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this is the first update in a series from our recent visit to Capital Audiofest 2016:
well, i guess the biggest deal at this year's show was the North American premier of the Muon from KEF.
placed in the VPI room, it was well supported equipment-wise via a pair of Odyssey mono-block amps from company owner Klaus Bunge.
these 'wolf-in-sheep's-clothing' were not what they appeared, however, having been built to the same specification as Klaus' personal amps he uses at home.
btw, Klaus is always willing to build any of his electronics to the customer's wants, needs, whim or requirements.
additionally, VPI's (semi-) retired founder, Harry Weisfeld, supplied his latest creation, the magnetically driven Titon.
sundry other equipment made up the rest of the signal chain, least of our personal liking being the Mac pre-amp.
the system was BIG.
BIG visually, BiG in sound, Big with Bling, V Big in hype and somewhat big in disappointment, at least by accounts from those in our group.
do not get me wrong, this system was amazing.
the aluminum shells are hydro-formed at the same factory in England where they make body parts for Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, Jaguar, etc.
hand-welded then hand rubbed for many, many hours according to Mr Coorg (KEF's sales rep), whom i kept calling 'that damn Britt' all weekend (hey...he always answered me. And the both of us had a lovely chat at the bar Saturday evening).
of significant grandness too, were Klaus’ Odyssey amps flaunting enough clean headroom & flat tonal response to easily equal the potential capability from the flagship KEF & VPI units.
in all honesty, our ears detected a weak link somewhere in the chain.
maybe the KEFs, maybe the MAC Pre (the MAC being our best guess).
likely not the Triton.
definitely not the Odysseys!
while most voices were pure with exquisite focus, we notice some muddiness in lower mids, some wandering in images, & some lack of presence & detail at times that we were not willing to always blame on the recordings.
for instance, when we played Lou Reed, 'Walk on the Wild Side' from the 'Transformer' LP, there is the iconic back-up singers laying down that infamous "Doot, Doot, Doot, Doooooh DaDoot". on a well-rung system they start with an echo/reverby, far away kind of characteristic positioned about 30 - 40 feet behind the speakers & you get a V real sense of motion as if they are actually walking directly towards you as their voices get clearer, gain energy & become tightly focused, & then end up about 5 feet behind your head as they serenade directly into your ears. With the Muon's that tactile, kinetic transition from far away to right in your face was missing. to me, using my own humble system as reference, it felt shallow, week, anchored by ball & chain, with little depth and less than stellar definition.
while Harry did say they had tried multiple pre amps during Thursday’s set-up, he (they) settled on the MAC as giving the best performance & synergy. wish we could have compared this set-up with a few different pre amps.
we speculate improvement was yet to be found in what was undeniably one of better systems one will ever hear in their lifetime.
Johan Coorg, the KEF sales rep on the left, Harry Weisfeld, founder of VPI on the right
some of VPI's offerings...
the Rig
some of the VPI crew after hours playing 'Cards for Humanity' with Klaus Bunge in the hallway Friday night (libations abound)
my niece who lives in DC was able to join us Friday night
left to right: Dan (PewterTA), my niece and Matt Weisfeld (Harry's son and current head of VPI) having a friendly chat Friday night (late) over some basic principals & philosophies of audio......
well, i guess the biggest deal at this year's show was the North American premier of the Muon from KEF.
placed in the VPI room, it was well supported equipment-wise via a pair of Odyssey mono-block amps from company owner Klaus Bunge.
these 'wolf-in-sheep's-clothing' were not what they appeared, however, having been built to the same specification as Klaus' personal amps he uses at home.
btw, Klaus is always willing to build any of his electronics to the customer's wants, needs, whim or requirements.
additionally, VPI's (semi-) retired founder, Harry Weisfeld, supplied his latest creation, the magnetically driven Titon.
sundry other equipment made up the rest of the signal chain, least of our personal liking being the Mac pre-amp.
the system was BIG.
BIG visually, BiG in sound, Big with Bling, V Big in hype and somewhat big in disappointment, at least by accounts from those in our group.
do not get me wrong, this system was amazing.
the aluminum shells are hydro-formed at the same factory in England where they make body parts for Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, Jaguar, etc.
hand-welded then hand rubbed for many, many hours according to Mr Coorg (KEF's sales rep), whom i kept calling 'that damn Britt' all weekend (hey...he always answered me. And the both of us had a lovely chat at the bar Saturday evening).
of significant grandness too, were Klaus’ Odyssey amps flaunting enough clean headroom & flat tonal response to easily equal the potential capability from the flagship KEF & VPI units.
in all honesty, our ears detected a weak link somewhere in the chain.
maybe the KEFs, maybe the MAC Pre (the MAC being our best guess).
likely not the Triton.
definitely not the Odysseys!
while most voices were pure with exquisite focus, we notice some muddiness in lower mids, some wandering in images, & some lack of presence & detail at times that we were not willing to always blame on the recordings.
for instance, when we played Lou Reed, 'Walk on the Wild Side' from the 'Transformer' LP, there is the iconic back-up singers laying down that infamous "Doot, Doot, Doot, Doooooh DaDoot". on a well-rung system they start with an echo/reverby, far away kind of characteristic positioned about 30 - 40 feet behind the speakers & you get a V real sense of motion as if they are actually walking directly towards you as their voices get clearer, gain energy & become tightly focused, & then end up about 5 feet behind your head as they serenade directly into your ears. With the Muon's that tactile, kinetic transition from far away to right in your face was missing. to me, using my own humble system as reference, it felt shallow, week, anchored by ball & chain, with little depth and less than stellar definition.
while Harry did say they had tried multiple pre amps during Thursday’s set-up, he (they) settled on the MAC as giving the best performance & synergy. wish we could have compared this set-up with a few different pre amps.
we speculate improvement was yet to be found in what was undeniably one of better systems one will ever hear in their lifetime.
Johan Coorg, the KEF sales rep on the left, Harry Weisfeld, founder of VPI on the right
some of VPI's offerings...
the Rig
some of the VPI crew after hours playing 'Cards for Humanity' with Klaus Bunge in the hallway Friday night (libations abound)
my niece who lives in DC was able to join us Friday night
left to right: Dan (PewterTA), my niece and Matt Weisfeld (Harry's son and current head of VPI) having a friendly chat Friday night (late) over some basic principals & philosophies of audio......
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