Toronto Audio Show

[stereoman]

I attended the TAVES Consumer Electronics Show at a hotel in the suburbs of Toronto. Below are a few photos taken on my IPhone SE. I always come away from these audio shows feeling good about my ML Summit speakers, so it's well worth the entrance fee. However, I heard a couple of CD players that have me thinking that it's time to upgrade my 10 year old player. By the way, at the show I met Jason Liu, the first president of the ML Owners web site. That was before I joined, but Tom I know that you will remember him.

 

[stereoman]

Muraudio hybrid electrostatic speakers have a continuous curve electrostatic transducer and aluminum cone woofers powered by two 700w class D amps. The soundstage was amazing but I thought the lower registers were a little boomy.

 

[stereoman]

The Magnepan 20.7 produce a wall of sound in a different way than electrostatic speakers. I remember listening to one of the Magnepan models in 2006 but I thought that I could hear a low level distortion so I continued auditioning and came across the ML Summit and never looked back. The 20.7 had full sound spectrum without any hint of boominess, a fault that I heard in almost all of the other rooms at the show. I'm very sensitive to low register boominess as a result of being spoiled by the ML Summit's.

 

[stereoman]

Magico speakers certainly grab your attention. There's great impact and detail, but sometimes I felt that the higher frequencies were too harsh. Of course, I'm hearing all of these systems in hotel rooms and not at audio stores that have been optimally configured.

 

[stereoman]

Coherent speakers had a relaxing, organic sound. Even when standing at the door to the hotel room I could hear the soundstage and image. Definitely worth further investigation.

 

[stereoman]

Nola bookshelf speakers and subs threw a huge soundstage and detailed image for such a small speaker. As usual, my ML-spoiled ears heard boominess in the bass.

 

[amey01]

. However, I heard a couple of CD players that have me thinking that it's time to upgrade my 10 year old player..

Is anyone still making a CD player?

 

[stereoman]

The two players that I heard were from Hegal (Mohican) and Metronome. Amazing sound, natural, detailed and often riveting. But it's a good question, there were many rooms using a server or streaming source. I have around 500 CD's and do not want to pay for them again in order to get computer file versions, and I don't see me spending the time needed to rip them.

 

[amey01]

The two players that I heard were from Hegal (Mohican) and Metronome. Amazing sound, natural, detailed and often riveting. But it's a good question, there were many rooms using a server or streaming source. I have around 500 CD's and do not want to pay for them again in order to get computer file versions, and I don't see me spending the time needed to rip them.

I hear you - but you rip once and never do it again - you'll never look back. That said, is it even unethical to download music you already own? Headphones is a great app for that purpose.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

I hear you - but you rip once and never do it again - you'll never look back. That said, is it even unethical to download music you already own? Headphones is a great app for that purpose.

Agreed. I'm about to box up my CD collection since I rip my disks on arrival.

It does take time to rip, but you save all that time when you listen by having instant access to every title in your collection and not having to go find a title. You also don't end up with a pile of CD's that you have to go back and put in their place after you are done listening to them.

 

[stereoman]

Agreed. I'm about to box up my CD collection since I rip my disks on arrival.

It does take time to rip, but you save all that time when you listen by having instant access to every title in your collection and not having to go find a title. You also don't end up with a pile of CD's that you have to go back and put in their place after you are done listening to them.

I used iTunes to rip around 20 CD's for when I travel. Most of the CD's didn't automatically display the artwork. They are mostly classical music which were recorded in the 80's onwards. I had to search on the web and copy/past the artwork, a time consuming process. If I had a better artwork search tool then ripping would be more palatable. Any suggestions?

 

[RCHeliGuy]

I used iTunes to rip around 20 CD's for when I travel. Most of the CD's didn't automatically display the artwork. They are mostly classical music which were recorded in the 80's onwards. I had to search on the web and copy/past the artwork, a time consuming process. If I had a better artwork search tool then ripping would be more palatable. Any suggestions?

JRiver searches the Internet to find artwork and lets you replace artwork very easily.

 

[Bernard]

I used iTunes to rip around 20 CD's for when I travel. Most of the CD's didn't automatically display the artwork. They are mostly classical music which were recorded in the 80's onwards. I had to search on the web and copy/past the artwork, a time consuming process. If I had a better artwork search tool then ripping would be more palatable. Any suggestions?

Have you tried Amazon for the artwork? That's the first site that I go to, and most of the artwork is there.

I don't find it time-consuming to rip CDs. My setup in iTunes is such that a CD is automatically copied when inserted, and ejected when done. I then have to go back and check on the artwork.

 

[Bernard]

Is anyone still making a CD player?

PS Audio just released a transport they call the PerfectWave Memory Player, which is supposed to be the latest and greatest.

 

[amey01]

Any suggestions?

Personally, I couldn't give two flying hoots about artwork, but maybe that's just me.

 

[stereoman]

Euphoria Speaker Design is located near Toronto. They were showing the TARIM speaker. What attracted me to the room other than the nice sounds was the turntable with a huge wooden base. The speaker designer was in the room and explained how a local lumber yard obtained the wood and cut it to his specs. The turntable mechanism is a classic from the 60's. There was talk of rare metals that are no longer available, and how important the wooded base was to the sound presentation. Even I could tell that it was special. I just puchased large maple wood plinths for placement under my Logan's so I know how effective they are on vibration control. There were 6 people in the room and we talked for 1/2 hour on many topics, only a few of which involved audio. I love Sundays at audio shows as attendees are generally relaxed and mellow, and systems sound better with the clean power grid. This speaker is another one worth investigating.

 

[stereoman]

The Acoustic Solid tables are made in the German countryside. Another successful use of thick wood. They key is to use large solid pieces (a few that are glued together), not many smaller pieces or particle board.

 

[stereoman]

I've saved the best for last. The Mingus Quintet speaker from Marten in Holland was the best cone-based speaker I heard at the show. The bass was solid and powerful without any boominess. Instruments and vocals sounded realistic. Maybe I liked them because they sounded like my electrostatic speakers. They were extremely expensive at around CAN$60k, but the dealer said the lower models would have sounded similar in the hotel room. After I returned home and listened to my Logan's and I'm not sure that I would replace them with the Martin Designs even if I had the money. As I was listening I received a call from the information booth at TAVES. They asked if I could return to the hotel to pick up a Music Hall de-be headphone that I had won in a raffle. Sweet.

 

[Htguy]

Went to TAVES too. Great place to hear many different speakers. Too bad ML was not there this year like last year. I ended up buying a pair of Theos and Stage X for center last year. Excellent speakers with very little if any distortion!

Bought a pair of Motion 4 for ceiling channels this year.

 

[Rehan Azim Hashmi]

Many thanks stereoman for taking the trouble to take and share with us pictures of cutting edge audio equipment.

October turned out to be a great month. Three audio shows covered in October.