Well, I have just returned from the show. I am both elated and bitterly disappointed.
Elated because the CLX is fantastic. I drove back from London to Bristol on a superb day, with the top down on the Merc, thinking about what I had heard with a real feeking of elation. Good speakers exist, after all
I got very lucky. The source was CD7, REF3 and Jadis JA200. I could not have wished for a better combo - if I was to have made a short list for driving electronics before I got to the show, this wouldn't have been far from it. As one happy listener said "I think they are my favourite amps, and how old are they? They must be 20 years old." Quite.
French, warm, easy going, powerful without even vaguely sounding it, they just do the job. Romantic? Definately.
I am not a classical music fan, but classical music sounds incredible through the CLX... on my second return to the room, a German guy seemed to be playing his favourite classical CDs through them. The sense of real instruments being played in a passionate way was simply outstanding. I felt deeply touched by what I was hearing. This is what it is all about, yet so hard to get from the greater majority of systems. The feeling was totally natural. I looked round at the German guy. He was smiling. He knew what he was hearing. And he knew it was simply superb.
More on the CLX when I have had time to think a bit more, and I am tired after the driving.
Bitterly disappointed because I set the Samsung camera into super fine mode before I went. This must have an effect on shutter speed. Net result? About 80% of the pics I took, and I took a lot, simply aren't presentable - they are blurred, pure and simple. That means no HK quality pics. I am sorry to let those that enjoyed the HK show pics down. I personally, of couse, I am gutted by it - I wanted some nice pics!
I will post a few, but only the very few that are worth a look. Of the 20% that were OK, only a few are to HK standard - at least when you can see at the resolution that I can.
Good news? I think the Roland Edirol recordings are worth a listen - if you have some good headphones (please, only listen on headphones - they don't have room acoustics - and adding a second lot is surely bad). To an extent there is a bootleg quality to them, but they will show you that the CLX is NOT a lemon.
Do they sound like the CLX first hand? No, they do not. But they will give you some idea. This is the year 2008, and I think it is about time reviews changed a bit. We can post all sorts of media on the internet now. And the recordings will give you more of an idea than I can ever express with words. So I strongly recommend you download them and listen. A picture says a 1000 words? A recording says more. Bad or average headphones will give you absolutely no idea, however.
The recordings have a certain "bootleg" quality to them, and you will hear some clicking that seems to be an Edirol speciality, even when the level indicators show no overloadng. You will also hear me, talking to Pete, the ML rep all the way from the USA
The recordings won't get posted until Monday, probably.
BTW: all my CLX photos suck badly. But it looks superb in the flesh. To all those who have posted saying that - I could not agree more! They had the Anniversary in black and aluminium. Having seen them in photos, I would have picked aluminium. Having seen them in the flesh, I would pick black!
The dude in the red is the guy who likes the JA200s. So do I! The guy on the right is talking to Pete about ribbon speakers, and how he thought those sounded great. I mentioned Graz's Perigee "re-issues", and he said they needed further refinement, and that they had a big bass peaks. That was the reason for the 4 different bass sections on the CLX i.e. to try and avoid such an issue.
