Just returned from the S.H.O.W.

[Pearce Harrison]

I enjoyed the Alsyvox for 30-45 minutes at THE Show. It doesn't sound quite like a magneplanar and the dealer said its more like the old Apogees but efficient. They were played on Vitus front end. It was big, rich and much more real than a 3.7 with a better soundstage. But at $92k for the medium version including the external crossover, it's a tough sell in the US. The frame does seem much more impressive than Maggie types.

Dynamics are much better than Maggies, but still not quite at cone and dome level. with Maggies that always bothered me, these not so much. I wish there was more richness on certain sounds, but likely that was just system related.

I was there on Sunday and the Alsyvox room was well attended. I found the Vitus gear to be too bright for my liking and the speakers were being pushed too hard. The room was also very dark and so it was pretty much impossible to really see what the speakers were like. One could hear the potential in the speakers, but not a great match up with the Vitus gear.
Like you said, the Stenheims' were quite boomy and they were also being played too loud. The net result was a room interaction that really was unpleasant. The bleed through was also annoying.
I thought the room with the Wilson Benesch's was probably the best sound at the show.

 

[Cakeaudio]

I was there on Sunday and the Alsyvox room was well attended. I found the Vitus gear to be too bright for my liking and the speakers were being pushed too hard. The room was also very dark and so it was pretty much impossible to really see what the speakers were like. One could hear the potential in the speakers, but not a great match up with the Vitus gear.
Like you said, the Stenheims' were quite boomy and they were also being played too loud. The net result was a room interaction that really was unpleasant. The bleed through was also annoying.
I thought the room with the Wilson Benesch's was probably the best sound at the show.

Hi Pearce, thank you for stopping by the Cake Audio room. Regarding the dimly lit room, the hotel lighting had a bad ballast that was making a terrible loud buzzing sound when the lights were turned up. I tried to get engineering to fix it - but there was no time. At the last minute I got ahold of some battery powered spot lights - but they were not strong enough to do much good. I had to decide between good lighting, or good sound. I chose good sound.

A big thank you to everyone who came to the show! To anyone interested, I have the Botticelli X's setup and available for private listening in San Clemente CA.

Ken Boyce
Cake Audio

 

[Randy Myers]

Hey Ken,

It was an awesome room. Us three from the Central Coast Audio Club absolutely loved it! I felt it was the best room at the show!

 

[Cakeaudio]

Hey Ken,

It was an awesome room. Us three from the Central Coast Audio Club absolutely loved it! I felt it was the best room at the show!

Thank you Randy! Hearing this and seeing peoples reaction in the room when they heard the system, makes all the hard work worth it...