For audiophiles residing in and around New York City, and forced to live through the tragic events of 9/11, this years 2002 Home Entertainment Expo event was as refreshing as a breath of fresh air and right on time. Ha, if you thought the events were horrible on CNN, you couldn't imagine being there. The motto 'time heals all wounds' seemed so apropos because there was something clearly different on the faces of those I saw here compared to the CES show back in January. In a word, everyone present appeared in greater spirits and glad to be together again…even among their competition.

I gotta admit though, nothing's cool as attending an audio show held right in your hometown! No more exhaustion from dragging heavy luggage to and from the airport (and at 6'3" tall there's nothing more uncomfortable than a five-hour plane ride). Greater news was the confirmed report that the show will be here again next year. If you didn't know, this year's HE Show marked the second straight year it was held in New York City. Hell, if the NY Yankees can win the World Series three times, then why not host three consecutive HE events? The 2001 Show drew so many show goers it slowed the elevators to an almost complete halt, making floor-to-floor travel most horrendous.

This forced the powers-that-be to view the demographics involved for room-to-room travel much closer making this year much easier to navigate through and around. With nary an exhibitor higher than the 7th floor, that helped reduced the elevator situation to a virtual non-hostile, no-complaint status. Bravo!

While show attendees were being wowed indoors, the annual "Children of the World Street Festival", held from 42nd Street to outside the hotel's main lobby, had plenty to offer. The sidewalks were teeming with vast varieties of food from a diverse group of people as I've seen. It was a full representation of NYC's vibrancy and cultural range outside of the Labor Day parade. Street venders, food aficionados, soda jerks and T-shirt peddlers of every nationality showed all the visiting audiophile luminaries why New York still is the greatest city in the world. Hey, with all this happening inside and out, and merely a stones throw away from home, makes this event easily the best show I've attended thus far (my previous best was the '95 Stereophile Show held right here in the Big Apple). What was going on inside...

The Boys from Bel Canto Design smile for the camera. From left to right: Del Helmer, Sales and Marketing Director; Michael McCormick, Director of International Sales and Marketing; Mathew Cramer, Technical and Sales Support Manager.

Okay, I thought the price of Meadowlark's newest Swift loudspeaker (next to the Blue Herons) was a typo. Retailing for $995 with this level of craftsmanship (sculpted wood sides and remarkable detail) made me flinch. I don't think I need to apologize, however, for the bass acuity this mighty-mite created, thanks in part to a digital front-end to die for from dCS. Don't know how they managed to get this level performance from a 5 " two-way with Vifa drivers. I'm told that Pat McGinty knows a thing or two about transmission line designs. You're only as good as the electronics you connect to. So kudos to Mark O'Brien's Rogue Audio line of electronics. The sound coming from the Magnum 120 monos and 99 pre was, shall I say, mouthwateringly good. By the way, all cabling was from JPS Labs. I've not heard an entry-level loudspeaker sound this good since hearing the amazingly affordable line from Audes strapped to the YBA integrated amplifier. Can't wait to get this little tyke in for review.

B.Y.O.L.P. (Bring Your Own Lunch Pale) since I wouldn't classify this a short line (no, not even in New York). New Yorkers came out in droves to see what was new (and hopefully improved) in home audio and video.

New York Audiophile Society members (from left to right) Arnie Balgavis, pose with Stereophile's famous Sam Tellig. The incomparable Bill "The Brass Ear" Brassington, Ross Wagner and Lou "Left Channel" Lanese are also caught in the action along with yours truly.

Eveanna Manley poses next to her Snapper mono blocks. Our own Jon Gale has a pair and will be reporting on them. Stay tuned.

The MBL room was the one and only room that needed no introduction. With looks (and a price) that appear extraterrestrial and a sound that coincides, this room's sound was exquisitely open and transparent. There's exists a special quality that never leaves me whenever I hear these amazing transducers.

David Chesky and Ken Kessler pose for the camera after listening to Chesky's latest offerings, the C2 loudspeakers. The C2 uses a 1" silk soft-dome tweeter and a 6" isobaric loaded woofer system and has a $4,000 sticker price. My first listening session brought mixed emotions. Under show conditions, which usually are never excellent, the sound was merely decent in this modestly small room with the Lamm 1.1 monos and Muse 24/96 CD player. Knowing that Talon's Tierry Budge built the C2's, I knew there was much more to their sound and was promptly rewarded on the second day when I returned to find David Chesky swapped amplifiers. The very good sounding Tenor mono amplifiers literally placed the C2's on their wings and took off to an entirely different level of musical performance.

Audio historian Lou Manno (centered) took time out with Ray Kimber of Kimber Kable to stop, chat and pause for a photo.

Naum Dorkham was a relief from all the expensive rooms that appear the rule rather the exception these days. The Audes MS-1 ($3,999), a 7-watt triode using EL34's gave the Blues ($2,000 pictured inside) a voice that sounded near unachievable when you consider the power used versus their rather modest sensitivity of 90dB. The Souls ($2000 pictured outside) didn't seem the least affected either by these sweet sounding triode monoblocks. The Talk Electronics CD Player ($1995), performed CD playback and, by the price/performance of this room, both Talk and Audes appear to have plenty going for it in the all-important areas we audiophiles crave…BARGAINS!

Alan Warsaw of Jason Scott Distributing proudly displayed his newest line of products from Morel. The Octwin 5.2 series loudspeaker ($10,000) is built around Morel's Octave series but uses two pair of Octaves inverted and placed atop each other. Based on Morel's EVC (External Voice-Coil) technology, both woofer and tweeter are equipped with a large diameter, aluminum hexatech voice coil, incorporating Morel's unique double magnet motor design. Using a first-order crossover design, the Octave's tweeter is outfitted with two neodymium magnets, while its woofer is created using a hybrid design using double neodymium and ferrite magnets. At $10,000 per set, the Octwin's sound expensive. But where are you going to find two pair of loudspeakers built to this standard for less? That said, using all Nordost cabling and Electrocompaniet amplification with Myriad electronics spinning the CD's, the sound was extremely natural, open and un-fatiguing.

Sharp Electronics really wowed show attendees with their latest LCD flat panel technology.

Peter McGrath got the show started early for some with the new Wilson Watt/Puppy 7 loudspeakers ($22,500) sounding better than I would have thought possible. I guess it didn't hurt that tube electronics were state of the art from VTL while CD playback was provided by the Audio Research CD3.

The trickle down effect was never more apparent than when seen through the Dynaudio's Confidence C4 loudspeaker ($16,000). The dramatic new Confidence loudspeakers incorporate innovative technologies first developed for the ear-popping Dynaudio Evidence models, while falling into a price category between the company's Contour Series and its Evidence Temptation. Through utilizing advanced technologies developed for the Evidence, the performance has been taken to the highest level available in this price range. All electronics were by Naim and the sound…in the Naim of love. What else did you expect?

In the MH1, you get dual 6.5" Scan-Speak drivers made in Denmark specifically for Tact with a 92 dB sensitivity. The 1" tweeter is a moving coil type that is said to be the best in its class. All drivers are mounted in an aluminum baffle that is machined from one aluminum alloy billet. This is said to allow for better internal ventilation around the woofer-midrange drivers and helps reduce resonance from the driver chassis.

Who's the dapper chap? It's none other than Philip O'Hanlon, unique distributor for Halcro electronics.

Roger Sanders, chief designer and residing prez of InnerSound, proudly shows off his newest prototype in tube amplification. Using KT88's this self-biasing, 150 Wpc amplifier is due out this Fall and is slated to sell for $6,999.

New York's Toys From the Attic is really growing into prominence from the look of all world-class electronics they showed. Using my favorite, the Electrocompaniet EMC1 24/192 player, as the master of ceremonies feeding a row of Convergent Audio Technology (CAT) mono amplifiers via copious lengths of Harmonic Technology cables. Sound filled every nook and cranny of this enormous room thanks in part to the granite sided EgglestonWorks Ivy loudspeaker. The VPI Aires with the JMW-10 arm handled all analog. In terms of color and sheer resolution, the video display offered by the Dream Vision Cinema 10 Pro ($12,999), proved outstanding. Toys owner Mario Campa handled the crowd and room setup like a pro even though I believe this was his first showing. This was easily one of the best sounds at the show for both home theater and two channel.

Best Sound-Two Channel

Jeff Smith of Silversmith Cables poses amid the Nearfield Acoustics jungle 7ft. tall Hemisphere Reference 18's. This room was using all of Jeff's cabling and the Andre Theriault No.4 turntable sounded soooo delicate and smooth through the midband of the Hemispheres.

It didn't hurt to partner these combo kings to the delicate 75 watt OTL amplifiers from Tenor Audio ($19,900) using Russian 6C33C-B triode output tubes paired with the musically immense Aesthetix Callisto MKII preamp ($9,000) and Io MKII phono stage ($9,000 w/volume controls $6,500 without). As far as I'm concerned, in the real two-channel world, I ultimately chose this room for Best Sound at Show. For me, show conditions aside, the sound was simply that extraordinary!

Best Sound Multi-Channel

Who would've thought that an 11 by 19 foot room could expand beyond what anyone would think physically possible? Albert Von Schweikert, Spectron designer John Ulrick and DSD recording master engineer Mike Pappas put on the best surround sound demonstration I've ever heard by doing just that!

This amazing accomplishment was achieved using a quintet of VR-5 HSE's ($6,000 each), a pair of VR S/3 subwoofers ($2,695 each), and a trio of Spectron all-digital (Class D) Musician II amplifiers. The silver interconnects were the outstanding Acoustic Zens and the speaker cables, while being quite impressive, were a new design from Von Schweikert himself that are due out by this Fall (no name or price as yet). All AC contaminants were kept out of the system by Paul Gardner Power Supplies. Mike Pappas' used the Meitner Switchman six-channel Direct Stream Digital mixer accompanied by its six-channel DAC. The source was a magneto optical hard drive from Genex ($26,000) that had Pappas latest recording of Count Basie's Big Band (due for release this winter). For regular two-channel Redbook playback, the legendary Linn CD12 along with the Hovland HP100 preamplifier were readied, willing and able.

I have to admit that the sound of this room was extraordinarily good. Each instrument was exacted onto the listening room's wall-within their own respective soundfield-and I mean huge! There was none of that "too big to be real" stuff or brass instruments coming out of the rear channels going on. Ambient cues were surrounding my seat forcing me to let go of all the preconceived notions I held about multi-channel audio being nothing more than a mere circus act. This was as real as I could have ever imagined and much more than I could have expected from a surround demo.

At first, I laughed to myself when I looked at of the size of the room and each loudspeaker's physical proximity to each other. Then came all the talk about the recording, you know location, type of hall, yada, yada, yada… Then Pappas hit the play button. The walls melted and I was transfixed by the sounds coming right out of the walls. Easily the best multi-channel sound I ever heard. One show attendee sitting right beside me shouted, "I see Count Basie!" Of course, I got up and bolted out of the room.

Lastly, enlightening, stimulating and thought provoking was The Future of Audio Technology seminar, hosted by Eggleston and Sony. Held on Friday May 31st in the Toys from the Attic suite, I was flattered to have served as group moderator to a packed audience. Guest panelists included Albert Von Schweikert of Von Schweikert Audio, recording guru Mike Pappas of American Digital Recordings, and John Ulrick, president and designer of Spectron Audio as well as Steve Rochlin of Enjoy the Music.com. The discussion of surround sound was the main course and after listening to DSD surround through their system there was little arguing, from me or anyone else in the room, as to DSD surround's fate. The discussions ranged from Von Schweikert's goal of multi-speaker optimization to Ulrick's multi-power amplification, to Pappas' quest for a no holds barred, no apology state-of-art DSD recordings. All in all, I was very glad to have been a part of the seminar. I can bet, based on the sound I heard from DSD surround, there will be plenty more discussions in both the public and private.