rosewood cartridge ($4,500 show special), Audiovector R6 Arreté speakers ($39,700) and Shunyata Research speaker cables ($2,050).
Audio Note UK ($62,006.00)
Audio Note UK is always an experience. I write the same thing about their exhibits every year, and still wonder how many people look in, shrug their shoulders and head off to the next room looking for massive speakers and a two hundred pound turntable. Yet if you stop, sit down and listen, Audio Note UK always produces some of the most engaging sounds at any show. I stopped here a few times just to sit there, listen and enjoy. This was a relatively simple system by their standards: CD4.1x CD player ($16,100), TT Two Deluxe with Arm Three/II ($8,120), IO I MC Cartridge with AN-S3 SUT ($10,486), OTO Phono SE Silver Signature 35th Anniversary integrated amp ($13,930) and AN-E/SPeHE silver voice coil speakers ($13,370).
Grimm ($67,388.90)
Ever since the first time I heard Grimm Audio at a show many years ago, I’ve been seriously impressed by their technology, design, and sound. If you want a simple setup for a primarily digital playback system this is hard to beat. Big, powerful and transparent sound. Grimm LS1c active speaker with SB1 Motion Feedback subs ($50,490), Grimm MU1 music player ($14,400), Viablue X-60 power cable 3-meter ($1,449.95) and EP-7 CAT6A Ethernet cable, 3-meter ($349.95), and a Matrix Audio SI-1 audio grade network isolator ($699).
MC Audiotech, Audio Mirror ($96,000.00)
MC Audiotech showed their excellent sounding TL-12 speakers. These use three of their proprietary wide-band-line-source drivers from 300Hz to 20KHz and a 12-inch transmission line woofer for claimed response down to the upper 20Hz range. Minnesota based Audio Mirror electronics were a new name to me, but I had a pleasant chat with their owner and designer, Vladimir Bazelkov. MC Audiotech TL-12 $26,000), Audio Mirror Addiction mono amps $20,000, Wave Tube DAC $22,000, Wave tube line preamp $13,000, prototype Wave Streamer $15,000 (expected).
Decibel+ ($96,911.00)
Decibel+ is the US importer and distributor for several interesting brands, and they put together a nice sounding system here, based on the Atlantis Lab AT 38 PRO speakers ($24,418) a three-way, high-efficiency design using horn loaded compression drivers for the midrange and tweeter and a 15” woofer. The rest of the system included acoustic treatment from AGS, streamer and DAC from AudioByte, racks from Music Tools and tube electronics from Neoson.
Jaguar Audio ($112,995.00 turntable and speakers only)
Jaguar Audio showed another very good sounding system based around Estelon speakers, in this case the lower cost YB Mk II ($27,995). The piece that had everyone talking was the KLAudio Magnezar turntable with its KLAudio Tangential tonearm ($85,000).
The rest of the system included Phasemation PP-5000 cartridge and EA-1200 phono pre, Enleum Amp-54r power amp, Audio Research Ref7 preamp, Kubala-Sosna cables, and lots of AV RoomServices EVPs to isolate everything.
PranaFidelity / E.A.R. ($126,871.00 not including turntable, digital, or speakers)
I don’t give out “Best Sound” or other nonsense awards, but that doesn’t mean I don’t single out certain room as my personal favorites. Every year the room shared by PranaFidelity and E.A.R. seems to get that recognition from me. This year PranaFidelity’s Steve Norber was showing a prototype of his new flagship speaker, the Satmata, which he had literally been finishing the crossover for in the room the night before the show opened. I heard a few different suggested prices for the speaker, but I believe it will come in for about $39,000. It was one of my two favorite speakers I heard over the time I was there. Such engaging and powerful sound.
This is what it looked like every time I stopped by, so apparently other people were impressed, too. On my third visit I finally got to sit in the sweet spot.
Merrill-Williams turntable (no longer in production), Breuer tonearm (no longer in production), OTTA MC cartridge $5,000, E.A.R. 88PB phono stage ($6,295), Technics RS1500, E.A.R. modified (price n/a), Wyred4Sound DAC-2 modified by PranaFidelity (price n/a), Pioneer Elite PD-65 CD player modified by PranaFidelity (price n/a), E.A.R. Acute Classic CD player (price n/a), Townshend Allegri Reference line stage ($13,000), PranaFidelity purna/ca preamp with phono stage ($14,500), PranaFidelity Purna/ma amp ($11,900), Furutech V1-S speaker cables ($15,560), Furutech V1-L interconnects ($7,324), Furutech V1 power cables ($10,028), Furutech NanoFlux NCF power cables ($5,495), Furutech NCF Power Vault ($8,269)
Gestalt Audio ($243,097.00)
The other room I would say was my favorite sounding of the show was Gestalt Audio’s room. I've been super impressed by the various Wolf Van Langa field coil speakers I’ve heard in the past, but this time the new WVL 11620 ORGANIC ($39,995) used in conjunction with a pair of Cinnamon Malabar VLF asymmetric dipole subwoofers ($17,995) sounded just like what I look for in a system. And for people who think single driver full range speakers like this aren’t good for rock, this may have been the best I heard from Gang of Four’s Solid Gold LP. Bass, drums, dynamics, speed and clarity were superb.
The rest of the system; SW1X MPA V “Hercules” Mono Power Amplifier ($37,836), SW1X PRE III Line Pre-Amplifier ($28,041), Cinnamon Galle Phono Stage ($32,995), Cinnamon Galle SUT ($8,250), PrimaryControl Kinea turntable ($27,995), PrimaryControl FCL field coil loaded unipivot tonearm ($27,995), Fuuga MC cartridge ($10,995). Cables were from Tchernov and not included in the price.
Zesto Audio (>$269,331.00)
When a company consistently gets great sound at shows year after year, you have to make sure you don’t take it for granted and that you seriously listen to check if they’ve succeeded each time. Zesto Audio is one of those companies, and for as long as I’ve been seeing them at shows, they have consistently ranked among the nicest sounding systems every time. This show was no different. Their tube electronics are, at least to my eye and design preferences, among the best looking gear on the market, too.
Their system on display; Zesto Audio Athena DAC ($15,000), Andros Deluxe II phono stage ($8,00), Andros II phono stage ($5,900), Andros Spirit MM/MC phono stage ($3,997), Leto Ultra II tube preamp ($11,900), Eros 500 Select monoblock amps ($35,000), Dr. Feickert Analogue Blackbird turntable ($9,900), Tri-Planer VII-U2 tonearm ($7,500), Benz Micro Gullwing SLR cartridge ($4,200), YG Acoustics Sonja 3.2 speakers ($106,800), Cardas Clear Beyond cables (>$45,000).
The Audio Association $$608,522.00.00 not including turntable or tape deck)
This room was one of those that goes to show, don’t judge based on a quick listen. This was one of the first rooms I stopped in and when I saw all the high priced gear, after a minute or two I thought “okay, so what” and left. Sure, it sounded nice, but nothing bowled me over, which I kind of hope for at this price point. Then on Saturday, in the PranaFidelity room, they were playing this great record, great both musically and from a sound standpoint. The guy sitting next to me had the cover in his lap, and I asked him to see what it was. He handed it to me and said "It's mine." He didn't mean his copy, he meant his record. Jazz drummer, composer and leader of the band Jacob Wendt was there, sitting next to me. He had a bag full of records to sell so I had to buy one. He then told me he and Kevin Gray would be having a session in The Audio Association’s room to discuss the recording and production of his new album that would be coming out soon.
I sat through the very interesting hour long session hearing how they recorded the new album (all analog), what sound they were going for (Rudy Van Gelder-esque, of course) and then we listened to a test pressing of the soon to be released LP. I was fortunate to be in a very good seat for it, and I heard some of the most dynamic, lively, realistic reproduction of music from an LP that I’ve ever heard at a show. I have great respect for everyone involved in putting this system together, setting up this room, and producing that record. Looking forward to getting the LP once it’s released.
The system; Evolution Acoustics System Three speakers ($147,200), Solution Audio 727 Preamp ($85,975), 717 power amp ($129,975), 757 phono preamp ($9,5975), Durand Tosca LE tonearm ($34,000), Koetsu Urushi Vermillion cartridge ($8,3000), Grimm Audio MU2 Streamer/DAC/preamp ($20,000), Silent Angel Bonn NX network switch ($4,199), Genesis GX Word Clock ($3,999), Forester FX AC-CD power supply ($4,199). Also included were the ATR-102 tape deck, Wave Kinetics NVS Reference turntable and Evolution Acoustics cables.
Scott Walker Audio (>$803,949.98)
I have always loved the sound of Estelon speakers and the Forza speakers on display in one of Scott Walker Audio’s rooms sounded spectacular in every way. Considering the price of the gear in this room it should have sounded spectacular. System highlights included; Estelon Forza speakers, $213,899.98, MSB Technology Sentinel DAC $375,000.00, Vitus SM-103 mono amplifiers $85,050.00, Taiko Olympus server $95,000.00, SonoruS Audio ATR10 MK2 reel-to-reel $35,000.00
That’s it for this year.
