Lone Star Audio Fest 2008

Due to some personal circumstances, I was unable to exhibit as LSAF this year. However, I was able to visit the show for about two hours on Saturday, where I snapped the below pictures.

In these show "reports", I don't make comments about the sound quality of the products or rooms (well...with the exception of the AudioKinesis room as I loved it-but Duke is a friend, so...), as I think it is bad form for one to comment on their competitors, so don't look for any "reviews" here, but I wanted to post some pictures of the gear that was at the show.

I had a great time, thanks to Wayne Parham at Audio Round Table to putting the show together, I wish I could have spent all day.

First off is Duke and Lori LeJeune's room, which had the Richard Gray NTV 6.2 amplifiers driving the wonderful AudioKinesis Dream Makers. The source was a Richard Gray modified cheapo Apex DVD player, Richard wanted me to make sure everyone knew that it had been extensively modified, and sounded NOTHING like the stock unit, so don't go out and buy one and blame him if the stock unit sounds bad! Ha! The preamp was a Richard Gray built and tweaked Bottlehead unit.

As anyone who has looked at my previous show pages knows, I really like the AudioKinesis speakers a great deal. In fact, they are so good that I think everyone should own a pair. I'm seriously considering procuring a pair for myself to use as a "real world" affordable reference, as a complement to the Sonicweld active loudpseaker system that serves as my reference. Granted, in "absolute" terms they don't really compete with the Sonicweld's, but at 1/12th the price they shouldn't. These are a speaker that anyone without $125k sitting around (...and who does) can buy and have a reference caliber product that they can be very proud of. Call Duke NOW and order a pair before he realizes how good they are and raises the price. I told him to raise the price to $25K a pair, they are a screaming deal at $9k.

FWIW--I don't sell anything that Duke makes, and don't get compensated by him if he sells a pair off of my recommendation, so take that for what it's worth.

Next up is the Jumping Cactus room. Now, a lot of people think that this is a weird name, but I like it. Anyone who has visited Arizona (where the owner of JC, James Harrell, is from), walked through the desert, and had a run in with the Cholla cactus will never forget it. The Cholla, or jumping cactus, has a particularly tenacious barb, that is incredibly hard to remove if it get's stuck in your skin, Don't ask me how I know...all I'll say is that my brother had to get a pair of pliers to pull the needles out.

Jim was using a Denon player, through a cool little DAC (Hot Audio?) that he bought off eBay and a Cary kit amp to drive his speakers.

In any event, here are the pictures of the room:

Next is the John Busch room. I really didn't get any details on the gear, other than the drivers were Altec 605A's and Eminence driven by an ASL amp. Here are the pics:

Next is the Bob Brines room. Bob had three models on display and was using an Abraxas amp to drive them. Here are the pics:

Next is the Skip pack room. I had a great talk with Skip, who is not a manufacturer, he just came to the show to set up and have a good time. He was using a speaker with Lowther Medallion cabinets and PM2C ceramic magnet drivers, which were driven by a very tweaked Bottlehead amp. Skip, a man after my own heart, was using a laptop stuffed with .flac files through a Squeezebox into a Twisted Pear DAC.

We talked "Squeezebox" (of which I am a fan), and he turned me onto a great piece of software that does EQ and room correction with the SB. Thanks Skip!

Wayne Parham was showing his Pi 4 floorstanding speakers, driven by an Audio Note amp.

Audio Note and Audio Federation were showing their AN/E Spe HE speakers, backed up by a full AN system.

Hawthorne Audio was showing a very interesting open baffle speaker system, driven by a Vaughn Audio amp.

And, last but not least, Bob Spence from Maxxhorn was showing his Lumination speaker, finished in an incredibly beautiful wood (I think Maple). Amp duty was performed by a really nice looking Ayon amplifier.

A custom BL-51 Micro Seiki turntable with a MA 505 MKIII arm was spinning vinyl. I want one of these custom MS tables, it had an amazingly beautful plinth. But, alas, the woodworker who makes them has a full backlog to contend with. So...I guess I'll wait a while.