South India Audio Meet-2013

What is your suggested date for South India Audio Meet 2013


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Looks like you guys had a blasting time. I wonder if time was adequate with so many gears. Good job and kudos to the organizers; I know its just not easy.:clapping:

Meanwhile I can't wait to lay my hands on the LS50 monitors.
 
Congrats guys - looks like it was an excellent meet:clapping:. I am interested in thoughts on the Avalon vs the Thiel.
Cheers,
Sid
 
I'm really impressed on tube amps on how they sounded on different speakers which was played towards the end of the event.

For me, the standout room was the one with the valve equipment, and I hope we can have them over to Bangalore sometime soon to demo their equipment. Their 6L6 amp combined with Capt Rajesh's Cadence was an excellent combo.

Enjoyed Tube amp demo

Analog AudioLabs (Dared) Tube Amps were very good. Thanks to grubyhalo for selecting tracks for Tube Demo, It was really very nice with Cadence speakers.
It is heartening to note so many tube affectionados. I was so enamored by how the 6L6 Push-Pull integrated matched with my speakers that I've requested Byju to leave it with me for a few days.

I reassembled the speakers today morning and played them with the amp. Played Sultans of Swing CD. The sound was so divine that I didn't want to leave home for work.:D
I wonder if time was adequate with so many gears
Unlike your meet where everything was crammed in one hall, going by our previous experience, we had taken three halls and divided the participants in three groups who went around the halls on round robin basis. Hence we had ample time and change to spare for good listening session with Splendor LS3/5 and Quad mono blocks and also the toy monitors from Genelec. :)

This is how we organised it.

I am interested in thoughts on the Avalon vs the Thiel.

Avalons were played initially but were taken off as there was some problem with it's tweeter.
 
Oh what a day it was yesterday ... :yahoo: You get chances like this once in a blue moon where you forget about everything else and enjoy music and socialize with great, like minded and fun loving people. Really enjoyed the day. Enjoyed every bit of it. My heart felt thanks to the organizers - Capt. Rajesh, Srini, Rajiv, Murali and all others behind the scenes. It was a very well organized event. :signthankspin:

Now some of my listening impressions. My views are truly based on my taste and my ears :).

1. ProFx

KEF LS50 + Denon PM720 : Sweet sounding combo with lots of details and good mids. Bass was good for the size of the speakers, but I would add a small musical sub to complement that for my taste of listening. The detailing was excellent.

KEF R900 + Denon PM2010 : Overall a great performance. Controlled bass and highs. Great Mids. Felt the high end not to be very bright. This was to my liking and the bass was controlled and adequate. Well, the R900 are costly. I guess we can get more options at that price point. Like single driver high sensitivity full range driver systems.

Polk LSiM 707 + Denon PM2010: Here I felt the bass was too exaggerated. I could hear the speaker jarring and found the bass drivers shaking vigorously creating too much bass that was "eating" the mid range the high frequencies. Was not very impressed. I guess the synergy of Amp and Speaker was not optimal.

KEF Q300 + Denon PM720 : I guess this was the best value for money setup I have heard in the meet. KEF 300 sings very well with good details and mids. Lows were good enough for the book shelves. If you are on a budget, you should definitely give KEF Q300 a try.

2. Audio Lab

This was my favorite room :). The tube amps were very impressive. I found the tube amps performed very well with the cadence speakers. The klipsch sounded very detailed with tube amps, but without the warmth of a tube setup. I felt that I could get a listening fatigue with klipsch in 30-45 mins of listening.

I loved the following combo

Dared amp with 6L6 tubes in Push-Pull mode + Cadence Arista

Dared 300B minis were good, however they produce 9wpc and was badly under powered to drive Cadence. I think if you have a high sensitivity speakers, those 300Bs will perform pretty well.

A special mention to the tube CDP - Muse Deluxe. When compared to CA Azur 351C, they were very superior.

3. Audio People

MBL setup was just awesome. the CDP, PreAmp, Mono block Power Amps and Speakers. Very very detailed sound. Typical high end Solid State sound signature. The bookshelf speakers does worth a mention for their detailed presentation and impressive low end given the fact that they are bookshelves.
Well they cost a BOMB :o

I think I missed the following

1. An end to end analog setup starting with a good vintage vinyl player.

2. Dared VP845 integrated amp. Well Mr Chacko said that he will be getting the VP845 ready in another few weeks. Now I have to make a trip to Angamaly to listen to them :).

Thanks,
John.
 
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Unlike your meet where everything was crammed in one hall, going by our previous experience, we had taken three halls and divided the participants in three groups who went around the halls on round robin basis.

I am not sure how you assumed so. We had two halls and only 2 systems were played in each hall and the crowd was divided for separate sessions.

And yes, this is the best way to organize.
 
This is confusing me .... :o can you list all the names in a pic from top to bottom instead? :ohyeah:

PS: What are those small speaker cubes with orange drivers from ProFX?
(Do they also have lemon and pineapple flavor?) :D :licklips:

--G0bble

.. i think this guy has logged in wrongly.. :lol: dude this is not " pazhamudir forum"..
Those are the 50 th anniversary bookshelf speakers from KEF named LS 50..which most of the visitors appreciated.. KEF call the colour- 'rosegold'... well rated by stereophile, what hifi...
 
Ahahaaa..:licklips:
This seems no more hobby.. Yes I am as serious as you people are there in meet. Nice arrangement.

Now please post the pics of gears and prices with your consolidated thoughts on that. Thank you!
 
Great thanks to Capt Rajesh,Srini and Rajiv for their effort for this meet.The
success of this meet is ,there are no single complaint from the participants about the arrangements this is very big achievement.Because satisfying the whole group is always impossible but this happens due to the hard work of Rajesh,srini and Rajiv.They took effort for all the part Like Hotel,Food,Parking ...everything .For this they had several meeting and decided carefully to satisfy the members.Organizing team(Rajesh,Srini and Rajiv) handle the agenda very well and time is perfectly utilized, here captain act as a military man on every hour he visited all the room informed time is over and ask the group to change the room this help to complete agenda suceesfully,srini and rajive both are carefully watch the event how is going on if anything is deviated they involved and corrected that.So the success of chennai meets whole compliments goes to Rajesh,Rajiv and Srini :clapping::clapping::clapping:
 
I am not sure how you assumed so. We had two halls and only 2 systems were played in each hall and the crowd was divided for separate sessions.

Oops, sorry for the wrong assumption. :o My sincere apologies.

During our last meet, we had only one hall where Vipul Audio Tech came with their entire range of equipment; We also had to play Acoustic Portrait, Genelec and Directional speakers by David Santwan.
 
PS: What are those small speaker cubes with orange drivers from ProFX?
(Do they also have lemon and pineapple flavor?) :D :licklips:

They are LS50 BS speakers, from KEF

Review: KEF LS50 speaker | Sound and Vision Magazine

Sounded amazing,

That is one lakh-ten-thousand's worth of orange flavour. And they sounded worth it! Of the limited number of combinations I heard in that room (maybe three speaker pairs) they stood out to me as being natural sounding among a lot of over-rich, base-heavy gear (probably costing a lot more too) that I wouldn't have been happy with. Whilst the sound seemed worth the price, it is a little upsetting to find that Brits can buy these speakers for almost half the price. Just a bit more than the wonderful tiny Genelecs! Still, the week rupee and hifi pricing in India is another story ...for many other threads :cool:

Gobble: we need your sense of humour on site. Join us next time!

I somehow missed listening to the Genelec mini monitors though :(
That's a pity because they were absolutely stunning on a scale of I-wouldn't-have-thought-it-possible. i) Just spent a lot on furniture; ii) our solar water heater has developed a big leak; iii) income tax to pay. Damn; Damn; Damn :rolleyes:

Congrats guys - looks like it was an excellent meet:clapping:. I am interested in thoughts on the Avalon vs the Thiel.
Unless one is shopping, it is better not to ask the price! So, with fairly fresh ears at the beginning of the day, I headed into to listening to this kit with no idea of the cost (which turned out to be far more than I expected). Curiously, suspecting that this was all fairly high-end kit, I was not at all impressed with the first listening experience with the Thiel. OK, I didn't know the price, but of course I have hear of the name. The music seemed a touch rough, and lacked life. Switching to the "other" speakers started the toe tapping and turned on the pure musical enjoyment. As the audition wore on, the difference between the two became less: what changed, the music, the speakers, or my ears? I don't know, but if I had been sitting there with a bulging wallet, I would not have been able to forget that first impression, and I know which speakers would have relieved me of the weight of all that cash!

We did not get to audition with heavy, classical orchestral music. My failure: it seems that several people expected me to bring my favourite Mahler along. Apologies that my brain hadn't been working when I left home.

Another controversial note, for one of those many other threads (;))... Around the back of that great MBL gear, I noticed two things: i)thick and hugely-pricey-looking interconnects; ii) Unused balanced connection sockets. Give me some studio-grade cable, some XLRs and a soldering iron. Oh, and the money for those unbalanced interconnects! Another discussion for other threads...

It is heartening to note so many tube affectionados. I was so enamored by how the 6L6 Push-Pull integrated matched with my speakers that I've requested Byju to leave it with me for a few days.
Whoa, you are supposed to be replacing the speakers, not finding a new amp for them! :ohyeah: Consistently good sound in that room, although I only took small taste of it.
we had ample time and change to spare for good listening session with Splendor LS3/5 and Quad mono blocks and also the toy monitors from Genelec. :)
Yes, that was nice. Pity the "toys" don't come with a toy price! ;)

Disclaimer: Any comments I make about actual sound should be read with the understanding that I suffer from high-frequency hearing loss. Thus I almost always want more treble, and am over-sensitive to too much bass.
 
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This is only an group efforts and compliments goes to all members who were very enthusiastic to hear the music and participated in the meet and we are almost forced to windup the session which extended till 7PM due to travel by outstation members..:)

Great thanks to Capt Rajesh,Srini and Rajiv for their effort for this meet.The
success of this meet is ,there are no single complaint from the participants about the arrangements this is very big achievement.Because satisfying the whole group is always impossible but this happens due to the hard work of Rajesh,srini and Rajiv.They took effort for all the part Like Hotel,Food,Parking ...everything .For this they had several meeting and decided carefully to satisfy the members.Organizing team(Rajesh,Srini and Rajiv) handle the agenda very well and time is perfectly utilized, here captain act as a military man on every hour he visited all the room informed time is over and ask the group to change the room this help to complete agenda suceesfully,srini and rajive both are carefully watch the event how is going on if anything is deviated they involved and corrected that.So the success of chennai meets whole compliments goes to Rajesh,Rajiv and Srini :clapping::clapping::clapping:
 
What made the first benchers to fall asleep>>>Are they sleeping???>>>The answer will in the next post of mine..

dsc0144fu.jpg
 
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Friends,

I have a rather dumb question to ask. Please forgive me if I am sound too stupid here :).

This is regarding power cables. Yesterday I found people using thick and very expensive power cables to power up the amps and CDPs. My question is that the power cable is the last mile in the setup. The power comes to the sockets through regular electrical wires used in wiring the house or in our case the hotel conference rooms.

Now using a high end power cable from this socket to the audio gear without doing a proper power conditioning using a high end audio grade stabilizer has any significant effect.

My question is if you are spending too much money on the power cable, that is the last mile in the setup, where the power that this power cable draws is from a normal non-audio grade electrical wiring cables, how can one justify the cost spend on very high end power cables and the value it brings? Do we also need a high end audio grade power conditioning that complement these high end power cables?

Thanks,
John.
 
Congratulations to the organizers!

It looks like everybody who attended the meet enjoyed it very much. I'm sure a LOT of hard work went on in the background for that.
 
Thanks a ton to Srini, Capt Rajesh and others who organized a 'perfect' meet. Grand hotel air conditioned halls, great food, like minded people and mind blowing music. How else one could have spend a sunday better than that.

The biggest beauty of the meet was, we got to audition very wide range of products..from 35k speakers to 10 lakhs speakers. From vintage quad monoblocks to stunning, state of the art mdl monoblocks costing 4.6lakh each. SS, hybrid, tube amps..you can't ask anything more.

This helps for persons like me to understand where we are and what to look for in this audiophile world. Apart from the equipments, you get to meet people who had started 10-20 years back, how they did their journey, their experiences, their knowledge, their taste in music, their willingness to guide and correct us..that made the meet truly special. It is not just the equipments the we enjoyed..we enjoyed the company of fellow audiophiles immensely :)

MDLs, Thiels, Monitor Audios, Cadence, KEF LS50, KEF Q300..what a range of speakers..I enjoyed them all. I am particularly impressed with LS50, Q300 and Spendor LS3/5a. I was amazed by the difference Bryston DAc brought when added to the chain.

This is the first time i have auditioned tube amps. It was amazing to see 9W, 15W or 30W tube amps driving gigantic drivers. They were lovely. But, i felt those speakers could have used more power. Thankfully i heard the Quads in the next session. So, now i know how the tube amps can really shine when paired with the 'right' speakers.

Overall it was a very enjoyable and memorable day.

Lets definitely plan for Vinyl meet next time :D
 
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congratulations to the folks in Chennai..for a well organized meet.

The gear on display was very nice and the organization was nice too !!

great going !!

mpw
 
This is regarding power cables. Yesterday I found people using thick and very expensive power cables to power up the amps and CDPs. My question is that the power cable is the last mile in the setup. The power comes to the sockets through regular electrical wires used in wiring the house or in our case the hotel conference rooms.

Maybe they were plugged into boxes with cheap extension leads too. Actually, the speaker cables in the main hall were hefty enough to carry mains current to the power amps!

But much of this is already under heated (too much current?) discussion in other threads, and, along with the other controversial topics touched on, my feeling is that it is one thing to note them here, but debate and discussion should be elsewhere. Lets keep this thread to impressions about the experiences of the day, or they will be lost in yet another long argument with no end. That would be an injustice to the day.
 
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