MiTT's 2011 RMAF Show Report

[MiTT]

Thanks Dave, I'll be searching out the TAD room today for sure!

Steve, we must have been right behind one another all day yesterday. Didn't see your PM until last night. I'll give you a call today.

[MiTT]

Sonus Faber was the speaker of choice in the Wadia room. Driven by a pair of Definition Series Audio Research mono blocks, the Amanti Futuros sounded great. The huge REL Gibraltar subwoofer really anchored the bass and the Wadia S7i front end sounded as good as always. The mini Wadia system featuring their 15i Power DAC and 17i iPod dock hooked to a smaller pair of the Sonus Faber's Toy's looked very interesting too.

[MiTT]

The small Vivid B1 speakers sounded very, very good driven by Luxman electronics and a Brinkman analog front end. Peter Gabriel's cover of Paul Simon's "These are the Days" from his "Scratch My Back" album was downright moving. A very synergistic system, all the parts seems to fit and complement one another. I stayed here a long time.

[MiTT]

The huge Solution Series 7 amplifiers gripped the big Focal Nova Utopia speakers like no tomorrow. When Audio Unlimited owner John Barnes passed away earlier this year I wondered what would happen with many of the find brands he represented here in Denver. His business partner Carl Jerttis assumed the reigns of the company and it appears to be reborn now as Apex Audio. Dead Can Dance and Live Neil Young both sounded amazing fed from the Transrotor turntable. I didn't have time to get all the details on the components associated here, I was too busy just listening to the music Fantastic!

[MiTT]

Static while I was in the room due to system above being in action, I love the look of this setup featuring Accuphase, Air Tight and another Transrotor table. I would love to get these Air Tight mono blocks in my system for a home demo.

[MiTT]

Clearudio's new $24K Master Innovation Wood turntable, fitted with a Graham Phantom arm and Goldfinger Statement cartridge served as the analog front end for this system. The Aesthetic Romulus CD/DAC served up digits, and both front ends were routed through the Aesthetix IO Eclipse Phonograph Pre-amp. Power was provided by Aesthetix Atlas mono blocks and the speakers were Vandersteen 7's. Rod Stewart's "Mandolin Wind" on vinyl sounded especially tasty ("Every Picture Tells a Story" is about the only Rod Stewart album that means something too me, so this was a nice treat).

[MiTT]

I remember when Peachtree Audio first came on the scene a few years ago. Initially all of their gear was built around supporting docked iPods, this year however they were showing their new Grand Integrated driving a set of Sonus Faber's Ellipsa's. Shelby Lynne was sounding very good through this setup. They also had a nother setup featuring their new Grand Pre pre amp hooked up to a Sim amp driving a set of B&W 802's, and yet a 3rd smaller desk type system featuring the latest version of their iNova integrated product I believe. This has been a very interesting company to watch over the years and I might be using some of their gear in a small office system I'm planning.

[tsv_1]

Hey Tim... thanks for the wonderful coverage!

[MiTT]

The E.A.R. 834 integrated amp in this room was being fed by a Townshend Rock 7 turntable and companion arm. Ella and Louis had an easy going sound coming out of this unusual tonearm setup that uses a trough to help guide and dampen the arm. Cartridge was a Dynavector XV1 S and the phono stage is the E.A.R. 324. As seen the table with arm is an even $6K. Very interesting, although the Coltrane speakers sounded a little on the harsh side to me.

[MiTT]

The eFision brand loudspeakers are new to me. Their F300 model is paired in this room with all eXemplar Audio electronics and an Artemis Labs SA-1 turntable. The F300 sells for $16.9K. Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong again in this room and the sound was very easy on the ears. The tweeter is a 7" Heil Air Motion transformer. Between the tweeter and midrange driver the manufacturer told me he has more cost in these drivers than in all of the drivers in a $35k set of Magico's. Lot's of science around the casework on the eXemplar electronics as far as the isolation of everything from the front panels to the circuitboard inside. Good description of the isolation characteristics of the Stillpoints under all of the components, as well as the beautiful Stillpoint rack. This was a very interesting room with great sound.

[MiTT]

The GamuT room featured their large floor standing speakers driven by their own electronics. I've always found their sound very clean and the was no exception here, but the sound coming off of what I believe were two huge Vyger tables (there was no component description sheet in this room), with Tri-Planar arms here was silky smooth and drop dead quiet. They were also showing some very price friendly tube gear from LA Audio in this room, but it was all static when I was there, so I can't comment on their sound.

[MiTT]

I was really excited to have a chance to hear the Evolution Acoustics Micro-MM1 speakers. Here they were paired with a darTZeel integrated amp and a front end consisting of the Playback designs digital player and a massive turntable of unknown origin (nobody in the room at the time knew what it was), sporting two Durand arms and an ATR Aria RTR ($37K). The Evolution's are slated to be released in January at an asking price of only $2500 including the stands shown here. While not the last word in bass extension, they were punchy, dynamic and clear from the middle registers up. Very much a bargain at the asking price, possibly the bargain of the show thus far!

[MiTT]

The sound of the Lindemann gear here was very smooth. Very pricy electronics - $12.5K for the 825 Digital Player, $12.5K for the 830S pre amp, $16K for the 855 Dual Mono amp. The small stand mounted BL-10 2 way monitors tacked on $11K. For me the key point of interest was the vintage Luxman 2 arm turntable from the early 70's that made me really take notice - it sounded great.

[MiTT]

The Allnic room was inviting right from the get go with Keb Mo coming at me from a set of Wilson Sasha's. The room had a Beat Magdrive turntable ($24K) with Schroder LT tonearms ($TBD), Allnic H3000 phono stage ($11.9K), L5000 line stage ($19K) and A5000-DHT mono blocks ($19.9K). The $27K Sasha's seemed to be everywhere, but they always sound so good no matter what they're paired with.

[MiTT]

The Galibier Stelvio II turntable with their Talea tonearms almost made me like the Lou Reed they were playing (sorry, I'm just not a fan). The 845 based Serious Stereo amps did sound pretty interesting driving the Daedalus speakers here.