Audiocircle member RMAF 2010 show coverage.

Tyson · « **Reply #280 on:** 19 Oct 2010, 08:03 pm »

OK, I am busted, I should have checked the book for the hours on Sunday instead of relying on Jason

Re: my comment on the Atma's, I understand they were removed for a technical difficulty. And my comments on their sound quality are MINE ALONE and represent my OPINION. Others feel differently, and that's cool. Actually I forgot the Atma's were in Duke's AudioKinesis room, so there's one system that I felt was excellent with them.

Mis-labeled the Tyler room, sorry about that, fixing it now.

Tyson · « **Reply #281 on:** 19 Oct 2010, 08:07 pm »

Quote from: Response Audio on 19 Oct 2010, 04:52 pm

We'll accept that I can tell you that the speaker arrangement was a last minute decission as we had other options that did not work out in this particular room. Lucily Alex from RAAL was gracious enough to let us use his new dipole ribbon which really brough the Rethm speakers up several levels.

Next year will be quite different

I will say I went in to your room expecting to really dislike it, based on the drivers used in the Rethm's (I usually quite dislike "fullrange" drivers of this type). But, the fact that I enjoyed it quite a bit, even after coming directly from a room I absolutely loved, speaks volumes in favor of the sound you were getting. Running the bass modules and the bipolar tweeters really gave the room a nice and full plus spacious sound.

a1p1 · « **Reply #282 on:** 19 Oct 2010, 08:09 pm »

Thanks to all who provided photos and commentary. I really enjoyed the honest and snarky opinions. Hope to go next year.
AP

Tyson · « **Reply #283 on:** 19 Oct 2010, 08:14 pm »

Quote from: Randy on 19 Oct 2010, 06:40 pm

Tyson, yes, the speakers in that photo look like Tyler's D- 2s. Nobody seemed to take any notice of the sound other than that short comment.

Hear any good classical music at the demos in Denver? I used to bring my own CDs to play and drove most of the other auditioners out of the rooms. Didn't make it down this year.

Hey Randy,
To elaborate a bit on the Tylers, I was at the point in the show (on sunday) that I was starting to hit the wall. I looked in and thought, "Oh Great! Another Cone/Dome speaker!". But sitting down and listening to them was very nice, they were clearly better than the very good Dynaudio Sapphires we'd heard just previous. Very tight, strong bass (which was surprisingly rare at the show), smooth almost seductive mids (even with an SS amp), and perfectly integrated highs. And the soundstage was DEEP, especially for a direct radiator speaker. Among the very best cone/dome direct radiating towers I heard all show.

As for music, yes I heard two bits that I really enjoyed - the JM Reynaud room had some Shostakovitch String Quartets performed by the Sorrel Quartet on Chandos that was very good - it focused more on pathos than angst, and it worked pretty well. Also, Jason picked up a CD in the MA Recordings room of Bach on a lute that is simply a stunningly good recording. I'll be getting that one soon too.

atmasphere · « **Reply #284 on:** 19 Oct 2010, 08:15 pm »

Quote from: Wayne1 on 19 Oct 2010, 07:44 pm

As we found out later, even plugging into to wall would not have helped much. At one point, after turning the MA-1s on, the power for that wall went out. So did the power for the room above us. It turned out the hotel had the two rooms wired together. They shared a single 20 amp circuit. With 1 kW draw from the MA-1 and 600 watts from the M-60s above us, there was not much extra current to go around.

The ground loop seemed to manifest itself only when the Atma-sphere gear was used. A Marchand electronic crossover was also tried but it had the same noise. No noise was noticed with the Modwright amps in the system.

This conversation can easily degrade into flaming. I would prefer to avoid that. What it simply comes down to was we couldn't get the Atma-sphere gear to work in that room with what we brought to the show. Ralph did spend quite a bit of time trying to make it work. In the end, we decided to go with gear that had worked before.

Thom Makris was using the same speakers with our amps in that room upstairs. Power is always an issue at shows, one reason that we usually have a variac on hand, so we can correct the line voltage, which at this show was often only about 107 VAC. The ground loop issue made things harder, as a ground loop can rob a system of transparency and detail, with the obvious issue of hum for good measure.

However if anyone ever asks us about power line conditioners for the amps, I tell them to avoid them for precisely the reasons that we encountered in this room: the MA-1 (and our larger amps) overload most power conditioners. Anytime the power exceeds 50% of the capacity of the conditioner, the power from the conditioner is suspect. I think I should have been more vocal about it.

The best power conditioner I have seen was made by a company called Elgar, for industrial purposes. It is mechanically noisy, so is not practical for a show. Usually they are installed near the breakerbox, rather than in the actual listening room. But it is the only one I have seen that can make a true sine wave at full output.

WGH · « **Reply #285 on:** 19 Oct 2010, 08:42 pm »

TURNTABLES !!!

There were sure a lot of spinning black disks this year, they all sounded excellent.

SOTA

VPI Classic

Basis

This table was in the Burmester room, I don't have the name.

Wally Malewicz demonstrating his Wallyskater

Galibier had a table in a few rooms, this Stelvio I was in the Daedalus room

Linn

Music Hall MMF-5.1

Musical Life O/ from Germany

Mystery table - identify this table and arm and win a prize (not really)

VPI in the Soundsmith room using the Strain Gauge cartridge ($5500)

T-W Acustic Raven Black Night

Mr. Walker with his Proscenium turntable - to say Mr. Walker is passionate about turntable design would be an understatement, a very interesting person to talk to.

Well Tempered Labs with a new arm

XactAudio Kodo 'The Beat' direct drive turntable with Reed tonearm
Platter weighs 25.5 lbs, total turntable weight is 94 lbs.

Wayne

mgalusha · « **Reply #286 on:** 19 Oct 2010, 09:10 pm »

Quote from: atmasphere on 19 Oct 2010, 08:15 pm

However if anyone ever asks us about power line conditioners for the amps, I tell them to avoid them for precisely the reasons that we encountered in this room: the MA-1 (and our larger amps) overload most power conditioners. Anytime the power exceeds 50% of the capacity of the conditioner, the power from the conditioner is suspect. I think I should have been more vocal about it.

I'll attest to the fact that the Atma-Sphere's like a lot of current. When my M-60's first arrived I plugged them into my BPT 2.0, which has a 20amp balanced transformer inside. I was horribly disappointed, especially after shelling out considerable cash. Plugged them into the wall and presto, like a whole new amp. I know the MA-1's are even hungrier. I am using a Bybee conditioner with the amps now but it doesn't limit current in any way and would happily pass 30A if the IEC and outlets would support it.

Back to the show reports now.

Occam · « **Reply #287 on:** 19 Oct 2010, 09:15 pm »

Quote from: atmasphere on 19 Oct 2010, 08:15 pm

Thom Makris was using the same speakers with our amps in that room upstairs. Power is always an issue at shows, one reason that we usually have a variac on hand, so we can correct the line voltage, which at this show was often only about 107 VAC. The ground loop issue made things harder, as a ground loop can rob a system of transparency and detail, with the obvious issue of hum for good measure.

However if anyone ever asks us about power line conditioners for the amps, I tell them to avoid them for precisely the reasons that we encountered in this room: the MA-1 (and our larger amps) overload most power conditioners. Anytime the power exceeds 50% of the capacity of the conditioner, the power from the conditioner is suspect. I think I should have been more vocal about it.
.......

Ralph,

You might want to talk to Thom Mackris about his experience with the Kaplan Cable Alchemist Power Conditioner that he used in his room 1130 to power your MP-1 preamp and M-60 monoblocs. The consensus was that it was a major improvement over the crappy hotel supplied power. The preamp experienced the greatest improvement (on its individual source component filter), but the amps (on their own 20 amp filter) also improved with no dynamic constraints.

FWIW,
Paul Kaplan

jtwrace · « **Reply #288 on:** 19 Oct 2010, 09:37 pm »

Quote from: Occam on 19 Oct 2010, 09:15 pm

Ralph,

You might want to talk to Thom Mackris about his experience with the Kaplan Cable Alchemist Power Conditioner that he used in his room 1130 to power your MP-1 preamp and M-60 monoblocs. The consensus was that it was a major improvement over the crappy hotel supplied power. The preamp experienced the greatest improvement (on its individual source component filter), but the amps (on their own 20 amp filter) also improved with no dynamic constraints.

FWIW,
Paul Kaplan

You have a PM.

jhm731 · « **Reply #289 on:** 19 Oct 2010, 09:43 pm »

Quote from: Occam on 19 Oct 2010, 09:15 pm

Ralph,

You might want to talk to Thom Mackris about his experience with the Kaplan Cable Alchemist Power Conditioner that he used in his room 1130 to power your MP-1 preamp and M-60 monoblocs. The consensus was that it was a major improvement over the crappy hotel supplied power. The preamp experienced the greatest improvement (on its individual source component filter), but the amps (on their own 20 amp filter) also improved with no dynamic constraints.

FWIW,
Paul Kaplan

Were the M-60s plugged into a power conditioner when they were attempting to drive the GMA Calypso HDs that were supposed to be in room 1130?

atmasphere · « **Reply #290 on:** 19 Oct 2010, 09:49 pm »

Quote from: Occam on 19 Oct 2010, 09:15 pm

Ralph,

You might want to talk to Thom Mackris about his experience with the Kaplan Cable Alchemist Power Conditioner that he used in his room 1130 to power your MP-1 preamp and M-60 monoblocs. The consensus was that it was a major improvement over the crappy hotel supplied power. The preamp experienced the greatest improvement (on its individual source component filter), but the amps (on their own 20 amp filter) also improved with no dynamic constraints.

FWIW,
Paul Kaplan

The smaller the amplifier the easier it is. I will talk to him- but if he has a power conditioner that can handle a set of MA-1s it will be the first time I have seen that.

zybar · « **Reply #291 on:** 19 Oct 2010, 10:03 pm »

Quote from: atmasphere on 19 Oct 2010, 09:49 pm

The smaller the amplifier the easier it is. I will talk to him- but if he has a power conditioner that can handle a set of MA-1s it will be the first time I have seen that.

Hate to hijack, but since Ralph threw it out there...

Can you expand on using power conditioners with MA-1 amps?

I have MA-1 MK 3 amps and they sound better going into a Furman Sound IT Ref 20i (http://www.furmansound.com/product.php?div=02&id=IT-REF_20i) which is connected to a Pi Audio Uberbuss than connected directly to the wall. The MA-1's drive Vandy 5A's.

I am running all of this on a dedicated 20 amp line.

Thanks in advance for your reply Ralph.

George

Pez · « **Reply #292 on:** 19 Oct 2010, 10:10 pm »

Yeah, I'm going to stop you there Zybar, please repost this in either the tubes circle or the general.

Thanks

jtwrace · « **Reply #293 on:** 19 Oct 2010, 10:13 pm »

Quote from: Pez on 19 Oct 2010, 10:10 pm

Yeah, I'm going to stop you there Zybar, please repost this in either the tubes circle or the general.

Thanks

Zybar

Please do start a thread about that as I'm very much interested in what Ralph has to say.

vinyl_lady · « **Reply #294 on:** 19 Oct 2010, 10:28 pm »

The Galibier TT in the Daedalus Audio room was the Stelvio I

I believe that is Wally Malewicz demonstrating his Wallyskater and not Dr. Feickert

zybar · « **Reply #295 on:** 19 Oct 2010, 10:52 pm »

Quote from: jtwrace on 19 Oct 2010, 10:13 pm

Zybar

Please do start a thread about that as I'm very much interested in what Ralph has to say.

Done.

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=87121.msg851169;topicseen#new

Hopefully Ralph will see it and respond.

George

Nuance · « **Reply #296 on:** 19 Oct 2010, 10:58 pm »

Quote from: Don_S on 18 Oct 2010, 11:13 pm

What veneer was used on the Crescendo at the show?

This Veneer.

I just found out their retail price: $16,000

Pez · « **Reply #297 on:** 19 Oct 2010, 11:00 pm »

Awesome room. definately the best SET setup at the show.

Occam · « **Reply #298 on:** 19 Oct 2010, 11:24 pm »

Quote from: jhm731 on 19 Oct 2010, 09:43 pm

Were the M-60s plugged into a power conditioner when they were attempting to drive the GMA Calypso HDs that were supposed to be in room 1130?

No, the M-60s were plugged directly into the wall when powering the
Green Mountain Audio speakers, and the choice of speaker and interconnect cables were the choice of the GMA dude. Only after choosing the speakers were the amps evaluated through the Kaplan Alchemist conditioner and the decision to power all the Atma-Sphere electronics was made.

FWIW,
Paul
Kaplan Cable

James Romeyn · « **Reply #299 on:** 19 Oct 2010, 11:34 pm »

Quote from: Nuance on 19 Oct 2010, 10:58 pm

This Veneer.

I just found out their retail price: $16,000

Well...I couldn't tell that veneer from Astroturf in that light....but that's beside the point: WOW! I had no idea they suckers were so huge! I thought $16k/pr might lean toward the high side till seeing this image. That's a lotta meat for your money!