Lone Star Audio Fest 2012
Well we made it to LSAF in 4 hours from Little Rock. I think we took some sort of shortcut. Disclaimer I am not a reviewer just an observer. On arrival to the Emia room there was this cryptic welcoming message on the floor. Apparently Dave knew that I answer to anything close to my name... You have to get used to that in Arkansas. Anyway the show was a blast but the highlight for me was listening to The Specials and The Violent Femmes around 4am in the EMIA room.
I believe this was about 3am and Dave and I were discussing the differences between double blind and double drunk and double blind drunk listening.
This was the system Friday night. This was my first time with Lowthers and I think I started at the top with the Lowther field coils from Lowther America. This was their recommended setup and very nice.
A close up of the Lowther.
Here you can see how massive the Lowther Field Coil really is. I feel like a dimwit as I didn't ask about the shiny red driver.
This was loaned by a very generous local named John. I love the size of the Edgar Titan and I wants the precious. John was also the fastest system gremlin smasher in Texas. Top notch.
Now to the heart of the system in the Emia room. These amps won me over at first site. Dave built these just in time for the show and the quality is what you would expect from Emia. I'm not sure of the model numbers so I'll just call these the Emia 50 monoblocks. At one point I thought about clubbing Dave like a baby seal and running off with them but I didn't.
They had several phono stages running so we could compare cartridges with a needle drop. This is a world I have avoided and will try to forget. The last thing I need is to become a needle junkie/cart junkie. Swapping between the strain gauge and Shilabe was an educational experience as I didn't always favor the same cart. It is possible I am not refined enough but I gotta go with how they feel and sound not just what is the most expensive. Thanks Dave as that as an ear opener. Oh and the autoformer volume control with a remote was damm cool.
The turntable was an Artemis Labs setup with a few tonearms. Here the strain gauge is playing.
Ahh the phono per power supply was a looker.
Here is Dave's crossover and from what I understand no resistive parts were used or harmed in the creation of this crossover. I should have asked more questions about it. If I get anything wrong perhaps they will chime in.
The Lowther was powered by the Emia 50 and the woofer was powered by these modified Heathkit amps.
I accidentally left my vinyl at the house which was very sad. They were offering to let people clean their own vinyl on this amazing cleaner. It is superb as I watched it work almost non stop.
IED or Intelligent Electrical Designs. Have a custom made step up for your cart. The patina on this is really nice I like the drug through the hudson look and I agree that it is nicer than the all too common bling.
Of course the popular autoformer modules were on display.
This is the Lowther pre field coil installation.
I didn't ask about this one but another Lowther field coil with that beautiful patina.
http://hifiheroin.blogspot.com/
http://www.intactaudio.com/
http://www.jeffreywjackson.com/
I really spent most of the time in the Emia room but there is a reason for that which will become clear on my next post. I did get around to some of the other rooms but only briefly.
I do not know alot about electrostatics but if you dig them you must check out Crescendo Systems http://www.crescendo-systems.com/. These were HUGE! These may have been biggest speakers at the show.
Paolo Audio had a nice room but I didn't get any specifics.http://www.paoloaudio.com/
Finally some horns! This was the Pi Speakers room. http://www.pispeakers.com/contents.html. It was good to see Wayne's work in person at last.
This room was next door to Emia so I made it over a few times. The speakers were very nice but I can't remember a dam thing about them except that they were in the KR Audio room and the wood work on these speakers was beautiful. http://www.kraudio.com/ Bob did happen to have some Moondog on hand to listen to and that was a really treat.
Now for the coolest speaker I didn't get to hear but looked really cool. This was at John's house. The nice guy who loaned his Edgar Titan to Emia. Perhaps next time I'm in Dallas I can hear these tricked out Khorns.. HINT....Hint... :)
LSAF 2012 was a great event. I'll be back next year and perhaps I'll even bring a horn system. It was really great hanging out and meeting everyone. The speakers and equipment was very cool but the people are what make this event successful. Thanks for the hospitality and kind comments.
If you've ever questioned whether or not you should go to LSAF the answer is hell yes so see ya next year at LSAF 2013.
