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Gary Gill has produced one of my favorite audio shows yet again in a beautiful section of Rockville, Maryland. And by beautiful, I mean they have a really cool Porsche dealership within short walking distance. I think what makes the show so exciting is that it draws in a lot of big and small name systems, yet has the feel of a smaller regional show. Rockville has excellent restaurants and that creates a nice atmosphere for industry dinners. However, what I really like is that every year I have been here, I have discovered cool new products and technology.
I would like to start off by showcasing the best rooms and then highlight some cool new products which really stood out to me. Let’s just cut to the chase, shall we?
Best Sounding Rooms
Bending Wave, Best of Show
I struggle to write this as I am almost out of superlatives for the big, lifelike sound that this room provided my ears. And how often have we seen expensive systems advertised at shows that fall flat in sound in the demo? Probably 90% of the time in my experience.
Elliot Goldman brought his big guns for the show including the Goebel Divin Noblisse ($269K per pair) with matching humongous 18″ subwoofers ($39,900 each) and these were driven by EMM Labs MTRX V2 monoblocks ($115K per pair). This genuinely spectacular sound quality was probably the best sound I have heard at dozens of trade shows since I started going to the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in the mid 2000s. I visited the room three times and was wowed by three different sources.
Showman Danny Kaey was running his Arian Jansen modified ReVox PR99 tape deck (latest models at $30K) playing Arian’s Sonic Holography tapes. Danny, wearing a three-piece suit and looking like a cross between Billy Idol and Guy Fieri, was serving up banger tracks in an often eclectic but satisfying mix. New stuff, not tired audiophile war horses I have heard twenty times at every show.
Holy cow! A very spacious and real sound. On digital was The EMM Labs DA2i but the secret weapons were the TXi transport at $35K and the Pink Faun Ultra 2.16 at $46K. Elliott played a blues track, Savoy Brown with Kim Simmons, Blues at Midnight. The guitar licks were conveyed with reference sound quality. Records were equally impressive with a Clearaudio Reference Jubilee turntable ($60K) and a DS Audio Grand Master Extreme optical cartridge ($25K) into the EMM DS-1 EQ V2 cartridge equalizer ($12,500). This was the best sound I have heard with an optical cartridge so far. Amadeus says his father Ed really got into the design as an intellectual exercise and did many revisions until he was happy. Cables were the new Neo Ag from Kimber Kable ($14,700 for interconnects and $30,760 for 2.5-meter speaker cables). Beautiful construction and open sounding.
Now, some of you may be thinking that 18″ subwoofers will certainly pressurize a large ball room and you would be right. But what sent my heart and brain over the moon was the top to bottom coherency this system exhibited. Everything was 100% dialed in. Credit to Elliot Goldman and team for all the hard work on a seemingly perfect setup. I heard jazz, classical, blues and rock. It all sounded superb. I have been a fan of Goebel for many years going back to an interview I did with Oliver Goebel at the 2019 Munich Hi End show. These are very special loudspeakers. The subs are otherworldly. The EMM Labs electronics had real weight and handled dynamic passages with ease. The soundstage was both deep and wide. Midrange was musically involving and present. Bass was Marianas Trench deep but had texture and coherency. Highs were spacious and airy, never brittle. The synergy with Goebel was perfectly aligned. There was an ease to the presentation, but it wasn’t polite. The huge amps had balls. Dynamic swings were presented instantly.
If I were Elliot, I would keep the same room and system and come back for an encore in 2026. A truly Best of Trade Shows -system. That may sound over the top, but it’s a truthful testament to the design chops of Oliver Goebel, Ed Meitner, and Arian Jansen, and the setup skills of Elliot Goldman.
Simply outstanding!
