Best Bar Burger in the World?

[Kenscollick]

I had the chance to hang out with CAP the other day and listen to his great CLS system.

We decided to head over to Akfest Saturday morning anyone else planning on going?

http://www.akfest.com/

If so it would be nice to meet up around lunch time and head over to Masons it is about 3 miles away and advertises the best bar burger in the world.

http://detroit.metromix.com/bars-an...r/masons-bar-and-grill-livonia/335603/content

This will be my first time at Akfest looking forward to hearing some great systems. Who will be joining us?

 

[cstory]

Ummmmm Hamburger:drool:

I'm in.

Chuck

 

[C.A.P]

Thanks Ken.:rocker: I too am looking forward to the AKA fest, and The best BURGER in the world. You know I have a weight problem I cant "Weight" To eat ! :ROFL:

 

[Kruppy]

Crap. I always forget about this event. Can't make it Saturday, too many family obligations.

 

[twich54]

Hey Ken / Chris.....be sure to write up a little report of the "fest" this weekend, couple of pics would be great too !

 

[C.A.P]

Hey Ken / Chris.....be sure to write up a little report of the "fest" this weekend, couple of pics would be great too !

Will do . We all love audio porn !

 

[Kenscollick]

A good day listening and the eats were good too

First hotel rooms are a terrible place to hear high end music That being said CAP and I hit most of the rooms together and shared our thoughts on the good, bad, and the ugly. I will only hit the top three.

We disagreed on this one cap liked the giant Tyler speakers driven by Macintosh and a analog front end this was one of the larger suites and probably contributed to good sounds.

I prefered a relative unknown speaker Bamberg Audio Very nicely made speaker with a modular design. driven by all modwright electronics put them solidly in #3 for me.

 

[Kenscollick]

#2

The show covered 4 floors of the hotel two through five plus a couple of ballrooms on the main floor. we decided to start at the top and work our way down.

Wadia was partnered with Dynaudio, XLO, and an unknown tube amp company from Germany called Octave that is inported by XLO if memory serves correct.

Wadia was using their 781 player and the ipod dock the speakers were the Dynaudio C1 even in the small room there was no doubt that this was one special system Image was perfect and the bass while not overpowering was plentiful. This system remained #1 most of the day.

 

[Kenscollick]

A little drum roll please

The fact that we critically listened to this system after lunch may have influenced our decision,

Cap had heard of these Michigan made speakers but they were unknown to me in spite of having lived just a few miles from the plant. Jim Salk is the sole author of these incredible speakers they were playing in one of the large ball rooms using very modest Van Alstine electronics and a slim device server.

A huge soundstage was presented deep and wide. instruments sounded correct and this was a system that we could and did listen for a long time.

I did not get to talk to Jim for very long but I would bet he has a background in cabinetmaking. The workmanship was five stars, he had a smaller pair on display that had some sort of spalted wood veneer that had my drool pooling.

Cap declared the prototype speakers that we were listening to "better than Wilson MAXX" The estimated cost for the yet unnamed speaker was $16,000 We are planning a trip to the Salk plant for further listening.

 

[Kenscollick]

Bad sound Great remote

The first time we went into the Manley room, the sound was more akin to what you would hear from an Escalade with 22" wheels. Some recording that belonged to the person sitting in the sweet spot, It took CAP and I about 30 seconds to exit stage right. both of us were scratching our heads thinking that it must have been the recording.

We returned later and played my recording of Sissel that had been our standard throught the show. The speakers were Gershman, and our thoughts were the same terrible sound from some usual pretty good components.

The remote however got a solid 5 star rating even after lunch navigating the controls were as easy as falling off a bar stool. Oh yea that reminds me of the title of this thread as lunch time rolled around we contimplated our options not being from the area nor spending a lot of time there I vaguely remembered the Yacht Club on the banks of the Beautiful Rouge River.

The brews were cold the food great and the waitstaff extremely compitent.

 

[C.A.P]

Yes, as Ken stated the sounds were good from a few. The Wadia room was damn good. I am not a huge fan of monitors (2 way design) for overall listening but these were good. Bass was tight and detailed. the stage in that small room was twice as deep as it should have been. The Wadia 781 with some damn good German tube amps made for a pleasant listren.

The Bamberg room was good , It was a relatively unknown to me. I was impressed. They were just very polite. Not a cone speaker that is in your face or boomy. I bet in a better room these would sound much better. The MOD Wright gear was as Ken said industrial looking. The amp was cool with laser engravings and cut outs for the logo that was lit up blue , Way cool for bling !

The Tyler room was a bigger suite that had these HUGE speakers that looked like a cross between a Duntec or the big JM labs. They were good but lacked the WOW factor. There was not enough mid range and detail was fuzzy. But over all still a good sound.

The Manley Gershwin room was a bad experience as Ken stated. We tried to get a diferent perspective after haveing our ears pierced by Run DMC but it still lacked body and emotion !

Now the show stopper and one of the best sounds from a cone speaker I have heard in a LONG time. The SALK proto types. These were incredible to me, The sound stage was 40 feet wide and 30 feet deep. At one time there was a live recording of a woman's vocal on and I was convinced it was "LIVE" performance. The detail was as good as any cone I have heard, these are Wilson crushers. The build quality is as good as any wood manufactured speaker I have seen.

The room size probably led to the over all sound but I heard the CLX in a room this size and they would have to really work hard to best these that is a big state meant too as The CLX are my reference. I talked to Jim Salk for about 10 min and being that they are manufactured right here in MI only 1/2 hr from my house I will be doing a tour and future listening, . I have heard several Salk designs before and all were positive but this one hit a home run. I may be selling a organ soon !


Now for the lunch, lets just say anyone who didn't go missed the best view in the world for lunch. This was better than the food that was good by the way. Ken had to get a pic for all to see what we ate , I mean were served by ! ............LOL..........

 

[twich54]

waitstaff extremely compitent.

I'd say so Ken.......they can serve me a brew anytime !

thanks for the write up.

 

[twich54]

Cap had heard of these Michigan made speakers but they were unknown to me in spite of having lived just a few miles from the plant. Jim Salk is the sole author of these incredible speakers

They have their own 'subgroup' over @ audiocircle.com. I too have not heard them but continue read good things.

We are planning a trip to the Salk plant for further listening.

Sounds like a fun trip !

 

[twich54]

I have heard several Salk designs before and all were positive but this one hit a home run. I may be selling a organ soon !

Chris, does this mean the CLS's may be "going down the road" ???

yeah, as I said to Ken's thread, I've read some very good things, Itoo need to seek out and listen tothese puppies.

Now for the lunch, lets just say anyone who didn't go missed the best view in the world for lunch. This was better than the food that was good by the way. Ken had to get a pic for all to see what we ate , I mean were served by ! ............LOL..........

So lets see.....you listened to the Salk's after lunch...... man, I give you guys credit for being able to think anything audio !!!!

 

[Kenscollick]

Thanks Dave, definately seek out the Salk Speakers they were truly special.. It was a little difficult staying focused on Audio during lunch so I spent most of my time looking for their I Pods never did find them, But true to my quest I will never stop looking.

As Dorothy would say, there is no place like home coming back to my system was the treat of the day.

Nothing like a Logan

 

[twich54]

Thanks Dave, definately seek out the Salk Speakers they were truly special..

Ken / Chris, I'm not trying to hijack your thread but I thought I would interject a link from audiocircle relative the Salk showing @ AK Fest..........



http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/index.php?topic=67743.0

I too would be interested if any of our other members have any 'seat time' with these speakers ??? and what your thoughts are ??

 

[cstory]

I was also at AKfest, and while I don't yet have time to give all my impressions, I wanted to say that for the most part I agree with the observations that Ken and Chris had. I am thinking of building my own speakers and so I probably had a different focus for what I was looking or listening for.

I'll post more when I get a chance.

But I did listen a bit to the Salk Beasts, and was very impressed. The RAAL tweeter seems quite good (trying to justify using a pair of those in the home made speaker) and the planar midrange was also unique. The planar nature of the driver disperses the sound waves in a fashion from a cone speaker, so the sweet spot did seem exceptionally wide, but I could never get in the right spot to get a sense of front to back depth. The dynamics of the speaker were great and the bass from the 12" TC sounds woofer was tight and had great impact. Seems like a quite promising design.

Briefly listened to a pair of Song Towers, and they were nice, but didn't seem like anything special, which may not be necesarrily a bad thing.

Ken posted a stock photo of the Tyler speakers, here is my picture of them in room. You definitely aren't going to put these babies in a low ceiling finished basement.

 

[kach22i]

Cap had heard of these Michigan made speakers .............We are planning a trip to the Salk plant for further listening.

Include me, I'd like to go too.

Thanks for the write up, things were just too crazy for me to go to the show this year. My mind has been on other things to say the least.