The New York Audio Show 2014 (NYAS2014) was held from Friday 2014-09-26 to Sunday 2014-09-28 in Brooklyn, New York at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge.
The show was held on two floors of the hotel and provided equipment demonstrations, topical seminars and a couple booths selling vinyl and CDs.
A feature of the show was the dominance of high resolution digital sources and vinyl in the demonstration systems.
Serious Music's show report provides pictures and comment on some of the notable products on show.
HeadAmp
HeadAmp founder, Justin Wilson, was demoing his headphone amps and a range of headphones.
The Stax SR-009 electrostatic headphones driven by the HeadAmp Blue Hawaii SE amplifier produced exquisite sound, musical and detailed throughout the full frequency range. This is the best headphone sound I have heard. The Stax SR-007 was also excellent, with a little less detail for a very slightly more relaxed presentation.
Also on demo were such excellent headphones as the Sennheiser HD800, the Audeze LCD-3 and LCD-2, and the HiFiMAN HE-6. The new Astell&Kern AK240 high resolution portable audio player was also on show making great music.
KEF
The KEF booth featured demonstrations of its new Reference and Blade 2 speakers, driven by Wadia and Parasound electronics.
The Reference 5 is an outstanding speaker. It impressed with its extremely deep, powerful, very well controlled bass, palpable midrange and crystal clear treble. The soundstage was wide and deep and the speakers provided excellent imaging. This was one of the best sounding systems at the show.
Also on there, but only on static display was the sexy, sliver-clad Muon, a masterpiece of design.