Home Entertainment 2006

[khellandros66]

Day 1:

Well actually we arrived Friday night so we missed day 1.. So Saturday was our day 1. We started off eating breakfast and got our gameplan going on. Looking at the map of the levels in which HE2006 takes place. We decided to hit the Pioneer room on the first floor along with the MBL and Sony room. So after eating it was time to head out and get cracking.

Our first stop is the Pioneer room where they were showing off their new TAD EX line towers and man were they not only accurate but absolutely great looking. The midrange was evenly warm and the higher and lower octaves were also very pronounced.



Following that the MBL room was way to crowed early goers go to the first thing they see I guess. So was the Sony Blu-Ray room. O-well we said and headed upstairs. We went through a many rooms some regrettably the photos we took didn't turn out so well so you will have to live on my word. The Outlaw Audio demo was really awesome they had seven (yes seven) Atlantic 8200 LCR speakers and a Screen Research audio weave system with DWIN Projector. The horsepower was provided by an awesome Outlaw M7700/990 combo with the Pioneer DV79avi and Velodyne SMS1. The big thing mising in my description was the LFE. Which was provided by four of the astonishing new LFM-1 Plus which is 350w RMS BASH amp and new switching system for 20Hz extension or 25Hz Max SPL. They played the shuttle crash landing from the movie The Core. I regretably scrapped the pic for this room as it was washed out by the flash and the low lighting.

Up next was the high end stereo stuff in some rooms were just incredible but one room really stood out and that was a room featuring the Acoustic Zen speakers. Man for music these are great and the authority across the Fs of 30Hz -30,000Hz is dead on. Accuracy was no issue especially running off a tube preamp and Sony DVP-NS9100ES with Dan Wrights modded Tube output stage.





The next room was the Kef and Bryston room which was very impressive but IMO a tad bit too bright. This room wasn't what I would call ideal either with the side bay window. The Kef speakers were however accurate and had a certain pull to them. Perhaps this is the coaxial mid/tweeter design.







We then had our chance to see the Wilson Audio room. Lets just say that I had butterflies in my stomache at the thought of what audio extasy lies ahead. They were using two rooms and had a nice 4-5 reps there to answer my questions and such. They were kind enough to show me how their time alignment works. The MAXX2 and Alexandria's have the ability to be time aligned to the height and distance on the listener's left and right ear for each channel. This to me is some rigorous attention to detail that no other company gives you. The demo room featured the new WATT/Puppy 8's and man were they transparent. Something I had realized is I was slightly off to the right and the second row in. I never once lost focus on the infomation being played back. What truly impresses me is that both Dave and his son Daryl (Wilson) were present and most of the companies were being repped by lower level employees. This to me shows the utmost pride in your product and imaculant respect for your customers.



More to sort out and come soon I promise.

~Bob

[Sonnie]

I'm drooling with envy.... excellent report.... thank you!

You are one lucky dog!

[Phil M]

Great report Bob, I wish I'd been there - on second thoughts I'm too dangerous
But would have loved to have checked out the Acoustic Zen and the Wilson's.
A pair of KEF 104's, which I heard in 1980, made me realise what good HiFi was - KEF are a very experienced speaker producer and Bryston well established in the amp business, their combined setup looks awesome.