Lone Star Audio Fest 2011

I just returned from the Lone Star Audio Fest 2011 and had a great time. This is definitely one of the smaller audio trade shows out there, with the show only taking up a handful of rooms on the second and third floors of the Embassy Suites Dallas-Park Central. I enjoyed the spirit of the show with its emphasis on DIY and small local Texas audio manufacturers, but I still managed to hear a lot of good sound. In a couple of instances I heard truly great sound from a couple of noteworthy brands such as YG Acoustics, Audio Note and Polk.

Unlike most of the bigger audio shows, however, there wasn't a lot of turntables. (There also weren't a lot of equipment stands, with many exhibitors placing their products either directly on the floor or on the furniture supplied by the hotel!)

I did get a chance to spend a lot of time with this gorgeous Garrard 301 with a custom plinth. The tonearm is the Talea from Durand Tonearm; Joel-Francis Durand is a French composer who currently lives in Seattle. His tonearm spots a wand made from Bolivian Rosewood. He chose this wood after experimenting with a variety of woods and found this choice to be spot-on musically. The cartridge was an older Ortofon that still had a few miles left on it.

The amps were made by Scott Sheaffer of Found Music (www.found-music.com) who was running the room. These amps only provide about a watt per channel, and Scott was brave enough to pair them with Von Schweikert speakers that only had average effeciency. The result was a sound that excelled at low volumes, but need a little more juice to really impress.

Scott's point was that you didn't necessarily need super-sensitive speakers to get great sound from "flea-powered" amplification, and from my own experience with SETs I know that you can still get great results as long as you listen to more intimate music at lower volumes in a relatively small room. But I'd love to hear these amps with something like a Zu Druid or a classic Klipsch.

Still, I think Found Music is onto something here!

Shindo Garrard 301

I just received an email from Brian Walker, a fellow audiophile and longtime Vinyl Anachronist reader. He asked me, "Marc, if you could own any turntable in the world right now, what would it be?"

Well, Brian, it would probably be this Garrard 301 from Shindo Laboratories, a Japanese manufacturer who specializes in very high-end tubed amplification (not to mention loudspeakers based upon the legendary Altec Lansing 608 and 609 drivers). This extensively modded Garrard isn't cheap (it's about $19,000, depending upon exchange rates, but it does include an Ortofon-based SPU arm and cartridge), but you did say "any" turntable!

I've heard this 'table just once, but it made a huge impression. First of all, it's absolutely breathtaking. Second, it offers sound quality that equals if not surpasses state-of-the-art modern designs!