RMAF 2013 Day 2 - Tyson and Pez Coverage LIVE

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jtwrace

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Re: RMAF 2013 Day 2 - Tyson and Pez Coverage LIVE
« Reply #40 on: 13 Oct 2013, 11:52 pm »
JH Audio's Roxanne.
Very good.  Worth the $1600 price tag for general use?  I don't think so unless money is no object.  My Shure IEM with custom ear molds still sound pretty darn good.  In fact when I put them on during the flight home I didn't miss anything from the Roxanne's.  And I mean nothing

TF1216

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Re: RMAF 2013 Day 2 - Tyson and Pez Coverage LIVE
« Reply #41 on: 14 Oct 2013, 12:12 am »
Thanks for the comments jtwrace.  I'm a fan of hearing honest words about the largest players in their respective arenas.

audioengr

Re: RMAF 2013 Day 2 - Tyson and Pez Coverage LIVE
« Reply #42 on: 14 Oct 2013, 04:57 pm »
Jason - the tube amps that are driving the Nimbus are 805 tubes, not 845.  More power.  These are 40W single-ended.

I ordered pair myself, as well as the Nimbus white to go with it.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio



PEZ: Sorry for the delay. We went over to the Hyatt and they have absolutely zero wireless reception there. We were told they basically built the conference room inside a faraday cage to force people who rent the rooms to use their data package upgrade. Total bullshit. Nice hotel, way better rooms but that kills it for us if they don't fix that problem in the future we literally cannot do live coverage.














Tyson Notes

General Room Notes – Nimbus Side - Vapor room, first of day 2!!!  Had to take a nice  4 minute walk to get from the Marriot to the Hyatt, but it was worth it – these speakers are freaking BEAUTIFUL.  The 211 amps are also the best looking ones I’ve seen at the whole show.  And I LOVE these types of amps.  I have all SS in my system right now (First Watt F5’s, which I built myself), but I am having serious tube envy at this moment.

Oh, they Hyatt is MUCH nicer than the Marriot – it gets my vote for moving RMAF here next year.  Unfortunately there is zero cell reception or wifi here, so if the show were moved, then our ability to post live would be killed.  And that would be the end of RMAF coverage from us.  And that makes me sad.  So, yay Marriott.

And the Vapor room is HUGE, so these speakers and the system can really breath.

One thing – listening to the Nimbus, the room has a bass mode that is present in every seat I tried, except the very first row.  Luckily the sound from the first row is tremendous. 

Saint-Saens Violin & Piano – Giant soundstage and a very “visual” real presentation of the audio event.  Equal to the best at the show.

Handel Aria – Listening to this LOUD and even at high levels it maintains smooth coherency and musicality.  I usually hate, hate, hate ceramic cone based drivers.  Not here.  I’m not sure how they tamed the breakup I always hear with Accuton in other speakers, but they’ve done it here.

Mahler Symphony – IMO, this is the track where this system really shines.  Big powerful speakers in a room well treated with GIK Acoustics.  Oh, hahahaha, I just realized that some of the “art” I thought was just stupid signage is actually GIK Treatments (the Guitar silksreen is absolutely top quality).  Did I mention that EVERY vendor at RMAF should not only treat their rooms, but they really ought to use GIK.  Having art that doubles as badass room treatment is FAR better than the “carpet on a wall” aesthetic offered by most of the other guys.

Civil Wars – I think this might actually be the clearest, most transparent I’ve heard this track at the whole show.

Tom Waits – OK, the only downside here (and it is very slight), is it emphasizes the rough edges a bit here.  These are not warm speakers, so if that is your cuppa, look elsewhere.  On the other hand, much more impressive is their absolute, complete transparency into the recording.  If you want to hear EVERYTHING on your music collection, then this is it.

Hey, normally I don’t like dead neutral speakers (I like a slight warmth), but just like with the TAD room, the other things these speakers do is so impressive that it pretty overrides that for me. 


Jason’s Notes

Vapor audio room.
Wow the nimbus speakers are an incredible sight to behold. Very imposing and sexy as hell. The tube amps. Simply the sexiest I have seen at the show as well. I actually took a spec sheet! That never happens. :P

The Saint Saens, nice flowing sound with gorgeous seductive and sweet sounding despite the dissonance? Through it all the detail and transient attacks of the violin remain intact.

Handel piece- is tear jerking and emotionally charged. The dynamic detail shine through unapologetically.

Mahler is grandiose  as it should be. Brooding and menacing. The reason I mention that is because I think this is the first system where that actually sounded effortless!

TCW big presentation. These soundstage reminds me of a big horn setup. HUGE imaging MONSTER soundstage these scale very very effortlessly and then keep going well beyond what seems possible.

Walk Away very very big presentation. Pace, rhythm and groove. Again a larger than life soundstage and imaging.

I guess I just love the sound of a big triode presentation. It is impressive that these giant speakers are being driven by a 845 to levels that one would expect from a giant super expensive solid state amp, yet sounding like a SET very warm sounding without the bloat.  A well treated room at high volume levels, with SET. This is why I come to these shows. This is a top 4 contender at the show for sure. 

One last note this room is huge. There's another system in the back of the room that we are going to come back to tomorrow. The reason being Ryan informed us that they are trying to work out getting a different dac with the gear. We wanted to give this system a listen when it was ready to go.

BobM

Re: RMAF 2013 Day 2 - Tyson and Pez Coverage LIVE
« Reply #43 on: 14 Oct 2013, 05:58 pm »
Sorry guys, but why do you need to quote everything, including pictures, inyour replies? Please edit what you quote so we know what is pertinant to your issue, and post your question outside of the quoted text so we know what you are asking and it is not lost inside the shaded part.

Sorry - just a personal rant.

Don_S

Re: RMAF 2013 Day 2 - Tyson and Pez Coverage LIVE
« Reply #44 on: 14 Oct 2013, 06:12 pm »
Me too = +1

Sorry guys, but why do you need to quote everything, including pictures, inyour replies? Please edit what you quote so we know what is pertinant to your issue, and post your question outside of the quoted text so we know what you are asking and it is not lost inside the shaded part.

Sorry - just a personal rant.

Turk

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Re: RMAF 2013 Day 2 - Tyson and Pez Coverage LIVE
« Reply #45 on: 14 Oct 2013, 06:27 pm »
I spent some time in the Vapor room and both speakers particularly the Joule Whites were impressive in many ways, the Nimbus threw an enormous soundstage, although I preferred the overall balance of the Joule White.  Excellent detail, good overall tonal balance, with the exception noted below for the Accuton drivers.

Nimbus did suffer from room boom.  Unlike Tyson and Pez, I still heard a tiny bit of harshness with the Accutons as the music was fairly loud.  Admittedly as one grows older, hi frequencies are missing and not heard.  Likewise, the upper midrange becomes very sensitive, at least with me.  I am guessing for 85% of the listeners the Accutons were spot on.  Exceptional dynamics and without the room mode I expect the Nimbus are incredible in integrating the large woofer.   No small feat.

I would like to hear the Blacks, because for the money, theses were really exceptional in many ways, even gave me a bit of an urge to shop.  I hope next year Vapor can haul in a pair of Black Nimbus or Joules.

I am curious if this aging phenomenon I experience was noticed by anyone else listening in this room?

Rick Craig

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Re: RMAF 2013 Day 2 - Tyson and Pez Coverage LIVE
« Reply #46 on: 14 Oct 2013, 11:22 pm »





Tyson Notes

General Room Notes – Back in the Selah room today – they have the Ottavo’s set up.  And as cool as the curved line arrays are, the Ottavos are simply more beautiful to my eye.  The wood finish is amazing, among the very best at the show.

Saint-Saens Violin & Piano – Hey, ceramic drivers that don’t drive me out of the room, yay!  Second time today – This track can just kill you ears on a lot of systems.  Really well done here.

Handel Aria – Sounds excellent.  On a couple of the notes, the room gets overloaded, but a bit of room treatment would certainly clean that up very nicely.

Mahler Symphony – I don’t know how they do it, but they scale the music to a larger dimension than the room itself.  That is tres coolio. 

Civil Wars – Jason’s music sounds good.  Interesting, when I move out of the sweet spot, the sound quality does not drop off all that much.  These speakers sound better across a larger listening area than anything else I’ve heard at the show. 

Tom Waits – Oh yeah, junkyard dog mean.  Love it.  Sounds great even off axis.  Sound is MUCH better today than yesterday.  Not sure if it’s the speaker change, or the fact that we’re actually listening to an actual CD instead of Spotify :P  Actually, I’ve been in the Selah room many times now, and I think this year is their best overall sound. 

Jason's Notes

As I'm sure Tyson has already posted we were here yesterday but with the other curved back speakers. (Sorry I'm terrible about remembering the infinite names assigned to speakers) I will say this. They are able to play our music! Right off the bat I am like the fuller sound of these. Way more refined IMO.

A little overblown on the Handel but room treatment would solve this likely of which there is none. Imaging and sound-staging is pretty damn good!

The Mahler is pretty good as well! Again the room is hurting this system due to the overhang and lack of dynamic control.

One who got away. Very very good imaging again. Very 3d. This is one of those setups that I can tell is excellent, but the lack of treatment underlines how important it is to have that at these shows it could be soooo much better

Waits has good pace, but likes a little of that believability that really gets my tow tapping.

Overall way better than yesterday. Just need treatments.

Thanks to you guys for coming by to visit our room. Ryan had requested some room treatment from suppliers but they couldn't provide  them - but no excuses - I've been to the RMAF several times so I knew you would ding us for that  :lol: