spl225
Super Member
The Wes Bender Studio NYC system featuring Zesto electronics with Maarten speakers, the Gershman Acoustics system, the Hegel/Gamut system and Audio Note speaker.
Those racks in the first two pictures are to die for. Do you know who makes them? I'm sure they are waaaaay beyond my budget.
They sounded OK, but nothing to be excited about.I like those Maarten speakers.
I like those Maarten speakers.
Sorry to disappoint you, but these speakers do not represent any value to customer. They just do not sound for the price. For me B&W802Di or Thiel 3.7 (both brands were NOT at the show) represent much better VALUE. Actually there were not many speakers at the show which could be called outstanding - MBL, Focal and much less expensive Sony. There rest just don't sound good enough to justify the asking price. There were few really affordable speakers though, like in Well Rounded Sound and (surprise) HSU rooms. But the rest were like exercises of speaker designers, where price could only be justified by right to own one of a kind unit.
I didn't say your room had poor sound. It actually was better than many. I simply didn't hear better music from your setup than can be achieved with $5-8K speakers and $3K electronics from more mainstream brands.I'm trying to play nice here... You're certainly entitled to your opinion, but given that we all hear differently and have different ideas as to what constitutes good sound or a good value; if the effort we worked so hard to produce for the show attendees didn't float your own personal boat, fine. Move on! It's all relative. We chose to show a speaker that in the world of high-end audio is considered by MANY to be "reasonable". There were speakers shown at the show that cost upwards of 20X what ours did (such as the Focal speakers you mention). Bottom line is that we worked very hard and spent a lot of money to exhibit at the show. We had a wonderful response from many folks who attended the show. We were happy to play LPs or discs from anyone who asked. If it wasn't great, oh well! Next... Many came back multiple times (if what we were playing wasn't to their taste or perhaps was being played too loud or too soft, etc) and I even received several phone calls after the show from complete strangers who wanted to express how much they enjoyed our room. So all of that said, I'm sorry we weren't able to impress YOU. Perhaps next time?!? :scratch2:
You didn't understand - I am not a maker or seller of hi-fi gear. I get my bread with butter (and occasionaly caviar) with money made in unrelated business. So my opinion is from buyer's perspective. You and others compete for my money when bring your stuff to the exibition.I invite you to put your money where your mouth is and kindly bring your system to the show next year! Easy thing to hurl opinionated criticism from the comfort of ones computer chair -- another thing entirely to bring the goods and please everyone in attendance... As for the speakers and electronics we presented in our exhibitor room at the show -- well we believe they constitute an extraordinary value at their price points. True, $24k is no ones idea of inexpensive or cheap, but compared to others costing many times more, they punch WAY above their weight. Even more so for the electronics!