[Steve]

Will be there and hope to see all you ACers.

Cheers.

Steve

[woodsyi]

Steve,

We've had our differences but I would like to meet you and bury the past over a beer or two.  I will be at the Lift Friday evening.

[HAL]

See you guy's soon!  Off the Denver! 

[David C]

enjoy the weekend. I went with my wife for the first time last year and we really enjoyed it. I would love to hear the Bryston speakers so pls let us know how they sound. I bought PMC PB1i speakers and later a 14Bsst2 amp and am loving them. I thought it fun to go listen to all of the really high end "stuff". General thought was not much improvement for the $$$$$. Also for those who like Indian food there is a good restaurant across the street near the Tex Mex place. Have fun

Wishing I was there

David

[targa02]

I arrived on Wednesday (mixing business with pleasure).  Gotta say it is exciting just watching the exhibitors set up as I walk thru the lobby!  Can't wait till tomorrow!

[Jonathon Janusz]

Hey, all!  I know this is just a general RMAF thread, and I know I'm not really anyone special, but I thought I would at least mention a few things I saw at the show, reading some of the comments regarding stuff people were interested in.  If there is any interest, I could maybe take some time tomorrow and Sunday putting down more of my notes in a more organized fashion (not real-tme live or anything, but. . . )

Bud Fried - Fine and gracious gentlemen running the helm. Very brief impressions were that they have a very smooth top end, I'm presuming the hallmark of the signature tweeter, and a very big-bodied sound.  This became my first room to visit (I started on the top of the tower and worked my way down), and I started a bit late (later story) so I didn't get a lot time in the room.  They are on the top of my list to run through my demo disc tomorrow.

Martin Logan - A very kind gentleman gave me the opportunity to run my demo disc in this room, which I was not at all expecting!  Overall, the electrostatics were very open with detail without being overly detailed into harsh. Particularly articulate with great placement of instruments in space.  Female vocals were tightly focused, forward, and a little hard in delivery (softer presentation in some rooms).  Large scale works had good height and very clear separation of instruments but was somewhat lacking in width.  The room got a littler shaky in the mid-bass in the torture test.  They were also showing a very impressive $2K pair of small floorstanders (cones and AMT tweeters? memory is a little fuzzy) - these had nice highs that shared the clean detail of the electrostats, presented a very wide rather than deep soundstage, and were overall a well balanced, easy to listen to speaker.  In short, a lot of speaker for the dollar - I think they kind of stole the show from the bigger models on display.

Magnepan - This room was high on my to-do list.  Kind of dissapointed - this is the only room I visited that you needed to get a "ticket" to a scheduled-time demo.  The music selection was kind of limited (two classical pieces and a 50's era pop/rock tune).  Really had a more "marketing presentation" vibe than a casual demo.  They were presenting with a three-channel setup of the new MMG, a CC5 center, and one bass panel running off of a bryston SP2 and a 3-channel Bryston amp.  According to Wendell, the setup was really not best in the near-field.  Unfortunately (as I know there are people who would ask the question) he wouldn't share any details about what's new under the hood even with my best efforts in directly - and indirectly when the direct approach failed - asking him about such, saying he would rather let the reviewers judge the improvements made.  He did state that due to the design architecture, it was not electrically possible to bi-amp or bi-wire the speaker (just as with the rest of the current line).  Lastly, another lexperienced Magnepan listener noted that the new MMG was physically smaller than the old one.

One last thing quick.  Klaus at Odyssey is in fact 'the man', and most excellently rocks.  I will probably cruise through his room throughout the weekend with my mix disc and jam out. 

[zobsky]

I had the same stifling experience at the magnepan room . I believe the new mmg uses a series crossover, which makes bi amping  impossible,.. But I can't understand why they were so secretive about details

That's the kind of attitude that turned me off hi end audio and onto DIY 10 years ago, and I've had way more fun this way

[Nuance]

Bud Fried - Fine and gracious gentlemen running the helm. Very brief impressions were that they have a very smooth top end, I'm presuming the hallmark of the signature tweeter, and a very big-bodied sound.  This became my first room to visit (I started on the top of the tower and worked my way down), and I started a bit late (later story) so I didn't get a lot time in the room.  They are on the top of my list to run through my demo disc tomorrow.

Why thank you.   It was a pleasure having you stop by!

[SoCalWJS]

Did anybody get a chance to listen to "The $20,000 System" that Synergistic Research had on display? It was kind of weird - I did not like the big NOLA speakers at all, but the smaller ones on display at the Synergy room, I kind of liked them. I wasn't familiar with the music they were playing, so I couldn't tell if it was doing things right, but the soundstage seemed pretty good. I was rather shocked that they said repeatedly that EVERYTHING in the sytem totalled 20k - pretty impressive considering I figured the cables were probaly 5-8 all by themselves. Their new cables must be cheaper.

[josh358]

Magnepan - This room was high on my to-do list.  Kind of dissapointed - this is the only room I visited that you needed to get a "ticket" to a scheduled-time demo.  The music selection was kind of limited (two classical pieces and a 50's era pop/rock tune).  Really had a more "marketing presentation" vibe than a casual demo.  They were presenting with a three-channel setup of the new MMG, a CC5 center, and one bass panel running off of a bryston SP2 and a 3-channel Bryston amp.  According to Wendell, the setup was really not best in the near-field.  Unfortunately (as I know there are people who would ask the question) he wouldn't share any details about what's new under the hood even with my best efforts in directly - and indirectly when the direct approach failed - asking him about such, saying he would rather let the reviewers judge the improvements made.  He did state that due to the design architecture, it was not electrically possible to bi-amp or bi-wire the speaker (just as with the rest of the current line).  Lastly, another experienced Magnepan listener noted that the new MMG was physically smaller than the old one.

Wendell saw your post and emailed Steve Ford and me to explain the reasoning behind some of his decisions (he doesn't post here himself for lack of time).

Regarding the new ticket arrangement, he says, "It was a new idea to reduce the confusion and frustration of attendees in the hall at the Newport show. Galina did a great job. Most people that had casual interest simply said 'No thanks' and moved on. Those that really did want to have a quality demo were happy that they could look in other rooms rather than wait in line in the hall. They would come back a few minutes before the next scheduled demo. I saw the fewest people walk out in the middle of the demo than ANY show in my career."

About music choices and time, "I played light classical ballet (Reference Recordings) and explained that while it isn't my #1 choice of music, reviewers know that classical is the most difficult to suspend disbelief. Then, it was question and answers. Most of them asked all the questions they wanted, but they knew that people were waiting in the hall. I had to keep the demo on 15 minutes so the next group would not get angry.

"Another problem with a line in the hall as we have done in past shows---The aggressive types can often get in first and others wind up having to wait in line another 15 minutes or so. That REALLY makes them angry."

Regarding the choice of a formal demo format, he says, "We were there to unveil an expanded home trial concept since . . . more than half of the USA population are not in reasonable driving distance [of dealers] and certainly don't attend shows. I further explained that people that travel from around the country to attend shows are the audio experts to their friends. We wanted the attendees to have a quality demo so they could speak with authority when making a recommendation to their friends." He also feels that the 60-day home trial program provides an opportunity for those who want to do extended A/B listening. He explains that they had only seven seats, two substandard even with the center channel, and if they had done informal sweet-spot A/B comparisons they would have had to turn people away.

Finally, on the technical questions, he said, "Of course, that is a common question. I said that we don't do much hype. I like to say that we 'under sell and over deliver.' Rather than try to dazzle with techno-talk, what do the reviewers think?"

He added that despite your friend's impression, the new MMG's are actually the same size as the old ones. They're all foil, too. Someone just posted a picture with the socks off, it's the third picture down:

http://www.theaudiobeat.com/rmaf2012/rmaf2012_arc_magnepan.htm

[Mrmb]

Since my first "big" system in the early 70's, I've had a fondness for "Maggie's".  After our RMAF experience, that is no longer the case!     

This too was my first visit to the RMAF.  My son and I made it to essentially all of the rooms, except Magnepan.  After getting past the confusion and frustration of needing "tickets" (when none of the other rooms required same!) we did obtain our "tickets" and returned at the prescribed time, to only be told that the audition was running about 10-minutes late.....huh????  First, we need tickets for an 11:00 audition (when no one else is doing this) and then, after returning, we're told to come back in 10 minutes -- really....really, I don't think so!   

The RMAF is a casual interest show for which we had more than a casual interest to hear Maggies.  Which is why -- although not happy to do so -- we obtained "tickets", but when we were told to return later, we did not!

Magnepan's goal seemed to be to exert control and establish formality in an enviornment lacking those traits for good reason -- i.e., if all, or many of the rooms required a strict enter at such and such time policy, such as Magnepan, I nor my son, would have enjoyed the show nearly as much as we did!  This marketing plan caused Magnepan to negatively stand apart from the rest of the exhibitors!  If that was their intent, it sure worked!