By Richard H. Mak
Situated next door to Mark Jone’s room the Nordost team leaded by Michael Talyor, VP of North American Sales, was busy doing A/B comparisons between different cables. The demo comparison generally followed this format:
- Play a song for 45 seconds with cable A
- Replace cable A with cable B
- Play the same track
- Decide whether Cable B Sounds better.
Usually, it is established that cable B sounds better, and he will move onto another demo:
- Play a different song for 45 seconds with cable B
- Replace cable B with cable C
- Play the same track
- Decide whether Cable C Sounds better.
Whether you can hear a difference or agree with the format or not, I give full credit to Michael Taylor for his diligence because he pretty much stood for 3 days conducting the same demo 50 times a day! As with anything high end cables related, you see people arguing into the lobby long after the come out of the demo room.
What aroused my interest more than the cable demonstration, were the Tannoy GRF 90 Limited Edition loudspeakers (CAD $ 25,000) where only 90 pairs will be made worldwide. The GRF 90s occupy a smaller foot print compared to the Tannoy Churchills which I have always loved and wanted but maintained the same classic looks of the British speaker manufacturer and sounded very similar too , if only I could hear them in a proper setting rather than the 45 second demo clips. Looks to me I’ll have to call up Mark Jones for a proper demo session. They were on loan by Audio by Mark Jones next door.
