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!
