Scott Walker Audio staked out its own mini-empire at the Hilton Long Beach, occupying six of the hotel’s largest suites on the third floor. The first one I encountered revealed the inimitable Ted Denney of Synergistic Research staging a pretty ballsy demo. Ted set up two identical systems in adjacent rooms, both with a McIntosh C2600 tube preamp ($7500) and MC462 Amplifier ($9000), Elac Adante AF61 floorstanding speakers ($4995/pair), Bluesound Node 2i streamer ($500), and Solid Tech Rack ($2600). The difference was that one system took advantage of a Synergistic Research PowerCell 8 UEF SE power conditioner ($2995), new Synergistic Research entry-level Foundation interconnect and speaker cables plus UEF Blue power cords ($4000), and a host of various Synergistic Research room acoustic products ($6500), which in my experience are quite effective if nonetheless baffling to many.
The other room, entitled the “Best Buy” room, used the same electronics, speakers, and rack, but exchanged Synergistic Research cabling for Best Buy-available AudioQuest Water, Rocket, and Blizzard cables; swapped Synergistic power conditioning for a Furman P-2400 IT ($3100); and—here’s where it gets tricky—traded Synergistic Research Ground Block, MiG/MiG 2.0 Isolation Footers, Tranquility Base XL, five kinds of HFT devices, Black Box, and Atmosphere Infinity for AudioQuest SorboGel Q-Feet. The prices were more or less comparable until you got to the accessories and equipment isolation and room-treatment products. Which means, beyond the price difference, that one room was treated and one room was not.
Is there any need to tell you which room sounded better? Is there every reason in the world to wonder how the Best Buy/AudioQuest/Furman room might have sounded had it received the kinda-sorta equivalent of the same one-of-a-kind room and system treatment as was present in the Synergistic Research room?
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