Have some sympathy for SimpliFi‘s unfortunate Tim Ryan. He won the “show conditions” lottery this time out when his truck broke down on the way to the show. How did the room sound? On Friday it sounded like a locked door. The show conditions won by default. Mr. Ryan didn’t manage to get to the hotel until Friday night, missing the first day entirely. He then got to enjoy an all-nighter setting up for Saturday morning. By the time I saw him on Saturday afternoon, he looked like a man who desperately needed a nap. Of course, Mr. Ryan wasn’t about to let something like show conditions bother him. Three full systems — with multiple speaker options in two of them! — were ready to go by the time we got to his room. His favored system, featuring Klangwerk Ella active speakers ($7500), was set up on one long wall in front of a wonderfully minimalist entertainment center that hid two subwoofers. On wall speakers from Klangwek festooned the wall behind it. Firing down the room was a Gradient Revolution Active system ($12k). In an alcove on one side was an older Resolution Audio system feeding into either a pair [...]
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