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Home » Audio » General » Great Plains Audiofest Writeup, Page 1
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| Great Plains Audiofest Writeup, Page 7 [message #1611 is a reply to message #1578] |
Wed, 04 May 2005 19:35   |
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Wayne Parham
Messages: 18792
Registered: January 2001
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Illuminati (33rd Degree) |
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Element Cable Room
Element Cable makes high quality interconnects, but the prices aren't much higher than what you would pay for generic cables at a chain store retail outlet. I was immediately impressed. They sell twisted pair and coaxial cables in various lengths, for preamp level, speaker wires and power. So you can get an attractively dressed quality cable for as low as thirty to fifty dollars and up.
Chris and Anthony Wynn brought Quicksilver amps and Quad speakers to the show, and these made an amazing little system. I was impressed with them, especially for their size. Sadly, I didn't get to spend nearly enough time listening to them or visiting with Chris and Anthony.
Quad 12L speakers, Quicksilver M-60 monoblocks, Quicksilver linestage and Vincent S-6 MkII CD player
Forrest Merrill (GPAC) and Chris Wynn (Element Cable)
Chris manned the Element Cable room, while Anthony did recon. You'd see Anthony all over the place, every day, checking out the gear and always with a smile on his face.
Anthony Wynn, Forrest Merrill and Fred Thompson
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| Great Plains Audiofest Writeup, Page 8 [message #1614 is a reply to message #1611] |
Wed, 04 May 2005 23:44 |
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Wayne Parham
Messages: 18792
Registered: January 2001
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Illuminati (33rd Degree) |
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Locus Design and CryoParts Room
I really dug this room, one of the coolest in the show. All the exhibitors at GPAF were cool but not like the Cryo guys...
OK, sorry. Admitedly a weak play on words. My bad.
When I first started talking with Lee online a couple months back - see the thread here - it was like any first meeting. You don't know the person, so you're not going to be quite as open as after you've known each other a while. So here's Lee, a nice and level headed guy, but selling cryogenically treated components, wires, connectors and what not. His commments kind of reminded me of the hair club for men commercial, sort of like "Yeah, I was skeptical at first but then I tried the product and now I'm the owner." So I asked a few questions and tried hard to keep the Herbert Spencer quote in mind:
"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance - that principle is contempt prior to investigation."
But I've always had my sensors kind of high on the snake oil stuff. There's so much voodoo audio, you know. So when the time came to actually meet Lee at GPAF, I expected him to be wearing a stuffy labcoat with a pocket protector and holding beakers full of liquids wafting vapors out of them, something like that. I must admit to being a little apprehensive.
Now let me tell you what - I sized that up all wrong. Lee Weiland and Brian Row of Locus Design and CryoParts were a lot of fun and just about the most laid back people you could ever want to meet. And their room was absolutely cool, but now that I think about it, we've established that already.
Lee Weiland and Brian Row
They brought a ton of really great gear, but we'll get to that in a minute. I want to focus on this cryo thing for a minute more. Another assumption I had made was that they would want a ton of money for crygenically treated parts. I expected five thousand dollar flux capacitors, you know, that sort of thing.
So I asked how much to treat a power cord, and he told me "about twenty bucks." I just about fell over; Boy, was I wrong. At that price, it sure doesn't cost much to try. Then you can say you have cryogenically treated parts in your stereo and wow your friends, or freak them out, whichever the case may be.
I guess I should have taken the time to glance through the prices in the CryoParts shopping cart. It's not that expensive to do. Most of the expensive stuff is expensive because of the cost of the item treated, not the cryo process itself. So that set my mind to rest. It isn't an expensive treatment process, not even as much as electroplating or powder coating.
Price a ceramic coating for a car part sometime; I could cryo treat my whole house wiring for what it cost to ceramic coat my exhaust headers. Twenty years ago I would have thought it crazy to put "dishware" on my exhaust manifold, but now I'll happily pay a thousand dollars for this treatment. That's another story altogether, but you see what I mean.
Beyond that, there's Locus Design, which makes accessories like record clamps and what-not. And Lee brought a ton of really great equipment too.
Dig this gear:
Those little speakers were really impressive, as was the rest of the gear. I've always liked the sound of ribbon tweeters, and this system sounded great. The woofer was small, but matched well with the ribbons. Mini-monitors usually sound way too compressed for my taste, but these did not. They sounded very nice.
The turntable is hard to see in the photo, but it is a SOTA Satellite, which is a great table. This, of course, was assisted by the Locus Design damp clamp and was run through the Eastern Electric phono stage.
And look at that rack! I can't believe I just wrote that; Now I know why Lee brought it, so people would talk about his rack. That's just plain wrong. But really, the Dynamics Contrasts "Just a rack" audio rack looked great. This room looked great and sounded great too.
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| Great Plains Audiofest Writeup, Page 9 [message #1643 is a reply to message #1614] |
Thu, 05 May 2005 16:15 |
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Wayne Parham
Messages: 18792
Registered: January 2001
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Illuminati (33rd Degree) |
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Iconic Manufacturing Room
Iconic Manufacturing was represented by Todd White, who displayed a fine assortment of drivers, horns and loudspeaker cabinets made using original Altec tools and specs. Iconic has a business relationship with Great Plains Audio, run by Bill Hanuschak, and they make new release Altec drivers while Iconic implements them into loudspeaker systems.
Todd White and an assortment of Iconic speakers, drivers and horns
From what I've seen there is a lot of overlap in the job descriptions of each of these two men, with Todd essentially taking on the marketing efforts and Bill doing the machining and engineering. But it also appears they change hats a lot, each doing what is needed to make things happen. Todd is certainly up on his specs and technical abilities, and he loves to discuss the history of Altec and its future as represented though Iconic.
Todd tells me that they provide new release Altec parts having the same specs as the originals, but that they also provide improved models that Todd says Altec would have done had they still been around. I saw the compresion driver, one open and another assembled and it certainly looks like a nice unit. The woofers are also attractive looking and I am interested to know more about them.
Iconic display table
The finished loudspeakers sounded very nice, but I must admit that most of the listening I did was at a time when Todd was playing some very old music that undoubtedly could not display the speaker's true potential. I knew that since Todd is in Tulsa, we could chat later and I could learn more about the options available. I also knew that I could hear the speakers at one of the next Great Plains Audio Club metings or some other visit, so I didn't spend as much time in the Iconic room as I would have liked. But I enjoyed what I heard, and the drivers themselves certainly look like quality units.
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| Great Plains Audiofest Writeup, Page 10 [message #1644 is a reply to message #1643] |
Thu, 05 May 2005 17:07 |
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Wayne Parham
Messages: 18792
Registered: January 2001
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Illuminati (33rd Degree) |
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Audio Crafters Guild and Zephyr Audio Room
Many of you know Norman Tracy of Audio Crafters Guild for his high quality DACs and participation on various discussion forums. He brought out an assortment of delicious goodies, including his new oneZ loudspeaker, based on Fostex FE107E, FW108N, or F120A drivers. The oneZ is the smaller loudspeaker shown below.
Norman Tracy of Audio Crafters Guild
Norman has done a lot of work, particularly in the area of DACs, and he has made much of it available to the DIY community. Check out the articles and essays, R & D and projects pages on his website. There's a lot of interesting stuff there, so don't look unless you have some time.
Leo McIntire of Zephyr Audio was there too, with his Zephyr air bearing linear tracking tone arm. This is really something, and I realized that the labcoat award should definitely go to Leo. I didn't have time to stick around this room room nearly as much as I wanted, because I would have liked to see Leo set this up, to know what kind of preparation is required. I'm anxious for him to bring it out to a Great Plains Audio Club meeting sometime.
Leo McIntire with his turntable
Leo is an interesting fellow. He has been an audio enthusiast for a long time, and active in the industry. So he remembers many of the events that shaped the industry, and has a lot of intersting stories to tell. I am impressed with this kind of information. I mean, if you think about it, it wasn't that long ago that we went to the moon, but just long enough that there were no personal computers, no AutoCAD, not even scientific calculators. So man went to them moon largely by the efforts of scientists and engineers that depended on slide rules for most of their calculations. This is an example of the kind of thing I'm talking about, and it is very interesting to me. Leo is keen on these kinds of things, and talking with him is very interesting.
Here's a closer look at Leo's turntable:
SOTA Satellite turntable with Zephyr Air Bearing Linear tracking tone arm
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| Great Plains Audiofest Writeup, Page 11 [message #1658 is a reply to message #1644] |
Fri, 06 May 2005 00:02 |
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Wayne Parham
Messages: 18792
Registered: January 2001
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Illuminati (33rd Degree) |
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π Speakers Room
Well, now we come to my room. I was certainly proud, but I'll not go into details about my speakers here. There are a few things I'd like to say about the models we showed this year, so look for the GPAF coverage post in the π Speakers forum. But I would like to say a few things about the amplifiers we showed, and some other details that may be of interest.
We had Audiophile Series seven π Speakers in the front room, and tower two π speakers in the back. Both were connected to a variety of equipment, all of which sounded very nice. I had hand-picked three amplifiers I wanted to show, which was one too many already. And I had offered to setup amps from Selectronic and AudioTropic as well, so that gave me five amps to demo with. Am I spoiled or what?
Audiophile Series seven π Cornerhorn Speakers
The seven π Speakers were driven by an Audio Note Kit 2, which sounded very nice. The Kit 2 is an excellent value and I was immediately impressed by it. When Mark Margiotta decided to buy a new pair of Audio Note monoblocks (seen in the Tulsa Club room at GPAF), I jumped at the opportunity to buy his Kit 2. Mark installed Audio Note copper caps throughout, except where electrolytics were used, Black Gates were installed. It had been built without transformer covers, so I asked Brian Smith of Audio Note Kits about caps, and he had them in stock and shipped right away. In my opinion, these are a mandatory option. The amp sounds great, but without the caps, its looks don't match its sound. With the caps, this is a very beautiful amp that has looks to match its luscious sound.
Audio Note Kit 2
Audio Note gear tends to sound very full to me. I think it is probably voiced for the Audio Note line of speakers, which are actually kind of small compared with most of the systems I run. But the Audio Note Kit 2 sounds absolutely perfect with the seven π's at home, and sounded very very nice at GPAF too. That's why I bought this amp from Mark, because the combination is excellent. I think there may be just the slightest hint of bass bloom in Audio Note amps, but it sounds great and it's what I'm listening to right now, as I write this.
My personal favorite system was the Selectronic ProFet monoblocks connected to the AudioTropic Moebius preamp. The system seemed to be a favorite among others at GPAF too. It had the creamy SET tube midrange with perfect bass impact and control. So you got the best of both worlds. Amazing! This system really hushed the crowd, cause you just wanted to listen, hypnotized.
AudioTropic Moebius Preamp and Selectronic ProFet monoblocks
Back in the second room, I had a pair of two π towers, and I used three separate amps on them. The AudioTropic Musical Machine was connected for most of the afternoon Saturday, and it is a beautiful and great sounding amp, a perfect match for the two π towers. I also connected a Heart Audio Stoetkit Jr. MkII for a while on Friday and a Nelson Audio Image SE8 all Saturday morning and Sunday. Both of these amps cost less than a grand and both offer truly great sound.
two π tower
I think my favorite is probably still the Stoetkit, but that may be an emotional attachment. I was real involved in the early promotion with Frank Stuppel, not by having any financial involvement, but just because he offered the AudioRoundTable.com group buy deal last summer and so I got one right away. I built mine and detailed it on the FSAudio forum, and then later found a bad capacitor and telephoned Heart in Holland about it. I eventually bought Kimber caps and Black Gates for replacements and bought a bunch of different brands of tubes for it from Aki at BOI Audioworks. So I've just gotten kind of attached to the Stoetkit, and it does sound very, very nice.
Nelson Audio Image SE8
The Nelson Audio Image SE8 is an excellent amp too, and it has become one of my favorites. It delivers a lot of good clean power, so the bass isn't washed out like on other low cost SET amps. It has no trouble driving difficult speaker loads either, so that's a plus. Most SET amps get tubby or lack bass with funny loads, but the SE8 has enough oomph to drive them and keep them controlled. And just look at it - It isn't your typical low cost science project looking thing. It's something that you're proud to display as well as to listen to.
Speaking of looks, check out the AudioTropic Musical Machine. It's a bit more expensive, but boy does it look and sound nice. This amp sounded great on the tower two π's, and is a beautiful work of art too.
AudioTropic Musical Machine
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| Great Plains Audiofest Writeup, Page 12 [message #1660 is a reply to message #1658] |
Fri, 06 May 2005 03:04 |
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Wayne Parham
Messages: 18792
Registered: January 2001
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Illuminati (33rd Degree) |
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All in all, GPAF this year was a real good time. I got meet a lot of really nice folks, make a few new friends and see a lot of old friends. Here are a few photos of some of the attendees, and a handful of photos of equipment thrown in there too. Click on the photos for a larger view.
Mark Fitzgerald, Damon Van Riper and Dean Van Riper
Akhilesh Bajaj
Alona Parham, Akhilesh Bajaj and Aadesh Bajaj
Annette and Jim Parham
Bob Spence, Barry Solof, Norman Tracy and Leo McIntire
Barry Solof
Bill Agee, Debi Agee, Kevin Vincent and Fred Thompson
Brad Smith, Phil Wilson and Mark Margiotta
Brines Acoustics Room
Bob Brines, Deborah Larson, David Thatcher and Barry Solof
Deborah Larson, David Thatcher, Barry Solof, Bob Spence and Jef Larson
Forrest Merrill and Mark Fitzgerald
Bill Agee, Kevin Vincent, Debi Agee and Fred Thompson
Fred Thompson and Forrest the Giant
Jim Rivers
Johan Van Zyl, Vinay Balamuru and Jim Rivers
π Speakers Room
Alona Parham
Barry Solof and Wayne Parham
Mark Margiotta, Brad Smith, Norris Wilson and Diana Wilson
Todd White
Wayne and Alona Parham
Earl Geddes and Duke LeJeune
seven π loudspeaker
Voigt Pipes
Audio Note Kit 2
AudioTropic Musical Machine
Audio Crafters Guild
Bob Spence's Cigar Box DAC
Fred Thompson's Rig
Nelson Audio Image SE8
AudioTropic Musical Machine and two π tower
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