Audiocircle member RMAF 2010 show coverage.

newtown · « **Reply #20 on:** 15 Oct 2010, 08:32 pm »

Would be interested to hear what people think of the Legend Acoustics room (room 457 Marriott Hotel). They've dragged their top of the line Tikandi speakers all the way from here in Australia to RMAF.

Pez · « **Reply #21 on:** 15 Oct 2010, 10:54 pm »

In the Empirical room now featuring the Salks. They sound very nice. Dynamics to die for, and great imaging/soundstaging. One of the better rooms I've been in.

fsimms · « **Reply #22 on:** 15 Oct 2010, 11:05 pm »

Quote

In the Empirical room now featuring the Salks. They sound very nice. Dynamics to die for, and great imaging/soundstaging. One of the better rooms I've been in.

Thanks PEZ! As a SoundScape owner, I have been dying for the "word". Now it has been given.

Bob

SwedeSound · « **Reply #23 on:** 15 Oct 2010, 11:29 pm »

I think it goes without saying -- tho I'll say it anyway -- that the AC Members at RMAF 2010 thread is hot and only going to get hotter. It will easily be the most widely read this weekend as those of us who couldn't attend attempt to live vicariously through you. You have a captive audience, friends. Post, post away.

-Jason

Mariusz · « **Reply #24 on:** 15 Oct 2010, 11:30 pm »

Quote from: SwedeSound on 15 Oct 2010, 11:29 pm

I think it goes without saying -- tho I'll say it anyway -- that the AC Members at RMAF 2010 thread is hot and only going to get hotter. It will easily be the most widely read this weekend as those of us who couldn't attend attempt to live vicariously through you. You have a captive audience, friends. Post, post away.

-Jason

X2

Pez · « **Reply #25 on:** 16 Oct 2010, 12:33 am »

In the Selah audio room right now listening to some very interesting stuff great overall sound and very nice given that they are not the big giant speakers like every other room.

James Romeyn · « **Reply #26 on:** 16 Oct 2010, 12:50 am »

If I was voting, I'd vote for members to keep playing their favorite demo software (I know you'll possibly hate that music by the end of the weekend) and keep a running tally of the top three best rooms. Or top five?

I keep suggesting Duke's AudioKinesis room because he's launched a new speaker with new side-firing driver format. My listening experience with the technology is that it is special and worth hearing, especially because there is no similar (to my knowledge) mix of design specifications anywhere else.

WGH · « **Reply #27 on:** 16 Oct 2010, 05:19 am »

Friday was a casual day at RMAF 2010, the hotel was not crowded and many rooms had just a few people listening. All the rooms I visited had pretty good sound, here are a few highlights:

Classic audio and Atma-Sphere have a very dynamic room

The Nola Metro Grand Reference sounded fantastic at $22,000

The new Von Schweikert VR33 are really as good as the reviews say they are

The Von Schweikert VR35 are even better, look at that amp!

Bamberg has some of the best sound at the show

Daedalus sounded terrific too

GR Research rocked the house, the speakers can easily fill a room with great music

JBL had lifelike dynamics

The new Jolida Glass electronics are $350 each

Wilson - always a class act

Zu has a very coherent sound

Wayne

seddy · « **Reply #28 on:** 16 Oct 2010, 05:38 am »

The Nola room was fantastic with Audio Research and the DAC8.

The GR room sported the Tranquility Dac. Very nice room.
Zu room with the Essence and Redwine Audio gear was great.
First Watt room was great as well.

Overall, lots of good stuff in day 1. Seems like better sound everywhere this year.

jhm731 · « **Reply #29 on:** 16 Oct 2010, 06:03 am »

http://www.soundstagenetwork.com/index.php?option=com_igallery&view=gallery&id=20&Itemid=202

vinyl_guy · « **Reply #30 on:** 16 Oct 2010, 02:04 pm »

Stereophile's RMAF blog http://blog.stereophile.com/rmaf2010/

jriggy · « **Reply #31 on:** 16 Oct 2010, 02:21 pm »

WGH

Quote

Daedalus sounded terrific too

That should maybe read The Daedalus Ulysses sounded terrific in the First Sound room.

Cant wait to see pics and hear about Lou's Daedalus room!

vinyl_guy · « **Reply #32 on:** 16 Oct 2010, 02:39 pm »

The Audio Alernative room (Ft. Collins CO dealer) featuring the $45,000 Vandersteen 7s driven by Audio Research's top of the line gear. Very nice, coherent sound

The Neko Audio/Audio Kinesis room. I thought the speakers had good tonal balance with better than average clarity & detail, excellent dynamics and a wide sweetspot.

I spent a lot of time in Dan Wright's room listening to CDs on his modded Oppo SE and vinyl on a VPI Classic through the LS 100 preamp with the built in phonostage. The system was powered by Dan's KWA 100 amp and the speakers are the Daedalus DA-RMas. Dan has hit another homerun with the LS 100. He is going to send it around on a tour and I highly recommend you get on the tour list. This room, along with the Galibier room had the best sound of all the rooms I visited on Friday.

The all vinyl Galibier room with Atma-Sphere electronics driving Daedalus Ulysses speakers. The tone arm on the Galibier is the 2d generation Durand ($7,900). Very sweet sound

Some of the best vinyl I have heard.

ACers meeting up in the Atrium bar on Friday evening

From left to right, Rob, Ted_b, WGH, me, TomS, Big Red Machine.

vinyl_guy · « **Reply #33 on:** 16 Oct 2010, 02:50 pm »

Quote from: jriggy on 16 Oct 2010, 02:21 pm

WGH
That should maybe read The Daedalus Ulysses sounded terrific in the First Sound room.

That would be correct. The room did sound terrific. I heard some jazz, Eric Clapton, Black Sabbath, Dead Can Dance and She & Him while in the room and all sounded great. The First Sound pre amp is a very nice unit. I told Emmanuel he needed to make a phonostage next

Quote

Can't wait to see pics and hear about Lou's Daedalus room

Lou's room had some compatibility issues with some rebuilt Atma-Sphere's that just never sounded right and he finally had to remove the Atma-Sphere's and bring in a third ModWright KWA 150 to power his new Bass Optimization Woofers. When I left the room at 10:30 last night it was sounding great. I will spend some time there today and post my impressions.

jriggy · « **Reply #34 on:** 16 Oct 2010, 03:22 pm »

Quote from: vinyl_lady on 16 Oct 2010, 02:50 pm

Lou's room had some compatibility issues with some rebuilt Atma-Sphere's that just never sounded right and he finally had to remove the Atma-Sphere's and bring in a third ModWright KWA 150 to power his new Bass Optimization Woofers. When I left the room at 10:30 last night it was sounding great. I will spend some time there today and post my impressions.

Aww thats a bummer... I know all involved were very excited to be running with the Atma-Sphere's. I hope they get everything settled to their liking.

capwkidd · « **Reply #35 on:** 16 Oct 2010, 03:33 pm »

Pez and Tyson, could you post pictures of you two, so we all know what you look like?

Pez, did you say you are primarily using the iPhone to take pictures? That's a thought... I guess I can try that for a while....

eclein · « **Reply #36 on:** 16 Oct 2010, 03:39 pm »

Good stuff!!!! Nice to put faces to posts...thanks all!!!

ltr317 · « **Reply #37 on:** 16 Oct 2010, 04:26 pm »

Pez here, posting photos for Paul. He will add comments later.

Paul here. Thanks Jason for loading the photos. I finally found some free time after dinner with a large group. Here are my quick snapshots culled from notes. All photos are from Friday. My rating with either one or two thumbs up represent what I enjoyed listening most without regard for cost.

Fritz Carbon 7s speakers with Modwright electronics and Modwright modded Oppo cd player. Nice balanced sound for slightly above budget prices.

All Marantz, all the time. Decent sound but expensive.

For all you streaming freaks - HD audio, 24 bit 192 Khz sound. Wireless, active speakers.

King Sound electrostatics and VAC electronics - organic sound and expensive.

Audio Physic speakers and Trigon electronics room - Very smooth, detailed and natural.

Duelund electronics and Kaiser Kawero speakers - they were using wav files which produced high resolution and detailed sound.

These are hand made speakers - Bogdan Audio Creations. The smaller speaker is the Catalina (65 lbs) and the larger one is the Petra (350 lbs). The designer told me it is real wood, not veneer and takes many hours to make. I thought the Catalina was quite good looking in person.

PTE speakers - Phoenix model. These are active speakers, driven by 3 130 watt amps $5,400 pr.
Very natural image height. When one is seated, the image height is at least 5 feet, no 3 ft dwarf images here.

Tubes, tubes, and more tubes from LA Audio. Yummy.

LA Audio tube gear.

LessLoss room. Full, balanced sound, with just the right amount of resolution.

Linkwitz Lab - Do it yourself speaker kit, by the famous crossover guy (Linkwitz-Riley). This is the finest sound I heard on the first day, and by a large margin.
This system sounds closer to live music more than any other system I heard on the first day.
Completely assembled speaker with amplifiers start at $9,200 pr, depending on choice of wood cabinet. Kits start at $2,800 pr. If I had the money I would buy the completely assembled speaker, and be done with future speaker buying. For me, the sound is magical.

Another photo of the Linkwitz speaker.

I will post photos and comments of rooms I visited today (Saturday) sometime tomorrow.

Paul Mah

vinyl_guy · « **Reply #38 on:** 16 Oct 2010, 06:00 pm »

Quote from: jriggy on 16 Oct 2010, 03:22 pm

Aww thats a bummer... I know all involved were very excited to be running with the Atma-Sphere's. I hope they get everything settled to their liking.

I just came from Lou's room and the sound is fantastic

His new Bass Optimization Woofers really enhance the low end without it sounding boomy. Much, much better without the Atma-Sphere amps and pre. Something wasn't right with the rebuilt Atma-spheres in Lou's room because a pair of M-60s (I think) sound great driving the Daedalus Ulyesses in the Galibier room. more later

jtwrace · « **Reply #39 on:** 16 Oct 2010, 06:02 pm »

What does Ralph think about what happened to the amps?