[Vinnie R.]

All,

It's official - I'll be at RMAF 2010 in the Marriott Tower Room 8012 - sharing the room with Zu Audio (www.zuaudio.com), Ken Ball of ALO Audio (www.aloaudio.com), Alex Rosson of Audeze (www.audeze.com), and the Cypher Labs team (www.cypherlabs.com).





I'll post more details about it as we get closer to show time...

We're all really looking forward to it, and hope to see many new and familiar faces there! 


Very excited!

Vinnie

[Vinnie R.]

Well I can't believe how quickly RMAF week has come up! 

Here is what will be show in Room 8012:

Red Wine Audio fully-loaded Isabella LFP-V Edition feeding Signature 70.2 LFP-V Editions.  I'll also have the Isabellina HPA LFP-V Edition to feed Audeze LCD-2 planar headphones (Alex of Audeze will be bringing these world-class headphones - I have a pair that I will never part with!).

Speakers will be Zu Essence (or Soul SuperFlys), with Adam Decaria and others of the Zu team sharing the room.  I have so many customers who are proud Zu owners, and we've been meaning to do a show together for a while now - so we're all excited about this one!

Ken at ALO Audio will be providing the equipment rack - using thick Bamboo shelves - this is a nice rack, baby!  , cabling for home audio and headphones, and his new RX mkII portable headphone amp (which will be in production later this month - but he'll have ready to sell at the show for the first time). 

Cypher Labs (represented by ALO and RWA) will have the AlgoRhythm Solo!  This little guy will connect to your iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, etc. and output bit-perfect SPDIF output.  It extracts the USB data from the Apple device asyncronously, and uses an ultra-low jitter clock for both the SPDIF output, as well as for the I2S that feeds the internal Wolfson dac.  It's portable, Li-Ion powered, and we're getting close to production (just going through the Apple Certification process now and hopefully will be on our way to having the Solo hit the market very soon!).  Using lossless or wav files, this is one of the best sounding spdif transports you'll hear - there is nothing on the market like it!  No matter if your thing is home audio or portable audio - you need to listen to this! 

ALSO NOTE:

Down the hall on the same floor will be a new company, Holistic Audio, sharing a room with Seth of Virtue Audio.  They'll be using the soon-to-be-released Black Lightning LFP Editions to feed the Virtue amps. 

Jack of Holistic Audio emailed me the other day regarding the new Black Lightning LFP Editions that I shipped to him:

WOW!! Hey Vinnie, amazing.... I was already driving my Sensation with 24V/10amp batteries, as they blow away any switching or linear supply I have compared them with....
but I've got to tell you, the instant current capabilities of your new LiFePO4 supplies seems much greater...and the clipping indicator on the amp ain't coming on even at much higher levels.

And the sound is indeed another peg higher in quality.  These are DEFINITELY gonna get my recommendations to clients when showtime comes around.

I'm now testing the show rig, using a pair of Virtue Two.2's, and the sound is astonishing.

Again, GREAT job!!

Holistic Audio is a new speaker company with a unique omni-directional design approach using active EQ'ing.  I'm looking forward to listening to Jack's creations.  I think their room is going to surprise many listeners...

Also - for those who are looking for show specials, all Red Wine show demo gear will be sold at 20% off!  These are new units (LFP-V Editions) that have been burned-in for the show.  I'm backlogged into December on these - so if you are at RMAF and can wait until the end of the show on Sunday to pick-up, you'll beat the wait list and grab a nice discount to boot! 

Most importantly - I'm looking forward to seeing familiar faces and meeting new ones - from all over.  RMAF 2010 is going to be the biggest one yet (more rooms have been sold out than ever before) and I can't wait go get there and set-up! 

Also - if anyone wants to do any after-show hours listening, component swapping, etc. when it is much less busy - just let me know. 

Bring your favorite music and come on in!

Vinnie

PS: After RMAF - the final touches on the long awaited phonostage will be made - so expect more juicy LFP-V goodness by the end of this year - followed by something incredible after that (in a whole other class!)   2010 has been HOT, but 2011 is going to COOK! 

I need sleep now 

[TONEPUB]

Looking forward to seeing you!

[Alwayswantmore]

Good luck at the show Vinnie. That's a lot of news for a single post!

Q: For Cypher Labs AlgoRhythm Solo, async bit-perfect data extraction with no wires attached? Is the primary selling point portability or sonics, even in a home system? Price?

[Vinnie R.]

All,

GREAT SHOW! 

First and foremost, I want to thank all the AudioCircle members (and everyone!) who came to visit - It was great meeting new faces and seeing ones from previous shows! 

And I want to thank Ken of ALO Audio, The Zu Audio Team, and Alex of Audeze for sharing the room with me.

Here are some room pics (from my iPhone, so not high quality  ):



Room 8012 - all set up and ready for the 1st day.  Is it a coincidence that the Zu Essences closely match the fabric of the chairs?  Or was this planned? 





ALO Audio Bamboo rack (a very nice rack, indeed!) with the Red Wine Audio LFP-V Editions (and macbook on bottom feeding USB to the Isabella). 

Power cables? - only used for the lighting on the top of the banner display.  No power outages during the show this year... shame   




Audeze LCD-2 planar magnetic headphones (ALO Audio re-cabled) being fed from the Isabellina HPA LFP-V Edition.  I own a pair and love 'em!



Ken and Alex snuck downstairs to the CanJam section with the only Cypher Labs AlgoRhythm Solo (shown above, strapped to the new ALO Audio Rx mkII portable headphone amp) - but when I got them to bring it back up, we connected Alex's iPad full of some amazing electronica that he composed and we fed it to the Cypher Labs AlgoRythm Solo to the Isabella's dac - mega clean, high SPL energy that was a welcome change!

Here is a link to a much better pic, and some feedback on the room:

http://www.martinloganowners.com/forum/showpost.php?p=127288&postcount=80

(thanks, Tim - great to meet you!)

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=86946.msg850154#msg850154

Thanks, Tom - yes, those were the Zu Essence.

I'll post more details soon...

Thanks again, everyone! 

Vinnie

[Vinnie R.]

Someone just forwarded this to me:

The best headphone sound came from the Audeze LCD-2  ($945). These full-size headphones had a huge, open sound, with effortless clarity. Audeze has a hit on its hands, and its customer waiting list is currently running to four weeks! I hope to get a pair for review soon. The LCD-2 was plugged into Red Wine's Isabellina HPA headphone amplifier

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/audiophiliac/#ixzz12ptKauXB

Congrats to Alex and Shankar of Audeze! 

[lonewolfny42]

Another report....

http://www.martinloganowners.com/forum/showpost.php?p=127288&postcount=80

[Vinnie R.]

A customer sent me this link:

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Got-camera-first-timers-trip-RMAF

Scroll down a little past half-way down to you come to the pick of the RWA / Zu room and comments 

Another room I could live with: Red Wine Audio driving some Zu Essence speakers. The Zus, a wonderful pea-green with a matte finish that begs to be touched, sounded easy and wonderful. Last word on detail? No. But they sure did boogie. And all that RWA gear is so quiet ... Isabella + 70.2 monos drove the Zus to deafening levels all off of the Lithium batteries.

Vinnie, the RWA man himself, was there groovin to the tunes. He told me that not only are there beefier amps on the way (100+wpc) in the new year, there's going to be a tube-based phono stage too. Given how great the sound was in this room, I'm going to keep an eye on RWA and I suggest you do too.

Thanks to Socrates7 for the blog entry! 

Vinnie

[Mariusz]

Nice RWA pics by StereoMojo as well. Check it out.

[Vinnie R.]

Hi Mariusz,

Here is the link: http://www.stereomojo.com/RMAF%202010/RockyMountainAudioFest2010pt2.htm

Thanks to James and Linda Darby for visiting Room 8012!

Just to clarify, we had the Zu Essence speakers in our room ($3500) - the Zu Omens and Soul Superfly speakers where in the Peachtree and Zu room (respectively).

Cheers!

Vinnie

[Mariusz]

Yes, those are nice pics. Btw, it might be worth mentioning that your Lightning battery power supply was used in another room ............. Me think Virtue room. 

[Vinnie R.]

YES - Jack Caldwell of Holistic Audio and Seth of Virtue Audio had a dynamite room:

http://www.stereomojo.com/RMAF%202010/RockyMountainAudioFest2010pt4.htm

Everyone on AC knows about Seth and his awesome Virtue gear, but Jack of Holistic Audio is new and let me tell you - keep your eyes on what Jack is up to with his revolutionary omni-directional speakers.  I never heard omni-directional sound this good! 

I let them bottom the new Black Lightning LFP Editions (LiFePO4 battery technology) to power the Virtue Sensations.  (See Jack's impressions on post 2 of this thread).

Cheers to Seth and the Virtue crew, and Jack!  Nice job! 

Vinnie

[Mariusz]

And another stolen picture

[Socrates7]

Vinnie -- I fear I didn't do your kit justice with that small write up. This was one of my favorite rooms at the show for a very good reason -- it was really fun and the sound was great!

But I have to tell you, I wish I had more money on hand, cause I'd use it to buy that entire setup. Great job. 

And great meeting you, finally!

[edit: hey, nice pic Mariusz!  ]

[Mariusz]

edit: hey, nice pic Mariusz!

credit should go to fellow AC member who snapped these great shots.
I just stole it. 

[Vinnie R.]

Vinnie -- I fear I didn't do your kit justice with that small write up. This was one of my favorite rooms at the show for a very good reason -- it was really fun and the sound was great!

But I have to tell you, I wish I had more money on hand, cause I'd use it to buy that entire setup. Great job. 

And great meeting you, finally!

[edit: hey, nice pic Mariusz!  ]

Hi Socrates7,

Much appreciated - and thanks again!

All the best,

Vinnie

[Vinnie R.]

I've been meaning to bring up this topic regarding my experience with RMAF (and other audio shows that I have exhibited at)...

When people come to visit my room - I try to ask them if they have any music that they want to listen to.  Some people come in an ask to listen to something very specific, which I might not have.  So I respond by saying "Do you have the CD, I'll be happy to play it."  Most of the time, the answer is "no, I didn't bring my music."  I don't get that - why not?

Then when I'm playing music, someone would say "do you have anything more like genre X,  I've been hearing a lot of this genre Y at the show."  Sure - no problem.   Then I'm playing genre X and someone else would come in and say "do you have anything more like genre Y,  I've been hearing a lot of this genre X at the show."   

But those people never brought their own music that they are familiar with or that they wanted to listen to.  So I probed deeper and asked people, and some told me that some exhibitors don't allow you to play your own music.  I was like "what?" 

I've had a small group of younger guys (in their early/mid 20's?) who told me that they were thinking of getting into this hobby.  I asked them if they brought any CDs.  They said they had Pantera "Vulgar Display of Power."  I said "Nice - let's play it."  And they all looked at me like something was wrong with me.  "You don't mind playing this?"  I joked at them and said "Do you think I pay for this room and bring my equipment here so I can only listen to my own music.  It would be a lot cheaper to do it in my listening room at Red Wine Audio (which sounds 100x better than a hotel room) - let's play it, which track?" 

It was loud (Track 1 - Mouth for War), it was not audiophile - but guess what?  I actually own that album and let it rip and they LOVED it and could appreciate how a good audio system can make metal sound a whole lot better than they've ever heard in a home audio environment (and we played it very loud, but I'm sure not nearly as loud as at a Pantera concert  ).  Yes, some people cleared the room - but we all need to take turns.  So later on when another group had some Jay-Z on their USB drive - I told them let's give it a listen.  I'm not too into Jay-Z (I like Pantera better  ), but the point was that they were able to listen to their music in the system in my room and see how it connected with them (or not).   

I was just surprised by why some rooms won't let people play what they want.  Yes, some of those recordings are far from "audiophile" and don't show off how good the system really is, but it was still fun and I enjoyed their reactions to being able to get a demo of what they wanted to hear - and especially appreciated them bring music that they were familiar with.  Otherwise, you're stuck listening to all my stuff.  Some of which you might love, and some of which might drive you crazy.

You read these articles in the audiophile mags and some forums about "how are we going to get new people into this hobby?  Blah, blah, blah?"  I think letting them listen to their music at the shows is a good start 

I never get to spend 8 hours in a room listening to all kinds of music.  I was sleep deprived, loaded on caffeine and enjoying it all - seeing everyone come in and getting to enjoy it, especially the music I've never heard before and really liked.  I wrote a lot of it down so when I buy my next stack of albums, I'll know what I'll be getting. 

Anyone have similar experiences, or was it just me?  And I hope I didn't offend anyone with some of the stuff that was playing, but hopefully it was a refreshing change from Patricia Barber Cafe Blue or Diana Krall Live in Paris (ain't nothing wrong with those - but when you walk down the halls, you hear them over and over again  ). 

Ok - back to work for me!

Vinnie

[lonewolfny42]

http://live.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/ces.pl?&MT_8012&RoomView&MT&st141&&&&&RMF10

[adamaley]

Nice pics, lonewolf. Thanks for the link.

[Vinnie R.]

Thanks, Wolfy!