[OzarkTom]

Tom, thanks for this thread.  I just downloaded a copy of the room layout .pdf, and I'm off to another circle to start a thread regarding speaker size/room size/show speakers. . .).

One quick question Tom (all?).  When critiquing the rooms/speakers at the show and making a statement like, "if I had a large room, I would. . .", or "if I had a small room, I would. . . .", where roughly are we drawing the lines between large and small rooms, just to make sure folks are on the same page when discussing.

By the way, as a warning to everyone, I did a yahoo search for the RMAF web site (didn't try google to see if the same applies), and something funky is going on, because it is trying to autodirect to some junk shopping web site (or some other spam/virus/malware link), I think.  If you copy/paste the URLs direct into a browser, the pages load fine, though.

Cheers!

I believe a larger room of 20x30 or larger would be much better for most of the larger sized speakers. The taller the ceilings, the much better the sound is. 15x20 or less, and you need to watch carefully on how big the speakers are. One of the best sounds I ever heard was in a room 20x25, three walls of glass windows that went 30 foot high. And all this guy was using were the big boxed Goetz speakers with a Revox receiver. There was no room treatmant anywhere and he had rock floors. That was sound to die for.

Everytime I went home from hearing his system, I did not want to even turn mine on.

[DEV]

I had never heard of the Kaiser Kawero speakers, so I googled the name and people has had these speakers as best of show previously at the 2009 RMAF. There are also some rave reviews from the magazines on it. The inner components are the very expensive Duelund capacitors. The speakers are $66K. If I won the lottery, that might be the ones I buy. Small in stature so they would fit in a smaller sized room. Kaiser had the black version at the show, but here is a pic of the wooden ones. They look like a million dollars even in black.

I give these speakers the top craftsman award.
Just another high craft product from Germany.

That's one speaker on my short list that I would like to hear, I know of individuals who have replaced their MBL 101E's with them which to me peaks my interest because I own a pair. I know of an individual who preferred them over many others that he auditioned in his home including Wilson Alexandra 2.



 

[OzarkTom]

Gee, these awards keeps going on and on, sorta like the Grammys.

Best Bad A$$ system
PTE
The Statements at $52K will play more bass and more dynamics than any system at RMAF. Running 18" Altec drivers, modified, and tri amplification, you will be guaranteed to hit about 120db and 20 Hz bass.

The Phoenix will only hit 32 Hz. At the show, people mistakenly thought the Statements were playing, but it actually was the Phoenix. That is how deep these will go. The Phoenix runs only $5700, has good imaging and depth. The speakers impressed Marcel James of Antelope Audio so much at the show, he bought a pair to do the AES show in a couple of weeks. Marcel said those Pro guys will flip at the sound quality. They sure sounded great with the Zodiac Gold Dac at the show. No need to spend thousands on speaker cables. Pic is from an earlier show. These are guaranteed to break your lease.

Website: http://pteacoustics.com/pte_demo1_002.htm

[OzarkTom]

Worst System

The first day at the show, I heard a lot of the worst. I had to be very careful so I did not get a splitting headache. That was how bad it was. But many systems got much better.

Drum roll please.




Levinson-JBL

Why? This actually could have been the best but I never went back. I walked into the room on Saturday, and a young guy was streaming on the computer, TV Theme songs. What? Gilligan's Island, Green Acres. Sure, that was the best I ever heard those but c'mon. Those are low rez recordings, can't the young guy hear that? No excuse!

The winner, worst system there.

[OzarkTom]

Second the differences between the so called best of the best is a very narrow avenue.


charles
SMA
 

Shhhhhh, Charles, you and I know that, but let's keep that a secret.

[Ericus Rex]

Worst System

The first day at the show, I heard a lot of the worst. I had to be very careful so I did not get a splitting headache. That was how bad it was. But many systems got much better.

Drum roll please.




Levinson-JBL

Why? This actually could have been the best but I never went back. I walked into the room on Saturday, and a young guy was streaming on the computer, TV Theme songs. What? Gilligan's Island, Green Acres. Sure, that was the best I ever heard those but c'mon. Those are low rez recordings, can't the young guy hear that? No excuse!

The winner, worst system there.

"Worst System" seems a bit unfair here.  "Worst choice in program material" - Definitely!  Could have sounded mahvelous with some other tunage.

[DEV]

Back in 2008-RMAF....Kaiser Kawero speakers with Master Sound electronics...their best showing....sound was excellent....large room...tube amps.




http://www.stereophile.com/rmaf2008/101208international/index.html

Back then....they were $50,000.00. Price has gone up a bit....

They were good this year as well....in a smaller room.

I have heard Master Sound electronics paired up with a few speakers and was always very musical to my ears so it would be interesting to hear such paired up with these speakers.

[DEV]

Best bang for the bucks-tie
GR Research room-If I had a big room, this would be the system I would go with, but since I don't, the next would be-
Earo Speakers
Single driver, no crossover, class D amp, balanced inputs. Just hook a Remote powered Dac with balanced outputs and there you have it. These are the $38000 with 8 inch driver, $18,000 for the pair with 5 inch driver.



Fastest system at the show: Aero Speakers

Again, no crossover and self powered amp

The $18K system, if not snobby enough for your friends, just add the two $13K power cables from Nordost. That should do it.

Here is their website.
http://www.earo-us.com/Earo_Home.html

These just missed my top choice by a hair. The company had no room treatment, no power conditioner, and no extravagant power cords, only stock. They were very natural sounding on piano and female voice.  They were using the Antelope Gold Dac and was getting magical music.

Interesting looking speaker, love the bright colour 

[ted_b]

Best bang for the bucks-tie
GR Research room-If I had a big room, this would be the system I would go with, but since I don't, the next would be-
Earo Speakers
Single driver, no crossover, class D amp, balanced inputs. Just hook a Remote powered Dac with balanced outputs and there you have it. These are the $38000 with 8 inch driver, $18,000 for the pair with 5 inch driver.



Fastest system at the show: Aero Speakers

Again, no crossover and self powered amp

The $18K system, if not snobby enough for your friends, just add the two $13K power cables from Nordost. That should do it.

Here is their website.
http://www.earo-us.com/Earo_Home.html

These just missed my top choice by a hair. The company had no room treatment, no power conditioner, and no extravagant power cords, only stock. They were very natural sounding on piano and female voice.  They were using the Antelope Gold Dac and was getting magical music.

Tom, the DAC in the picture is a Wyred4Sound DAC2.  Why do you say they were using an Antelope Gold DAC?

[OzarkTom]

Tom, the DAC in the picture is a Wyred4Sound DAC2.  Why do you say they were using an Antelope Gold DAC?

Ted, you caught me. The pic is from another show. I thought it was much netter than anything I took. I wanted everyone to see the Ferrari red speakers in all their glory. They did use this DAC at the Newport Beach show, but was using the Zodiac Gold at RMAF.

[OzarkTom]

That's one speaker on my short list that I would like to hear, I know of individuals who have replaced their MBL 101E's with them which to me peaks my interest because I own a pair. I know of an individual who preferred them over many others that he auditioned in his home including Wilson Alexandra 2.

Dev, now that makes me wish I had gone back to the Kaiser room. That was about the fifth room I went to on the opening day of the show. Since all rooms were sounding better on Sunday, the Kaweros might have been the lone #1 choice.

The sound was so special when I heard it, I felt there was no need to go back. If people are replacing their MBL 101's with these, that is really something. I just know that would have been the system I would have went home with if I had been a winner of any show system of choice.

MBL did tell me to keep watch for a new review from Absolute Sound on the 101E MKII's coming soon.

[OzarkTom]

"Worst System" seems a bit unfair here.  "Worst choice in program material" - Definitely!  Could have sounded mahvelous with some other tunage.

Yep, that is what I said. It could have been possibly the best, but they chose the program material. Many other attendees had the same feelings, why in the world would they play Green Acres at RMAF?

[ted_b]

Ted, you caught me. The pic is from another show. I thought it was much netter than anything I took. I wanted everyone to see the Ferrari red speakers in all their glory. They did use this DAC at the Newport Beach show, but was using the Zodiac Gold at RMAF.

AHH!  Well, glad they upgraded then.     

[ratso]

when pez, tyson and others complain about not being able to play their own music at RMAF, i wish they could have been in the focal room with me last year. some guy in a crowd of about 30 of us listening to the big EM's decided he wanted to hear what he called "a really bad recording to hear how they (focals) could handle it". so we had to sit through a garage recording of his friend's band who were as bad as you think they were. ridiculous. not like this guy was going to pull out $250K and buy them if he liked it. some manufacturer here had the best response: you should come with a lot of music and allow the crowd to pick out what they like. but yeah, gilligan's island would probably suck (although one room last year played a jazzy version of sesame street's theme and it was effin cool).

[OzarkTom]

when pez, tyson and others complain about not being able to play their own music at RMAF, i wish they could have been in the focal room with me last year. some guy in a crowd of about 30 of us listening to the big EM's decided he wanted to hear what he called "a really bad recording to hear how they (focals) could handle it". so we had to sit through a garage recording of his friend's band who were as bad as you think they were. ridiculous. not like this guy was going to pull out $250K and buy them if he liked it. some manufacturer here had the best response: you should come with a lot of music and allow the crowd to pick out what they like. but yeah, gilligan's island would probably suck (although one room last year played a jazzy version of sesame street's theme and it was effin cool).

One room I was in played a guy's music card. The recording wasn't bad, but then he gave the company a 10 minute critique of what the system was not doing right with the piece of music he had brought. No wonder so many companies refused to play people's music.

[OzarkTom]

AHH!  Well, glad they upgraded then.     

There were 4 rooms there that were playing the Zodiac Gold.

They were all sounding wonderful

[SteveFord]

Getting back to Mr. Hsu, do you know if he was using one or two subs?  Every year that man gets rave reviews using his subs along with inexpensive stuff he picks up at the local Best Buy as kind of an afterthought. 
I'm not much of a bass freak but he's really onto something and has been for quite some time.

[Pez]

when pez, tyson and others complain about not being able to play their own music at RMAF, i wish they could have been in the focal room with me last year...

Not every vendor is like that. This year we didn't play our own music in the focal room. I honestly can't remember why we didn't. Whether it was that we didn't ask or if they were unwilling or if someone else was listening to their own stuff who knows. Either way that room was phenomenal this year so no complaints from me.

[OzarkTom]

Getting back to Mr. Hsu, do you know if he was using one or two subs?  Every year that man gets rave reviews using his subs along with inexpensive stuff he picks up at the local Best Buy as kind of an afterthought. 
I'm not much of a bass freak but he's really onto something and has been for quite some time.

Just one at a time. Mr. Hsu had his whole lineup of the models he manufacture. The $449 sub was very adequate, but when he switched to the larger subs, it was obviously better. I was struck by how much detail, deep, and quick was on the bigger subs.

Today, I saw where Cnet's reviewer Steve Guttenberg fell in love with this system and has requested a review system.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-20122114-47/denvers-high-end-audio-show-wows-audiophiles/

[ltr317]

Well, that is what my wife said, I was acting like a 12 year old.

Thanks Pez for inviting me to post. I do apologize to all the other AC'er's about being a party pooper. Paul invited me to the evening get together, but my wife and I was very worn out. Plus we were visiting my daughter and grandkids in Denver, they had just moved there last year. There was just too much going on.

Hi Tom,

Glad to meet you and your wife early on Friday in one of the rooms.  I assume the Paul you are talking about is me.  If you come back next year, maybe arrive on Thursday night.  There are a bunch of AC members that arrive a day early and you can party with us then.  I agree that rooms in general were better sounding on Saturday and Sunday, but there were still some rooms that sounded good on Friday as well.

Cheers,
Paul Mah

p.s. I use the Hsu monitors (MK I version) in my bedroom system.  Very good sounding speakers at an unbelievable low price.  When compared with my other much more expensive stand mounted speakers, (AAD 2001, Heybrook H150) they lack fullness in the mid-range though.