[OzarkTom]

Your comments and those of the Atmasphere developer (in another thread) are totally in synch and makes a very good point about bad juice in an over-taxed hotel system does not a great environment make.

I have been to a few CES shows where certain floors had no power at all. I guess those floors way over-taxed the hotel system.

[jtwrace]

I wonder what the hotel electric bill goes up for three days...it's actually amazing that the hotel has that much service available. 

[Big Red Machine]

I wonder what the hotel electric bill goes up for three days...it's actually amazing that the hotel has that much service available.

That's a great idea - next year we'll ask the electrician to give us a look at the meters and show us what's going on.  Between amps puling amps and A/C pulling amps - wow.

[jtwrace]

That's a great idea - next year we'll ask the electrician to give us a look at the meters and show us what's going on.  Between amps puling amps and A/C pulling amps - wow.

don't forget those elevators.  They have a huge draw as well.  And all the lights. 

It's amazing really.

[Bill Baker]

Marjorie acually had electricians come into the Marriott to make sure the grid was up to the task. It would be interesting to see what their electric bill is for the time of the show.

[Hugh]

It went real smooth this year comparing to last time.

Morning Bill.

Marjorie acually had electricians come into the Marriott to make sure the grid was up to the task. It would be interesting to see what their electric bill is for the time of the show.

[ted_b]

Yes, somewhere I remember reading about Marjorie's comments about bringing AC specialists in to make sure the hotel grid would handle it.  I think that article may have even speculated on load, etc.  I'll try to find it.

[Wind Chaser]

Whatever the bill, I'm sure they can afford to pay it.  Trade shows are hugely profitable.

[jtwrace]

Whatever the bill, I'm sure they can afford to pay it.  Trade shows are hugely profitable.

You really think so?  I think about emptying all those rooms.  I wonder what the margin really is after Marjorie pays them.  The overhead before, during and after the show is got to be pretty big. 

I love thinking about numbers.   

[Socrates7]

My first time trip to RMAF. Photos and some commentary here: http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Got-camera-first-timers-trip-RMAF

[ted_b]

Scot,
Hey.  Welcome to AC (I know you've posted a little about an SACD player, but thought I'd welcome you nonetheless).   

Scot is a regular member of the CA forum threads and it was a pleasure meeting him and other CA folks at RMAF.

[WGH]

The popularity of RMAF exceeded my expectations, my websites bandwidth limit has been exceeded. I'm working on moving the photos to another site with more bandwidth.

Thanks guys. 

Wayne

[James Romeyn]

Whatever the bill, I'm sure they can afford to pay it.  Trade shows are hugely profitable.

No comment re. trade shows in general, unknown and unknowable, all privately held institutions with absolutely no obligation to publish profits.  You can easily make conclusions by the fact that certain show venues repeat annually.  There is the fact that the Chicago summer CES once was and now is not.     

IIRC (someone else can confirm) the sum total paid RMAF employee is one.  All else are volunteers being the CO audiophile club that started it.  The rooms are pretty affordable vs. THE Show, and a freebie compared to CES.  The apparent tradeoff vs. THE Show (for vendors) is less foot traffic (I think), but the traffic is dedicated stereo nuts compared to a certain percentage of THE Show aimed at HT/video.
     

[solaja audio]

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.

Let me first introduce myself. My name is Dragan Solaja and I am the owner Solaja Audio. I come from Serbia and this is my third appearance at the RMAF (2008,2009,2010). The first time sign up here. As I read you liked the sound of RAAL, Selah Audio, Solaja Audio room. I just want to say that I have presented two preamplifiers. First day and the second half of the second day was played vacuum tube preamplifier SA-R (white) and half on the second and third day, he played a passive preamplifier SA-TVC1 (black). I hope that a good sound has to do with my preamplifiers. All the best.

[Socrates7]

Scot,
Hey.  Welcome to AC (I know you've posted a little about an SACD player, but thought I'd welcome you nonetheless).   

Scot is a regular member of the CA forum threads and it was a pleasure meeting him and other CA folks at RMAF.

Hi Ted! Likewise -- a pleasure to meet you too!

I don't get over here much, which is a shame. Another problem to rectify!

[Bill Baker]

Hi Dragan and welcome to Audio Circle. Hope your [long] drive to Chicago didn't scare you too much It was great meeting and hanging out with you and the rest of the crew. I have to find out what they put in the water in Serbia

[solaja audio]

Hi Dragan and welcome to Audio Circle. Hope your [long] drive to Chicago didn't scare you too much It was great meeting and hanging out with you and the rest of the crew. I have to find out what they put in the water in Serbia

Thanks guys from Purity Audio Design. I want to thank you for the generous technical assistance and welcoming. Thanks to the loan unballance to ballance adapter. The drive to Chicago was exciting and I was not scared. I hope that we will see next year. Your room was one of my favorites. Just keep the good work.

[Mariusz]

Hi Dragan and welcome to Audio Circle. Hope your [long] drive to Chicago didn't scare you too much It was great meeting and hanging out with you and the rest of the crew. I have to find out what they put in the water in Serbia

60% Grappa, 20% Slivovitz, 19% Vodka and 1% of pure water

Welcome to Audio Circle

[atmasphere]

bottom line is that something wasn't right with the used amps that were provided and they were not up to the performance of a new, show ready pair for whatever reason...   as for Wayne's crossover, that unit is excellent and dead silent with the Gill audio pre, the hum was an unfortunate mystery.

I can't agree with either of these statements, as the amps were rebuilt to Mk3.1 status and have a new warranty. I had advised Lou to try using Thom Makris' M-60s, as they were on the same speaker in the same type of suite one floor above, and Lou had said to me that he knew that they sounded fine. IOW, apply some scientific principle and see if the amps really were at fault or not, rather than basing it on assumption. That comparison never occurred; the simple fact of the matter is that while the system with the MA-1s did not work to his satisfaction, the reason why remains unknown. However, based on my experience with our product, its unlikely that the amps would have worked with any power conditioner in the vicinity, which is quite common with MA-1s! See my prior post and also a separate thread in the tube forum regarding this subject. I regret that I was not more insistent on this subject at the time.

While Wayne's crossover does sound quite nice, the simple fact is that it was built with an AC ground loop, which will manifest with preamplifiers that are 'properly grounded' into the wall. I use the quotes because what we are talking about here is the ability to meet UL requirements and CE directives, and such practice runs counter to what is good for audio. In fact I have run into a good number of high end audio manufacturers that ignore these practices, which exist for safety reasons only. Since we do ship worldwide, our gear is built to meet these specs. If you have equipment like this crossover that are built without these issues in mind, buzz will result. It is possible to build the equipment in such a way that the CE and UL directives are met, without audible degradation, but in doing so it may well be incompatible with equipment that ignores such practice.

FWIW, since the preamp is the heart of the system, that is the only unit that can be hard grounded into the wall, wherein not only the chassis but the circuitry share the same ground. If succeeding components in the chain also get a ground, you have your ground loop. We separate the  circuit ground from the chassis ground by a 100 ohm resistor in our amps, which is a bit conservative; I noticed that ARC for example uses about 10 ohms to successfully do the same thing. For any unit other than the preamp, this is one means that will do the grounds properly, although it is not the only method, and each has its own strengths and weaknesses. But is should be dealt with, especially if international shipping is going to occur.

[mgalusha]

No comment re. trade shows in general, unknown and unknowable, all privately held institutions with absolutely no obligation to publish profits.  You can easily make conclusions by the fact that certain show venues repeat annually.  There is the fact that the Chicago summer CES once was and now is not.     

IIRC (someone else can confirm) the sum total paid RMAF employee is one.  All else are volunteers being the CO audiophile club that started it.  The rooms are pretty affordable vs. THE Show, and a freebie compared to CES.  The apparent tradeoff vs. THE Show (for vendors) is less foot traffic (I think), but the traffic is dedicated stereo nuts compared to a certain percentage of THE Show aimed at HT/video.

I am one of the CAS (Colorado Audio Society) members/volunteers and can say that there are a lot more expenses than just paying the hotel. I don't know how much the Marriott is paid but it must be enough as a contract through 2013 was recently inked, so it would seem they like the business. I suspect the bar and restaurant revenues are pretty high for those days as well.