Cloney's Sound and Vision Show 2011

[dubber]

I don't think it has been mentioned yet, but there are less expensive systems at the show. I thought the Cyrus all-in-one and Spendor combo sounded great. I always remember Cyrus kit having ear-piercing treble, but was pleasantly surprised with their room - a nice balanced sound I thought.

[DaveF]

The Meridian room was a shock, I thought it was easily the worst room at the show. What were they doing, I have never heard speakers sound that bad. I guess other felt the same, as it was always empty when I passed.

Yip I noticed too that it was mostly empty. I've heard those Meridian DSP speakers a few times now and I've never been impressed. I like their CD players though, very smooth sounding but perhaps not the last word in detail retrival.


Did anyone see the little silver device beside the Clearaudio TT in the Kharma room? I thought it was a phonostage so I asked the guy there. It's one of those 'resonator devices' and it just sits there powered with a simple DC adaptor. What does it do? well....."its takes all the.....er.....bad stuff in the room....and er....makes it better." LOL. For f*ck sake. :-). He was kinda half laughing about it too.

[Ivor]

I had a hugely enjoyable few hours there myself this morning. Mostly sat in front of Kharmas or Wilson Audio. All three of those systems sounded fantastic and really, I don't expect that quality in a hotel room. (stop sniggering at the back there!)
Sincere thanks to all involved, it was a show as good as any I've ever been to and it was great to see it so well attended, we're not as rare a breed as I thought we were!
I did buy a chunk of vinyl too, once I saw John Lee Hooker's "Serve you right to suffer" on 180grm Speakers Concer vinyl I had to buy it. I bought a seriously warped copy when I was about 13 and that started my unbroken love affair with the blues. Nice to get a pristine quality copy now.

[Fran]

And a great album that is too Ivor.....


Highlights for me:

Eleanor McEvoy, but I'm a bit of a fan anyway. I chatted to her a little afterwards and she was very pleasant, lovely when someone you admire from afar turns out to also be a decent skin when you meet them. Big thumbs up for making this happen to Cloney and Nordost.

Devialet room with Wilson Sophia speakers. I thought this was the best sound in show. I know it helps that it was in a big room, but all the same I thought it was good. I know the Devialet is €€€ (€12k I believe) but it has built in DACs and phonostage and the phonostage is customisable to suit your cart and with various RIAA curves etc etc. Maybe not such a bad price given the SQ on show and the fact that you wouldn't need preamp, phonostage or dac.

The bigger Kharma room had very good sound too, but a little more clinical I thought. Still it did no wrong. I would reckon that it and the Devialet room would probably come down to personal perference.

Big $$$$ on show in each of these rooms though, so it would want to sound good. Also, it looked like some kind of big off-standard plug into the kharma amps.... if those amps needed cables costing €10k a metre to sound good, then there's something wrong with them!

I also spent an interesting half hour with the hifiman headphones and the schitt amps. The basic model was only Ok, but there was a significant jump between that one and the next one up, lesser jumps after that. The higher models indeed sounded nice, I need to go back now to my own amp + the HD650s and listen again to the same music..... the upper models were pricey, but still cheaper than anything stax.


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The downsides:

Those meridians - Jesus they were awful.... and had a sign saying "only €9995 today"!! FFS, thats exactly the kind of thing that perpetuates the myth that computer audio sounds crap.....

The leben CS300 and golden ear speakers. Over emphasis of treble and no bass. I asked the guy to put on a CD I had with me (he was playing some godawful prog rock that sounded terrible). John (Kenny) was beside me and I had to lean over to say to him, "there is actually bass on that track". Disclaimer: I understand the speakers were only powered up that morning...

Lavardin IT15 and some standmount speakers - not sure what the standmounts were.... they seemed nice, but the guy had them pumped waaaay too loud, probably to emphasize that they could do bass, but when they hit a high note they'd cut the ears off ya. These could have been much better, and might be when heard under different conditions.

The system audio room - again, sounded poor enough I thought (the ranger masters were hooked up at the time). Dunno if this was the primare CDP/amp combo or the speakers themselves, but not a sound I could live with... and certianly not one I would spend the kinda $$$ being looked for. Apparently the ranger masters have a reconfigured crossover and valhalla wiring, with the same drivers.

Minor whinge: prices for vinyl from Diverse, although you can get them cheaper if you were to factor in shipping the prices were about the same.

The middle ground: I thought the sound in the Nordost room was pretty good - I think it was Krell CDP and amp, but I didn't recognise the speakers. These were standmounts and I thought they sounded good. On the flipside I couldn't hear any difference in the stuff that Lars was doing, and some of what he was saying sounded like BS to me. I didn't argue any points with him though as I was about to head out.


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Overall I had a great day, and personally felt it was a good show. I liked the way they charged a tenner in..... here's my reasoning: I'm not really a Cloney customer, and unlikely to be either as DIY is my bag. I felt that paying in gave me some license to actually be there, and to ask can I hear my CD, or listen to those headphones (which I may well end up buying at some point). Without paying in, really I would feel I couldn't ask them anything.


Afterwards I called round to John Kennys (thanks for the tea John) and had a quick listen to his DAC.... wonderful sound,.... to put it in perspective, it would have held its head up there with anything on show at a fraction of the price. Now that is what computer audio should sound like..... meridian, take note.


Fran

[jkeny]

Thanks Fran,
I've not much to say about the show - I don't normally go to these things as I'm not interested in spending the sort of money these products go for. But I thought I'd give it a ago this year as it's just around the corner from me. I wasn't impressed with most of the sound that was on display or the talkers that were BSing the audience.

I invited the forum people that I met (Claus you disappeared) around to the house to have a listen to Sligolad's (Pearse) M2tech Young DAC. We had an interesting couple of hours chatting & listening to my DACs & his Young DAC. Thanks, Pearse, for bringing it along - I had wanted to hear a Young DAC for a while. Anyway, I'm sure he will give his impressions as some stage as he prised a JKDAC32 out of my hands :) & is probably now listening to it on his Conrad Johnston amp into Quad 63s - a step up from my Naska solid state amp & Jordan JX92S DIY speakers!

Edit: I just remembered that he told me he was today going to the Sligo Rovers Vs Shelborne match in Lansdowne!

Those with high sensitivity might want to skip the following: <marketing on>I might be slightly biased :) but I Agree with Fran - I would be happy to put my products up against any of what I heard in the show. If anybody thought the Sonos sounded good they really should have a listen to my devices </marketing off>

[DaveF]

......I couldn't hear any difference in the stuff that Lars was doing, and some of what he was saying sounded like BS to me. I didn't argue any points with him though as I was about to head out.

So you weren't converted then? :-) I was wondering if you were gonna be seen walking out of there with a big bag of Nordost goodies!

[Claus]

I invited the forum people that I met (Claus you disappeared) around to the house to have a listen to Sligolad's (Pearse) M2tech Young DAC. We had an interesting couple of hours chatting & listening to my DACs & his Young DAC. Thanks, Pearse, for bringing it along - I had wanted to hear a Young DAC for a while. Anyway, I'm sure he will give his impressions as some stage as he prised a JKDAC32 out of my hands :) & is probably now listening to it on his Conrad Johnston amp into Quad 63s - a step up from my Naska solid state amp & Jordan JX92S DIY speakers!

Sorry, I suddenly realised it was 5 o'clock and had to go home (bus journey to Bray and all....). I thought you guys were in the Roy G talk so didn't want to disturb.

For me the best sounding rooms were the Kharma and Devialet rooms. I do agree that the Kharma room's level of hifi is fun to sample, but it is just so overpriced. I really liked the sound in the Nordost room and I think it was down to the 10k Raidho C1.0 speakers more than 100 plus sort kones :). I learned that I now need to clear a shelf for my mains dist. block! Wow there's always something new. I would LOVE to know what is inside the little qrt plugs Lars was showing... ;) Anyways, I will try and get a plug and dist. block from Noel to give it a try in my own system. I really do wonder what it might do. Today I spent an hour or two comparing rca cables (generic oxygen free copper and Dalkey Audio) and JKDAC vs. BAT CD player. I could not hear ANY difference between sources or cables. So maybe my system or perhaps my ears are for the bin...?

Great to meet everyone there and well done to Noel and the gang! Great show!

[Ivor]

So maybe my system or perhaps my ears are for the bin...?

Or your mains is absolutely fine!

[dubber]

Lavardin IT15 and some standmount speakers - not sure what the standmounts were.... they seemed nice, but the guy had them pumped waaaay too loud, probably to emphasize that they could do bass, but when they hit a high note they'd cut the ears off ya. These could have been much better, and might be when heard under different conditions.

Speakers were LeContoure ... they sounded much better on the Saturday (with the speakers on the other wall). I think the Meridian CDP was the weak link in that system.

[halvis]

I think the Meridian CDP was the weak link in that system.

I agree, there was a hardness to the sound which did sound a little digital. I asked him what he thought about the CD player, not much was the impression I got from his round about answer.

He was talking about cables whilst I was in his room. I asked if the purity of the copper/silver used in the cable was important. He said the more pure the copper the worse the cable becomes because the Electrons move away from their intended path more. Wow!!!