[j-curve]

The first product I saw was an 8ft speaker cable for 3.5 million yen, which kind of set the tone for the day. It looked like something out of an Alien movie or something someone close to you might mistake for the vacuum cleaner

Clearly I had arrived in a Twilight Zone of audiophiles, posers and lunatics. Separating the innovators from the opportunists would not be easy but at least I might get a few laughs on the way.

Let's just hand out the awards:-

Smoothest sounding jazz cymbals Award
1st prize. GermanPhysiks Unicorn - these were sweet.

2nd prize. Accuphase -> JBL (Yep, the same people who brought you 80% of the crappiest sounding club speakers which permanently damaged your hearing! Incredible.)

Things were better in the old days Award
Tannoy with their range of paper-cone speakers.

Retro look knobs and meters Award
Nagra PL-L preamplifier with "The Modulometer" (errrr, let me guess, a VU meter?)

Failing the sax test Award
Linn Komri. Most exhibitors wisely avoided classical so as not to alienate the masses and not expose their equipment to anything too revealing. But jazz saxophone presents its own special challenge.

Passing the classical test Award
Avalon's Opus Ceramique (2.2 million yen)

Equalizers are for audiophiles too Award
Accuphase trying to do the impossible with the DG-38. The least you could say is that their product makes the CD audio standard look like a 64kbps MP3. 650,000 yen.

Sensible prices Award
Infinity speakers, priced where most of the punters could join in the fun.

Massive fat capacitors Award
Mark Levinson 432 amp, two per channel. If you've ever seen what happens when an electrolytic capacitor blows up you might think twice before putting four of these babies in a thin metal case in your living room.

Longest chrome-plated knobs in the business Award
Hovland HP-100 valve preamp. The volume control is not a potentiometer but a multi-position switch with about 60 resistors soldered to the back of it. It was quite exciting. [review]

Room full of Bose gear Award
Bose.

Speakers for the missus Award
U-Vola hanging egg speakers in a range of bright colours.

(Fortunately neither "watermelon" nor "world" were on display - barf!)

I spotted only two headphones. One was a reference Grado which looked like an aluminium RS-1(?) but I don't think there was a model number written on it. It was plugged in but since there were speakers blasting nonstop just 3 metres away any attempt to listen was pointless. The other headphone was a 1997 Audio-Technica ATH-W10LTD which was an exciting find. It was being driven by a Luxman P-1 headphone amp (150,000 yen, due for release in November) from a Luxman DU-10 digital universal player (880,000 yen). A convenient 5 minute pause in the speaker demo in that room allowed me to sample and appreciate the W10LTD, predecessor to the W11's.

Edited Oct 29: Added the image of the P-1 amp.

 

[redshifter]

j-curve,
thanks for the amusing round-up!

putting sonic considerations aside, i wish every component in my stereo looked like the nagra:

i'm much more a fan of the look of "pro" equipment.

 

[lini]

Nice reminder - I hadn't noticed, yet, that Nagra has quite a few new products. Already tried the DAC, anybody?

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[Tomcat]

Quote:

[...] allowed me to sample and appreciate the W10LTD, predecessor to the W11's. [...]

Thanks for your report, j-curve!

But how about a word or two about the sound of the headphone (or about the headphone system, I guess)? Without further comparison, you probably couldn't say anything definitive about the W10LTD's sound, but how about about a few impressions. Please?

 

[j-curve]

Tomcat,
Thanks for you patience.

The W10LTD sounded exactly like a predecessor to the W11JPN should. Smooth, no obvious colouration, and neither bright nor boomy (at least when driven by the P-1). It's a sound I like. Given the listening situation though, with unfamiliar music (20th century, acoustic instruments and organ, no voices) and no other phones nearby to compare to, then I suspect this doesn't really tell you much. I'm sure it wasn't worth the wait.

 

[andrzejpw]

<goes to xe, mmmk, 3.5 million yen. . .> GOOD LORD! Our cars aren't worth that much!

 

[Calanctus]

"Hanging egg speakers" = blasphemy!

 

[Duncan]

Even though EQ is a nasty creature that we don't wanna talk about, I have to say that that Accuphase EQ looks real cool

Yeah Yeah, I know looks aren't everything!

 

[Tomcat]

j-curve,

Thank you very much for your thoughtful and, uh, well considered response.

 

[chadbang]

What a great report

Thanks for the smiles.

What the *** is up with that cable? I've seen that before. You have to be absolutely bonkers to even consider buying something like that! Okay if all your components are internally wired with that kind of wire.... maybe...maybe. What a load of horse manure!

 

[Zanth]

I would really enjoy going to something like that. The speaker wire alone would convince me that the snake oil dealers are healthy and among us. $45K Canadian for a pair of what look like rather short speaker cables...no thanks. From all that I have read...speaker cables have the absolute least affect on sound of any after-market upgrades. Lifting the cables off the ground to prevent static build up does more than spending a couple of cars worth on that alien device.

I definitely like the look of that preamp. I love the look of tubes, knobs and dials. Black boxes with small buttons do not do it for me. I love retro.

 

[spritzer]

An 8ft speaker cable for 3.5 million yen is just insane!

I would rather buy a car...