Late Sunday afternoon, with only about an hour left before the show closed, it was still standing room only in the Music Hall room. Perhaps that had something to do with the choice of music. I walked in to be greeted by the naughty sounds of the Bear Family Records compilation, <i>Eat to the Beat: the dirtiest of them dirty blues</i>, featuring song titles I can't even mention here.
"Have you heard the little Ushers?" I was asked Friday. "Have you heard the little Ushers?" I was asked repeatedly on Saturday.
I encountered the same difficulty while talking with Red Wine Audio's Vinnie Rossi that I'd experienced the day before when chatting with Audio Advancements' <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/he2007/051207hart/">Hart Huschens</a>. Happy customers kept frigging interrupting us. "Vinnie! Vinnie!" they'd announce again and again.
The Audioengine team is also looking at alternative cabinet materials. On display was a prototype A5 housed in lovely, sustainable bamboo. While the electronics remain the same, the bamboo models will incorporate added dampening.
Several of <i>Stereophile</i>'s editors were excited about the compact and inexpensive Audioengine 5 amplified speakers ($349/pair), which were bringing forth some sweet sounds playing files directly from a laptop. New to the Audioengine line is the tiny 2 (seen here, $199/pair), which offered a sound surprisingly similar to that of its bigger brother. The music was clean and clear, and conveyed an emotion that belied the speaker's size. Like the A5, the A2 keeps all of its electronics in the left speaker but, unlike the A5, it uses a front slot port for bass performance.
I'm just here for the beer.
Today, May 14, is a momentous day in music history as the anniversary of the passings of Keith Relf (Yardbirds), Chet Baker and one of the humankind's greatest musical talents, the one, the only, the chairman of the board, Francis Albert Sinatra who died in 1998. Somewhere, Frank's still got the world on a string—Ring–A–Ding–Ding!
What a great show HE 2007 turned out to be. Large crowds and much good feeling all around. If two channel audio is truly dying then I didn't see it. Lots of good sounding rooms, much impressive, well-priced gear, a successful RAVE awards and a hotel with a key location all made for a very successful show.
Lukas Lipinski was happy to present his L-707 speakers ($4990/pair) on special stands which discreetly house the 300Wpc L-301 monoblocks ($6000/pair). Keeping the amps close to the speakers allows for shorter cable runs, and, of course, is a clever space-saving idea. The amps slide vertically into the stands and are held in place by small screws on the back panel. The amps' glass front panel bears the Lipinski logo and can be illuminated.
