maxg Posted November 14, 2006 Author Share Posted November 14, 2006 Baby model from the same range shoved into a corner (well against a back wall) in the smae room - there was a lot of kit in this room - wait till you see the amps) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted November 14, 2006 Author Share Posted November 14, 2006 This is one of the amps - a TLA I think. No idea on the specks - but it is another one you do not want to know the price of... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted November 14, 2006 Author Share Posted November 14, 2006 Another TLA amp - they were all over the floor and seemingly selected for play entirely at random. This meant that the sound quality changed throughout the show. On saturday the horns sounded great and on sunday not so good. Seemed a complete mystery to the distributor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted November 14, 2006 Author Share Posted November 14, 2006 Enough of all this flashy git stuff - and balmy French horn speakers - this is one seriously cool, understated TT that has bucketfuls of design. In case you do not know this is a Simon Yorke TT. If you are one of the few lucky enough to own one (he makes 20 a year on average) then you know. As no-one on the forum does (including me) I suppose I will have to explain. Lower noise floor than a CD player. Grace and pace in playback. Gets its arse completely out of the way of the music and sucks whatever they thought they might want to put into the groove along with what they actually did. Musically unmatched in my experience - you just sit, listen, and forget where you are. Sonically shows a clean pair of heels to my TT - but I am working on that. Of course Simon plays his at home with a 103 on it. Actually it might be his son that does (he is in the business). I only spent 4 hours talking to them. Real cool guy - doesnt give a crap about much. Makes no attempt whatsoever to sell you anything. He does it his way - you like it - so buy it - you dont - buy something else. I dont think he has any problem selling his production quota. Funny thing is - his real interest is in working for the Library of Congress dealing with things like unique recordings from the 1920's that run at 100 rpm and play from the inside - out - with totally non-standard equalization he has to figure out. Sometimes he has to find a way of playing things that literally have one shot. In other words - playback destroys them. He seems to thrive on the pressure and that is his real love. Course - he is quite keen on the audiophile stuff too - and he has a new model coming out next year - but it has a frightening price tag (current model is around $20K with the arm) about 3 times the current model..... Old school audiophilia - small company - doing it for the love. As I suggested to him for his tagline - Art for Art's sake. One more thing - I am talking to him about his Turntables and he says "I dont make Turntables - I make record players." When was the last time you heard someone in high end say that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaiser SET say Posted November 14, 2006 Share Posted November 14, 2006 I sure would love to have a Simon 7 Max, I went to DC last year and my older brother is recently retired from the Library of Congress where he got me a hall pass to the archiving section and they allowed me to view the Simon 7 up close and I am in love[] Their table was set up with 2 arms and a plethora of neet stuff in that studio[] Appreciate all your post from the show Max[] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted November 14, 2006 Author Share Posted November 14, 2006 Double post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted November 14, 2006 Author Share Posted November 14, 2006 [8-|] god dammed double posting system..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted November 14, 2006 Author Share Posted November 14, 2006 Ok - that's all folks. Sadly many of the pictures - if we are going to be honest, simply did not come out well enough to post but we got a goodly number to work. I have to say posting this lot (including the prep and the research) was almost as much work as the show itself. All kidding aside - yes it was quite fun - but it really was hard work and very tiring. I got there at 9 am on Saturday and left at 10:30 having listened to about 30 systems - 9 of which are to be written up. Similar story on Sunday. Would be OK if I didnt have a full time job of course. I dont think I will take this role again for ACA next year - some other dummy can take it. Normally when I go into a room I listen - decide I dont like it - and leave - here I had to sit for 20 minutes cirtically listening to crap (sometimes) and then trying to think of something positive to say. With a certain make of chinese speakers, for example, that was not easy....er.....nice wood - bet they burn well....maybe not. At the other end of the spectrum I sat in on the Nordost Cable demonstration. What can I say? Other than cleverly done. Take a cheap cable that looks like it came free with a computer sound card. Play 3 mintues through it. Switch for you cheapest cable (only $400). End playback after a short time and smile - "quite a difference isnt it!" Everyone readily agrees. Talk about the technology - the core - the insulation blah blah. Introduce the next cable up ($550) - explain the differences - play on the $400 one - exclaim that is still sounds good - doesn't it. (Yes from the audience). Switch to the new ones - stand back - look proud - quite a difference huh - and for only $150 - how many audiophile components can you get for this kind of money? Everyone smiles (and I desperately fight the urge to yell out - 3 Denon 103's yer lying sack of sh1t) This goes on - cable after cable till we hit the $4,250 Valhalla. By this point there is a room wide look of ecstacy - isnt it wonderful? - have you ever seen the emperor look better? Anyway he switches back to Valhalla minus one and everyone's face falls. He goes back to the Valhalla and the eclipse passes. Then he puts the original computer cables in. People are vomitting on the carpets - wailing in the streets - there is a gnashing of teeth and all that. He takes it off - apologizes to all - replaces with the Valhalla's and the doors open as we file out to the acompaniment of sonic bliss to find an audio shop that will do us the honour of selling us Valhallas for a mere $4,250. Now I am not saying there was not a difference between the computer cable and the Valhalla, but: What I did notice when we went from the Valhalla back to the computer cable was the following. We had started with the computer cables and worked our way up via 4 sets of cables to the Valhallas. Each set showed a difference we were all persuaded we heard - sometimes a very big difference. Now we were comparing the very best and the very worst. Yes we all got the difference, but - it was certainly not the sum of the differances we had heard going from one cable to another. Cable differences are therefore, akin tot he speed of light. If you are travelling at the speed of light and pass something going the other way you pass at the speed of light and not 2 times the speed of light. With cables I have one cable that is 10% better than another cable and a third cable that is 10% better than the first. The third cable is both 10% better than the first cable AND the second cable. It is not 20%+ better than the second cable. The only other thing that struck me was the similarity of the pitch to one I used to use on a market stall many years ago flogging bags. Oh the insane bargains we gave away (yeah right). People would crush each other fighting to throw money into our hands by the end of the pitch. Actualy I was better at it than the Nordost salesman - I would have had cables in bags by the door with a credit card machine. Like I said - cleverly done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted November 15, 2006 Author Share Posted November 15, 2006 What - no replies? No-one likes my summary of the cable demo? The new pics? Nothing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben. Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 Of course, I love you maxie. I didn't click in this afternoon as I thought I'd be in between pics again... The cable demo story had me in fits, but what really interests me is that Simon Yorke cat. I'm guessing he has no website? Where's he from? Not that I'm in a buying mode, but I'd like to know more about him and what he does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 Max my internet has been down since Friday due my satellite modem went south..just got a new one today..anyway.. The show and pix of all the equipment was outstanding! That stuff is way over my budget..but that said, it was refreshing to see you say that multi thousand dollar pieces of equipment sounded "thin". I don't feel so bad now, thinking some of the high dollar stuff I auditioned didn't live up to the hype! Also, thanx for the insight on the cable differences! I, for one, think I can hear some cabling differences, but I can relate to your story! Too bad he didn't start with the 4K pair, and work backwards in increments ending up with the cheap cables. Think anyone would have thought the difference in sound was worth the money?? Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted November 15, 2006 Author Share Posted November 15, 2006 Thanks Ben - quite restored my faith. As for Simon - check out www.recordplayer.com That is his website. Steve, As for the value of cables I look at it like this. If you have a Cd player that costs $20K and a pre-amp and an amp that cost similar money - in an overall system of something around $100K+ then by all means look at $4K cables - why not. Probably does make a little difference - and you are at a price level where you have probably maxed everything else out - so go for it. If you have a system that cost, say, $15K then spending more than $1.5K on cables for the entire system (power, speaker, interconnects etc.) is probably not the best investment in terms of sound quality for your $$. IMHO / YMMV and all that ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edwinr Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 Thanks for posting your pics and associated commentary, Max. Very interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lascaladan Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 Max, great job posting. I have worked many shows and have attended even more. Most systems do not sound very good(poor imaging, flabby bass, poor dynamics, etc). Having the time and the acoustical room for these manufacturers to set up is almost impossible, but quite remarkable to set up what they have done. I am curious if you have any familiarity with the Jadis line of electronics from France, specifically the Eurythmie 11 loudspeaker, which was the best I have ever heard, at a show(never heard it set up in a home). I worked with the importer and spent a weekend at the Waldorf in NY about 10 years ago, during the Stereophile show(I had mentioned this in the "Best Speaker" post). The work that the manufacturers put into these shows and the sounds they achieve is "work". Anyway, great job and great pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaiser SET say Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 I responded Max with my own little story of getting to see Simon's table in the LoC[] Loved your cable story and have the exact same philosophy on them as you. Basically 10% of your total system price is a good cable cost range IMHO[] Sorry all the work on write-ups dampened your enjoyment of the show[] Next year do let someone else (albeit I'm positive they won't do a better and more truthful job) tackle the write-up so you can not be punished by listening to thin systems[H] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedball Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 Thanks Max...! Simon's website is a good easy read and the pictures of that "record player" are out of this world. .......why are speaker prices so high over there? shipping? greedy salespeople? man, those are some high prices by stateside standards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarence Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 With a certain make of chinese speakers, for example, that was not easy....er.....nice wood - bet they burn well....maybe not. ha! great thread Max! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brennyE Posted November 16, 2006 Share Posted November 16, 2006 Hehehe love the cable sale pitch! very funny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted November 16, 2006 Author Share Posted November 16, 2006 Las, Dont know the Jadis line of speakers at all - and have never seen them at the show - I will havea hunt on line and see what they are all about. Kaiser, Sorry - missed your post. Very cool you got to see the model 7 in situ - and very glad at least one other has heard the thing. Speedball, Yup - speakers is expensive over here - especially those from the US. Aside from the shipping costs you have the importer making his margin, the distributor making his margin and the dealer making his. Then factor in the 6% import duty and the 19% sales tax and you have the simply gorgeous pricing we get over here. Just as an example I did a search on the Cornwall 3 on line. Amazon sell them at $1,730 a pair (give or take). Same thing here is about 5000 euros - or $6000. As an aside - I didnt know you could buy Klipsch on-line - and from Amazon no less - anyone? Seems they only have the Cornwalls though from my brief search. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edwinr Posted November 16, 2006 Share Posted November 16, 2006 Your story about the cables is a very good one, Max. I own Nordost Heimdall interconnects terminated with WBT connectors. 2 pairs actually. These are moderately priced interconnects that I had sold to me at a very good discount. I heard the much higher priced Nordost products. They didn't sound any better than mine. So I stuck with the cheaper products. They're well made and seem able to withstand some abuse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.