Will GoldenEar be there? If not, reconsider. You ought to be

Hi GDHAL, GoldenEar is not planning to attend this New York Audio Show in September 2022.

I went to the show on Saturday. An audio club friend/member of mine who was checking the ticketing of those entering told me that Sandy (Gross) was there on Friday. I would have loved to meet him.

The best room by far, IMO, was that of GT audio works.

Hello everyone. I’m adding some more of my observations about the show to this thread, because I note it’s getting a lot of views.

The truth is, everything at the show was "good". But we all know “good” doesn't necessarily cut it. Oh, I also ran into (spoke with) Steve Guttenberg. Personally, I don’t think he really “knows” audio, so I'm puzzled how/why he has so many subscribers to his youtube channel.

At this point, I think I've watched every youtube video about the show to date and have read forum posts of all kinds on audiogon and many other places.

I heard the Lukasz Fikus interview regarding the new horizon dac (used in the GT Audio Works room). Lampzator DACs were in other rooms as well. While I'll admit the Horizon DAC sounds monstrously good (in the GT AW system anyway), it is delta sigma. Sorry, but from everything I've read about DS technology (and I'm talking about a Schiit load of reading as well as having two DS DACs of my own), the bottom line is they are lossy and not as precise as R2R or ladder DACs. Of course, what I understand/read can be inaccurate, and I also understand that it's all about the "implementation" of said technology. I’d love to read a true measurements review of this DAC, but it’s so expensive that it’s no wonder to me why measurement folks cannot get their hands on it.

As to DAC technology, I'm not stating I could hear a difference in the case of the Lampi Horizon DAC at the show. All I'm stating is that the underlying technology of delta sigma is "lossy". In many audio circle - Grateful Dead being one - lossy is an almost automatic dismissal of audiophile-grade consideration. I'm simply puzzled why the designer would go that route instead of multibit or R2R or ladder. Schiit eludes to the answer on their website:

"...delta-sigma DACs are actually 2- to 5-bit designs..."
"...Most digital filters destroy the original samples in the process of upsampling. They’re just like sample rate converters or delta-sigma DACs..."
"...This is what other [delta-sigma] DACs typically offer: frequency domain optimization FIR filters with Parks-McClellan optimization. Any avoidance of the Parks-McClellan pablum requires a lot of original DSP work."

Here's the bottom line, then I'll explain the main reason (there are other reasons of course) why the best in show was the GT Audio Works room. Main reason. Remove all exhibitors and equipment. Who has the best room? GT Audio Works. Intentionally (probably) booked or not.

Every exhibitor on the third and fourth floor (majority of this small show as only three exhibitors were on the main floor) had a room size inadequate to properly set up their gear AND provide seating, causing/forcing said exhibitors to fire the speaker widthwise as opposed to lengthwise. In addition to other room anomalies such as untreated windows, pocket cabinetry, and so forth. GT AW’s Chelsea A room simply did not have this and was large enough for the (large) gear to be set up with the speakers basically in the middle of the room firing lengthwise.

The pecking order is music source, followed by environment (room size, room treatments, humidity, etc.), followed by speakers, followed by the rest of the electronics (analog or digital).

Triode Wire Labs room was excellent and in fact has a bunch of rave reviews, in particular regarding the Volti speakers. This room may be considered “best in the show” if overall value is taken into account.

No large high-efficiency horns at the show, but there were some small horns. High efficiency horns can sound great, some say the best. The downside is high efficiency (>100db) equals the very real potential for extra noise to be broadcast through the speakers.

My OPINION ONLY on the worst in show includes the following. For clarity, and to further insure/hope I'm not P'ing anyone off, when I write "worst in my opinion", I'm referring to my personal taste in sound and/or aesthetics. Not artistic design, technical merits, the manufacturer as a whole, etc. Certainly, one man's garbage can be another man's gold.

room 335... the Haniwa speakers simply look like a lamp post, and at 1 ohm (I kid you not I asked and their literature was prominently displayed) I cannot imagine the right kind of amp to pair with these speakers, which again, IMO really didn’t sound all that good anyway.

room 435... despite great gear from linear tube audio, lampizator and anticables, the spatial audio labs speakers sounded to me like a pair of top-of-the-line bose speakers.... bass was simply "wrong".

A small and properly setup system with GoldenEar T5 or T3+ would have likely blown everything else (except the GT AW system) out of the hotel windows.

In the end all of this becomes rather subjective (i.e. listening preference).