Rmaf 2016

KeithR said:

My show thoughts and favorite rooms:

Despite the construction, traffic was actually *up* for exhibitors compared with last year because of the move to a single tower - most of the worries were much ado about nothing, although I'm curious what the final tally would be.
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YG Acoustics/GTT Audio didn't show at RMAF, but held factory tours instead - this was perhaps the highlight of my trip. The new 250k Sonja XV was pretty mind blowing, despite being on amps (Audionet) that I don't prefer. Sources were Kronos and dCS. Yoav spent an hour explaining at length what goes into his products and design - it was way cool! They have a beautiful listening room with 2" thick shaggy rugs and leather sofas. It was simply treated with acoustic panels that were not parallel to each other.
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That's all for now - feel free to ask questions!

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Thank you! What is the benefit of the YG extra towers in the back that model uses, and how is this setup different than just using subs?

What is the sonic signature of the AudioNet, and what do you and don't you like about them? And how good is the Kronos they use?

Finally, how was Vivid? Did it stink up the joint, or did I miss something?

We did not play with and without the towers as its an entire system unlike a sat/sub combo. It was very holistic. I will post up a couple photos later. The cool thing about the XV is you can custom order it for to room - you don't need all 3 modules of the bass towers, for example, or even the bottom module of the main tower.

Audionet tends to sound like most amps with negative feedback...not as open and sweet with truncated decay. I have always found the Kronos a spectacular rig.

Vivid and Luxman is a great match - its just I've heard the combo probably 10x, so its nothing "new" for me. What was most impressive in that room was the Air Force 3.

KeithR said:

We did not play with and without the towers as its an entire system unlike a sat/sub combo. It was very holistic. I will post up a couple photos later. The cool thing about the XV is you can custom order it for to room - you don't need all 3 modules of the bass towers, for example, or even the bottom module of the main tower.

Audionet tends to sound like most amps with negative feedback...not as open and sweet with truncated decay. I have always found the Kronos a spectacular rig.

Vivid and Luxman is a great match - its just I've heard the combo probably 10x, so its nothing "new" for me. What was most impressive in that room was the Air Force 3.

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Thank you. Maybe it's a coincidence with so many great brands out there, but I think both YG and Magico use Kronos.

Any thoughts on Kronos vs Air Force 3?

PS. Don't mean to pepper you with questions, but it strikes me you really have a good sense of what so many of these products do well and not so well

Funny that in my top rooms I had a CF, wood, and aluminum speaker - just shows you that there are many ways to skin a cat in audio. I also just updated my post with more Magico thoughts.

Unfortunately Kronos vs AF3 is above my pay grade as I'm a relative analog neophyte at home (and they have completely different design goals)...Kronos and Brinkmann were very common at this years RMAF.

this was in response to mike's post above...

Had a really great time with old friends and new. Although some of the stuff I heard was truly awful, I thought there was a plethora of good sound and some great sound. My quick two cents. When you say Salk, I assume you mean the Song 3. John and I were really impressed with them...especially given the price. On the vandersteens, its funny I thought the smaller ones in the second MQA room sounded better than the 7's on the mezzanine (but I heard them early on). There were more women for sure and more rock was played in rooms. An interesting (and great!) twist from prior shows. I think your review is spot on.

How many vendors had systems that would allow attendees to play their own CDs or USB sticks? The move to music servers has definitely hurt the "total" show experience as far as I am concerned.

Not many Dizzie - the cdp has basically died. That said, many rooms had Tidal and I could stream what I wished.

Thank you Keith. I have never used Tidal. What is the sound quality?

Dizzie said:

How many vendors had systems that would allow attendees to play their own CDs or USB sticks? The move to music servers has definitely hurt the "total" show experience as far as I am concerned.

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Not many. However, they had no problems taking requests (using Tidal if needed).

Not sure the CDP is dead....but that's another discussion.

Mike said:

Not many. However, they had no problems taking requests (using Tidal if needed).

Not sure the CDP is dead....but that's another discussion.

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My experience at Newport in June was lots music servers and very few CDPs. I was welcome to peruse the play list on the servers but not one offer to stream and rarely the ability to play from the USB drive I had brought in addition to an awesome demo CD I had burned.

Dizzie said:

My experience at Newport in June was lots music servers and very few CDPs. I was welcome to peruse the play list on the servers but not one offer to stream and rarely the ability to play from the USB drive I had brought in addition to an awesome demo CD I had burned.

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Problem with USB sticks is virus potential. I used to bring a CDR like you, but have given up on it. I hope more exhibitors use Tidal as that makes things easy for everyone.

KeithR said:

Problem with USB sticks is virus potential. I used to bring a CDR like you, but have given up on it. I hope more exhibitors use Tidal as that makes things easy for everyone.

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Keith, Nobody seemed worried about a virus. They just did not know how to incorporate the files into whatever format/program they were using. It was like the equipment was borrowed and they could barely operate it. Several exhibitors were kind enough to try but eventually failed. And yes, the thumb drive was correctly formatted and worked fine in some devices.

Dizzie said:

Keith, Nobody seemed worried about a virus. They just did not know how to incorporate the files into whatever format/program they were using. It was like the equipment was borrowed and they could barely operate it. Several exhibitors were kind enough to try but eventually failed. And yes, the thumb drive was correctly formatted and worked fine in some devices.

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First year I attended RMAF, I went into a room that had a turntable. I asked the guy to play some vinyl, but he had been left alone in the room and was clueless on how to operate the turntable and play an LP. Since other people wanted to hear vinyl also, I got up and played a record for him. Funny that some people who are demonstrating with digital were clueless on how to load music files from a USB stick and play them.

mep- I think I saw you taking snapshots in the Vandy room, but couldn't get over to introduce myself. Any favorite setups?

KeithR said:

mep- I think I saw you taking snapshots in the Vandy room, but couldn't get over to introduce myself. Any favorite setups?

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Yes, that was probably me. I wish you would have introduced yourself. Here is what I posted on AN:

OK. I'm writing my show report for PF, but I will spill some beans here. Magico had a huge advantage with regards to their room at the Hyatt. It was a big room with plenty of space for the system to breathe not to mention that the room was gorgeous. Magico M3 speakers, Solution electronics, and the Kronos table (never mind the digital gear). When I walked in they were playing a digital copy of Miles Davis Kind of Blue. The cut was "So What" and I heard the distortion from the horn that I'm always bitching about, but it wasn't as pronounced as I'm used to hearing it. Alon then switched over to a hi-rez version of "So What" and wanted to know if anyone could hear the difference. The first thing I noticed was that the distortion from the horn was now way more pronounced and more like what I hear from analog. I asked Alon if he would play some analog and he obliged. For some reason he had to go through some machinations which involved shutting down the amps in order to unplug a set of ICs and plug them in so he could go "direct" as he told us.

Alon put on Keith Jarrett Changes and I was unprepared for how good this LP sounded and I own it. Huge soundstage and dynamic as the day is long. The funny thing was I asked Alon to play a cut from my Neil Young Live at the Cellar Door (Don't Let it Bring You Down) and it didn't sound anything like it does at home in terms of SQ and dynamics and I have no explanation for why an LP I know so well didn't sound as good as I expected and the other sounded far better than I expected. I was going to ask Alon to play another LP, but there was a DCP (Digital Couch Potato) sitting behind me making smart ass remarks about analog and bitching that he wanted Alon to switch back to digital. And so I left because I don't enjoy being around know-it-all DCPs. It kills any good vibes, ruins Karma, changes the colors of your aura, and drops your credit score by 100 points.

The room that I spent the most time in and kept coming back to was the Skogrand room with the Endeavor E-5 speakers, VPI Classic 4 table, VAC pre and VAC 200IQ amps, and J-Corder Technics deck. I really like the sound of this room and that is why I kept coming back. Myles brought his brand-spanking new copies of Ben Webster and Janis Ian tapes to the room and they sounded so good I went and bought both tapes. The gear in the Skogrand room would have only sounded better if it had a bigger space to breathe in.

The other room that really caught my attention was the Vandy room playing with their new subs. The Vandy room with ARC gear and the Vandy amps was SRO which is why I didn't get to spend as much time as I would have liked. I did cop a front row center seat for awhile and had them play "Show Biz Kids" from Ricky Lee Jones It's Like This which sounded marvelous as it should.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Nagra room that Myles mentioned. It too sounded really good. That's another room that I wish I would have spent some more time in, but there are so many rooms and so little time. I cheated enough with the Endeavor room.

So, my rankings for the best sounding rooms at RMAF 2016 are a little bit different than Myles. If I didn't have an annoying DCP sitting behind me at the Magico room and could have spent more time there, I may well have placed Magico at the top of the list as others already have. However, given the inherent advantages of the room they had and the lingering questions I had even though I saw/heard tremendous potential with the system, I can't place it first in my book. That honor goes to the Skogrand room. I will give Magico second place, the Vandy room third, and a very honorable fourth place to Nagra. All of these rankings could easily be swapped around if I had more time to spend in all of the rooms. All you are hearing are snapshots in time which sometimes can be deceiving. Systems can go from good to great to crap depending on the source material and gremlins. Both the Skogrand room and the Vandy room sounded consistently excellent to my ears from cut to cut. The Magico room went from OK with digital to outstanding with the Keith Jarrett LP, and to a very surprising head-scratching so-so with the Neil Young LP.