The 2019 StereoNet Melbourne hi fi show was, again, well organised and well attended...and the set-up of our room was just as challenging as every other time!
In any room, let alone a small hotel room, it is always a challenge to achieve the quality of sound that we know our chosen 'system' is capable of...
In the following order, the typical limiting factors, are:
A. The sonic 'signature' of the room
B. The options available for positioning the speakers
C. The options available for the listening position/s
D. The options available for positioning the electronics
C. The options available for the listening position/s
D. The options available for positioning the electronics
However, after wrestling with the above in our room for a good 4 hours on Thursday, and another 4 hours on Friday morning, I was finally happy with the results...this was with just with 2 minutes remaining to the 12 noon Show opening time...
We had achieved all the attributes of a well set-up pair of Magnepan 1.7i's are capable of:
A tonally dense sound with excellent detail, dynamics and extension, especially in the low frequencies...imaging from the 'sweet spot' was excellent too.
The new braced stands for the Maggies proved to be very worthwhile.
I was very happy with the smooth response throughout the rooms seating, actually the system sounded good in the entry and hallway too...only the rear wall with its typical 'boundary effect' of bass boost, was not where I wanted attendees to judge the musicality of our system, however, as is always the case, when the room was full there were always a few people in this position...
The very positive response from attendees confirmed the results to be worth the effort...
Saturday morning I decided to make a 5:30am start and swap the left/right position of the speakers, and therefore their tweeters, from inside to outside...
The goal was to broaden the soundstage for the seats that were off centre, without compromising the already good tonal balance...I was a bit concerned that this might mean having to re-position the position of the speakers in relation to the front and side walls, however I need not have worried, as they just needed to be slightly toed out to lock the soundstage back in.
Mercifully, by 8am I was finished, so we were able to have time for breakfast before the Saturday kick off time...
This was a long day again, basically a hi-fi show means sitting in a chair and playing music, standing to make presentations re the equipment and mentioning the music being played...lunch is dispensed with between tracks and we managed a 6:30pm finish.
This was a long day again, basically a hi-fi show means sitting in a chair and playing music, standing to make presentations re the equipment and mentioning the music being played...lunch is dispensed with between tracks and we managed a 6:30pm finish.
Sunday is a shorter day but ends with pulling down and re-packing the system for transport back to the Central Coast on the following morning, so we didn't finish till 7.30pm...
Again, there was very good attendance all day, and terrific feedback re the sound quality of the Magnepan 1.7i's, NuPrime Evolution One Mono block amplifiers and the new Evolution DAC/Pre-amp.
From that point it takes another week to fully recover and finally re-settle the system back into our East Gosford showroom...
And it takes another year to find and collate the musical selection for our presentations...I must admit to being obsessive about this aspect of the Show!
A big thank you goes to the StereoNET organisers, enthusiastic, and encouraging attendees, and, especially my wife Margaret, whom without, I would not survive this mammoth undertaking...
We will be at the Sydney HiFi 2020 Show next April*, we have a much larger room and will be displaying the new Magnepan flagship 30.7 reference speakers, so, until then I will just have to keep listening and collating -:)