AVMAX EXPO 2007 CHENNAI

Hey, thats great news.

I am sure it will be a great Show.

Halcro - Home Turf; There are lots of goodies from The Audio People;
MF + Thiel + Halcro + Monitor Audio etc.

All the Best to all participants

All Chennai Forum Members, please do visit & write a report with pictures.

Thanks.

Guys, this show also promises Sound Proof rooms.

Would REALLY Appreciate a pic from a visitor.

Thanks

Amp_Nut schrieb:

Guys, this show also promises Sound Proof rooms. Would REALLY Appreciate a pic from a visitor. Thanks

Sure thing!!

Hi poochandy,

A few pics of the 'Sound Proof' rooms PLEASE ?

How was the Show ?

Halcro ?

Was Audio People there in full force ?

A report would be appreciated.

Thanks,

LETTER FROM CHENNAI

Hi guys,

In the absence of a SINGLE post on the recently concluded AV Show in Chennai (not to mention the promised pics)

I am reproducing below a letter I received from a VERY knowledgable audiophile ( Not a member of this forum) & DIYer who has toyed with the idea of going professional ......

Since I have not taken his permission, I will not mention his name :

I went for the AVMAX EXPO here in Chennai. Lots of static displays. I've got fed up 'looking' at idle equipment . They are generally well finished so a close inspection is of no special interest ( anymore ). What was interesting is that most 'high-end' equipment seemed to depend on 'appearance' for attracting customer interest . Halcro appeared to be a part of an aeroplane aerofoil from a distance. Pathos had ( in my opinion ) a really silly extrusion with their name . How much sillier can they get ! They were otherwise highly polished and shiny ( the wood and knobs). Speakers costing over a lakh was common. Wish I could sell speakers at that kind of price ! Dominant interest appears to be home theater . Buyers were mostly around those stands. So Yamaha, Onkyo etc were generating lot of interest. However it was a pathetic show and I wouldn't have missed anything if I did not go there. Good high-end NEEDS individual demo's and attention . No point being there ( AV Expo ) except to possibly spread some awareness of the products. I saw and heard Anthony Gallo ( again !) and it sounded awful in a large hall driven by a Vincent tube power amp and CD player. There was a Chinese tube amp ( The Tube Amp Company ) on display. Not well finished at all - just OK . 1.2Lakhs for 120 watts (?) per channel with 4xEL34's in each channel. To me it looked too small for a 120 watt per channel tube amp. The trafo's alone would be killers ! I heard some Mission 3x series. My 7 year old Mission 701's are far better ! Lots of new stuff is sub standard from performance point of view. Is it the China connection or that new designs are not evaluated and tweaked before manufacture like they used to do ? I guess design to marketing time has to be cut short according to the 'new found' college trained 'management guru's'. Speed to market ! They are also using up precious raw material that will get trashed very soon ! A pity.

Hi AMP Nut

I have to agree with your friend,on his comments on the AV Max show.

However there was one company based in Coimbatore(TN)called Sharat Solutions Unlimited who make amps and loudspeakers,which caught my attention.The company has been making transformers and hospital grade power supplies for nearly 20 years.The people behind this company Dr. Chandrashekaran and his son Sharath are true audiophiles and very qualified.

They make products under the brand name AUDIRE.

The amps are single ended fully balanced class A designs of Nelson Pass (ZEN).The finish is by far the best of any Indian product I have seen,and high quality components are used including silver wire.They are soon to be appointed as dealers for Pass Labs in India.

Their loudspeakers which use Fostex full range drivers in various backloaded horns and transmission line designs,are very good.The fit and finish is truly international high end class.

For me the combination of their Ten watt copy of the Pass zen amp and the Fostex F200A(Alnico)in a back loaded horn was by far the best sound of the show.Despite the crappy show conditions the sound was truly excellent. For sheer musicality it blew away the Pathos, Monitor Audio combo that Audio People were demoing under similar conditions.

You can contact them via e.mail sharath.d.chandran@gmail.com

I have no connection with this company and am not promoting their products.

Regards
Rajiv

Rajiv schrieb:

However there was one company based in Coimbatore(TN)called Sharat Solutions Unlimited who make amps and loudspeakers,which caught my attention.The company has been making transformers and hospital grade power supplies for nearly 20 years.The people behind this company Dr. Chandrashekaran and his son Sharath are true audiophiles and very qualified. They make products under the brand name AUDIRE.

Hello Rajiv !

Thanks for that info;

Does AUDIRE have a web site ?

Product details to see ? Study ?

I am sure they do not have any representation in Mumbai.

Hi Rajiv,

Thanks for a VEY informative post.

To me AUDIRE seems to be a 'Must Visit' on my next trip to Coimbatore.

Yes, do they have a website ?

Ani, have you seen & heard these products ?

hi guys,

First of all sorry for not posting this earlier. i took the camera but the security spotted it and told i needed to have permission to shoot.tried talking to people there but no avail.However my friend took some photos on his mobile which are not very clear but i'll post the links as soon as possible.Please note that im a total newbie and have not heard of any other brand apart from sony,bose ,onkyo,yamaha and the like let alone hearing or seeing any of them in reality.It was only a month ago that i stumbled upon the various brand names and terminologies while i was doing some reasearh online on what speakers to buy.until then, i was under the impression that bose were the best makers of sound systems in the world.It was disproved quite badly here.


I reached the hall around 2:30 in the afternoon.got the tickets and went inside.I entered the hall and the first stall was set up by philips.They had their LCD TVs on display.All of them were playing High definition video and one can say this is definitely THE future.

Coming to audio,The first stall was set up by Grand cinema, which is relatively a new shop in chennai dealing with audio systems.They are the official distributors of wharfedale here.They had a number of wharfedale speakers,A HT system,they also had marantz amps.i saw the diamonds and also a couple of floorstanders on which i was interested.Now i had carried a CD of "warriors of heaven and earth" by AR Rahman.I asked them if i could play them for which they replied in the negative and told i could walk into their showroom and have a listen if i wanted.This was quite dissapointing because because i was hoping to gain some exposure by attending this exhibition.

Next was the stall from logitech.It was quite boring stuff.Again no demo.They also had the squeezebox on display.

Next was the display by the audio people.Bhagwan sir,"full force" was the word.These guys know how to catch the people's attention.They had occupied the whole of the stage.They had a number of colorful speakers on display.They looked like they could fit more comfortably into kids' room and they were priced at more than a lakh.then they had a supercharger again priced at around a lakh.The names slip my mind.The audio people than had a LOT of monitor audio speakers on displaythey were stacked neatly one next to another.They looked great but i don't what use is displaying speakers if one cannot listen to them.It was getting frustrating at this point as i could only stand and gape at them.The demo person noticed the CD in my hand and asked if he could help me.I told i wanted to listen to the speakers.He obliged and played a CD,not mine.He played it on a pathos CD player.it was the first time i was seeing the brand it was connected to a pathos amplifier(there were two a preamp and a power amp i guess) which was connected to a pair of monitor audio floorstanders.The sound was TOTALLY AMAZING!!!..it was the first time i was experiencing something so clear.The track started with some drum beats and i could feel hear each beat so clearly it then moved on to some strings and again it was SO clear.I had heard nothing like it before in my life.I simply stood there listening to it and then moved on where they had displayed a pioneer LCD TV.Did not know pioneer manufactured TVs.

bhagwanji,The audio people had the halcros.But they were only on display and one could make out they were the stars as the speakers and the amp together were placed in the center of the stage and had chains around them with boards saying "do not touch"

Then i moved to the PRO FX stall.They also had a big display.Mostly polk audio and they also had focal.Unfortunately again they did not play any of the speakers.But i could have simlpy stood there and watched all of teh speakers.All of them were around the price point of 1-2 lakhs.They had a polk audio HT system along with the receiver priced at 39K which the preson told me had arrived only that morning.The PRO FX stall was just like a showroom.tThey however told i could listen o their speakers at the demo room.Now I was really looking forward to listening to some proper hi end audio!

The samsungstall was next.They had this HUGE 70inch LCD TV.It was priced at 24 lakhs.But the TV was playing a DVD of ice age and at that resolution it looked horribly pixelated and distorted.Honestly they could have made a better impression if they had simply had it on display without playing any vdeo on it.

I then proceeded to the stall by 5.1 park which had mostly onkyo amps.It was getting boring at this point.again nothing to listen to.Then there was the stall by altec lansing.again nothing to write home about.

Next was BOSE,I was looking forward to listening to them and comparing them now with the monitor audio speakers which i had just heard.I had listened to BOse at their showrooom in ispahani center and it was really great then but then i had heard nothing like the monitor audio.The bose stall had a ipod docking station on display.It was a very small stall and the sound was bad.Like i could not make out what was playing.Like the stall was crowded but still they did not impress.

Next was JAMO.They had setup their stall stylishly and again the stall was unattended and i couldnt listen to them.That was all in the main hall

Then i moved upstairs and the company called torvin had their systems non display.They were dealing with mostly yamaha.theirs was the biggest display i guess.They played none of the yamahas but one of their own braand(torvin) of speakers playing.HORRIBLE.They were playing it louly and it was resonating around the hall.really irritating to the ears.They also had their tube amp.again bad build quality and were priced at 120K.then they had the M-audio sound cards which i obviously could only see and they also dealwith BUTTKICKERs though they did not have any on display, they distributed a pamphlet.And there was also thiscompany called keen kitts which sold speaker parts and kits but mostly low end unlike corrson.

I see this has already been discussed,anyway-->

then i moved downstairs to the basement where a company called audire technologies had their speakers on display.THey were manufacturing floorstanding speakers with single fullrange drivers.On enquiry the person told me they imported the drivers from china and manufactured the speakers in their factory and the amps were tailor made to suit the speakers.They had 2 demo rooms and had four speakers playing.Now, the speakers did not look good.They were large and driver was small and it was white which looked strange to me.The demo person was nice and asked me which pair of speakers i wanted to listen to-I told both and he first plugged in the bigger of the two he had me seated in a sofa and played a track form the eagles.It was MINDBLOWING.i could not decide which was better now, the monitor audio or this but that was because both played different tracks.It aounded great especially because they came from a single driver.Then they played the smaller speakers and iwas also great.The bass seemed a luittle muffled comparred to the biggee one but then it was GREAt.I enquiered the price and was told that the system costed 38k for the smaller ones and 76k for the bigger ones.Both were floorstanders.Really great-they beat the other speakers priced at 1 lakh hands down.

Then i proceeded to the much hyped sound proof rooms(demo zone, it was called) only to be greatly dissapointed.The rooms were crowded.totally defeated the purpose.in some cases we had people standing in front of the rear speakers.They were makeshift.

Only bose had a dedicated salesman to market their product who explained about the speakers in detail.He playde air force one.But again it was quite unimpressive.They were charging 1.1 lakhs for speaker that are a little more than the size of sattelite speakers(stereo).but a good presentation by the guy.

The pro FX presentation sucked.He had the polk audio speakers.two floorstanders for fronts,a center channel,2 bipole(or dipole??) speakers for rears and a subwoofer and an amp.he played a trailer of the movie hidalgo and a clip from another wild west movie.The DVD got stuck very badly in between and he then stopped and selected another scene which had the sound of a gun shot and stopped the presentation and opened the sdoor without explaining or saying a word about the speakers.Expected more from a big company like pro FX.and the person did not look like a salesman.Must have been sombbody important must hv been the owner.

the altec lansing stall was again irritating they had all the speakers running and worst of all had their door open.

It was the first day so the audio people demo room was not ready and i could'nt wait so i returned back home.guess i've covered everything.

On the whole i thought it was really great for a newbie like me who hsant seen any realy high end audio and it was in many ways inspiring.But it was bad that very few of the stalls had their speakers playing and the "DEMO ZONE" sucked big time. But the monitor audio and the audire speakers definitely had me wanting for more.It was a great experience.

I really did not have any time to check for typos or grammar please put up with this.Hope it was not boring.

Their visiting cards points to their web address as:www.audire.in but it doesnt seem to work.(forbidden).The email has already been gievn by rajiv above.

I was there for about 10 minutes. Went to the Audio people booth...the most noticable was the Halcro monoblocks and Accapella speakers. Could not even touch it...as they had chains around it. (they were on static display...no demo )

Possibly its time to make another visit for the demo...

Regards
Siva.

I did a quick look-up on the net...i think the model that i saw was LaCampanellas ...with a yellow top

Hi poochandy,

THANKS for a lovely and detailed post.

Your feelings and perceptions came thru Very Well.

I guess that you have been smitten by good sound.

Network with forum members in Chennai and listen to as many systems as you can.

Where ever possible ask the audiophile pal to point out to what he feels you should listen to and what is presented best.

Make your own judgement calls. Every one listens to their stereos differently, focusing on different aspects. What floats someone's boat may not float yours... does not mean you are wrong...

Welcome to a Great hobby and an active forum !

Hi Bagwhan

Audire's website does not work.You may call Sharath or Dr.Chandrashekaran on these nos.

919842024540,919894722600 and 914222642600(office)

It was very nice to talk to both Sharath and his Dad.They were very forthcoming on all aspects of the design of the amps,and gave details of the components used and their reasons for doing so.The amps are all dual mono construction with big overspeced transformers, choke filters and capacitance in the multi Farard range for the 100 watt class A amp.

They make an itegrated ten watt single ended Class A (Zen) which weighs 100lbs ,a hundred watt single ended Class A (this is huge) weight is 160lbs.They also make a 600 watt class AB amp which works in Class A upto 20 watts.This weighs 190 lbs.
The amps are big (lots of brushed aluminuiam,nice blue leds) but very well built,and look good too.A lot of design cues from Pass LABS,Treshold and Rowland.


A lot of effort has gone into making these products and the results speak for themselves.
The Zen amp copy is priced at Rs.33,000/-and at this price I think it is a no brainer for anyone looking to buy an amp in this price range,if they have efficient loudspeakers.

They can also make power conditioners,isolation transformers and the like to any specification,at reasonable prices,as their primary business is making hospital grade power supplies.

Regards
Rajiv

600 watt amp? The rating sounds a bit suspect :Y. So does the 100 watt class A. I'd love to listen to them though, if I get a chance.

Hi Rajiv

Good info on Audire. Do sound them out if they can offer a DIY KIT for the 100 watts Class A amp. From your description is appears quite respectably speced out.

Can you ask them to try out the Son of Zen amp with your horns? I am very keen to know how it would compare with the QUAD-II or Leak on A to B test. It will be interesting if you can rig this up at your home and report back

Hi all,
First if all let me thank Poochandy and Rajiv for show report and valuable information about Audire, must visit them next time in CBR.
Regards
Anil

Rajiv said :

Audire's website does not work.You may call Sharath or Dr.Chandrashekaran on these nos. 919842024540,919894722600 and 914222642600(office) It was very nice to talk to both Sharath and his Dad.They were very forthcoming on all aspects of the design of the amps,and gave details of the components used and their reasons for doing so.The amps are all dual mono construction with big overspeced transformers, choke filters and capacitance in the multi Farard range for the 100 watt class A amp. They make an itegrated ten watt single ended Class A (Zen) which weighs 100lbs ,a hundred watt single ended Class A (this is huge) weight is 160lbs.They also make a 600 watt class AB amp which works in Class A upto 20 watts.This weighs 190 lbs. The amps are big (lots of brushed aluminuiam,nice blue leds) but very well built,and look good too.A lot of design cues from Pass LABS,Treshold and Rowland. A lot of effort has gone into making these products and the results speak for themselves. The Zen amp copy is priced at Rs.33,000/-and at this price I think it is a no brainer for anyone looking to buy an amp in this price range,if they have efficient loudspeakers.

When I read 100 Watts in Class A, I was skeptical.

Yesterday, I read the review of The Pass Labs 600 Watts per channel CLASS A Monoblocks ( Yes guys, NO TYPO ! )

at :

http://www.ultraaudio.com/twbas.shtml

TWBAS: Is the site's section for "The World's Best Audio Systems"

Also, at US $ 20K for the PAIR, its Value for money ( Never thought I'd say that at this price point ! ) in terms of the cost and quantity of components used.

Hi,

I am Sharath Chandran from audire technologies, I have been invited here by Mr. Chandrasekar, since he told me that there was a discussion going on about Audire here.

You can direct all your queries towards me here or to my email at sharath.d.chandran@gmail.com or sharath@audire.in.


Regards,
Sharath Chandran

reignofchaos schrieb:

600 watt amp? The rating sounds a bit suspect :Y. So does the 100 watt class A. I'd love to listen to them though, if I get a chance.

Hi,

You are more than welcome to come and have a listen to our products here at coimbatore.

If you have an adequate power supply and power devices, it is not so difficult to create a 600watts per channel AB amp. In our 600 watts amplifier, we use 2.4KW torroidal transformer and 80,000MFD/150V capacitors and 32 nos. of 230V power devices in a fully balanced configuration with very high bias current. So 600 watts per channel is underrated and it can go upto 900 watts per channel. You can check it out anytime and we can show you measured performance.

Once again, you are more than welcome to come here and check out our products, we would be more than happy to demo our products for you.

Regards,
Sharath Chandran

Hi Rajiv,

I would really like to thank you for the interest you have shown in our products, and for starting this thread here what has generated so much interest.

We were expecting to see you here in coimbatore, but have not recieved any word form you yet. Please do let us know when you will be here.

Regards,
Sharath Chandran

Sharath Chandran

Sir,

Hello !

Do you have a web site ?
I live in Mumbai; Coimbatore may not be possible in the near future.
I would love to see what you do ? Product range etc.

If you do not have a web site then pm me your e-mail & I could get some product info from you.

Thanks,

Appreciate it !!

The web site is up & running !


www.audire.in

Do take a look.

Hi Sharath

I was to visit Coimbatore during the first week of Jan,in fact I had called Dr.Chandrashekaran to confirm the appointment ,he informed me that you were in Bombay but would be in Coimbatore during the first week of Jan.

Unfortunately my Dad fell ill suddenly,(things kind of turned topsy turvy for a while) and the visit had to be postponed.He is much better now and I hope to visit with you during Feb08. I will call you once things fall into place.


Regards
Rajiv

bhagwan69 schrieb:

:angel The web site is up & running ! www.audire.in Do take a look. :hail

Hi Bhagwan,

I hope youve visited the site and downloaded the brochure. We'd like to thank you for the interest you have shown in our products. For any further information you can email me on sharath.d.chandran@gmail.com, or sharath@audire.in. All such contact details are available on the website also.

Looking forward to hearing from you in the future.

Regards,
Sharath Chandran.