The
following is courtesy of
Audio
High.
The 2003 Home Entertainment show in San Francisco was a
huge success! Many reviewers and customers commented that
we had the best sounding rooms.
Show Report:
Room 412:
Audio
High,
Tetra
Speakers, Birdland
Audio, Magnan Audio Cables.
Tetra Speakers:
Adrian Butts, the President of Tetra, proudly showed his
Live speakers in room 412--one of the best sounding rooms
in the show according to the many people who came by. One
of the most frequent things we heard is how the Tetra speakers
disappeared and there was nothing but the music, which was
real & palpable. The other comment we heard a lot is
that Tetra speakers should be a lot more expensive. People
couldn't believe the clarity, honesty, and extension of
both the Lives and the Kids. We passed out copies of a new
review of the Kids by recording engineer Jim Merod (a writer
for several magazines) who uses these speakers for his CD
mastering. Tetra picked up several new dealers at the show.
Several magazines (including Stereophile) asked to review
the Tetra Lives & Kid speakers. And Tetra introduced
a new Center channel (the "Bullseye") at the show.
The Bullseye breaks with all conventional wisdom about how
to create a center channel, and it's the first one on the
market that really works.
Birrdland Audio:
Many Birdland Audio customers came by to see Gilles' latest
designs. Gilles introduced a new monoblock amplifier at
the show, 150w. Like his existing 18w amplifier (which we
used to great effect to run Tetra's flagship speakers, which
are 91db efficient), the new amplifier has that tube sound
using solid-state electronics. The OdÈon Ag DAC was
also used, and together with the Tetra Speakers and Magnan
Audio cables, we had one of the best sounding rooms in the
show.
McCormack Audio:
We showed off our prized McCormack DNA-500 at the show,
and let me tell you that many amplifier manufacturers who
heard it could be later seen in the lobby looking at want
ads. Steve McCormack has been a known and highly respected
name in the audio industry for many years, and we were very
proud to have him at the show with us. His UDP-1 universal
transport should be shipping within a few months, and we
can't wait to get our hands on one.
Magnan Audio Cables:
Dave Magnan's cables are among the three top cables in the
world. The second in this set is Acoustic Zen, and the third
is a line I do not yet carry, but plan to soon. There's
nothing like Dave's signature speaker cables, which we used
in our flagship system in room 412, and three people over
the course of the show were literally brought to tears listening
to this system. Admittedly, I was one of them.
Lexicon:
I was very proud to represent Lexicon at HE03. We had their
MC-12B, LX-7, and RT-10 at the show along with the Tetra
Kids (mains), Bullseye (center), and a Velodyne HGS-15 subwoofer.
We also used the LX-7 in our second room to drive the Tetra
Lives. The LX-7 won best Home Theater amplifier in the show,
and I was asked to accept the award on behalf of Lexicon.
Many Lexicon customers came by, some who have been customers
for over 30 years. There were many questions, and there
was much praise and excitement about the product line.
Acoustic Zen:
Acoustic Zen is one of the really wonderful companies out
there that it is just an absolute pleasure to do business
with, both as a dealer and as a consumer. Robert Lee (who,
before Acoustic Zen, designed the cables for a number of
other companies) was at the show in his own room with Calix,
and he came down many times during the show and was met
warmly by many fans of his work. We showed (and played)
the entire line of Acoustic Zen cables, and not only are
they beautiful and easy to integrate into any system, they
sound great.
Grand Prix Audio:
Mountain View Stereo became the latest Grand Prix dealer
shortly before this show, and I wish we had done so a long
time ago. These isolation stands are without peer for their
sonic improvement, and are stunningly beautiful. Steve McCormack
(of McCormack Audio) helped us with both the show and our
concert, and he spoke to me for a long time about the virtues
of this product, which he has used for years. And many Grand
Prix customers made similar comments to me during the show.
Quantum Group:
Bill Steirhout, the president of Quantum, also helped out
at the show, and we used his RT800 and SymphonyPro in both
rooms. These products have a switch that allows you to disable
them, thus allowing a very easy A/B comparison of their
effect. We even had an 8-year-old girl come in and give
testimony that her cartoons looked better on the TV with
his RT800. I tried to sell her a McCormack DNA-500, but
she said she was saving up for a doll house.
The Concert:
Carl Saunders was in rare form at the concert (but understand
that he's always in rare form...). He and his sextet played
for a little over two hours with no intermission. Carl had
the audience laughing and groaning at his jokes between
numbers, and his charm and charisma enchanted everyone.
The concert recording, by Jim Merod, is simply astounding,
and we will be producing a CD of the concert in the next
few weeks and a DVD shortly after that. Please email us
if you'd like to order a copy. I was just bursting with
pride to have helped organize this concert.
