My Review of The
Reviewer:
Place:
Embassy Suites,
Dates:
As last year, it was a very friendly event. The very large bulk of attendees were extremely knowledgeable DIYers. I got a room this time so I could put up a couple of small systems and chill out & listen to music as well as interface with everyone. Here are my thoughts (note that these opinions & errors are mine only). Please let me know if you spot any errors. Pictures are available at http://greatplainsaudiofest.com/2006/Photos/
Azzolina Audio:
Charles Michlin & his buddy are very nice guys. They are also totally out there, in that they built the amps, preamps, dac (I think) and speakers! They believe in tube amps & horn speakers. Makes total sense. Their horn based system consists of a 6 inch lowther driver in a large oris style horn, crossed at 200 HZ plus with a La Scala style bass horn with a 15” driver. The most important thing with this setup was the smoothness. They tamed that lowther very well. The system sounded very nice indeed. The listening range was a bit close. This would be a great system for a well heeled individual in a larger room. Bass to my ears sounded like it went down to about 50 HZ, though the specs are 31 HZ (down by 5 db I think). In any case, I’d use a couple of large subs /bass bins with this system, if I were to buy it, and cross the La Scala bin over at 70 Hz or so. I was most impressed by how clean the system sounded with passive crossovers. Great job, guys!
Jim Griffin:
Jim is a very nice person, very warm and engaging. He is also THE authority on Line Arrays. His line arrays sounded really good, as did the dual driver (but yet single driver) system in his room (Astonishing bass!). This was the first time I saw a DEQX in action, and Jim certainly used it to great effect on his arrays. His line arrays had a very large wave front, and everything sounded good on them.
Dallas Audio Club
(Fred Thompson, Jim Rivers et al):
These guys are the friendliest bunch! Jim of course is one of the fmtunerinfo gurus. He had a killer set of monoblocks he had built using Heathkit & Acrosound iron. Fred had his “Studio 2Pis”…very nice sounding. Skip has along his “squeezebox”: a cool device that is reads streaming audio off an Ethernet connection from a server on a PC, and has a built in DAC. I think it’s made by Slim Devices.
The music from their system was always good! I personally don’t like to see an 8” driver do all the work, and would have loved to have heard the studio 2 Pis crossed with a sub below say 80 HZ. I bet it would have sounded even better. As it is, it sounded very nice indeed. I am impressed by the value offered by the eminence alpha series drivers.
Great Plains Audio
Club (Akhilesh):
Well, this was my little room. I had a triamped system with an 8” vintage stephens driver, a vifa tweeter and a hsu 10” sub. They were actively crossed at 70 hz & 3500 hz (24 db slopes). The 8” was powered by a cheap chinese 2a3 Bez amp, and the tweeter by an ASUSA kit amp that was a el84 SET. I also demoed a DCA driver system in a PAWO horn, crossed over at 70 Hz with the same sub. My goal was to have fun & listen to music!
Pi Speakers (Wayne
Parham):
Wayne Parham & his lovely fiancée Melissa were busy running around, helping all of us. Wayne had some really cool gear in his room. He was running his 7 Pis with a JBL driver for the bass. This really sounded a LOT cleaner than the eminence driver he had used earlier. I really like this system…it makes vocals sound really nice & alive. Very warm and musical (and it’s a horn based system!) Eff is around a 100 db, and the crossover to the mid horn is around 200 HZ (I think). The mid crosses over to the smaller horn around 2000 HZ I think. All passive, and very nice sounding. Wayne was playing his favorite stoetkit amp, and also the Selectronic Mosfet amps that really sounded good!
Wayne also had a couple of single ended amps built by Shane (from Dallas) who used them as head phone amps. These amps had great workmanship & the AKG phones sounded REALLY good with one of the amps. First time I ever heard a tube headphone amp, and boy was it good! Very reference quality.
Audio Note Room:
Mario Binner was displaying some high end audionote gear (though he called it “low end”!). The system sounded very good and musical. I remember a Johnny Cash song on it (“The beast in me”) that sounded really nice & authoritative. I am amazed at these audionote speakers that flout most of the norms of speaker design and still end up sounding so good. The dac & transport were of course very nice.
Abraxas Audio:
Jeff Larson is my favorite custom tube amp builder because he obsesses over it, and is first & foremost a hobbyist/music lover. His wife, Deborah, is into music too, and is very supportive. I bought Jeff’s first 12b4 amp (the one with the very hard to find 20 Kohm trannies), and use it to run my Klipschorns (where it sounds very nice). They are very nice people, and Jeff offers great value for the money in constructing tube amps. I brought my 12b4 amp over since Jeff just wanted to hear it again! Jeff had some Darling & other amps for sale, and on the last day was offering a killer deal with the Bob Brines Monitors and his amp for $999! I am surprised no one took it (or maybe some one did after I left).
Jeff’s amps are super clean sounding & he really tried to get the most out of every tube he works with. Highly recommended!
John Busch:
John was not showing anything but just drove in from California! He is a guru who has built speakers for over 45 years. A very sharp & knowledgeable guy, it was a pleasure and a privilege for me to spend time with him. Since he & I both like vintage horns, we had lots to talk about!We hope to see him here next year with one of his dipole creations!
Great Plains Audio
Club (Mark):
Mark Margiotta had set up his audio note system with a Meridien CD player, a SOTA turntable and about 100 lb worth of LPs! Mark’s system sounds very musical to me, and I am looking forward to a meet at his house. Marks has the amongst the sexiest 300b mono blocks I have seen.
Maxx Horn:
This system, shown by Bob Spence, consisted of a coax single driver system (driver is a PHL driver modded by them) crossed with a BAZZ MAX BASS horn that was HUGE. David Lee from Bass Max was also there (a very intelligent and interesting guy). Now a bass max horn can go to 138 db at 50 Hz, so clearly pairing it with a single (coax) driver was way over the top, but hey, it’s fun! The single driver system sounded very clean by itself, with very good clarity & imaging.
Well that was it this year. I hope I did not leave anyone out.
The two main aspects of GPAF are the friendliness & the sheer knowledge of folks at this event. Very little sales BS, and lots of audio talk from knowledgeable folk often with decades of experience.
It was fun to see folks from last year & some new ones this year (David Lee, John Busch, Bill Horn, Skip, Shane & others). Hope to see you all next year if not sooner!