T.H.E Show Newport Beach 2015 – Show Report

AURALiC Taurus Headphone Amplifier ($1899) and Vega DAC ($3499)

WyWires Red Series Headphone Cable ($239)

WyWires Power Broker ($2495). Completely passive electrical design and two kinds of wood! Great looking AC distributor with noise reduction.

Audeze EL-8 Closed-Back headphones so people won’t ask, “what’s that song you’re listening to??” ($699)

HiFiMAN

The world premier of the HiFiMAN HE-400S ($299). Amazing sound for the money.

The state of the art HiFiMAN HE-1000 ($3000)

Rockport Avior loudspeakers ($37,500) sounding very full and rich with tube amplification from Balanced Audio Technologies

The Balanced Audio Technologies REX II Mono Amplifier ($19,900). That’s almost $40K for a pair, yikes!

One of the most visually arresting designs I saw, the glass cabinet Perfect Technologies The Point Mk II Evolution ($115,000)

Synergistic Research had an absolutely cavernous room with a pair of Magicos and demonstrating some of their new room correction and signal tweaking devices.

The drool-inducing Luxman L-550AX Class A Integrated Amplifier ($5400)

The Vivid G1 Giya in crazy violet was one of the best speakers I heard at T.H.E. Show and for $65,000, it should be.

Meridian had a very detailed presentation of the new MQA (Master Quality Authenticated). Meridian streamed Killing Me Softly by Roberta Flack from a server in Norway It was pretty amazing. The quality of streamed audio books to take a giant leap forward in 2015. The tech is actually very interesting. Google it.

Harbeth HL5 plus ($6695) sounding very good with Naim electronics.

One of the most surprising rooms was Technics. Yes, Technics. C700 and R1 Reference systems sounding and LOOKING very, very special.

Technics boxes are PRETTY!

Straight out the future comes the Cabasse La Sphere, priced at the very reasonable #ucantaffordit

Remove the La Sphere’s grill cover to complete the eyeball effect

Another very successful room, Boulder electronics and the Focal Maestro Utopia ($49,995). Perfect system for the 1%.

My second favorite speaker at T.H.E. Show, the staggeringly realistic $24,000 TAD CE1 (Compact Evolution One) featuring interchangeable side panels. Stands are $2400. Whoever put this system together knew what they were doing. Presto amplification, turntable by Merrill Williams, Dynavector cartridge, and WyWires cabling. Magnificent result.

The very strange-looking, but effortlessly loud and clear, self powered, and DAC’d Avant Garde Zero 1 ($17,500). Clearly influenced by the 2001: A Space Odyssey monolith with similar effect. Being around it made me violent, or was that just evolution, I get those confused.

My third favorite speaker, the Raidho D-1 ($28,500). I actually recall liking the X-1 system more that I heard it last year, but sometimes I hate on things I can’t afford. So there’s that. The Raidho room also had the new, more budget-friendly Scansonic line of speakers which seemed very promising.

McIntosh. Because it’s PRETTY!

The new great looking Tannoy Revolution XT 8F ($TBD)

D’Agostino MLife Integrated amplifier/streamer ($48,000) looking heavy and serious.

ATC SCM 40 ($6999) powered by Exposure electronics sounded very good.

The world premiere of the the Von Schweikert Unifield 2 Signature Loudspeakers ($25,000) powered by Constellation electronics. Great clarity and surprising bass from such a small speaker.

Ryan loudspeakers, which made their auspicious debut at last year’s show, again sounding excellent using the R630 floor stander ($5000) and Auralic electronics.

Legacy speakers are imposing

One of the truly odd, yet unbelievably cool looking speakers I have ever seen, the Boenicke Audio W8SE+ ($19,000). The picture makes the speaker appear normal size, but they are small and the visual effect is like a giant speaker that has been shrunken.

Swiss things! I felt like I wasn’t dressed well enough for the Goldmund room. It’s no coincidence the best watches are also Swiss. The new wireless Logos Tower speaker was looking very cool.

The Bel Canto Black Series. It’s seriously very, very black and expensive. Porsche makes a black series too. You could match.

My favorite speaker at T.H.E. Show. The new Wilson Sabrina ($15,900) powered by Theta. I think this speaker was actually in more than one room, but I liked this one the best. The Sabrina sounds huge for such a compact speaker. Have to have it. Achingly gorgeous sound.

A very cool discovery was made in what I thought was a Focal room, but turned out to be Orange County retailer Cloth and Metal’s room. Cloth and Metal has two locations. It’s a pretty genius concept and looks like great execution: designer clothes and audio equipment for the tasteful Millenial. They were getting great sound from Cambridge Audio electronics with both the Focal Aria and Cambridge Audio speakers.

The new Focal Sopra No.2 ($14,000) in fabulous orange! The speaker’s looks and build quality is on another level.

The new Focal Sopra No.1 ($9000). The Sopra line is positioned between the more expensive Utopia line and less expensive Electra line.

An array of Mark Levinson mono blocks and JBL horn speakers.

The upcoming Revel Concentra2 series looks very promising.

The very cool-looking JBL Everest DD67000 ($70,000)

MoFi’s room featured Quad electrostats powered by Balanced Audio Technology. A very nice place to spend some quality time.