Section 3 „nice“ to „impressing“:
Peformance differences in this section are quite big.
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…starting from weakest to strongest I begin with Piega, which hardly made it out of the disappointing section for me. The beautiful sound from mids upwards couldn‘t be matched by the fundament. Due to the size one expects more fullrange sound it can’t deliver. It’s anyway nice as the price to my knowledge is „only" 15k (can it be true?)…but I think PSA will better this not only in terms of a fullrange performance in its price range.
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I saw those speakers in magazines already some time ago and didn‘t expect much…asked myself how one can make speakers (except planars) more wide than deep. But they really sound impressingly good, also very homogenuous…does serve the music very well! I was surprised, you won’t think about anything missing although not everything’s there.
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Harbeth, which I generally like very much didn‘t sound as good as last year this time, but the very coherent sound with great pace and microdyamics also convinced this time. To live with it…for me, it lacks information and impact in the lower region it can‚t reproduce due to its size and conception…but those are great speakers.
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A taiwanese company was playing speakers sounding very homogenuous…not magic, but with very balanced sound…just not enough for a 120k price imo, but there are other expensive one‘s sounding not as good.
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I love the looks and form factor of this speaker, which sounded very natural and overall very good. No big magic, but this one would sound and imo look nice in any room. The ribbon tweeter once more guarantees a well integrated natural sounding top end.
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Huge component effort for this setup with very nice sound, lacking a bit bite and transients for my taste…a little too tubey sounding.
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Then the Nagra room with less impressing sound than expected but still very very good. Might have been a matter of the music selection and the italian demo guy talking way too much. Look sharp at the sub on the second picture…strong contender for the biggest one available.
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Now there were 2-3 rooms using Rockport speakers and appropriate amps…very good I must say, you wont make a mistake with them…
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Kharma speakers are usually a case for the magic section…and you will see one there…this setup (I should better say room) was less good but still great sounding.
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Now a room with interesting component placement and a very nice ambience…as well as the big Wilson Benesh speakers sounding very good.
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On the same level but with differing sound von Schweikert (I guess he was demo‘ing himself?) brought smaller speakers than last time, but very impressing ones once more…insane effort of amplification as usual. I think 80% of the bigger and smaller best setups used tubes at this show. He played the well estimated out of print one step pressing of Santana Abraxas.
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You will ask what can be magic if not some of these impressing ones? All I can tell is, it doesnt have to get bigger necessarily, there will be two small magic speakers around 15k…so wait and see…