To anyone attending the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, we’d like to extend an invitation to come see us.
You’ll find PS in two spots at RMAF: Room 1107 will be our primary exhibit room; you may recall that PS exhibited in this room some years ago. Apparently, you CAN go home again. We’ll also have a table in the lobby right across from RMAF registration, where Sprout will be demoed with both GoldenEar speakers and Master& Dynamic headphones. Come register for a free Sprout! We’re giving away one each day of the show. We’ll also have special RMAF pricing in effect for Sprout.
In 1107, we’ll have the pre-production prototype of the BHK Signature Preamplifier playing for the first time in public. Like the BHK Signature 250 and 300 amps released earlier this year, the Pre is the work of Bascom King, and Arnie Nudell was actively involved in voicing the unit. The pre is also a hybrid design, featuring a tube front end and a MOSFET output stage. We’re shooting for release the second quarter of next year, with pricing TBD.
The rest of the system:
PerfectWave Memory Player transport (MSRP $3,999)
DirectStream DAC (MSRP $5,999)
P10 Power Plant regenerator (MSRP $4,999, 3 in use)
BHK Signature 300 Mono Amplifiers (MSRP $14,998/pair)
Paul McGowan’s custom-built Mac Mini was used as an additional source; speakers are YG Acoustics Sonja 1.3 (MSRP $106,800/pair); cabling is by MG Audio Design. Like PS Audio, both YG Acoustics and MG Audio Design are Colorado companies.
We hope to see you at the show–we expect to have great sound, as always!
Looks good! What’s with the “equipment stand” for the source components? Looks like hotel furniture, no place else to put it? Interesting that the preamp is in a slightly shorter housing versus the DS and PWT. Is it the same construction, just smaller, or is there more to it? Man, those YG speakers are huge! They’re the statement product?
@pmotz33sbcglobal-net, those are the Sonja 1.3 speakers, which I think may be YG’s current top of the line. I’ve heard these a number of times before.
I just got back to my hotel room from the first day. As always it was great to see Paul, Ted and his lovely wife, and the rest of the crew. While I was there I didn’t see either Arnie or Bascom; hopefully I’ll be able to meet up with them tomorrow. I was in the room at the very start of the day, and honestly didn’t have a chance to hear my own tunes too closely, so I’m holding any impressions until I get to go back and have more careful listening. This should come as no surprise to most everyone here. Stay tuned!
Wingsounds13, you’re right … Must have been my tired eyes. Sure looked shorter, though I thought they were using the same chassis.
Tony22, thanks for the model number. The last time I heard YG speakers was at RMAF several years ago. Didn’t stand out to me then, but have read lots of good things about them.
Hey Tony. Expect to see Arnie near the end of each day. He cam yesterday around 5. We both have a Legends seminar at 2:30, so you can see him then as well. Thanks for coming by.
The pre chassis is the same as all other PerfectWave chassis, any differences apparent in the pictures are an optical illusion.
J.P.
The equipment stand is a piece of furniture my son’s custom woodshop builds - in the rear of the room there’s a real credenza in the same style. There’s a Power Plant P10 inside the stand, plus the Mac Mini. We wanted to get away from the traditional HiFi look this year, and try to go more in-home style.
Thanks Paul. Yes I saw the seminar on the schedule. I’m going to try and attend, but my plan for this year of quickly skimming through all the rooms on Friday - clearing out Saturday and Sunday for serious listening and the seminars - went bust pretty much from the get go. I still have all of the other wing to do but will try to make the talk.
Paul, thanks for the clarification on the equipement stand. Was obviously not an audiophile approved stand and the resolution of the photo made it hard to see it was a custom piece rather than cheesy hotel furniture. Sorry if I was a little harsh.
Going off on somewhat of a tangent, do you think using such a stand in a location between and behind the speakers effects the sound significantly? Seems to break a couple of the “golden rules” for equipment siting.
Okay. I was able to spend a good bit of time at the end of the day today listening to the system. I’ll say the sound yesterday was rather lean and flat; tunes which should have had noticeable depth did not, and the female vocal range was thin. I suspected much of the equipment did not have a chance for lengthy burn in before being brought to the show, and from what I was told even the YGs were new (although it’s not clear if the guys at YG cooked them any before giving them to Paul - IME YGs need quite a bit of burn in). I say all this not to suggest any excuses, but to pass along as much supporting info as I can.
When I stopped in this afternoon I had a chance to chat with Paul. I passed along my feeling that things were sounding better. Paul indicated two things had occurred - they added one of those USB Regens, and sure enough the system had had more time to cook. Paul did say that some of the equipment was benefitting from the additional time.
Today did turn out to be much better. Soundstage depth and placement was right there, the low end regained its umph, and the high end was coming into it’s own. Female vocals were better, but I still thought they did not sound quite as open and organic as when heard on other systems with the Sonjas - driven with Soulution gear! But fear not while I finish with what happened next.
It turned out as I was finishing my listening (just at the end of the day) there was this fellow standing there and he asked Duncan (from PSA - we three were the only ones left) if he could play a HR USB stick. Duncan said yes and the guy hands him a 192/24 set of files from his new album that he engineered - this guy was Joe Cali! I was the lone civilian listening to three HR tracks from his newest release (Lori Lieberman’s Ready For The Storm). Going to make this short as I’m exhausted, when we were done listening I asked him to describe how he felt about what he heard. He was thrilled - apparently the only other system that he’d heard among many the last two days that he felt provided the same sense of accuracy in the reproduction and musical expression was the Constellation / Wilson Alexia room.
Not too shabby - can’t wait to hear them again tomorrow!
Just so I say it, I never met this Joe Cali guy before and have no relationship to anything about him or his business.
See, I know it’s late, and I’m tired and rambling. I meant in no way to suggest the new preamp and monoblocks aren’t possibly of the same level of goodness as the Soulution. It’s only that in the previous the times when I’d heard the Sonjas at their best it had been with Soulution gear.
pmotz said
Paul, thanks for the clarification on the equipement stand. Was obviously not an audiophile approved stand and the resolution of the photo made it hard to see it was a custom piece rather than cheesy hotel furniture. Sorry if I was a little harsh.
Going off on somewhat of a tangent, do you think using such a stand in a location between and behind the speakers effects the sound significantly? Seems to break a couple of the “golden rules” for equipment siting.
No, actually, at least not in a detrimental way. The more things you can put behind the loudspeakers that break up and diffuse the sound the better you’ll be - though as with anything, you don’t want to get too carried away. The setup at RMAF is a good one - as Tony can tell you - it’s a bit lean, but that’s the YGs - but the soundstage and depth are rather extraordinary and one of the reasons is the diffusing in the rear. The two RPG panels we have and the cabinet you see, help with breaking up rear reflections and room kickback nicely. And the speakers are sealed, of cousre, not dipoles like we might normally use. So, yes, I think this is a good thing and I like looking at furniture more than racks - I get tired of the rack look - it’s so sterile and unfriendly to the home look.
I agree with Paul that the setup is very nice indeed. I took a bunch of photos on my iPhone but for the life of me I can’t figure out how to use the forum attachment option to retrieve and insert the images from my phone.
tony22 said
I agree with Paul that the setup is very nice indeed. I took a bunch of photos on my iPhone but for the life of me I can't figure out how to use the forum attachment option to retrieve and insert the images from my phone.
You have to attach photos via your PC/Mac. It doesn't work from IOS
Stay tuned!
I still have all of the other wing to do but will try to make the talk.
