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Lifetime Achievement Award:Vinnie Rossi - every year his rooms are always at the top of best in show. And he never rests on his laurels. Because I swear to god his rooms get better and better and better, year after year after year. The man is relentless at improving. Bravo!
Best Bass: Spatial Audio w/Vinnie Rossi. Man those Lumina L2s just crush it in the bass department. Blazing fast, highly musical and punches you in the chest. Couple that with some of the best imaging/soundstage at the show and Clayton has another winner on his hands.
My friends and I dropped by both VR rooms twice. Spatial was our show favorite, Harbeth a close second. Both were drop dead, amazing tone, rich, natural, engaging. The new Spatial is a great speaker, and this was the best I have heard Harbeth by a lot.
Just one small correction on my show coverage. I visit about 40 rooms per show, but I only post and comment on a handful. That’s because most rooms are merely average sounding and don’t really rate a mention. So the best in show award is actually from a fairly large sample.
Lovely sound, typical of Harbeth and its legendary status. Great bass, too...Vinnie Rossi continues to make some of the most intriguing electronics, highly adaptable and sounding superb. Wire by Triode Wire Labs. Very good and reasonably priced.
Vinnie Rossi, Harbeth, Triode Wire Labs (Room 4024)Vinnie is showing off his latest and greatest L2 Signature Preamplifiers and L2 Monoblocks, which handle a slew Harbeth speakers (big and small) extraordinarily well. Harbeth’s 40.2 Anniversary flat-out rock the house when tethered Vinnie’s new mono-block powerhouses. Without any doubt, a must see room at the show.
Spatial Audio, Vinnie Rossi, Anticables (Room 3018)Clayton Shaw of Spatial Audio has really outdone himself with the new Lumina L2 open-baffle speakers, but that is his specialty. Along with Vinnie’s already spectacular amplification, the pairing is producing some of the most effortless and articulate bass I’ve heard this year. Currently, this room is one of my nominations for best sound of the show.
In the Spatial Audio room, Clayton Shaw was debuting his statement speaker, the Lumina L2 along with Vinnie Rossi’s L2 Signature Preamp and Monoblock System that he was debuting. All the cabling was from AntiCable. This was some of the best sound at the show.
Check out the front wall, that is where the action is happening, such is the depth of the soundfield in this room. I have always enjoyed the Harbeth sound and don't mind saying that I enjoy vinyl, as well. The Acoustic Signature TT and cartridge and Vinnie Rossi electronics kept the Harbeths well fed.
Just natural non reproduced sounding music. My mind could completely relax without having to do that assemblage trick of "working" to believe I was hearing live, naturally produced music. Not with the Lumina L2's. I looked over at my friend. His eyes widened. Later he confessed that he had the same feeling about this wonderful system.
The record sounded profoundly beautiful in Vinnie’s room.
I was lucky to attend RMAF and of course visited both Vinnie's rooms. And while I agree that the room with Spatial L2 speakers had one of the best sound, i think that it had noticeable better sound than Harbert. But for those who have room space issues Harbert speakers are the way to go if you want great sound while sitting very close to the speakers
Different is what I'd say. I never understood the Harbeth sound but obviously many people like it and they sound the best on VR equipment without any doubt.
This was one of those rooms you could sit and listen all day and never get fatigued. Vinnie had them dialed in and his new DHT Preamp sounded terrific. You also won’t meet a friendlier bunch than these guys!
This was posted a few days ago - not sure how I missed it! RMAF Best of Show http://www.audioshark.org/rmaf-136/rmaf-2018-best-show-15220.htmlI think he was referring to Triode Pete as the friendly one - he keep the room fun and he cables are a great match between Harbeth and Vinnie Rossi gear, and always have been!Thank you, Mike. And I hope to attend and see you at the Florida Audio Expo in February:https://floridaaudioexpo.com/Vinnie
It was Sunday and I only had time for a quick listen to the system but what I heard with the small Harbeth's [P3ESR 40th Anniversary Edition] left me impressed. Super smooth, rich and musical. Definitely some equipment for me to give more of a listen to at next year's show.
Warmth and midrange smoothness were the strengths of a Vinnie Rossi/Triode Wire Labs / Harbeth loudspeaker system...Drums and percussion were depicted with excellence, the low tones of piano and instruments were conveyed with perfection, and the artistry and emotion of all concerned came through loud and clear. In fact, the brilliance of music and interpretation was such that, for one of the rare times in my 15 years at audio shows, absolutely no one left the room or even fidgeted during a long piece of relatively obscure, heart-rending German lieder that was impeccably sung with deep feeling. This is a tribute not only to Vinnie Rossi, Harbeth, and Triode Wire, but also to the quality of show attendees whom Vinnie tends to attract. Thank you, one and all.
...I had made my way up to the 11th floor and down the shifty stairwells during my first quick pass, all the way down to Room 3018 before I really heard something to get excited about. It’s rooms like Vinnie’s and Clayton’s that really are “the energy” for that audio show feeling.... Bass was massive and natural — and by natural I mean it was like real thunder, not a facsimile, or one of those pesky apartment neighbors who just got “Sub-Woofer: The Movie” on Blu-Ray. ...The mid-range and treble was as effortless as anything I had encountered this year at any of the shows. Not to say it was out-right the best, but it was spooky in how it loaded the room and held voices inside the image when needed but allowed the vocals to show space when the recording demanded it....When we talk about Best-In-Show sound, I can’t help but take into account that what I heard here at Rocky Mountain Audio Fest is not only a few extra inches of performance, but a few feet worth. How many other speaker and electronics brands can admit they’ve made those kind of gains?
