Tír Na HiFi

http://www.analogplanet.com/content/los ... qUrXgqy.97

The Audio Salon is my local dealer, just got the invite, hopefully can make it, will report if I do

Just the ticket for a Friday evening Jimmy. Would be great to hear how you get on if you make it.

Careful now listening to those Alexia's... Your Sasha II's must barely even be broken in!

LOL. Believe it or not but I read about a guy on one of the forums who upgraded from Sashas to Alexias in the space of a few months. I could be wrong but he might have gone from Sophia -> Sasha -> Alexia in under 2 years, maybe less. Crazy and way outside my budget.

I did get to go. A good night, small crowd. Though in my mid to late 40’s I felt like a youngster, no quite true but certainly by far the youngest there. I had only heard the Alexias for short periods at shows so it was nice to hear them for a few hours straight. The are definitely a little better than the Sasha IIs, more bass for sure but not orders of magnitude better overall (whew ...)
Got to meet Harold Bronson from Rhino Records. Michael Fremer had some interesting material though a lot of the various pressing etc. was lost on me. One thing that blew me away (and everyone else) was a very wide dynamic range recording of Led Zepplin 2 from Bob Ludwig. The difference between it and the standard recording was night and day.
Some strange material played but others that stood out were a Duke Ellington 1950-ish somewhat recently discovered recording that was supposed to be one of the first long play vinyl, a back to back with Elvis Costello original vs. remaster, and a Louis Armstrong (Satchmo Plays King Oliver) St. James Infirmary track and something from Carolina Chocolate Drops that I liked.
Music was played on Analog Technologies tone arm mounted on a Brinkmann Balance turntable which sat on an impressive vinyl isolation platform from Minus K Technology. You could actually fine tune it for the weight of the record. Out of curiosity I put my iPhone accelerator on the base table and the platform and the thing really works. All the electronics including amps were fed through a StromTank 5000 independent power source (a $30k power conditioner). Crazy what people can charge for audiophile versions of regenerative UPS. Granted most of the pure sine wave UPS can only produce ½ the StromTank wattage but they (only) cost $2K or so which I am still not a believer in.

Very serious kit indeed. And seriously crazy money for that power conditioner!

Good to hear that Alexia experience, whilst positive, has still left you a fan of your Sasha II choice.

Thanks Steve.

I did avoid the sweet spot seat all evening though, just in case.

Always wise!