Well, another DecFest gone by and I wish there was enough time to do much more and to have talked much more to so many of you that attended.
First as always a big thanks to Steve, DeVon, Sarah, and all the Decware crew for a home style yet professional feeling of camaraderie and family. Special thanks to Bob and Mike: you guys build speakers like no other...The best! Steve and Bob make a team that is so fun to be around. God bless you DeVon for feeding us like royalty. ZUPA!!! Wow.
Second to all the folks I met for the first time it was really great to meet all of you. Very heartening to see the NYC contingent. Peter and Martha what fun. And Rivieraranch was a treat to see you and your wife come up from FLA. Had lots of fun watching you hear the Trapeziums grow a chest with some choice electronics in front of them.
Donnie wish I'd have taken more time to chat on Fri. A pleasure nevertheless. Ryan (whom I've met before) Henry and the girls its great to see younger audiophiles who "get it". The MTV generation does have some of those after all. John B and his wife. And Rich you are too cool. Thanks for all the exotic ale tastings. Without mentioning everyone I really enjoyed seeing new faces.
Jason G glad you came again good late night listening experimenting and conversation.
Special thanks to Doug and Mary.
Surprise treat of the weekend was Doug offering me to drive him to breakfast in his brand new 40th anniversary 370Z. I won't even go into detail about SantaFe Rd. when he drove back. Twisty and fast elevation changes. What a blast!
Always good to see friends like Randy. Wouldn't be the same without you. Dan and Deb as always great to be there with you. Dan's FrankenampII pictured in the Flickr photo was a like a Zen C on steroids. I'll let him describe the thing if he wishes. The power of 2 watts never had guts like that. Wish I'd have met (shook hands and talked a bit) and talked to the Star Wars and movie buff guys more (neon yellow shirt). Come back next year fellas! Lin (opnlybafld) Nice to see you again. Dennis DPC popped in shortly. If I left anyone out I just rattling this off the top of my head so...
I will refrain from posting equipment impressions since my critical listening and evaluation was much less this year. There was no agenda for me to figure out anything really this year I just had fun with it much like last year. I'm more than willing to render opinions on equipment that I know the sound of fairly well.
Just one goosebump moment.
Want to know the most impressive imaging of the show?
Bob put a pair of Trapeziums in the general position most listened in at the corners of the rug. They were on the small stands running with Bobs original TORII MkI and his DAC. You look at the speakers and just shake your head in disbelief. Orchestral rendition of Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack were so stunningly huge in scale it was the performance rendered in full size from the little speakers. That the last octave of bass was missing did not matter one lick. The bass that was there was so convincing that I could only imagine that a sub would have put galactic size on that presentation that would have been surreal. Maybe the stars aligned or something to do with many beers. But I think I know what I heard. GOOSEBUMPS!! It was stupefying.
Good times ahead.
Thank you!