Audiocircle member RMAF 2010 show coverage.

David C · « **Reply #100 on:** 17 Oct 2010, 04:10 pm »

A big thank you to all for the outstanding coverage. I have seen a couple of mentions of Revel and Wilson. How did they stack up to the Salks, Vandys and C4s???

eclein · « **Reply #101 on:** 17 Oct 2010, 04:18 pm »

Quote from: Nuance on 17 Oct 2010, 04:04 pm

I don't remember which speakers Zu had on display (the Omens?), but they were pleasant sounding. We listened to a lot of gear at a pretty quick pace, but I do recall liking what Zu had to offer.

Thanks!!

James Romeyn · « **Reply #102 on:** 17 Oct 2010, 04:37 pm »

Quote from: mbakes on 17 Oct 2010, 01:44 pm

... I've given up trying to explain in any great detail how something sounds. I'm just not real good at it. Many of the rooms I visited, the music just seemed dead, without emotion, the rooms I liked were the ones that got my toes tapping. The Zu rooms were just a couple that had that effect...

A better description and/or qualification is unnecessary! Well said! Great comments all! So much better, on most levels, than so-called professional journalist reports. Blessings to the forum, members, moderators, and JohnR.

Quote

Get the JH 13. I bought mine more than a year ago and it may be the best audio purchase I have made.

What is it?

James Romeyn · « **Reply #103 on:** 17 Oct 2010, 04:43 pm »

Quote from: Pez on 17 Oct 2010, 03:10 pm

How awesome is RMAF this year? I'll tell you. I just woke up (9 am) at home because of probably one of te most amazing listening sessions I have ever had went until 3 am. I wake up to my phone ringing and a fellow ACer asking 'where are you???'

I will post some impressions from last night as well as more pics at some point today because it... was.... awesome!!!! (thumbs up smiley guy)

Pez
What if something HAPPENS to you before you disclose the system??? You can't wait...you MUST disclose it now!

Wayner · « **Reply #104 on:** 17 Oct 2010, 04:47 pm »

Quote from: TheChairGuy on 17 Oct 2010, 02:14 pm

He wasn't with Frank van Alstine this year ( I asked); so, unless he went solo without telling me, I don't think he was there

John

I'm at home, guarding the factory and working on a new TT project. Sorry I missed, but will try to attend next year. Save some beer for me.

Wayner

Tyson · « **Reply #105 on:** 17 Oct 2010, 05:01 pm »

Hi all,
I'm heading out to RMAF now, after a crazy 3 am listening session with Pez and a couple of other people last night. Since it's the last day of the show and we've hit a large number of rooms, I'll open things up a bit for requests and do my best to hit those vendors.

Any vendors in particular that you'd like me or Pez to check out? We'll do our best to get them today if we haven't already.

vinyl_lady · « **Reply #106 on:** 17 Oct 2010, 05:02 pm »

Here are some more pics. I'll post descriptions and impressions later, assuming I can remember which room I was in when I took the picture

I was impressed with the sound in the Purity audio room. They have done a great job with the pre amp. Clayton monoblocks and I can't remember who makes the speakers

The Odyssey room was a room I could have spent all day listening. The sound was detailed, balanced and non-fatiguing. I can't imagine one could find better sound than this for $5,500. We listened to vinyl on an Alex G modded Technics 1200. Very nice vinyl playback for not a lot of money. Congratualtions to Klaus and Alex on a great sounding room.

Klaus, Rim (woodsyi), John (The Chair Guy), and Alex in the Odyssey room. I can't remember if Klaus was choking Rim or giving him a shoulder massage

The Van Alstine/Salk room. I had a nice visit with Frank and Mary. They have received a lot of good ink in TAS recently. I spent my time visiting with Frank & Mary and didn't do any critical listening.

The Bamberg Audio room with Modwright KWA 100, transporter & LS 100. I listened to the red speakers on Saturday and the larger speakers on Sunday. Both sounded great but I preferred the larger speakers. The bass was more defined and controlled. A UberBUSS was used to clean the power. I thought this was one of the better sounding rooms I heard.

The Artemis Labs room. I can't seem to remember what the room sounded like.

The Bogdan Audio room. Both speakers are hand made by the owner and quite expensive. I believe he wants $18,000 for the small ones. The large speakers were way too big for the small room and the bass was extremely boomy. The small ones had decent, but not great sound.

the Walker Audio room with the small TAD speakers. I liked the sound of these speakers.

Peter Ledermann of Soundsmith. I spent a lot of time in this room listening to Peter's Strain Guage cartridge on both Teres and VPI turntables. I feel in love with this cartridge

and it is at or near the top of my short list for the next cartridge I buy. It truly seemed like Neil Young was in the room while listening to Cowgirl in the Sand from the Live at Massey Hall album. One of the most emotionally engaging cartridges I have ever heard.

The Daedalus Audio room on Saturday with 3 ModWright KWA 150s, the Gill Audio Alana pre amp, AMR CD player, the Bolder Cable modded Eastern Electric DAC, Galibier TT, Durand tonearm, Ortofon A-90 cartridge, Hagerman Trumpet phonostage, Dynamic Design cables and power cords, Furman power conditioner and a UberBUSS. Wayne (Bolder Cable) made the crossovers. The sound in this room late Saturday afternoon was wonderful--detailed, smooth, lots of dynamics, supurb tonal balance and extremely non fatiguing at both soft and loud volume levels.

James Romeyn · « **Reply #107 on:** 17 Oct 2010, 05:08 pm »

Quote from: Tyson on 17 Oct 2010, 05:01 pm

Hi all,
I'm heading out to RMAF now, after a crazy 3 am listening session with Pez and a couple of other people last night. Since it's the last day of the show and we've hit a large number of rooms, I'll open things up a bit for requests and do my best to hit those vendors.

Any vendors in particular that you'd like me or Pez to check out? We'll do our best to get them today if we haven't already.

In no particular order:
Vivid Audio Giya speakers, any, but preferably the smaller/stand-mounts.

Duke's Audio Kinesis new model with side-firing ambiance drivers.

glrtrgi · « **Reply #108 on:** 17 Oct 2010, 05:19 pm »

Quote from: Tyson on 17 Oct 2010, 05:01 pm

Hi all,
I'm heading out to RMAF now, after a crazy 3 am listening session with Pez and a couple of other people last night. Since it's the last day of the show and we've hit a large number of rooms, I'll open things up a bit for requests and do my best to hit those vendors.

Any vendors in particular that you'd like me or Pez to check out? We'll do our best to get them today if we haven't already.

I would love to hear about any outstanding monitors under $4K. Has anyone listened to the JM Reynaud room? I understand that the J-Corder room had a credible set of very inexpensive monitors. I love the Audio Note AN-E speakers but they are a bit pricey. And active monitors (if any) are also on my list of potential purchases. Thanks for taking the time to post here. WISH I was there!

Gregg

Will2 · « **Reply #109 on:** 17 Oct 2010, 05:23 pm »

Quote from: Tyson on 17 Oct 2010, 05:01 pm

Hi all,
I'm heading out to RMAF now, after a crazy 3 am listening session with Pez and a couple of other people last night. Since it's the last day of the show and we've hit a large number of rooms, I'll open things up a bit for requests and do my best to hit those vendors.

Any vendors in particular that you'd like me or Pez to check out? We'll do our best to get them today if we haven't already.

That's very generous of you to offer. I'd love to hear your impressions of the AudioKinesis room.

James Romeyn · « **Reply #110 on:** 17 Oct 2010, 05:31 pm »

If possible, would be much appreciated to read your audio impressions of the Vivid Audio Speakers:

Vendor/retailer "Tweak Geek" (303 653 6341) showing circa $7500/pr MSRP Vivid Audio V1.5 stand-mount, room 9013. I'm much more interested in this stand mount vs. the floor stander below. (There was once a dealer named Tweak Geek in Santa Rosa, CA.)

Vendor "On A Higher Note" showing Vivid Audio G2 Giya floor stander, Long's Peak on the Mezzanine Level.

mbakes · « **Reply #111 on:** 17 Oct 2010, 05:53 pm »

Quote from: James Romeyn on 17 Oct 2010, 04:37 pm

What is it?

JH Audio JH13 Pro inner ear monitor.

Ended up ordering the Zu Soul Superfly. I really liked the Omen but the Soul SF were just that much better. As good as the dynamics were with the Omen, the Soul SF were even better.

a1p1 · « **Reply #112 on:** 17 Oct 2010, 06:16 pm »

Any opinions on the LessLoss setup (room 437) with Kasier speakers?
Thanks,
AP

jmc207 · « **Reply #113 on:** 17 Oct 2010, 06:43 pm »

It's too bad Chris couldn't make it this year. The LoneWolf leaning against these SongTowers would have been perfect.

satfrat · « **Reply #114 on:** 17 Oct 2010, 06:48 pm »

Quote from: jmc207 on 17 Oct 2010, 06:43 pm

It's too bad Chris couldn't make it this year. The LoneWolf leaning against these SongTowers would have been perfect.

Chris (Lonewolf) leaning against any loudspeaker with a beer in his hand is perfect.

Cheers,
Robin

WGH · « **Reply #115 on:** 17 Oct 2010, 07:05 pm »

Here are the second batch of photos I took, there are a lot more coming later today.

TAD - I think I liked them, I don't have any notes for this room.

Tyler Acoustics D2- good sound and Ty was fun to talk to, a great guy.

Burmester had a warm inviting sound, I was pleasantly surprised.

Estelon was a bit to detailed for me.

Fritz Speakers sounded wonderful, one of the best sounding small speaker at the show. Fritz Heiler happily posed with the terrific sounding Carbon 7.

Horns were popular this year, the speakers were either Horning or Asparas the amps are by Thoress.

Wayne

WGH · « **Reply #116 on:** 17 Oct 2010, 07:53 pm »

J-Corder had a very popular room, they revealed their new speakers too. The room was always crowded but I got lucky and got a shot of Kim Anderson, Jeff and Lorin Jacobs.

Another photo of the Rethm speakers. Full range speakers just don't do it for me, they have a great coherency and center image but add their own coloration to everything they play that I can't ignore.

Rogue Audio

Roger Sanders next to his electrostatic/dynamic loudspeakers. The sound was very clear and open with good bass integration.

Silverline speakers are new to me. The Sonatina MK IV (center) have nice deep, tight bass and sounded darn good.

Stello Electronics

Ron Sutherland proudly holding his new 20/20 phono pre-amp ($2020). No batteries here folks the amp is AC powered and includes a separate external AC power modules for each channel, followed by 10 sections of passive RC filtering and finalized with local constant voltage shunt regulation. Ron says the power supply can be as simple as a couple of wall warts.

As always the YG Acoustics room had plenty of detail, interesting to listing to but not relaxing. I went from the YG room into the Fritz Speakers room and my brain thanked me.

Wayne

jriggy · « **Reply #117 on:** 17 Oct 2010, 09:07 pm »

Those Thoress amps look so World War II!

Any comments on the Rogue Audio room???

Stercom · « **Reply #118 on:** 17 Oct 2010, 09:34 pm »

Great pictures! Thanks.

mbakes · « **Reply #119 on:** 17 Oct 2010, 10:42 pm »

Quote from: jriggy on 17 Oct 2010, 09:07 pm

Any comments on the Rogue Audio room???

I spent a decent amount of time in the Rogue room because a friend was interested in the OMA turntable and the mono cart (forget the brand of cart) and was also high on my list with the Revel Salon speakers. I heard a mono version of Ben Webster's Soulville in this room and it was some of the best music I heard. I never heard Rogue gear before RMAF and I was impressed with the sound. A number of rooms were real peaky and this room was not. I was talking to one of the guys manning the room and he said they spent a lot of time setting up the room and it paid off imo.