Gotta a spare $400,000?

[ThomasW]

Ray Kimber setup a 4 channel playback system at the 2006 RMAF to demo his IsoMike recordings. Total cost for the rig is slightly under $400K. 4 banks of drivers, each containing 3 SoundLab ProStat 992 speakers driven with Pass labs 350 amps....

The room is 60'X60', the speakers are approx 8.5' tall

To say it sounded very good is of course an understatement....

[dyazdani]

I don't think the wife would let me have those...

[wkhanna]

I would trade my wife for those.

[dyazdani]

I would trade my wife for those.

:rofl: :rofl:

[ThomasW]

To put the size of these in perspective. Here's Ray and one array

[David Meek]

(in best Keanu Reeves voice) Whoa!

[Burke Strickland]

I'm going to save a copy of the photo of Ray and array to show to those who say they think that floor-standing Maggies look like room dividers.

[ThomasW]

FYI, Ray's not very tall maybe 5' 6" or 7". So seeing him with them makes the ESLs appear even taller.

The Prostats 992 are considerably taller than the standard Soundlab A-1's

[Azeke]

Boy, I certainly would like to hear those. I betcha they smell like money :lol: .

Peace and blessings,

Azeke

[JonMarsh]

I know I'm coming at this all from the wrong place, but I'm left wondering what Ray's business reasons are for visiting and exhibiting- is he hoping to sell a lot of Isomike's, or it it a more general promotion of Kimber Cable, partnered with Sound Lab?

That's an expensive proposition, the gear and that size room.

Wish I could be there to hear it, too bad my Power Systems World conference is when it is.

[aud19]

I know I'm coming at this all from the wrong place, but I'm left wondering what Ray's business reasons are for visiting and exhibiting- is he hoping to sell a lot of Isomike's, or it it a more general promotion of Kimber Cable, partnered with Sound Lab?

That's an expensive proposition, the gear and that size room.

Wish I could be there to hear it, too bad my Power Systems World conference is when it is.

He gets to write it off as a business expense and then take it home after a while :B

[Chris D]

Nice... but I'd need $400k for the system, and then another $500k for a proper house to put it in.

[David Meek]

I'd need $400K for the system and $400K for the divorce. :B

[gross30]

I don't even think I could imagine what that would sound like. Those photo's are awe-inspiring. What a set-up. The room looks huge. I'm sure Mr. Kimber has the room size and seating positions all calculated out for the best listening experience for the audience. I wonder if there are any open seats for me and a few of my buddies !!!

[ThomasW]

This was a temporary setup created for the 3 days of the 2006 RMAF.

As one can imagine the SQ was amazing..... :T

[cobbpa]

I see something like that and really don't know how good it can sound. Obviously better than anything I've ever heard, but since I have very little exposure to high-end equipment, I can only imagine earphoria. The best sounding speakers I have heard were Jim Griffin's line arrays at the PE meet, and those are only a fraction of this cost. Must have been quite impressive. What kind of music do you play through speakers like that? Or just a recording of gold coins clanking & piling up?

[gianni]

Is that entry level?

[ThomasW]

I see something like that and really don't know how good it can sound.

The SQ was just short of attending a live performance.

Is that entry level?

Yes actually it is. Ray did another install in an auditorium in Utah. There the front arrays were doubled stacked in height...... 8O

[Brandon B]

Nice... but I'd need $400k for the system, and then another $500k for a proper house to put it in.

Where I live, a $500K house is the size of one of those arrays. You'd need a $1.5M house for it to be likely to have a room even capable of accomodating those.

BB

[twitch54]

This was a temporary setup created for the 3 days of the 2006 RMAF.

As one can imagine the SQ was amazing..... :T

While at the show what else impressed you?? How about the MBL's ??

[ThomasW]

While at the show what else impressed you?? How about the MBL's ??

Well I'm a bit jaded......

[rant mode on]
There was a significant problem in the vast majority of the rooms 90%. That being they had enough money to haul in 10's or 100's of thousands of $$$$ of equipment, but couldn't afford a few hundred for some acoustical treatments. As a result the SQ in most rooms was terrible.....
[/rant mode off]

MBL's are an amazing study in machining/engineering, but not being a fan of omni's they don't trip my trigger. Their rep was puffing out his chest bragging about the 5000 watt monoblocks. I wanted to ask him how they did 5000 watts since there wasn't a 220V line in the room ...:wink:

I was impressed with Jim Salk's speakers paired with Frank VanAlstine's electronics. This relatively modest room IMO had some of the best sound around. But it would have sounded MUCH better with some bass traps...



The Ayre room would have been more impressive had Charlie's electronics been paired with something other than Vanderstein speakers. This was a retailer's room so they chose the speakers...

The Evolution Acoustics were extremely good but they had one chair literally taped to the floor for the sweet spot.


The room acoustics for the $250,000 Marten Coultrane loudspeaker was so bad it was embarressing how boomy the bass was....For those that don't know under the wood veneer, are boxes made from carbon fiber.



Lots of people talk about liking the IDS. Even being driven by a TON on McIntosh's best gear, the top end was so strident I left the room after ~30 sec of listening..



Treble problems weren't the only thing effecting the performance of the Cogent True-To-Life horns...



The Gamut's sounded very good for a $5000 speaker. Only problem was that they cost $15,000



The bigger Audio Kinesis sounded better than this their little one. Again the rooms were plagued by BOOMY bass



This Green Mountain seemed pretty good. Like the other rooms the bass was so BOOMY it was impossible to know how good they could have been.



These weren't all that bad. They're inherent lack of bass probably helped, since again no acoustical treatments.



I don't remember this company. They were actually demo'ing a very expensive HD based music server system. I thought it odd to see a $80 Hi-Vi tweeter in a system being driven by mega thousand $$$ mono-block amps.

[cobbpa]

I was impressed with Jim Salk's speakers paired with Frank VanAlstine's electronics.

In the MTM, is that the Jordan driver used to cover the high frequencies? If so, interesting / impressive.

[dyazdani]

Well, the yellow horn's room DID have a bag of sand or something in the corner...

[ThomasW]

In the MTM, is that the Jordan driver used to cover the high frequencies?

Those are Excel magnesium midwoofers

[cobbpa]

Those are Excel magnesium midwoofers

Maybe I didn't ask very well, or maybe I'm just flat wrong. The speaker alll the way to the left of the picture, what's the driver in the middle? Is it also a Seas? I can identify the mags, the ribbon drivers, and maybe Seas Nextel cones in there? But the on I'm trying to identify looks different & shiny.

[ThomasW]

You asked about the MTM. The only MTM in the picture has Excel mag woofers. The tweeter is a LCY ribbon that has a polished horn/waveguide

[cobbpa]

Ahhaa...thanks Thomas. I wondered if it was a bright waveguide. Interesting. I'm assuming "symmetrical dispersion" probably makes it pretty consistent / ideal for waveguides?

[jsalk]

ThomasW -

Thanks very much for the kind words concerning the sound of our speakers and Frank's electronics. Much appreciated.

When you work as hard as we do building them, it's nice to know people appreciate the quality.

We very much enjoyed meeting many fine people at this year's RMAF. The response to our room was more than we could have hoped for.

You can be certain that, next year, bass traps will be the order of the day. Looking at the picture you posted, perhaps I will bring a few less speakers as well. The smaller monitors were never even hooked up.

Again, thanks for the kind words. Glad you enjoyed the sound.

- Jim

[chinets]

WOW !! Thanks man, I have never seen some of the oddest looking speakers In one place! You must have had a blast.
Cheers and thanks for sharing