First, let me say that I really enjoyed Pez (and Tyson's) incredible coverage of this years RMAF. And I was there! I would check their posts each night to see if I missed anything great (and boy did I miss rooms! My goal was 50% and I missed it by 50%!; i.e I probably really "listened" in 25% of the rooms...no one can do over 50% in my opinion).
AI also want to state that I agree 101% with pez's final comments about room treatment needs, snobbery and the overall surprises that some of these vendors use as excuses. Like they weren't aware of poor ac, bad room acoustics and the need for break-in?? All that being said, this year was as good an RMAF as I've attended (this was my 5th).
My favorite things:* spending time with AC members. It was a pleasure seeing Joe and Bill (Purity) and spending time in their very friendly and accommodating room (more below). It was a pleasure spending Friday evening with Wayne (WGH). Rob (questfortone) and I had dinner and a beer with him at the Marriott, then went over to the bar/pub across from our hotel to take in the local music and local bar scene (very crowded and happenin' place). I think Wayne took a pic and posted elsewhere. They claim I got hit upon but I think she just wanted me to buy a beer while I was at the bar!
Oh, and it was my 33rd wedding anniversary so that would have been an instantly-go-to-hell pass for me.
It was also cool to meet up with Rim (Woodsyi) and spend time Sunday seeing a few rooms and ending up in Pure Music's after hours party, comparing DSD and PCM, and learning about great opera!
* spending time with creative vendors and manufacturers. Add to the Joe and Bill room above, I also loved spending time with Rob (Channel D, Pure Music) and wife in Room 411. Their after hours aprty was a lot of fun, and very enlightening for me (DSD, vinyl rips, etc). Also, meeting Michal Jurewicz from Mytek (DSD/PCM DAC) and his whole team. It was great that they gave this new-to-audiophiledom-but-pro-audio-veteran a seat at the HiRez seminar on Saturday afternoon. Also, stopping by to say hi to favorites like Chris Connaker (Computer Audiophile), Dan Wright (Modwright), Wayne (Bolder), Bruce Brown (Puget Sound), Darren (AMR), Jonathan (Playback Design), Michael Garner (Tweekgeek), etc etc. Finally got a chance to meet Albert von Schweikert, Walter Liederman (Underwood, Emerald Physics), Clayton Shaw (ex-Emerald, now Spatial), and Dom (Merging Technologies).
*taking the 5 minute walk to the Hyatt to check out the new unreleased (November) SACD of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here. Chad's release is both breathtaking and a breath of fresh air, the latter for being $30 to own new James Guthrie 5.1 and 2.0 remasters without having to deal with the complex and over-marketed Immersion or Discovery box sets. The surround demo was amazing; this is a very aggressive mix with a new ability to peel back all the complexities of the mix spread across five ATC active 150's (and subs, although limited use of LFE channels).
My favorite rooms (in no particular order, kind of):* TAD's whole system room, with the smaller Compact Ref 1's. OK, this was my Best Of Show...bu then it always is. Andrew Jones has his sh$t together! Period. Just amazing equipment. Nuff said. Can't wait for the "trickle down" floorstanders ($21k) to be unveiled at CES (they were in the TAD room but mocked up).
* Jones Audio amps and new preamp, coupled to the Revel Salon 2's. Dunno why, but this room seemed somewhat untreated, low light and no real fancy setup....just glorious music that was well imaged and a deep soundstage. the Jones amps aren't cheap ($25k-ish) but are beautiful to look at, and sound even better. And I'm not normally a Revel fan.
* Veloce and YG. I came to this room with a huge bias against YG Acoustics (have heard the big ones before but never understood the market fever...kinda like Magico and Wilson, frankly, to me). But a friend on CA has the Carmels and swears by them so I gave them another try. Well, this room produced a very deep soundstage and a really nice overall feel. I get it now. These were the Kipod's (some other model suffix, too, but I forget, too many to remember) and were now on my radar. The battery-powered Veloce equipment was obviously nice, too. Kudos!
* Estelon and Bricasti. Wow, gorgeous white speaker towers (I would never choose white until now!) with sensual lines and textures. They are made from marble dust! And all ceramic drivers, etc. Big bucks..but a big deal. They produced music from the Bricasti DAC that was effortless and deep.
* Rob Robinson's (Channel D, Pure Vinyl, Pure Music) afterhours party in Room 411! Yes, I can be bought by food, wine, Italian women (Rob's wife is the best), and great music and discussion. The system was mostly demonstrating how, with a $600 Duet2 AD/DA box one could have an incredible phono setup, whether listening or ripping. The theory, among others, is that the RIAA curve in digital has huge distortion advantages over doing it in analog, and gains digital headroom (bits and resolution) too. We also used the brand new dSC DSD-over-USB discovery on the Debussy DAC to compare my DSDIFF files to my PCM conversions (no contest) to Pure Music's on-the-fly DSD-to_PCM conversions. Net/net, until I get a pure DSD DAC playback solution I will let PM do all the work. Oh, and Rim educated us on the best of great opera. Rob and his wife were gracious hosts.
* Joe and Bill's Purity Audio room. The sound was ok but shrill, IMO, until Sunday afternoon, and then it locked in very very nicely. The well treated room was clearly ready for great music. I only wish I has stuck around for a couple of the amp swaps...sounds like good things happened. And the main reason it is in my list is cuz it was just comfortable being there. No snobs, no "sorry, can't play your music, too complicated", no shushing (or conversely, incredibly loud conversations in the back). Just some folks enjoying music and trying to tweak to get more better!
* Bruce Brown's room up on 8000. I spent too little time in there but it's clear the Usher Mini Dancers are easily a best-buy of the show. Bruce was playing great DSD and analog tapes, and all was well in that room.
* the "several inches between my ears" room. Over at Canjam I was asked by my dear buddy and new father, David Kimmel aka rydenfan (Miles Wayne Kimmel born Sunday, October 17th, 7 lbs!!!...an RMAF baby!!! ) to check out several headphones and amp combos. I stumbled upon easily my favorite (within budget), the Woo Audio WA6 amp, and a pair of Audeze LCD-2 Ref 2 cans. Nice!! Can tube roll and everything. Very nice. And congrats to Adrienne, David and the newest Miles Davis fan, Miles Kimmel.
