We have a meeting of the Sierra Audiophile Society coming up on February 11, 2012 at our store, Audio Experience, 1120 Douglas Blvd, Suite B, Roseville, CA.  The topic of the meeting will be a surprize.  We also have some new arrivals to listen to: Cary Audio SA 500.1 monoblocks, the F2 Brodmann speakers, Bryston BDP-1 and BDA-1, and Chapman Audio T 8 speakers.  See you there!!

We have decided to set up consignment guidelines for all new equipment coming into the store.  Starting on February 1, we will no longer accept equipment that will sell for under $500.  For the $500 to $1000 retail (as determined by Audiogon Bluebook) our commission rate is 30%.  For $1000 retail on up the rate is 25%.  We include free listing on our website, and can list on Audiogon.  Please give us a call for more information.

We have recently become Brodmann Acoustics dealers and now have their Festival F1 and F2 speakers.  They are in the back room in the main system on our new Cary Audio SA 500.1 monoblocks.  The Cary’s are the much acclaimed 500W/ch monoblocks. Dagogo reviewed the VC7 by Bosendorfer http://www.dagogo.com/View-Article.asp?hArticle=356, and this is the latest incarnation of these speakers under the Brodmann line.  Speakers built by piano makers?  Makes sense.  This line has been somewhat redesigned, cleaning up some of the previous deficiencies of the Bosendorfer’s.  In short, they have become our favorites-dynamic, musical, and pretty efficient.  Prices are reasonable, considering the slam and punch these guys have, and WIFE FRIENDLY.   For more information go to: http://www.brodmannacoustics.com/index.php?id=114

Another CES is behind us, and I saw and heard a bunch while I was there for 4 days.  I mostly focused on THE Show and the Venetian where the high end was located.
Venetian:  Acoustic Zen has a room with Triode, and as usual it was very good, but in all honesty not quite as good as I have heard in the past.  Triode had their 845 based amps there, but I really like their KT88 based amps better.  The interesting part in the room was the Nittobo Acoustic Engineering diffusers.  See: http://www.noe.co.jp/en/ for their Acoustic Groove system.  Music Hall had their normal good sounding room with the Epos Elan speaker, and a new table they are importing by EAT-the Forte- see: http://www.euroaudioteam.com/en/eat-forte-turntable-000007.html.  Great sounding, and a step up from the MMF 11, although a big jump in price.  Mike Creek was there although I may have dropped a few points in his eyes due to my comment about Creek ( just don’t get much call for it?-didn’t know I was looking at the back of his head).   Cary Audio was there with there new music server, and other gear.  Their choice of amps included the SA 500.1 monoblocks with the SLP 05 preamp, 306 Pro CD Player, and TAD speakers.  I fell in love with the SA 500.1′s and brought them home.  See: http://www.caryaudio.com/products/classic.html.
THE Show:  Exemplar Audio/ Stillpoints room was one of the best rooms at either show.  The speakers were single driver Feastrex powered by Exemplar’s 300B Single Ended amps, Preamp, and modified Oppo 95 as a source.  All was on a Stillpoints rack, with the Stillpoints Ultimate feet.  Room treatment was by Zilplex.  See:  http://www.stillpoints.us/Stillponts/Products.html for the Stillpoints, http://www.exemplaraudio.com/Home.html for Exemplar, http://www.feastrex.com/products.html#3 for the Feastrex.  http://zilplex.com/index.html are the room treatments that were highly effective-they got out of the way of the music, yet were superb at reducing room resonances.   Chapman Audio was there with the new version of the T8, and an all Cary sound system.  Great speakers, in fact Stuart will be dropping by a pair of T8′s at the shop later next week.  Then there was Brodmann.  Equal to the best sound I heard in any room at either show, out of speakers costing a fraction of most companies.  I have heard these at several shows, and finally jumped on them.  We now have the Festival 2′s in our showroom, and the Festival 1′s are available for demo.  Almost bought the Vienna VC2, but didn’t know if our customers were ready for a $20,900 speaker.  See: http://www.brodmannacoustics.com/index.php?id=16 for the Festival speakers.
That covers the highlights of CES for me with one exception.  I have my eye on an Italian company called Master Sound s.a.s. and on Resolution Audio.  Both excellent, and worth consideration.  See:http://www.mastersoundsas.it/master%201_1_ing/integrati.htm for Master Sound and http://www.resolutionaudio.com/ for Resolution Audio.

Our meeting this month will be at Dave Sykes house in Foresthill. It will start at 1:00 PM and go to roughly 230 PM.  The Review Committee will have a meeting right after the main meeting, and there will be demo of the First Watt SIT2 amp in Dave’s system.
Directions: I-80 to Foresthill Exit,  take the road to get on Foresthill Rd., follow Foresthill Rd. 15 miles, turn Right on Todd Valley Rd., go 1 mile, turn Right on Green Ridge Rd., go about 1 mile, turn Right on Birchwood Dr., go 1 mile, and Dave’s is the second to last house at the end on the right (20617 Birchwood).  Walk past the main house to the little house in the back.
Hope to see you there.

We have some great equipment coming in over the next few weeks.  Cary is shipping us the famous CAD 300 SEI for our showroom, due to arrive next week.  JoLida is shipping the newly modified FX-10 and should be here in 2 weeks.  This FX 10 has the ESA clarity caps, Hexfred diodes, carbon resistors, and Gold Pin Tungsol 12AX7′s and also the new Alps volume control.  Michael Fremer and I will be the first to get them.  We have the MIT Matrix 60′s breaking in on the front system along with a new set of LSA 1 Statement monitors.  Also the Cary SLI80 is breaking in nicely and is featured in the front room.  We have gotten in some Musical Fidelity gear, a new Electrocompaniet EC5, some Sumo gear, Marsh HD 500DS amp, and a Nothingham Spacedeck Turntable.  Next 2 weeks will see more consignment gear including Acoustat ES 1+1 and Acoustic Research Integrated.
Come see us!!