RMAF 2015 Pez and Tyson Coverage Day 1

Pez · « **on:** 2 Oct 2015, 04:41 pm »

We're here! Starting breakfast at the Marriott lift bar. We will be going around rooms in about half an hour to 45 minutes.

JerryM · « **Reply #1 on:** 2 Oct 2015, 05:11 pm »

Awesome!

I hope you both find the best sound you've ever heard.

Have fun,

Jerry

Pez · « **Reply #2 on:** 2 Oct 2015, 05:13 pm »

Might have happened already, but not at the show. We had a vendor at my place on Wednesday and we hooked up some great gear that blew my mind!!!!

SoCalWJS · « **Reply #3 on:** 2 Oct 2015, 05:27 pm »

Quote from: Pez on 2 Oct 2015, 05:13 pm

Might have happened already, but not at the show. We had a vendor at my place on Wednesday and we hooked up some great gear that blew my mind!!!!

Tease! Or do you care to share?

In all seriousness, hope you guys have a blast and find many, many rooms with good sound. Looks different with vendors in the Lobby.

Pez · « **Reply #4 on:** 2 Oct 2015, 05:29 pm »

We're having major technical difficulties but we're trying our best to get things going.

JerryM · « **Reply #5 on:** 2 Oct 2015, 05:29 pm »

Quote from: Pez on 2 Oct 2015, 05:13 pm

Might have happened already, but not at the show. We had a vendor at my place on Wednesday and we hooked up some great gear that blew my mind!!!!

Sweet! You'll have to fill in the details some time, I'm curious to know more.

Pez · « **Reply #6 on:** 2 Oct 2015, 05:31 pm »

Line is ridiculous!!!!!

Pez · « **Reply #7 on:** 2 Oct 2015, 05:38 pm »

Enjoy my random picture dump while we wait to get back up and running!

SoCalWJS · « **Reply #8 on:** 2 Oct 2015, 05:38 pm »

Quote from: Pez on 2 Oct 2015, 05:31 pm

Line is ridiculous!!!!!

My least favorite part of Audio shows by far. You'd think with all of the experience they've had, both at RMAF and elsewhere, they would have come up with a better plan. Allow people to pick up their badges the day/night before. Ship them through the mail. Something. Anything.

Pez · « **Reply #9 on:** 2 Oct 2015, 05:49 pm »

Pez · « **Reply #10 on:** 2 Oct 2015, 06:04 pm »

Pez · « **Reply #11 on:** 2 Oct 2015, 06:04 pm »

We're up and running we are about to start our coverage!

Pez · « **Reply #12 on:** 2 Oct 2015, 06:16 pm »

Beautiful gear. Hard to hear because the vendor is chatting. Not able to play our music vinyl only. No imaging. Yikes. Not really blowing my mind here unfortunately this is what I hate about these shows. Vendors talking about nothing while I can't listen.

Pez · « **Reply #13 on:** 2 Oct 2015, 06:26 pm »

Tyson’s Notes dc10 Audio Room

General Room Notes – Man, look at those horns and awesome tube amps! The horns are not just tweeter horns, they also act as a bass horn. Very cool technology

Sibelius Violin Concerto – Nice start to the day – great tonality, very surprising for a horn speaker. Ma, 2 rooms in a row with nice sounding horns.

Mahler Symphony 6 – Nice clarion call horn to start. Good depth. GREAT dynamics! Things get a touch hard sounding when things get really loud, probably due to lack of room treatments.

Tom Waits (Long Way Home) – Oh god I forgot how much I hate Jason’s music selections. These speakers are kind of amazing in that they give a light, almost feathery touch to the top end. You thing with horns you end up with overly energetic highs. But here you get subtlety and finesse – kudos!

Natalie Merchant (Peppery Man) – Soundstage is a bit small and shallow on this track. Again, likely a result of lack of room treatments. And when Natalie really leans into the mic it turns a bit hard. Room treatments would help. From a ‘swing’ and pace standpoint they are really good – groovy.

Pez-I really love the dynamics of this setup! On. Tysons cuts sound very nice. The room gets a little shouty because here is no room treatment. I do love those dynamics! Waits is gritty as the way it should be but a bit shouty again. Merchant has really nice dynamic shift. Surprising these little guys can throw this much sound. Thumbs up from me.

ragnar01 · « **Reply #14 on:** 2 Oct 2015, 06:36 pm »

FYI on the Highwater Sound post there was an initial comment that suddenly disappeared and was replaced by the comment that is now showing - not sure if you were aware that you overwrote the initial note!

Keep it up for those of us living vicariously (?) through your reporting!

ragnar

Pez · « **Reply #15 on:** 2 Oct 2015, 06:42 pm »

Tyson’s Notes dc10 Audio Room

General Room Notes – Oh these are freaking cool looking – all one piece waveguided speakers. No room treatments, we’ll see how highly directional speakers do with that. Fully active speakers, with DAC, amps and preamps built in. Very cool!!! Finally someone that is building speakers with technology from this century

Sibelius Violin Concerto – Sounds good, but I think these speakers might benefit from tubs amps. Not hard sounding speakers, but some of the emotion is missing that I know good tube amps can bring

Mahler Symphony 6 – On the other hand, dynamics are off tha hook. Really good and producing a big sound. Only criticisim – they are low sounding, so feels like we are looking down on the performers. Raise them up a bit and I think they could be quite special.

Tom Waits – Another track that tube amps would not go amis on.

Natalie Merchant – Finally a bit of slam and percussiveness. Gets a bit hard when she goes loud, but less bad than other less directional speakers.

Jason’s Notes

Sibelius violin sounds absolutely gorgeous. Loving the subtlety of it. Sweet and emotive.
Mahler great dynamics and authority.
Tom waits a bit of bass over hang. Excellent soundstage and imaging. A bit dry on the balance. Overall a bit hollow sounding.
Merchant again imaging and soundstage is pretty darn good could be better but they show potential. If put in a room with treatment etc I think these would be phenomenal.

Pez · « **Reply #16 on:** 2 Oct 2015, 07:03 pm »

Tyson’s Notes dc10 Audio Room

General Room Notes – Love the look of this room – they look like the evil robot Maximilian from Disney’s Black Hole movie. Oh god I am old. This is our first "Holy SHIT" room - awesome technology - the top end is a complete wraparound of electrostatic drivers. The cabinets are solid 1.5 inch aluminum. But the CRAZY thing is that you can stand directly between them and then soundstage is still deeper than you are. It's all the way in the back of the room even when you are standing where Jason is. F'cking amazing!

Sibelius – They do present a seriously spacious soundstage.

Mahler – Good dynamics. Top end is a bit hot, probably due to lack of any room treatments, so far a common theme

Tom Waits – Oh, this is really good – there’s more nuance on this track than I’ve heard anywhere so far. And they sound BIG, which I love.

Natalie Merchant – Huge amounts of clarity on this track. And soul. Surprising since there’s no tubes in the system as far as I can tell. Impressive.

Jason’s Notes
[/quote]

Sibelius wow! I really love the subtle way these speakers interpret Hahns performance. Nice!
Mahler BAM!!!!!! No pussy stuff here!
Tom waits in the sweet spot there's a bit of metallic liveliness. Perhaps just not used to listening to I in directional speakers. I think in the right room this could be much better. But that's not to say it's bad here.
Merchant great imaging overall but again the balance is off IMO. Gave Tyson the sweet spot to seek hat he thinks on vocals.

All that said I can't believe these speakers. There is no place in the room including between the speakers that you can't hear I,aging and soundstage. When you stand between the speakers the image goes behind you! Crazy crazy crazy!!!

Pez · « **Reply #17 on:** 2 Oct 2015, 07:06 pm »

Pez · « **Reply #18 on:** 2 Oct 2015, 07:12 pm »

Tyson’s Notes Red Dragon room

General Room Notes – Every year I enjoy this room. This year they are doing a smaller speaker, the M4, which is a 12 inch version of their other speakers. And, room treatments!

Music – can’t listen to our track, but good selection of tracks in the room already playing. IMO these sound every bit as good as their M3 big brothers and for only $1300 it’s ridiculous value. The main question I always have with inexpensive speakers is ‘can they hang with the big boys’, or is there some level of compromise involved. In this case I don’t hear any real weaknesses, so yes they can indeed hang with the big boys.

Jason’s Notes

Computer audio room so no tunes of our own. Red hot chili peppers! Heeeyooo hear that great soundstageoooo. There's a twang that I find a bit artificial sounding.
Now treetop flyer. Very realistic except for the uber twang of the guitar again.
I'm sure Tyson is loving it. Open baffle... Ya of course he's writing superlatives and praises as we speak.

Pez · « **Reply #19 on:** 2 Oct 2015, 07:22 pm »

Tyson’s Notes Davialet Room

General Room Notes – Ah, the speaker with all the hype. Makes the audacious attempt to soud like a big speaker in a very small package. Do they succeed?

Music – They are no set up for playing CD’s so listening to Clapton from their playlist. I can say they are smooth and inoffensive and have a lot of upper/mid bass. Stands are too short though, so again I feel like I’m looking down on the performers.

Wow, a LOT of talking going on in this room. Making it hard to get a feel for these things beyond that. Too bad. I ca tell you that there is absolutely no soundstaging going on at all – everything is just a big wall of meh over in that direction, somewhere.

Jason’s Notes
Alien orb head approach to this setup. The BWs are not running but the orbs are. No pace to sit that makes sense. Can't find the sweet spot. Lots of talking. But here's some pics!!!