NYAV12 Round-up: Haniwa, Music First, Bricasti, GT Audio, Legacy, Lavry, D’Agostino

Every show leaves me with a handful of rooms that either didn’t work, didn’t work for me, weren’t actually functional, weren’t demoing music, or defied any easy classification. Nonetheless, I have pics of them worth sharing. Here’s that collection, offered here with a few parting comments.

Haniwa, showing off their speakers and their do-it-all integrated/DAC/crossover box.

Music First Audio showed off a nifty little preamp.

Antique playback was the theme in the Music First room. Nice deck.

I haven’s spent a lot of time with Harbeth, unfortunately, and this show was no exception.

Brian Zollner of Bricasti Design could not get a break. The gear he had to work with, well, didn’t. He was in the middle of his demo of the various filters on his DAC, and how they would interact with the music when his amp gave out. Ka-PUT.

Sounded great for a minute there. Whoops.

Anyway, I got all these great pics, so I thought I’d share them anyway. Enjoy.

GT Audio Works had some very nice $2,750 speakers on offer. Big sound, big speakers, relatively low price tag. Hopefully we’ll see more of them in the future. Bryston electronics rounded out the system.

Legacy had a big room and lots of gear, but nothing was ever playing in here.

AVM with Legacy.

Ayon Audio makes some damn fine-looking tube gear.

Legacy Whisper. When I was on the hunt for a full-range speaker, I was recommended this guy more than any other.

Raysonic tubed gear.

Lavry Engineering, showing off their DAC line with some speakers from Adam, had an interesting challenge with their setup. Room acoustics were rather bad, so they had to stuff pillows into window sills. Clever gents.

Steve Rochlin wearing a tux. Not sure why, but apparently, he does some kind of costume for every show he attends.

Stereophile’s Ariel Bitran, the bane of “audiophile music”, and as far as I know, the only guy ever to actually request ABBA be played at a trade show. For some reason, I found him into a dozen or more rooms. I suspect he was following me. Hmmm.

VPI and VAS had a model at the door. Never got her story, but she was very nice.

Dan D’Agostino chatting with Stereophile’s Michael Fremer. One of Dan’s new Momentum amps, here in a black and copper finish, sat nearby. Love that look.

Check out the jewel-like “movement” on the face of this amp. Like fine clockwork. This is a designer who knows the meaning of the word “bespoke”. Gorgeous work.