FLORIDA 2019: Play It Again Audio, Resolution Acoustics, Little boy blue come blow your horn

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Play It Again Audio was showing a system curated from their large inventory of pre-owned high-end audio equipment. Resolution Acoustics was showing us how a well assembled system of acoustic room treatments could take a stereo system from “meh”, to “WOW!”

The Story

Buying or selling high-end audio equipment from the second-hand market can raise more anxiety than I’m willing to deal with most days. Here is where Play It Again Audio comes in to play, to ease those feelings, when you are either the buyer or the seller. Buying is fairly straightforward as it would be anywhere else on the web. You click, and pay. However the difference is, the product you are buying is assured to exist, be authentic, and be in working order as advertised.

The selling process, is one of traditional consignment. However, the expertise held by Play It Again, adds to the process by being able to test and identify a component’s functional fortitude, and determine accurate marketplace pricing for faster online selling potential. What’s the catch?
There is none, it’s a transparent process from beginning to end, all you pay is a small base fee of $250 USD and just 10% of the final selling price.

The Play It Again model must be working and working well, because their online inventory is vast, and filled with equipment worth drooling over. What I personally like about Play It Again, is the consistency of market price. It’s more accurate than what I’ve encountered elsewhere on the DIY-Selling platforms. Where more often than not, personal biases and ego can inflate the used market pricing.

As for Resolution Acoustics, they were showing their “Time & Space” acoustic treatment system. From a visual standpoint, a necessary back-wall of diffusion, along with absorption panels on stands were holding down the rear corners. A minimal set up if I were to say so myself, but the impacts were more than immediate and noteworthy.

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Is that Bill Leebens?

The Sound

Big horns and really great imaging. The room sounded larger than most at the show, and the usage or room treatments really did tame all of the congestion that big systems can exhibit in small rooms. Can I speak to the imaging again? It was really tight and focused. Not just for a horn system, but for any type of speaker system. It was ghost-like in how it floated in center space when called for, and with depth into the sound-stage unlike anything at the show. Honestly I would have loved to see this system in a larger room, but for what we were given, and with the benefit of room treatments, I am more than happy to say this system was extremely livable in this space.

The System

Resolution Acoustics

– Time & Space Acoustic Treatments

Avantgarde Acoustic

– Trio XD Horn Loudspeakers in Sapphire Burma Blue

EMM Labs

– DAC2X Digital to Analog Converter

Soulution

– 720 Preamplifier

David Berning

– OTL 6B4G Monoblock Amplifiers

Velodyne

– DD 15 Subwoofers