On Friday, June 6th and Saturday the 7th, I attended T.H.E Show in Costa Mesa, California with my friend, Jim Carry. This year, T.H.E. Show included a car audio experience, live musical performances, educational seminars, and T.H.E. Film Festival, which champions independent filmmakers from around the globe.
Historically known as The Home Entertainment Show, T.H.E. Show has changed its name to mean: “...the Total HiFi Experience – a broader vision that reflects our mission to make HiFi more than just a sound, it’s a state of mind and a way of life.”
New also is "T.H.E. TV (Total HiFi Experience TV)", a network launching later this year on ROKU with programming focused on hi-fi, home theater, music, cinema, news, and education.
It’s nice to see the dynamic show organizer, Emiko Carlin, trying different ideas to broaden the appeal of T.H.E. Show. She is pictured above with Jim.
Top prize for the most unique equipment of the show has to go to Tiki Tube Amps. Although we didn’t get to hear this equipment as it was only a static display, the amiable designer and owner of the company told me all the equipment is handmade in Los Angeles.
Second place in the unique category goes to Bayz Audio, an omnidirectional loudspeaker from Europe which features a pulsing cylinder and conventional woofers firing into the curved tubular horns, which are ported. The backside of the woofers radiate into the sound room.
My experience is that omnidirectional speakers work best in very large rooms. The sound reflected off the walls in smaller rooms like this tends to confuse the imaging. Electronics were by Burmester.
Third place in the unique category goes to the Brane Audio Brane X Bluetooth/Wi-Fi/wired portable speaker. A sample of the down-facing (6.5-inch x 9-inch) woofer sits in front of the unit and what makes it unique is the bass it produces – truly remarkable. The tweeters and mids also produce excellent sound for an eight-lb. portable unit.
Battery life is about 12 hours, and the unit retails on Amazon for $500 a pop. A pair of them in a dorm room would make for impressive sound. Not only that, they can be taken to the beach afterwards, and used in the car on the way.
Aaudio Imports presented this system featuring AudioNec Evo 2 speakers from France. Their Duopole 31 midrange unit covers the range from 400 – 10,000 Hz, and looked and sounded like a Lineaum driver to me. However, 400 Hz is well into the lower midrange, and to get this very fast driver to mate well with a 9-inch rubber-mounted cone is a challenge. I felt there should have been more integration for $54,000/pr.
Supreme Acoustic Systems went to great lengths to make a good showing. They rented a large room, set the YG Acoustics speakers across the diagonal of the room, and added both absorption and diffraction materials to reduce the interaction with the walls and improve acoustic damping. I’m very familiar with these speakers and they sounded terrific in this application, proving again the importance of reducing room interaction.
The opposite extreme are these stunningly attractive speakers from Akustika Eterna, which reminded me of the first Ocean Way speakers. I’m sure they would have sounded outstanding in a similarly large room, but alas, they were placed in a room barely wider than the placement of the speakers themselves, so they really couldn’t strut their stuff. I considered this a static display and would love to hear them in a larger venue.
These smaller YG speakers were better suited to a hotel room and sounded great with the beautiful Zesto Audio equipment.
For those in need of a little analog eye candy, here ’tis, from TRIANGLE. It’s so pretty, it makes me want to convert.
Another pretty system were these speakers from KLANG&KO.
And these from Illusio Audio, both good sounding systems.
It’s hard to beat Hsu subwoofers in the “bang for the buck” category, and these didn’t disappoint. They were tight, resolving, and went very deep. I’ve always liked Hsu subs and these may be his best yet.
These white Acora Acoustics MRC 2 s with ceramic drivers feature extremely inert marble cabinets which weigh 180 lbs. each. The lack of cabinet vibration means the cabinets won’t interfere with the sound of the drivers, nor will they be subject to vibration from the bank of REL Acoustics subwoofers which flank them. This made for a very tight sound with gut-wrenching bass, a great combination.
But the biggest surprise was the price, $13,000/pair for the MRC 2s, the same as the equipment rack! The six REL’s were $3,500 each, but the fact that the Acoras held their own with the $21,000 worth of subs was impressive.
These Innovo Audio Designs Luxe T1 speakers may look innocuous but don’t be fooled. It’s actually a full range, actively-crossed over, powered 1,100 watt audio system featuring 10 drivers in a 6-inch deep, curved cabinet. The eight side-facing carbon woofers are about 3 by 6 inches.
They are made to sit near a wall for bass reinforcement, convenience, and WAF. The system lists for $24,000/pr. and all you'll need in addition is a source.
Peter Noerbaek of PBN Audio hosted a shoot-out of different audio formats (turntable/tape/digital) which should have been fascinating, but unfortunately, no one bothered to equalize the volumes when switching sources. Dr. Floyd Toole found during his research that listeners favored whatever product was played louder, regardless of other factors, so I didn’t find it very useful.
It was well attended, however.
Biggest bang for the buck this year (again) were the Tonian Labs speakers at $4,500/pair. They kick butt far beyond their small size in terms of bass response, resolution, and dynamics, and sounded just great on a generic integrated amp like this Sony. I suspect that most music lovers would agree that this combination would make a fine desert island system.
As always, the vinyl record section was popular even before T.H.E Show officially opened.
And the headphone room was always busy. I learned that despite my preference for solid-state amplifiers in my system, several headphones sounded better on tubes.
For me, the best cost-no-object sound of the show this year went to the Diptyque Audio DP 160 MK 2 planar magnetic speakers at $60,000/pair. What’s remarkable about these panels is that they actually produce deep bass, no sub needed (trust me, I frisked the entire room looking for one). So, you get all the benefits that panels have to offer without having relegate deep bass to a dynamic-driver sub. Truly remarkable.
I was told this is due to the use of a bipolar magnet, a patented design which utilizes magnets both at the front and rear of the diaphragm. Apparently, this creates a constant magnetic field throughout the range of the diaphragm’s motion, which allows for firmer control.
I can’t argue with the results. The sound was tight and dynamic, and retained the resolution for which panels are famous.
Other than the price, the only problem I had with them was the name.
“What speakers do you own?”
'I have Diptyques."
"Dippity what?”
"French speakers?”
"Oh."
I always arrive at T.H.E Show on Friday as that’s the least-congested day. On Saturday it’s usually a zoo, but not this year. It was not nearly as congested as previous years.
I was surprised until Sunday, when I got home, turned on the news, and learned that violent mobs had been rioting, burning, and looting their way across downtown L.A. since the past Friday (I wondered what would happen if an American mob tried that in Mexico City).
I empathized with Emiko, her staff, and the exhibitors. This is not the way for L.A. (or California) to attract conventions or tourist business.
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