So, I finally had the pleasure of meeting Bob (Absolare) and checking out his Audio Mecca.

wisnon

wisnon

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It was meant to be short, but a one hour grace period from my family turned into 2, as torrential rains lashed Manhatten and ended up with a good listening and chatting session.

My 11yr old daughter LOVED his guitars and insisted on taking pictures for the 15 mins she was there.

We got to hear the Kondo, EMM Labs,Wave 40 setup with Goldmund subs (they presented a more intimate and engaging sound, though not perfectly setup) and the Line Magnetic (SRPP 100w)/EMM Labs/Raidho D3s. The Raidos were more of a bolder presentation and a more all round speaker that tops out at about 90-95db.

My wife surprisingly loved the look of the Wave40s, though I expected her to like the D3? Go figure.

Anyway, we went thru many of my favourite Super CD cuts, a few of the UltraCDs and many DSD64 and DSD128 cuts. DSD128 is a bomb, but we even played 1 MP3 song and it was very nice. The SuperCD stuff is so well recorded, that it can make you think its DSD128 if you are not careful. Be mindful thouh that the EMM Labs Dac upsamples all to DSD128 internally.

We listened via Foobar on a stock PC with a 5m cheapo computer cord USB!! Imagine via A+, JPlay or JRiver with a 1.5M TotalDac USB cable and modded PC like a CAPS dual PC? The sound was still glorious despite the obvious audiophile taboos that were broken. LoL

Nah, I have got to finagle another visit, perhaps in the Summer of 2014 or during a business trip to our location in NJ?

Bob is a great host and his studio is a mecca.
 
I'm glad you had a great time. Bob is a most gracious host and has superb gear on display. Hopefully we will have more advanced notice next time so we can get another audioshark session going.
 
Oh nice!!! Bobs the best!!! As good of a person as he is a host!!
But you should have planned an all day amp and speaker switching session
To get the full effect :)
 
wisnon said:
It was meant to be short, but a one hour grace period from my family turned into 2, as torrential rains lashed Manhatten and ended up with a good listening and chatting session.

My 11yr old daughter LOVED his guitars and insisted on taking pictures for the 15 mins she was there.

We got to hear the Kondo, EMM Labs,Wave 40 setup with Goldmund subs (they presented a more intimate and engaging sound, though not perfectly setup) and the Line Magnetic (SRPP 100w)/EMM Labs/Raidho D3s. The Raidos were more of a bolder presentation and a more all round speaker that tops out at about 90-95db.

My wife surprisingly loved the look of the Wave40s, though I expected her to like the D3? Go figure.

Anyway, we went thru many of my favourite Super CD cuts, a few of the UltraCDs and many DSD64 and DSD128 cuts. DSD128 is a bomb, but we even played 1 MP3 song and it was very nice. The SuperCD stuff is so well recorded, that it can make you think its DSD128 if you are not careful. Be mindful thouh that the EMM Labs Dac upsamples all to DSD128 internally.

We listened via Foobar on a stock PC with a 5m cheapo computer cord USB!! Imagine via A+, JPlay or JRiver with a 1.5M TotalDac USB cable and modded PC like a CAPS dual PC? The sound was still glorious despite the obvious audiophile taboos that were broken. LoL

Nah, I have got to finagle another visit, perhaps in the Summer of 2014 or during a business trip to our location in NJ?

Bob is a great host and his studio is a mecca.
Click to expand...

Thank you Norman:heart: It was really my pleasure meeting you finally in person as well as your lovely wife and daughter.

I must say that as long as Norman was at my studio he was perched next to my computer with literally a big bag of usb sticks, cramming one stick in after another, downloading hi rez files onto my computer. I have so many dsd files now I'm in a great panic overload at the moment. The DSD128 files are nothing like I have heard before. The Emm does take everything up to 5.6MHz, so when you feed in either PCM or like Norman said even an MP3 the sound is quite good. But when you give the EMM DAC2X either a DSD64 or a DSD128 file, well all I can say is that for me the 128 stuff is a game changer.

I have to now figure out the best computer front end for my DAC2X with the right USB cable and then I'm set.....thank you Norman!!!
 
Sounds like everyone had a great time Norman. It's a nice treat to not only hear some great gear, but to meet others who like music as much as we do. Bob is right up there with the best of them. He doesn't have a bad piece of gear in the place!
 
So true Doug. And as good as the gear was, its was even more satisfying for me to actually meet Bob in person. He is a kindred soul when it comes to refined audio taste. I tried for a grand slam to get to meet Joe as well, but unfortunately WORK did not want to cooperate there. C'est la vie.

Yes, Steve, the session could easily go on for 6 hours before it would feel like enough!

The Absolare and Magico gear were already in Vegas, but I didnt even miss them, as the other gear handled themselves quite well. LoL
 
Absolare said:
Thank you Norman:heart: It was really my pleasure meeting you finally in person as well as your lovely wife and daughter.

I must say that as long as Norman was at my studio he was perched next to my computer with literally a big bag of usb sticks, cramming one stick in after another, downloading hi rez files onto my computer. I have so many dsd files now I'm in a great panic overload at the moment. The DSD128 files are nothing like I have heard before. The Emm does take everything up to 5.6MHz, so when you feed in either PCM or like Norman said even an MP3 the sound is quite good. But when you give the EMM DAC2X either a DSD64 or a DSD128 file, well all I can say is that for me the 128 stuff is a game changer.

I have to now figure out the best computer front end for my DAC2X with the right USB cable and then I'm set.....thank you Norman!!!
Click to expand...

Bob, I'll sell you my CAPS 3.0 setup. I don't need it anymore.
 
Bob hosted Pete and myself quite a few years ago. It was a great afternoon and he is a marvelous host. We heard some Avantgarde horns, and some Joseph Pearls that day. 2 great systems. Both SOTA. Both superb. Both totally different from one another. Just goes to show you that one system does not do it all. Exactly why you need a showroom with options.
 
BobM said:
Bob hosted Pete and myself quite a few years ago. It was a great afternoon and he is a marvelous host. We heard some Avantgarde horns, and some Joseph Pearls that day. 2 great systems. Both SOTA. Both superb. Both totally different from one another. Just goes to show you that one system does not do it all. Exactly why you need a showroom with options.
Click to expand...

Howdy Bob- Happy New Year! Come on back over after mid January when you are in the city. Would love to see you again!
 
Yes Bob, the Caps may indeed be the ticket! It will pass DSD128 and should be iPad controllable. SQ is very high quality.
 
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