Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2009

Here we go...

Starting coverage of the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2009! I'm stuck at my office this morning while the rest of my audio bretheren are at the show, so I may as well start posting a few pics and impressions from things I observed yesterday. I'm sure Dave, Wayne, Andrew, Rich, Steve and others will be adding their thoughts and audio porn shots too!

To get the ball rolling, the first room I came upon was the GamuT room where they were running their El Superior loudspeakers to good effect with all GamuT electronics. Very good sound filling a VERY large room, but what caught my eye was the new to me Musical Life turntable and corresponding arm (s).

Esoteric

The Esoteric room was sounding good as usual. They were showcasing their new A-03 Class A power amp (100W in Class A - bridgable to 200W). I was also intrigued by these small chassis Teac units. It looked like they had a dedicated single box disc player, a small reciever and a small all in one player. They didn't have any literature on these units and I have no idea on prices, but I liked the look of them. Music was playing through the high dollar gear and the floor standing speakers and sounded very nice indeed.

Analysis Audio

Analysis Audio was showing their Omega planar ribbon hybrids ($22K). The source was the PS Audio Wave Transport and DAC combo feeding a Sonus Verrtus pre-amp which was driving a pair of Arion Audio MK 1000 monoblocks. The Arion amps put out 500W into 8 ohms running in Class D. They sounded quite good for switching amps to me; I'm typically not a big fan, but these sounded different somehow, and at $3900.00 the pair I was even more suprised! I got the impression from talking to the folks in the room that Arion is somehow associated with Analysis. I actually visited the room twice yesterday, once on my own and once with Dave, Wayne, Steve and Andrew after I hooked up with them. For whatever reason it sounded better the second time than it did the first.

Acapella/Einstein

Acapella was demonstrating their High Violon MKIV (yes the spelling is correct) full range horns, with all Einstein electronics as they have for several years now. One of the Einstein amps had an intermittent problem that marred an otherwise very musical presentation at times. I've never really been blown away by the Einstein electronics, especially when you consider the stack you see here sells for a total of $69,400.00. Tack on the coin associated with the Acapella's ($68.2K) and the Reference LaMusica speaker cables shown here ($25K!!!), and it seems like the system should transport you to a higher state of conciousness. It did not I'm afraid to say, which is disappointing when you consider the total cost of admission as shown approaches 200 Large. Still, there is something very sexy about these speakers and especially that plasma tweeter. I'd love to hear them with some other electronics.

YG Acoustics/FM Acoustics

It's the battle of the 2 initial brands with big ego's! The thing is, they really do deliver. YG Acoustics (made right near by in Arvada, CO) says that their Anat Reference (the larger of the two seen below) is the "Best Speaker in the World...Period". I can't say for sure, but they are certainly in a very select group. When I first heard YG speakers 5 or 6 years ago at RMAF I wasn't impressed, but year after year they have gotten better. When paired with the uber expensive Swiss made FM Acoustics electronics and Weiss digital front end it was pretty magical at times. I didn't get prices, but if you gotta ask...

Where does the time go?? Has it been a year already?!

Sweet pictures thus far, Tim!

AMR/Rethm

As with last year AMR was showing off their digital front end and electronics with the single driver (highly modified Lowther's), high efficiency Rethm Harmony's. Music was the Joe Wilder-Marshall Royal Quintet doing Ellinton's "Mood Indigo" and I was simply mesmerized. This is only one of two single driver speakers that caught my attention the first day. I don't know the price on these, but the others (to come later) were an astonishing achievement as far as I'm concerned...

The Anat II go for ~$107,000

FM Acoustics amps are notoriously expensive. The 611 model is like 80 grand. Their flagship amp is the 1811 model...Lord knows how much that sucker goes for!

Emotiva

Since they only deal on-line I'd never had a chance to lay eyes nor ears on the Emotiva line, though I know they are pretty well regarded among the AV folks here on the forum. They were only showing their 2 channel ware at RMAF - pre-amp, 4 mono blocks and their own tower speakers (sorry, I don't have any model numbers or prices). The sound was decent I suppose, but certainly not up to par with most of the rooms. I was suprised by the general build quality - which was good, and the heft and girth of the products. Still, a bit dry, and flat, and generally not very "musical" to my ears. For those interested in their new multi-channel Pre/Pro, I was told it would be available "by year end".

Kawero!

Kawero! is a company I'd never heard of before out of Germany. Fit and finish on these speakers was quite incredible. They use a RAAL ribbon tweeter with a reflex loaded midrange and woofer. The 845 based mono-blocks were from a company called Duelund (I believe) out of Italy and these too were designed by the folks at Kawero! (the exclamation is part of their trademark name). When I was in the room they were playing some Brukner (as I'm sure all fine Germans do), and the sound was quite good indeed.

MiTT said:

Here we go...

To get the ball rolling, the first room I came upon was the GamuT room where they were running their El Superior loudspeakers to good effect with all GamuT electronics. Very good sound filling a VERY large room, but what caught my eye was the new to me Musical Life turntable and corresponding arm (s).

Click to expand...

Great pics, keep 'em coming!

Is it me, or does the record clamp on that Musical Life turntable (bottom picture) look like a gold plated Shun Mook record clamp?

MiTT said:

Analysis Audio was showing their Omega planar ribbon hybrids ($22K). The source was the PS Audion Wave Transport and DAC combo feeding a Sonus Verrtus pre-amp which was driving a pair of Arion Audio MK 1000 monoblocks. The Arion amps put out 500W into 8 ohms running in Class D. They sounded quite good for switching amps to me; I'm typically not a big fan, but these sounded different somehow, and at $3900.00 the pair I was even more suprised! I got the impression from talking to the folks in the room that Arion is somehow associated with Analysis. I actually visited the room twice yesterday, once on my own and once with Dave, Wayne, Steve and Andrew after I hooked up with them. For whatever reason it sounded better the second time than it did the first.

Click to expand...

Hm... the Cabbase La Sphere at Silverstone was being driven by B&Q ICE module amps (Cabbase's own). I have to say, the overall sound was superb. Maybe these class D jobbies are getting better...

I also note your point about the 2nd visit. A lot of it is just down to what they are playing at the time, which really makes it difficult to assess just how good some systems really are (or not, as the case may be).

Good work... keep the posts going.

MiTT said:

Kawero! is a company I'd never heard of before out of Germany. Fit and finish on these speakers was quite incredible. They use a RAAL ribbon tweeter with a reflex loaded midrange and woofer. The 845 based mono-blocks were from a company called Duelund (I believe) out of Italy and these too were designed by the folks at Kawero! (the exclamation is part of their trademark name). When I was in the room they were playing some Brukner (as I'm sure all fine Germans do), and the sound was quite good indeed.

Click to expand...

Kawero? They really look like Kaiser Speakers from Germany. The amps look like Mastersound 845's.

http://www.kaiser-acoustics.com/ guess he changed the name b/c of the car audio development...ask him about his MB project! The cabinets are made out of the same material as the MB firewall.

jtwrace said:

Kawero? They really look like Kaiser Speakers from Germany. The amps look like Mastersound 845's.

http://www.kaiser-acoustics.com/ guess he changed the name b/c of the car audio development...ask him about his MB project! The cabinets are made out of the same material as the MB firewall.

Click to expand...

jtwrace, I think you're right looking at the website. All of their literature says Kawero! on it, although looking at the show program it says "Kaiser Acoustics developed the successful Kawero! speakers which were introduced at RMAF 2008." None of the literature mentions Kaiser Acoustics though. I wonder if it's some sort of trademark issue in the US.

Bummer

I'm disappointed. I ended up having to work all day today and missed the third day of the show entirely. I hope that the rest of the guys took plenty of pictures and notes from the Atrium 5th floor as well as the Tower 2nd floor as I missed those entirely. Still quite a few items to post though...

Avalon/Ayre

Avalon was showing their new $8500.00 speaker named the Aspect. The sound was typical Avalon - open and detailed, just not as much authority as some of the bigger offerings. They were demo'ed with all Ayre electronics, including Ayre's new Universal player, which includes Blu-Ray! Price and availability to be determined. They were playing a live Jeff Beck Blu-Ray that was just incredible. The girl in the shot was an incredibly hot bass player, and I mean that both physically and musically. Sorry the pictures don't do her justice, again on either account. It's hard to shoot a moving video. I'll be looking for this concert Blu-Ray, the music was awesome, including a duet with Eric Clapton. Does anyone already have this one?

Moscode/Von Schweikert

Moscode was showing their new 402Au hybrid amplifier that Jeff and others have found quite musical. They were driving a set of Von Schweikert (VR-3's I believe) very nicely. I really love the look of the Moscode; hard to capture it in these pictures. Price is $6495.00.

Karan/Zanden/Avalon

I'd heard of Karan before, but never had a chance to listen to their stuff. Wandering into their room I was immediately presented with an incredible rendering of a Beethoven Piano Concerto via a sweet looking Zanden single box player. A Karan KA L REF MKII pre-amp fed a KAS 150 power amp driving a set of Avalon Indra's. I sat mesmerised for quite some time simply enjoying the music.

JM Labs/mbl

Local dealer Audio Unlimited was showing the immense JM Labs Grande Utopia EM's again this year, but they've picked up the mbl line, so that's what they used in place of the Boulder gear they hooked them up with last year. The analog source was a Clearaudio Innovation table that looked like a smaller version of the Statement present last year. The table was coupled with the Performance linear tonearm and a Benz Micro LP S cartridge. Phonostage was the Aesthetix IO Eclipse. Digital was handled by the mbl 1621A transport along with the 1611F DAC (in it's North American premiere). Pre-amp was an mbl 6010D (as big as many power amps), and it fed a pair of MONSTER sized mbl 9011 monoblocks through Tara Labs Zero Gold Omega cables. The sound was amazing, though not quite as impressive as last year for some reason (that Statement table, or the Boulder electronics perhaps?). Also present were the new Focal Maestro Utopia speakers which were also enjoying their North American premiere at the show. I didn't get a chance to hear the latter myself, but John Barnes, owner of Audio Unlimited, told me that he actually preferred them to the Grandes in his showroom because of their size. I'm sure most folks either love the look or hate it, but when you see these speakers in person there is no denying the quality of construction.

Hanson/Accuphase

One of Audio Unlimited's other rooms (they had a total of 7) was pairing the Hanson loudspeaker line with all Accuphase electronics. The Hanson's are another one of those brands that seems to sound better every year and the large Emperor's managed to look better this year too, foregoing the silver finish of last year for an elegant piano black. The analog front end featured an Air Tight PC-1 Supreme cartridge mounted to a Graham Phantom arm on a stunning Transrotor Tourbillion table. Digital was supplied by the Accuphase DP-800/DC-801 transport/DAC SACD capable combo. Pre-amp was the Accuphase C-2810 and amps were the M-6000's

As good as the Emperor's sounded, I was actually more interested in the quality of the music being provided by a second system in the room where the smaller Hanson Knight's were again paired with Accuphase. I was actually out in the mezzanine talking with John Barnes when I heard Dead Can Dance's "Into the Labarynth" come on, so Dave, Wayne and I went back into the room and I was very impressed with the quality of the music coming out of the more diminutive setup. These speakers are serious contenders!