Holy cow what an awesome show it was this year! Best RMAF ever? From my perspective, hell yeah! I know, I know, I said that last year. And I meant it. And I mean it now too! Since the daily live coverage threads don't lend themselves very well to thoughtful reflection, we're going to try to do that here in this thread. Not that Pez or I are particularly thoughtful (especially Jason), but maybe we'll just try to hit some of the overarching impressions we had about the whole show here.
We'll also throw out there our list of "Best of RMAF", but in a separate thread, so look for that a bit later.
Biggest ChangesFully LIVE coverage - For us personally, I think the biggest change was being able to do listening, photos, and commentary all live, in each room this year. We spent maybe 10 or 15 minutes in each room, and by the time we left we had taken all the photo's, uploaded them to photobucket, created a thread with the gear listed, general notes and listening impressions, and all the photo's from photobucket linked/posted. This was particularly great because we did not have to rely on our memory at all - no taking notes on a sheet of paper and then trying to decipher them later that night (or later that week).
And we were able to do our note taking in parallel, so we did not consult or compare our impressions with each other at all. We just wrote and posted, and only later did we even get to read what the other person thought of a particular room. As you can see, we agreed on a lot of rooms, but disagreed on even more! This should tell you that even 2 experience audiophiles, listening to the same music in the same system at the same time can come to radically different conclusions on the sound.
Room Treatments - Tons more vendors brought stuff this year and at least made an effort to actually treat their rooms acoustically. I'd say we saw room treatments in twice as many rooms as last year, maybe even three times as many. Vendors, this effort was not in vain! If it seemed like we posted a larger number of rooms with positive impressions and a fewer number of rooms with negative impressions that's because it's true! There were far less outright "sucky" rooms this year than in any other year, and far more "good to very good" rooms than in any previous year.
Recognition - Last year I was kind of bummed because we put so much effort into the show coverage and so few people seemed to be responding to it (either positively or negatively), we almost didn't do show coverage again. But this year we had a TON of people who saw us at the show and said "Thank you" and "Great job". That means a very great deal to us, and I just wanted to say THANKS, we really appreciate it. During the show we are pretty pressed for time, so might not have the chance to hang out and chat, but that doesn't mean we don't deeply appreciate the pat on the back. This is hard freaking work and its awesome to know that it's appreciated.
Imperviousness to Woo - In the past we were always interested in "what is the magic going on in these boxes". Or "Oh, that costs how much?" Or "Oh, that's so shiny and pretty!" But this year we did our homework and had created a list of vendors we HAD to hit and it was a big list (about 50). So we simply did not have time to talk to manufacturers about their gear, not if we wanted to get everyone covered. It led to an interesting result - we literally stopped caring about any of those things. We come in, take some pics, sit down, put on the music, take notes and post them and leave. And the system sounds good or it doesn't. If it does, we post why we liked it. If it doesn't, we post what about it we disliked. And we moved on. And when you are slamming through 50 rooms in 3 days (but still staying long enough to give each room a fair shot), your preconceptions drop away and your objectivity goes way up. The downside is the show is less "fun", but the upside is I feel pretty confident in what I posted on each room.
What Stayed the SameThe People! - As much as I like to bag on us audiophiles (and we are a doughy, pasty, mainly introverted bunch), every year the highlight is getting to meet up with and hang out with some very cool people. I mean, in a world where most people think we are insane, us audiophiles have to stick together! And I think I met more people at this show than I have at any other show before, tres coolio!! And of course hanging out with my best bud Jason is always a treat. I just wanted to give him a shout out because you people do not understand how much work he does with the photos. He is a great photographer and uses a big @ss, very heavy camera to get these shots and I know his back and shoulders are killing him by the 3rd day.
The Chaos - Even with a predefined list of vendors, pared down to 50, sorted by floor, then by room number and going methodically, floor by floor to hit each pre-chosen room, the show is just crazy. For every room we hit, we passed by at least 2. I wish we could have hit more rooms but we barely finished as it was. Maybe next year we'll start doing themes - only go into rooms with tube amps. Or don't go into any rooms that put a 6 inch driver and a 1 inch tweeter in a box. Or only rooms that play Vinyl, etc.... eh, we'll see. Honestly we are at our limit now, so if we try to hit new rooms and new vendors next year, some of the vendors from this years list will have to drop off. At least we have a year to think about it.....
Final, Final Thought - Don't let any of the above discourage you - if you get a chance to come to RMAF, THEN YOU MUST COME! It is 3 days of totally badass gear all set up by professionals and the ability to mix with other audiophools and hear in 3 days what most other people will never hear in a LIFETIME. So if you ever get even the smallest chance to come, DO IT!!!!
Pez's Final ThoughtsWow what an experience! Thank you all so much for your positive comments. This show takes all the energy we have to do, but every year it's worth it when we hear how much enjoyment you all get from it. I think it's starting to sink in with people that we don't always agree and get that this is a very subjective hobby. In the past at least once a year somebody always says that we are biased in someway when we don't like this or that or perhaps like a vendor for the 3rd year in a row. That's like stating that we are carbon-based lifeforms! We are biased. Everybody is biased. It's the fact that we have our own tastes that informs our bias. This year however I didn't hear 'you're biased' a single time. I think it's because this year people are starting to see that we don't always have consensus when it comes to what a room sounds like. This is key, we always say preference is king. Simultaneously though the systems that were phenomenal we always agreed on and the systems that were truly awful (way less this year) were also pretty much in agreement on.
live coverageAs Tyson said live coverage is a game changer. We are raw and in the moment when we are posting about what we are hearing. The logistics of live blogging is nothing short of a nightmare though. You have to be quick on your feet, you have to be almost mechanically regimented in the way you do things. Any sort of problem like iPad battery dying or camera flash battery dying or photobucket hanging up can literally be disastrous. Spare AA batteries, camera batteries, and yes even a portable iPad/iPhone battery charger were amongst the gear we took to every single room. And that doesn't even cover the fact that we had a back up computer waiting in the wings as well as 2 gear bags with other stuff that might be needed. Like I said a logistical nightmare. I saw other folks attempting to do similar things on day 1, but by day two I didn't see anyone doing it.
That said I can't imagine going back to taking endless notes, pics, and brain racking thinking 'what was the name of that room, did I like that setup???' Plus I'm sure you all enjoy the benefits of riding along with us.
Room TreatmentsThis year vendors are starting to get it, not all of them but many more vendors who you normally hear saying 'ugh these rooms are so awful, it's really hard to get good sound out of them' were actually going the distance and DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!! Many vendors told us they did so because we specifically dinged them on that last show. As Tyson said the net benefit was that there were far less awful rooms.
CanJam Sorry guys we had intended to do CanJam, but it became pretty obvious after day one that it would be impossible with how many rooms there were. Still, I'm disappointed we missed it all together.
You allWhether we were posting with you online or sitting next to you enjoying tunes the people of AC are what make this show so fucking great every year. I love the gear, but the people are the reason this show is literally more exciting to me than christmas for a kid. Going out to lunch and dinner with everyone is phenomenal. Vendors and 'philes alike I always feel welcome amongst the AC crew. and as Tyson said this year was a turning point for us in that we were constantly hearing people say 'Hey Tyson and Pez, I'm _____ on audiocircle thanks for your hard work!!!' or getting PMs from you all just to say 'thanks' That feels incredible to hear. Thank you so much!
Thoughts on Tyson I said it last year and I'll say it again this year. Tyson you are my best friend. This show would literally not be RMAF without you. Obviously the coverage would be hard/impossible but that's not it. I would feel like it wasn't the same show without you there to give me shit, to challenge me, and to just have a blast. So thanks man.
My familyI want to end this with a recognition to my wife in particular as well as my daughters. Thank you for your patience and understanding when it comes to this hobby and me in general, but also specifically giving me the room to literally go on hiatus from being a full time Dad and just be audio nerd.
