I took a trip up to the CAS show in Emeryville Ca today and while it wasn't the monster that something like Rocky Mountain or the old Stereophile shows were, I thought it was a worthwhile way to spend the afternoon.
Before I start, I did miss the two exhibits on the first floor (just spaced it) so I have no idea what those rooms had going on.
Maybe it was the lack of audio overload that I usually get at the big shows, but I found a few of the rooms to be unusually good sounding for a show.
There were two rooms that featured reel to reel tape and even though neither of them had Tape Project tapes, it was good to see all the same.
The first one was a room featuring darTZeel electronics and Evolution Acoustics loudspeakers. Very nice sounding stuff for solid state and the speakers are excellent. I think that MikeL is using the big brothers of the speakers I heard today and even with the bass module turned off, they sound as impressive as they look.
Maybe it was because I was wearing a Tape Project shirt, or just happenstance, but a few minutes after I sat down, they switched the source to a Studer 810 playing a tape of Stevie Ray Vaughn's audiophile favorite, "Tin Pan Alley". Now I can't say whether it was the tape/810 or something further down the line but I have heard Vaughn's guitar sound more liquid on vinyl but I certainly couldn't fault the dynamics.
Of course, I'm a hard core tube guy so take this with a grain of salt, but I'd love to see what those speakers would sound like with my system!
The second reel to reel was a lovingly restored Ampex 350 (I think) with Kara Chaffee's new tape head preamp. The system context was Sonist speakers with Kara's deHavilland electronics. An old acetate Verve release of Count Bassie was playing and Kara said that she'd picked it up on eBay for $10. Nice sounding tape and tape rig IMHO.
We had a nice talk about tapes and machines before a bunch of real customers came in and spoiled my fun.
I can't say much about the sound of that pre since it wasn't exactly playing a demanding tape but it does have a solid state input to a pair of 12ax7's, a 5687 with a 6X4 rectifier tube. It didn't seem to have the magic that my tube Repro does and since this is Doc's web site, let's leave it at that.
All in all, it was a nice little show. I got a chance to listen to the medium sized Magico's which sounded great with VAC electronics, the latest Quads with Convergent Audio Technologies electronics and a room with some digital gear from a company called Inex that wasn't too shabby for digital (if a little on the audiophile sounding side).
