Hi Guys,
Finally back home...somewhat rested..........slept 15 hours...........11 days, 5 at the show non-stop, 2 system installs on the way back, 3200 miles, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.
Thanks a mill to all of you for making this RMAF show truly great. This has been my 70th show, and it was one of the best, performance, business, and fun-wise. You know who you guys are, a big, big thanks from me and Irina.
As to the show, here are some of my thoughts.
- GIK's are very good, no surprise. For once, I didn't have to fight the room, and actually, achieved somewhere in the neighborhood of 90 % of what I have at home, in my show room.
- Melting away, awash with emotions, goose bumps all over, true realism. Thanks for the vine, but man, I'm preaching this forever.
- The Kismet reference monitors, yup, they are awesome in every respect, (Beryllium, baby) but speakers always get the lion share of attention. just look at all of the threads here. Let's not forget the rest of the system, including big kudos to Alex for designing the Suspiro phono stage. man oh man, it is good.
- And yes, it was a Stratos stereo plus SE running(ALBEIT SOME MODS TO BE COMPLETELY HONEST) in order to bring the system cost below 6 K.
- Attendance was definitely down big time this year, which was a good thing. We set up the room as a non-compromise high ender, meaning there was really only 1 chair for the ultimate sweet spot. Some serious attention has been paid to this spot, having Bryan come in and set up the GIK's, clearing my head, and working for 3 hours straight until 4 am to get the absolute best interaction with the room. Funny, how your mind always seem to play tricks, but somehow, it was obvious when it was "there". Very obvious, because it was so wide, deep, precise, and natural, AWESOME !!!!!! GIK, baby. Anyway, we seemed to have a lot more serious listeners who were able to listen for longer periods of time without feeling bad that they took away chair time from others. That's what I would have wanted as a show goer.
- During the show, I promised to behave myself, and guess what ??? I did. It helped that I left most of my crazy stuff at home. So, it was fantastic when Jonathon, Standub and others brought their heavy music to rock out on.
- The best moments for me at a show is when a listener brings his own music. I usually put in the disc, and hand over the remote and tell him/her to go nuts. For one, and for whatever reason (actually, we all know why) other exhibitors don't do this at all. But what is the point then when you can't hear your own music to evaluate system x y z ???
In addition, this is a great way to hear new tunes.
- Same goes with the lighting. If there is a truly dedicated listening group who wants to stay for a while, I tend to turn off the lights for several reasons. Obviously, it sounds better in subjective terms, but also, it discourages people to just come in and walk around or talk, etc. Everything seems to be more serious, and yet, more relaxing at the same time. It's a bit tricky, and I'm doing this at shows for over 20 years, but when it works, it works well.
- This brings me to our music. We don't have any "audiophile" music, even though this is misleading since our tunes from regular over the shelf records sound fantastic. What is "audiophile" anyway ??? Many of you asked us about our play lists. Well, there are many, of course, but the main show pieces on disc were:
Stevie Ray, Tin Pan Alley
Pink Floyd, The Wall
Lou Reed, Walk on the wild side
Radka Tonnef, The moon is a harsh mistress
Anna Lotte Larsen, The Rose
Shostakovich Symphony # 9, Inbal / Vienna
Rawhide, Kunzel / Cincy Pops
As for LP's:
Alan Parsons, The Raven
Joan Baez, Diamonds and Rust
Pink Panther Soundtrack
Supertramp / School
John Hiatt, Have a little faith in me
Cracker, I can't forget you
AND OF COURSE MILES, Time after time live
It was nice to catch up with many of you AC'ers. And as for Tyson and Jason, same goes as last year. A great job, great ears, great sense of what systems actually do, great writing, and yup, you are completely, wonderfully looney for doing this the way you do it.
Finally, in retrospective, it is fantastic to have a wife that not only supports my crazy job, life style, and hours, but who is always game to just "go". And a big shout-out to our 2 dogs, Precious the Pom-a-poo, and Powder, the Samoyed-Border mix. They are incredible travel companions, who make my trips so much more fun. Oh yeah, the black hills and Badlands are badass.
Late,
Klaus
