The Home Entertainment Show toke place today (the 3rd) and it will be going on until the 5th. I was there for a while today and thought I would post some of the more interesting stuff. I'm not one for long descriptions so i'll keep it short and sweet. Of course everything mentioned here is just my opinion.
http://www.napaacoustic.com/
($600 for both amp and speakers)
I think not enough can be said for this setup, simply blew me away! I would say without reservation, hands down best sound under $2000! Its total Price which includes both the amp and the speakers is $600! It is made by Napa Acoustics. I listened to the NA-208A amp and the NA-208S speakers. These speakers sounded huge! They had a wonderful sound stage, great tonality, solid bass despite its frequency response that claims it only goes down to 70hz or so. I don't think you would need a sub with these. It filled the room easily and I think it would actually fit larger rooms quite easily. These things deserved some type of award. I compared these to the audio engines and they were just in a whole other league the audio engines just couldn't even come close to competing.
I think the best soundstage I heard there came from Sonorus? (can't find an associated site...) This setup was using the reel to reel pictured above. This setup had a huge and accurate soundstage the best soundstage I heard at the show. It overall is up there as one of my favorite setups. No info on price...
Honorable Mentions
http://www.vividaudio.com/
($50,000 speakers only)
Vivid Audio G2GIYA where one of the best at the show.Its hard to choose a "best" speaker but these come close. Very nice bottom end very tight bass, very musical smooth highs, extreme tonal accuracy.If you get to hear only one speaker these would be the ones you would want to check out!
http://www.ygacoustics.com/
($38,000 Speakers only)
Kipod Studio II's where great sounding, lots of detail here not as warm as the others but not overly analytical either. A lot of realism here. Maybe lacking some lower end for my taste. Really good though overall nice sound signature on these.
http://www.estelon.com/
($42,000 Speakers only)
Estelon Model XA
Very nice low end, probably the cleanest, most detailed low end out of all of what I heard. Nice liquid smooth mids and highs that sounded detailed. These would be a close second to the vivid audio speakers might even surpass them depending on your taste.
http://www.martinlogan.com/
($2000 for the smaller Electromotion ESLs and $14,000 for the Summit X)
I'll be honest the Electromotion ESLs didn't impress me that much, nice mids and highs for the price but the low end was very sloppy and lacked a ton of detail. The tonality was a little odd though. Now onto the Summit X. Wow, they fixed the sloppy low end in fact it was great! Nice detailed the mids had more body to them the highs sounded even cleaner and the soundstage was excellent this was my favorite speakers sub $20,000.
Thanks for reading I had a ton of fun there and even said hello to fellow Headfier Santacore.
Edited by Gatepc - 6/3/11 at 11:42pm
http://www.napaacoustic.com/
($600 for both amp and speakers)
I think not enough can be said for this setup, simply blew me away! I would say without reservation, hands down best sound under $2000! Its total Price which includes both the amp and the speakers is $600! It is made by Napa Acoustics. I listened to the NA-208A amp and the NA-208S speakers. These speakers sounded huge! They had a wonderful sound stage, great tonality, solid bass despite its frequency response that claims it only goes down to 70hz or so. I don't think you would need a sub with these. It filled the room easily and I think it would actually fit larger rooms quite easily. These things deserved some type of award. I compared these to the audio engines and they were just in a whole other league the audio engines just couldn't even come close to competing.
I think the best soundstage I heard there came from Sonorus? (can't find an associated site...) This setup was using the reel to reel pictured above. This setup had a huge and accurate soundstage the best soundstage I heard at the show. It overall is up there as one of my favorite setups. No info on price...
Honorable Mentions
http://www.vividaudio.com/
($50,000 speakers only)
Vivid Audio G2GIYA where one of the best at the show.Its hard to choose a "best" speaker but these come close. Very nice bottom end very tight bass, very musical smooth highs, extreme tonal accuracy.If you get to hear only one speaker these would be the ones you would want to check out!
http://www.ygacoustics.com/
($38,000 Speakers only)
Kipod Studio II's where great sounding, lots of detail here not as warm as the others but not overly analytical either. A lot of realism here. Maybe lacking some lower end for my taste. Really good though overall nice sound signature on these.
http://www.estelon.com/
($42,000 Speakers only)
Estelon Model XA
Very nice low end, probably the cleanest, most detailed low end out of all of what I heard. Nice liquid smooth mids and highs that sounded detailed. These would be a close second to the vivid audio speakers might even surpass them depending on your taste.
http://www.martinlogan.com/
($2000 for the smaller Electromotion ESLs and $14,000 for the Summit X)
I'll be honest the Electromotion ESLs didn't impress me that much, nice mids and highs for the price but the low end was very sloppy and lacked a ton of detail. The tonality was a little odd though. Now onto the Summit X. Wow, they fixed the sloppy low end in fact it was great! Nice detailed the mids had more body to them the highs sounded even cleaner and the soundstage was excellent this was my favorite speakers sub $20,000.
Thanks for reading I had a ton of fun there and even said hello to fellow Headfier Santacore.
Edited by Gatepc - 6/3/11 at 11:42pm
