RMAF 2015 Highlights, Disappointments and Overall Impressions

Post your RMAF 2015 feedback here.

I'm at the Denver airport after two days at the fest.

Among my favorites for the fest this year: (no particular order)

- Wilson/DAG/DCS...- Alexias with Wilson Subs (2) driven by DAG monos and the new stereo amp.
- Joseph Audio - Pearl speakers with JC-1 Parasound Amps and VPI Avenger TT - beautiful presentation.
- MSB/Quad - New Signature 5 with MSB class A amp. Very musical and transparent.
- Magico S7 with Soulution - very impressive.
- Focal/Naim - Small Sopra 1.0s with Naim integrated and music server
- Avantgarde - Very musical with excellent transparency - a bit too large for the room but they sounded really good today.
- Boulder - Sounded very musical. Their new music server looks really good and sounded nicely.
- Vivid/Luxman/Shunyata - always a musical room
- Cary/Totem - new music server for $5K looked good, can do PCM and DSD with lots of connectivity options...sounded quite good

Also saw some really good and affordable products: (there where a number of rooms with affordable systems based on price ranges - did not visit them - but clearly the industry is trying to focus on entry and affordable systems)

- Spatial speakers for approx $1200 pair
- Elac speakers for $279 each
- Mundorf mini monitors for $1500 pair

I haven't been a traditional fan of the large Focals. Today they sounded better to me than in the past - thx Mike!

Also, the new line of YG speakers has improved quite a bit. The best to my ears was the Rowland room - but not across all music material (not consistent to me).

A lot of the rooms were being overpowered with large speakers - Gamut, Bricasti - Tidal, Harbeth 40.2s, ARC w Vandy 4s.

I skipped the can jam although there were quite a few product introductions.

Great to have seen many Shark and audio friends!

Think I posted my favs on another thread, but here goes:

- Kharma/Zesto room: dynamic, great soundstaging, least fatigue
- YG Acoustics Sonja 1.2, Audionet, Kronos: this room was jaw dropping good, especially on certain tracks. I wanted to take this and the Kharma room as is home with me!
- YG Acoustics/Rowland Daemon: wonderful synergy between the two
- Alexias/Dag room: I wish this combo sounded as good in my room, I'd still have it. Not the last word in resolution but very involving!
- Sopra 1 and 2s: very beautiful and impressive speakers. Play way bigger than you would think. Very involving sound. The Sopra 1 setup was gorgeous!
- Magico S7 - I loved this room, loved what they can do, but I do think they sounded a tad better at the Magico factory dedicated listening room (duh). Wish Alon had vinyl in this room!

Allen - Agree with you on the Zesto as well. I forgot to add it. The Zesto gear looks great and sounds very musical.

Really appreciate the feedback from those that visited RMAF. Wondering if anyone had new music highlights as well. I find i usually leave shows with a list of lps that i'll be looking for.

Mark,

Agree with you in that Focal had a very good showing at the Fest.

Regarding the YGs, this is my perspective on the three systems I heard:

- YG and Audionet - Sounded a bit sterile. I could not engage - no toe tapping.
- YG and PS Audio - Much better but felt I needed to stand in order to hear some of the high frequency detail - even though the speakers had been set up to lean forward, the tweeters are too high.
- YG and Rowland - Depending on the music, this setup was a bit more engaging than the other two.

I want to stress, as others have previously commented, these opinions are very personal. Clearly, a lot of engineering has gone in the development of the YGs. They are build with exceptional quality.

Thx!

I should have given the Rowland room another listen based on what I heard from everyone. Shows are tough place sometimes


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Best System over $100,000

This is a tie between the Focal Stella Utopia/Soulution room and the Focal Grande Utopia/VAC room.

The Focal Stella Utopia’s powered by a Soulution 711/725/760 combo had dynamics, dead quiet backgrounds and unmatched speed to create an overall realism that was very impressive.

The Focal Grande Utopia’s with the VAC Signature 200 monos (four amps biamped) was simply awesome. The realistic tonality and richness was very palatable. There is simply nothing grander than the Grande’s.

Best System under $100,000

This is a tie between the Avantgarde Duo Mezzo XD’s with the Avantgarde integrated and the Bergman turntable and the Joseph Audio Perl 3/Parasound JC1’s/VPI Avenger TT.

Runner up would be the Quad 2912 with MSB amps/preamp/DAC. The big Quad’s have the best midrange in the business. You won’t hear piano produced any better. Period.

Best Bookshelf Speaker

Another easy one. The Focal Sopra 1’s paired with the NAIM integrated was musically awesome. There is something special about a great two way speaker. I heard no other stand mount speaker that sounded better. The Sopra 2’s are great, but so are the Sopra 1’s.

Most Significant New Product

Tie between the new VAC Signature 200’s and the Avantgarde Zero 1's.

The new VAC amps take a 111 year old technology to a whole new level. With autobiasing, you can use any KT tube type. Just pop it in and the amp’s autobiasing circuitry will adjust to suit the tube type. KT88’s? No problem. KT90’s? Bring it on. Want to try those new KT150’s? Have at it!

The Zero 1's are maybe not "new" per say, but they were new for a lot of folks who had not heard them before. The XD series will be expanding on the already great Zero 1's and taking them to a whole new level with proper room integration. If "all-in-one" speakers are going to attract a new audience, the Zero 1's are a must audition.

Best Digital

This was a tough one. I had made comments to many folks that this year’s RMAF was a Digital Disappointment. Of course we had the blue chip players like Lumin, Aurender, Bricasti, Lampizator and others. But I didn’t hear any new DAC that just blew me away with the exception of the Soulution 760. In fact, in every single case, the vinyl in the rooms was better. The Soulution 760 was the new kid on the block and it didn’t fail to disappoint.

Best Analog Over $30,000

Kronos. Next question?

Best Analog Under $30,000

VPI Avenger. Easily.

Best New Product

Avantgarde Duo Mezzo XD’s. In a standard hotel room, and especially with Vinyl played on the Bergman table, the new XD Duo’s from Avantgarde were on many folks “best of show” shortlist. Thank goodness they are coming home with me.

Biggest Disappointments

The $1 million Martin Logan surround system. The surround/4 channel is just weird to me. Didn't have that "live, I am there" feeling. Sounded recorded and processed.

JBL’s.

Having Salon 2's in the room with the new Mark Levinson amps and NOT hooking them up! I really wanted to hear this combo.

There were others, but for the sake of being PC, I will say no more!

Best Speaker under $2000

Tie between the ELAC speakers, Spatial M4’s and the Mundorf speakers.

What tugged at my heart strings?

Every time I hear the new Quad’s, I fall in love all over again.

Best Tube System

VAC Signature 200’s. Easy.

Best Solid State System

Soulution 711/720/760. Soulution amps seem to make almost any speaker sound great!

Runner up: Parasound JC1’s and Rowland Super Integrated.

Consistently Consistent

One of the things I noticed was there were a few products, that regardless of what they were paired with, they sounded great. These included:

Focal Speakers
YG Speakers
Rowland Electronics
Parasound JC1’s
VPI tables

Honorable mention to Volti Audio. Greg’s speakers always sound great – show in – show out.

But Mike, what about the Magico S7’s?

I think Magico fans will be very pleased with the consistent evolution in the S series. The S7’s are quite a bit better than the S5’s….frankly, I was surprised at how much of an “evolution” they were. The separate midrange enclosure and new tweeter I think play a large part in this. But let’s not discount the role of electronics. I’ve heard Soulution with Magico several times now and it’s truly a great pairing.

But Mike, what about the Vapor Audio/Lampi/Resolution Acoustics room?

Like a lot of rooms, the boys had some initial challenges. But once they got things dialed in, this room by Sunday was one of the best. The Vapor speakers are BIG BIG BIG and tall – very tall - and due to the tweeter height, I found you need to sit a little bit back from the front row to really appreciate their sound. These are speakers for a relatively big room (10 x 10’s need not apply). On Sunday, I was loving the Rowland amp on the Vapor speakers with the Lampizator DAC providing the sweet sounding source. The treatments from Resolution Acoustics brought everything together and unlike some of the rooms, nothing stood out (in a bad way)…like bass bloat.

The Vapor/Lampi/Resolution Acoustics room to me represents the future of high end audio. Ryan, Lukasz and Bart are not only three bright guys, but three risk takers. Three that have pushed their respective areas further with innovative new ideas. Well done guys!


Overall Best of Show Winner

Putting my bias for my own Avantgarde Duo Mezzo XD speakers aside, I would have to say the Focal Stella Utopia’s/Soulution 711/725/760/Transrotor room. The massive scale, impact, deadly black backgrounds, dynamics and so on were just spell binding.


General Show Observations

I’m not sure whether attendance was up or down this year, but Friday and Saturday were very busy days. Anyone who made a good attempt to get into some of the more popular rooms know!

I found more consistently “good” sounding rooms, then in past years. There were many rooms I really enjoyed – from the awesomeness of the Focal/Soulution room to the sheer musicality of the VAC/Focal room to the consistent toe tapping in the ”Joseph Audio Perl 3 room to the Focal Sopra No. 1/NAIM – “why does anyone need anything more?” room.

There were many pleasant surprises as well. The Zesto/Kharma room for example had a very liquid sound. Another would be listening to Pink Floyd and Allman Brothers on my Avantgarde Duo Mezzo XD’s – I swore I was there – they are so “live”, so dynamic, with none of the horn downside to those little Mundorf speakers.

I found that without exception, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, vinyl in every room sounded better than when they played digital on the same system.

But most importantly, RMAF is not just about the rooms or the gear, it’s about the people. Meeting and hanging with the guys here on Audioshark, meeting industry folks and meeting new people.

A great time!

Mike,

Thanks for all of the great photos and commentary.

What model MSB amp was used on the Quads?

Dizzie said:

Mike,

Thanks for all of the great photos and commentary.

What model MSB amp was used on the Quads?

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Some 200 watt per channel Class A amp.

Mike, thanks for the great coverage, really fun to read. Wish I could have been there.

What are you going to drive your Avantegarde's with?

Thanks for sharing all the photos Mike.

madfloyd said:

Mike, thanks for the great coverage, really fun to read. Wish I could have been there.

What are you going to drive your Avantegarde's with?

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Thanks Ian. It was a lot of fun this year.

I'm going to want to try a few things. But the Air Tight 300b is on my mind. Pass XS could be amazing too.


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Mike, what about the T+A P 3000 HV & A 3000 HV w/ PS 3000 HV? I know you love your PDP. Have you tried the preamp and amp yet?

matt_zak said:

Mike, what about the T+A P 3000 HV & A 3000 HV w/ PS 3000 HV? I know you love your PDP. Have you tried the preamp and amp yet?

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I've heard them many times and I want them BAD! They have this "just right" sound and build quality that rivals anything out there.


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Great coverage Mike and Allen. Thank you.

It's a lot of work and it's very appreciated.

The VPI Avenger was in about 7 different setups, it was absolutely amazing in every room that I heard it in

I think I will have to have one :exciting:

My biggest disappointment was how many rooms were playing sound effects and not music. For example, it took 3 times visiting the Wilson/D'Agostino room to hear them play music. It sounded really good with music playing instead of the first 2 times that it sounded like crap. I don't mean to pick on them, most rooms that weren't playing music I just didn't go back - I wrote them off as having bad sound. Its a shame really.