Thread: Rmaf 2016

I don't have a number one speaker/amp combo but would group these as my favorites:
Magico M3/ Soulution
Naim Statement/Focal Stella Utopia
Rockport/Boulder
Vandersteen 7/M7 HPA Vandersteen Amps

I wish the MSB Select DAC playing MQA files could have been set-up in a larger room like those I noted above. The room sounded very good and could have been great had it not been so room constrained.

Comments:
I too noticed that there were more women attending this year with their male companions. I also noticed that the age of attendees continues to increase which is very frightening for this hobby. (Maybe the younger crowd were all in the Can-Jam tents/pods)

When the renovation of the Marriott is complete I would suggest they keep all of the listening rooms in the one tower assuming there is a sufficient number of large rooms.

Too many major manufactures were missing. I hope they return in the future.

Originally Posted by still-one

I don't have a number one speaker/amp combo but would group these as my favorites:
Magico M3/ Soulution
Naim Statement/Focal Stella Utopia
Rockport/Boulder
Vandersteen 7/M7 HPA Vandersteen Amps

I wish the MSB Select DAC playing MQA files could have been set-up in a larger room like those I noted above. The room sounded very good and could have been great had it not been so room constrained.

Comments:
I too noticed that there were more women attending this year with their male companions. I also noticed that the age of attendees continues to increase which is very frightening for this hobby. (Maybe the younger crowd were all in the Can-Jam tents/pods)

When the renovation of the Marriott is complete I would suggest they keep all of the listening rooms in the one tower assuming there is a sufficient number of large rooms.

Too many major manufactures were missing. I hope they return in the future.

Thanks Jim for your "boots on the ground" comments! From Mike's videos, the Magico M3/Soulution, Rockport/Boulder and Vandersteen 7/M7 HPA were the standouts for me too. The videos of the MSB Select DAC and AP R2R were also extremely impressive. Glad that you were able to attend.

Best,
Ken

Originally Posted by Alectiong

To my knowledge, Rockport doesn't have a $100k model.
R

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They do:

http://www.theabsolutesound.com/arti...oics-in-maine/

But I don't think this was it. I think these were the Aviors.


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Originally Posted by Mike

They do:

http://www.theabsolutesound.com/arti...oics-in-maine/

But I don't think this was it. I think these were the Aviors.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I asked - they were the Cygnus

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.

RMAF has a cool vibe - the Zu party on Saturday night was fun. Only in Denver do you have a tamale truck show up with margaritas and hemp-based queso. I heard it went on well past 2. Scot Hull, John Darko, John Devore, Philip O'Hanlon, John Durda, etc. were all hanging out with whisky and scotch. Philip had his room open till midnight as well

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.

Music was better than some other shows I've attended - a grey-haired dude pulled out Holly Herndon in the Vandy room which stunned me (google it)

Room treatments were pretty much standard - this is such a change from 5 years ago and contributed to much better sound imo

I didn't feel the Marriott was as good a setup as the Hotel Irvine (was) for Newport - the rooms weren't as large and the facilities/amenities for attendees were not as good. Elevators were awful. It remains to be seen how LAX will be for Newport's future.

David Robinson (yes, the Admiral not the writer) was there on Saturday and I spoke with him several times, including sharing an elevator up to the Magico suite. It was his first time at a show and he's truly a "gentle giant"

It was great to meet some faces - Mike, Jim, Myles, Steve, etc. - and a nice AS dinner on Saturday. I was impressed while we shared differing opinions that we all love music equally.




Now on to the rooms (in no particular order):

Wilson Benesch/Ypsilon - probably the no-name room that should be on many highlight lists. Good tone, very coherent (minimal crossover), and excellent construction with a carbon fiber cabinet and custom drivers. However, I did think 36k for a 2.5 way speaker is getting up there and it only extended to 35hz. Craziest "sub" i've ever seen though.

Avalon/Nagra - big, lively sound with good tone and PRAT. I returned on Sunday and it sounded even better. The like 10 Nagra boxes were audio jewelry, inside and out

Spendor/Ayre- wonderful, relatively low cost combination that took many of the "super systems" to shame. The D9's additional bass is worth the extra $$$ over the slightly polite D7 I've heard before

Dynaudio/Octave - the best inexpensive system I heard. Contour 20s ($5k) had exceptional bass and I could easily live with such a simple combo. They also played cool music (honorable mention to Devialet)

Tidal/Bricasti- I wasn't in the perfect sweet spot, but this sounded quite pleasant. I can see how some might think its a bit dark, but it was eminently enjoyable. I heard Tidal on all Lampi at Newport, but preferred this setup with Bricasti.

Magico/Soulution- maybe still a bit for the more left brained audiophile, but easily one of the best speaker/room combinations (and they had diffusion everywhere). You could tell there was very low distortion in the room, although I feel the Soulution amps were a weak spot (and don't prefer them in general). What was really great about the M3 is the tweeter was extended but didn't draw attention to itself. Also, the speaker's coherency and bass seemed better than other Magicos I've heard. Soundstage as a result was excellent. I would love to hear them on Vitus or Dart and Vac.




re: Rockports. not sure they were setup well, but who knows (6" from the wall) as I've heard them many times at Newport sound better and almost always far from the wall. I found the sound a bit compressed and bass overcooked on Tin Pan Ally (yes, groan). Maybe it was the Boulder combo - I've heard BAT and Vitus w/ Rockport create a much more 3D sound stage.

re: Zu Audio. Polarizing brand and I've read some negative things historically from this show. I can confidently say putting them in that cavern of a room with a $1999 integrated isn't a good way to judge them and I thought the small system in the back probably sounded better. I was fortunate to hear London Grammar "Hey Now" at the Naim Statement/Focal room and funny enough, they put it on in the Zu room 10 minutes later. While the Focals clearly had more detail and top end extension, the Zu painted a more coherent musical picture. The Zu was only a prototype and the 18" active driver isn't going to be in the final...what was interesting is how the top end was so different despite both using beryllium. I concluded that Peachtree was a big problem. They would have sounded much, much better on Pass XA 60.8s that they use at other shows.

That's all for now - feel free to ask questions!

Originally Posted by aardvarkbark

I'm sure these were terrific, but in all fairness -- Presidential Suite at Hyatt vs cramped rooms over at Marriott. That must've had some impact on their sound.

I think Magico was smart to premier these in a venue where they would shine and which would be easily accessible to those attending the show.

Magico, Wilson and Scanea all have used the Hyatt in the past. Smart move if you cannot get one of the better rooms in the Hyatt.

Originally Posted by still-one

I don't have a number one speaker/amp combo but would group these as my favorites:
Magico M3/ Soulution
Naim Statement/Focal Stella Utopia
Rockport/Boulder
Vandersteen 7/M7 HPA Vandersteen Amps

I wish the MSB Select DAC playing MQA files could have been set-up in a larger room like those I noted above. The room sounded very good and could have been great had it not been so room constrained.

Comments:
I too noticed that there were more women attending this year with their male companions. I also noticed that the age of attendees continues to increase which is very frightening for this hobby. (Maybe the younger crowd were all in the Can-Jam tents/pods)

When the renovation of the Marriott is complete I would suggest they keep all of the listening rooms in the one tower assuming there is a sufficient number of large rooms.

Too many major manufactures were missing. I hope they return in the future.

One memorable rooms I forgot to mention was that of Crystal Cable. While the small speakers and their new integrated amp were not in the same league as those I noted above, they were still very good.

Now if you had the opportunity to be in this room when Lincoln Cheng (?) compared a "glass" CD to either a gold disc or one of the Japanese "super" discs you heard something special. These ~$1200 (YIKES!!) discs easily outperformed their specialty counterparts. Notes were crisper, instruments clearer........
Now if they could only bring the price down by about $1175 dollars.

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.

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.

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

Originally Posted by Dizzie

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. However, they had no problems taking requests (using Tidal if needed).

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

Originally Posted by Dizzie

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.

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.

Originally Posted by Dizzie

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.

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?

Originally Posted by KeithR

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

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.

http://www.theabsolutesound.com/arti...-steven-stone/

http://www.stereophile.com/content/j...lhCBIeVudhs.97