The opening day (Friday) of the New York Audio Show 2019 looked to be a tough travel day with snow and unseasonably cold temperatures in the forecast. Thankfully, the snow never materialized, and my fellow Connecticut Audio Society buddies and I arrived in fine fettle.
With only twenty-four rooms to cover, we languished longer than normal in many rooms and I found myself still having missed a few rooms at the end of the day. However, being a team of one from Part-Time Audiophile, I never intended to report on each and every room.
Just to the right of the registration desk, ESD Acoustics was again showing their all-out horn system supported by stacks of individual preamplifier/crossovers and amplifiers for each driver. At $800,000 for the system, it would be safe to assume that they are marketing this system to the one-percenters out there. New York can certainly supply them! They were playing a reel to reel “mix” tape including Sly and the Family Stone, and War (Cisco Kid), when I entered the room. While the sound was lively and well-balanced, you would still be well advised to have a subwoofer for the full impact of rock music’s bass lines. I’m sure that’s the least of anyone’s concerns if they have the dough for this system. Thanks to ESD for giving us the privilege of hearing it!
–Steve Marsh
A whole article supposedly dedicated to one room and all we got were just “lovely and balanced” & “needs a sub”?