AXPONA with the DAVE
While my DAVE has nowhere near the 150,000 miles that Rob's DAVE has logged, it is on its way, having logged more than 4,000 miles this weekend as it traveled from northern California to Chicago and back. I found a nice padded backpack with 3 compartments that nicely fits my DAVE, HE-1000, Silver Spore4 and laptop perfectly and so I was able to make the trip without checking any bags. Unfortunately, my DAVE was mistaken for a possible weapon of mass destruction by the TSA at each airport which resulted in delays and it nearly caused me to miss my flight on the way home from O'Hare airport. What I will say is that the DAVE is a ready and willing travel companion and very capably handled the trip. It even allowed me to enjoy the same music I enjoy listening to at home in my hotel room.
The DAVE traveled with me everywhere and for the first time, I was able to hear it in some very high-end systems (>$200,000). From a cold start (sometimes less than 5 minutes of warm up) and with none of the special isolation accoutrements I have at home, it willingly challenged anything that allowed itself to be challenged, both DACs and turntables, and in each instance and without exception, it acquitted itself very well. If there is a finer source for the money, I have yet to hear it. If there is a DAC that better embodies the DAVE's ability to portray that "you are there" sense of depth and scale while always remaining non-fatiguingly musical, I have yet to hear it. As I plan in earnest to build my dream 2-channel system in the next 2 years (when my youngest son leaves for college), I have a much better sense of what I want and the DAVE will be at the center of it all.
As for my favorite rooms at AXPONA, here are a few that stood out (no particular order):
1. Magico
When the day comes, I am fairly certain I will be buying a pair of Magicos although exactly which pair is uncertain. The new S5 Mark IIs were center stage and were every bit as good as I imagined. Magico relied mostly on analog sources (turntable and reel to reel). It's clear from the show that the "old guard" audiophiles remain wary of digital. This was one room where the DAVE had no opportunity to present itself.
2. MSB Select II
The MSB Select II has been spoken of frequently on the DAVE thread and I'm sure MSB is as tired of being compared to the DAVE in the same way that Chord is tired of being compared to something like the Schiit Yggy but the reality is that if you are going to claim to be the best at something then you have to be prepared for the incessant comparisons. With that said, IMO, no one puts together a room at these shows better than MSB and the experience at AXPONA was every bit as good as the one at CES in Las Vegas in January. First, they always choose nice intimate sized rooms and then select speakers well suited to the size of the room. Where everyone else opens up their drapes so that listeners are forced to stare at the glare through the window, MSB draws their drapes and puts in comfortable mood lighting. Instead of having their product harshly backlit by the sun through the window, MSB has tasteful spot lighting to illuminate their products. Where most rooms (Chord included) are full of all kinds of gear (turntables, DACs, cable displays, several sets of speakers) that can be distracting, in the MSB room, the only thing you notice is their silver Select II DAC because everything else is a more muted color. Most importantly, and I cannot state this enough, MSB actually played music that was challenging for DACs to portray well. There was no "Spanish Harlem" by Rebecca Pidgeon that many rooms were playing. Those of you who know this piece know that this track can be made to sound good on a Bose system. How did it sound? Regardless of the controversy of how MSB reports its measurements, this is a very very good DAC and deserves to be in any conversation of best DAC in the world (IMHO). Is it worth the $130,000+ they are charging for a fully configured Select II? I don't know but as it has been rumored that MSB sold out their first run of Select IIs even before they shipped a single unit, this may have turned out to be a brilliant marketing strategy. They may not have sold attracted as much attention if they sold this unit for $25,000. Did I dare ask if I could compare my DAVE to the Select II? No, I think that would have been in poor taste.
3. Wilson ALEXX
This was the grandest room of the show and this large room held almost a hundred seats. If there was a room that could convincingly present a large orchestra full scale, this was it. As you can see, they chose to go with the DCS quad stack but the best sound came from the reel to reel. The Transparent cabling alone listed for more than $100k.
4. Vinnie Rossi LIO and Harbeth 40.2 monitors
This room probably is in my top 2 favorite rooms at AXPONA. For those who have not heard the Harbeth 40.2 monitors, which despite their large size can be used as near-field
monitors even in a large room, they are supremely musical and for acoustical music (singer/songwriter, jazz, classical), they are very hard to beat (probably even better than Magicos). If I don't get Magicos, I will probably get Harbeths (or something similar like Omegas). Even if I get a pair of Magicos (which are better for large orchestral music and amplified music), I may still get a pair of Harbeths. The midrange of these speakers are second to none, the bass is potent and no subwoofer is necessary (even with a 25 watt amplifier) and the coherence of all the drivers is simply seamless. If there was a "you are there" presentation at AXPONA for acoustical music, this was it. Vinnie was using his LIO, a modular design that can be configured with different options including a delta sigma DAC, phono preamp with tube linestage, headphone amp and 25 watt class AB mosfet amp. I asked Vinnie if I could connect my DAVE and bypass his internal DAC and he graciously agreed but unfortunately, he failed to outfit this LIO with line inputs because he wasn't anticipating anyone bringing their own DAC along (lol).
5. CHORD
To be up front, having the Chord room as a favorite was not a given. I was not a fan of their 2 channel setup at CES in January and if that was all I had to go by, I probably would not have bought a DAVE. The Vienna Acoustics speakers they selected for CES I felt were ill-fitted for the cavernous suite they were in and the tuning could have been better. At AXPONA, it was a different story. While the MSB room was still the most inviting, ultimately one comes to AXPONA to hear good music and Jay Rein, Chord's US distributor did a very fine job. Before I entered most rooms, if I was hearing something sound really good, I assumed it was coming from an analog source and in most cases, I was right. Before I entered the Chord room (not realizing it was the Chord room), I heard a complex jazz piece playing that sounded so spectacularly good that I immediately assumed it must be coming from an analog source because with the exception of the MSB room, no one else had been playing complex and challenging music through their DACs (studio singer/songwriter was the norm). Upon entering the room and seeing the DAVE on the rack, I still assumed vinyl was playing because the turntable above the DAVE was spinning. Upon closer inspection, it became clear this masterful portrayal of a very complex piece was being brought to me courtesy of the DAVE.
