RMAF 2007 Day 1

[MiTT]

Day 1 of the 2007 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest was GREAT! As soon as I got to the show I hooked up with my buddy Joe (got to get him on this forum - he's got an SL3/BAT/Krell based system), and we headed straight into the area where they are selling vinyl, CD's, SACD's, XRCD's, accessories etc. to grab up some good stuff before it got picked over. While I was there I ran into Alan (sleepysurf) and we went over to a place across the street for some Mexican sustinance.

Back at the show we were all headed of in different directions, but prior to running up to start listening to some tasty systems I stopped in the lobby to cleanse the pallette with some live music from the Fry Street Quartet. They were truely great, playing with an obvious passion. I was standing next to former Absolute Sound and Stereophile contributor Johnathan Skull and he commented that they were among the best he's heard. They also appear in a number of Ray Kimbers IsoMike recordings. I spoke with one of the members at the end of the performance and he mentioned that they just finished a new recording using the IsoMike technique, and that it may be the best one yet.

 

[MiTT]

Linn

The first room I went into was the Linn room. I have read a few posts on this board where some folks said they thought the Linn gear was a bit over-hyped. My experience would never support that contention, and this system would offer proof. Very rhythmic, very dynamic, very involving from multiple sources. The LP12 turntable sounded great, as did the no longer in production CD12 - but the real story for Linn this year is the introduction of ther new Klimax DS music server (centered by itself on the lower shelf in the second picture). The server is rather unconventional in that it has no moving parts whatsoever. Rather, it uses wireless eithernet technology to stream the data from your hard disc into a very large RAM buffer, all in a lossless 24 bit native resolution and up to a 128K sampling rate.

I know I've often questioned the validity of server based music delivery here on this forum, but I'll publicly admit here that I was awestruck at how much better this $18.5K priced music server sounded compared to the $20K CD player. Blacker, quieter backgrounds, great texture - it just sounded more real. Still though - I personally liked the LP-12 the most. The new, machined from billet chassis and armboard is a thing of beauty. Music was Tracy Chapman and Dean Martin, with the Dean Martin sounding especially good.

 

[MiTT]

Luxman and Vivid

Next up was the room featuring Luxman electronics, Vivid loudspeakers and XLO cabling. The Vivid speakers aren't exactly my cup of tea, not that they sounded bad or anything, but they just didn't involve me in the music. I am happy to see the reintroduction of the Luxman electronics into the American market however. I've always been a fan of both the Luxman sound and their Industrial Design.

 

[MiTT]

Wilson/BAT/dCS

My favorite high end dealer in Denver, Audio Unlimited, is a regular sponsor of the RMAF, and a relatively new Wilson Audio dealer. Their first room featured the Wilson MAXX II's ($49K), paired with the Balanced Audio Technology REX Pre-amp ($18K), feeding the VK-600SE monoblocks ($24K). Sources were a Clearaudio turntable via the BAT VK-P10SE phonostage, and the newest dCS Paganini series digital gear featuring a discrete Transport, DAC and Master Clock ($65K for all 3). Cabling was all Tara Labs The One (ass-tro-nomically priced).

I heard the original MAXX's a few years ago and thought they were essentially a very non-musical sounding speaker that happened to sell for an arm and a leg. While they still sell for an arm and a leg (plus maybe a kidney too), they are the real deal. Music was an amazing acoustic version of Boz Skaggs doing "Lowdown" followed by a great cut from his "Dig" album, and then Fank Sinatra doing "What's New". I don't know if I've ever heard Mr. Sinatra sounding so good, and there was a trombone line and solo on the cut that just sounded so real you could reach out and touch it. Very, Very good sounding system. The styling and build quality on the dCS gear was above reproach - stunning in fact. I got audio wood.

 

[MiTT]

JM Labs/Boulder

As good as the Wilsons sounded, the next room was probably the one I would say is the most "musical" I'd heard on Day 1 - and so far my contender for Best Sound of the show - but there's still two days worth of exploring to do!

I am a sucker for the sound of the JM Labs Nova Utopia's ($35K), one of the few speakers I'd toss my Martin Logans over for. When paired with the Boulder Electronics - well, the system simply get's out of the way and music enters the room in a very un-Hi-Fi fashion. Audio Unlimited did a great job of setting up this room, and at least while I was there, they were spinning album after album of great music on the Clearaudio Master Reference turntable from Peter, Paul and Mary, Joan Baez, some tasty classical pieces and not a single tired old audiophile warhorse in the mix. I'm going back again today to just listen to the music!

 

[MiTT]

Gamut

The Gamut electronics get a lot of play in the audio press, but I was pretty impressed with their new VERY large speaker system. At first I thought that these monsters were set up WAY too far apart, but when they played the John Rutter "Requiem" off of the Reference Records HDCD (one of my favorite chorale recordingss ever). the soundstage was simply awesome. It actually felt like I was in a cathedral like space, the acoustic was that well defined. Quite impressive.

 

[MiTT]

More to come...

Lots more to come, but it's time to get ready for Day 2. Back at the end of the day...

 

[sleepysurf]

Here's my brief $0.02 for my first day/first time at RMAF. Overall, VERY impressive show.

My faves so far were the Emerald Physics CS2 2-way dipole speakers with a wave-guided tweeter and TWO 15" woofers, yielding a 20Hz-22kHz freq response! It uses the Behringer DSP as an external crossover, and two industrial Art Audio amps. Despite a first day glitch leaving only an iMac as source, this dipole speaker totally blew me away. They were arguably faster and cleaner than the Summits! Amazingly, the ENTIRE package, Behringer, amps, and all, will retail for $3500! I am definitely going back today for another listen, and will take some pics.

I was also impressed with the Lyngdorf total room-correction setup, using their own two-way speakers and dual subs, along with their proprietary Class D amps and digital "RoomPerfect" pre-amp/processor. They demo'd the on/off effect of the RoomPerfect software, and it was quite amazing. It reminds me of the NHT Xd system, which unfortunately I've never heard, but always wanted to. NHT is not at RMAF.

I enjoyed talking shop with Tim and his friend over lunch, and took their advice to hit the "software" room ASAP, where I picked up some XRCD's for a "song".

I'm now puttin' on my walking shoes, and heading out for a full day of
audio ecstacy. Will try to post more comments (and pics) tonight or tomorrow.

 

[Beat_Dominator]

I love you guys.......

I wanted to go soooo much but I just moved and I'm trying to stabilize my finances befire I do any "fun" stuff.

 

[Joey_V]

Awesome guys!

Tim - nice to see your first 3 systems are very similar to the 3 that I've heard several times now. I have not yet heard JML, but from what people have said, it's good stuff. I'm looking forward to you Day 2 review.

Alan - have not heard about the speaker/system you talked about... will do a quick search. Anyway, glad that you got to put on your walking shoes, it's time to get some more listening!

Magico Mini II room please...

 

[MiTT]

Amr

The AMR (Abbingdon Music Research) room featured some very impressive looking gear, including both a Hybrid CD player (RB only), and a pair of their Hybrid Dual-Mono control amplifiers bridged as a pair of mono-blocks. I can't recal the speakers in this room. While everything LOOKED great in this room, I was less than impressed by the sound. There just didn't seem to be any life or dynamics to the music. Too bad - I may return to the room later to see if anything improves.

 

[MiTT]

Tyler Acoustics

Surely familiar to those of us who browse the A-Gon' classifieds, these new Tyler Acoustics towers sounded great. Owner, designer, and genuine nice guy Ty Lashbrook was driving them with some nice Edge electronics. The equipment rack was a thing of freakin' beauty too - the components just seemed to float in the air...

 

[MiTT]

PS Audio

PS Audio has a few interesting things coming out in the very near future. I was very interested in their first transport shown here in prototype form. It will have a full complement of conventional digital outputs, as well as a trio of additional outputs feeding a proprietary new DAC that is said to all but eliminate jitter according to CEO Paul McGowan. He said it will be somewhere between $1-2K, probably closer to the $1K number. Pretty cool looking too!

They also had a full system setup running one of their newer control amplifiers and the Master Power Station in a limited edition all black finish.

 

[MiTT]

High Water Sound 1

High Water Sound had two rooms running. These guys always have rooms that are buzzing with activity and folks just having fun. Much more about the music than the equipment, they none the less have some very cool looking and sounding gear.

The first room featured these Bastanis Apollo open baffle speakers. Highly efficient (98dB with 1W @16 ohms), they were driven to great effect by a pair of interesting looking 845 based monoblocks. $21,600 for the speakers, I didn't get a price on the amps.

 

[MiTT]

High Water 2

The second High Water room featured Avatar Acoustic horns, Tron electronics and a very cool TW Acoustic Raven AC-3M turntable sporting 4 different tonearms. Excellent demonstration of the different sound you can achieve by simply changing an arm or cartridge. Very Musical!

Funny story. One of the folks in the room listening asked if he could play a CD. The guy running the room joking said "OK, but only one". So he played the guys CD (some interesting Celtic music), and afterwards asked if the guy wanted to listen to another cut, and everybody in the room, including the guy who brought the CD said "NO - go back to the vinyl!"

 

[MiTT]

Tri Amplifiers and Speakers

Small Japanese manufacturer Tri was back at the festival again this year showing an improved version of their small loudspeakers ($2800 in mahogany as shown) an a pair of stunning new 200W tube mono-blocks (no price yet). Very good sound from these little speakers on some Linda Ronstat, and the monoblocks have me yearning for some tubes again on my stat panels. With gobs of detail and dynamics these look like contenders!

 

[MiTT]

Galabier and Quicksilver

Music was spinning in grand fashion in the Galabier room as well thanks to the great Galabier turntables, some Dynavector and Artisan Audio cartridges on Schroeder and Tri Planar arms, Quicksilver electronics and the mighty Azzalonia Audio horns. These things are big (although not the biggest horns at the show...), and sound it. We spent a good bit of time in this room just enjoying the music.

 

[MiTT]

Nova Physics

The last room I hit on Day 1 was the Nova Physics room where they were once again demonstrating the Memory Player. Similar to the Linn room where I started the day, I was once again humbled by the difference in sound that was readily demonstrated by taking one of my discs (Damien Rice -"O") and playing it first in a very nice Nova CD PLayer ($8K), then sampled and played back from the hard disc in the Memory PLayer, and then finally from the flash memory in the Memory Player. Needless to say, each version got progressively better with blacker backgrounds, richer, truer sounding tones and a very smooth, non-digital sound. It was kind of unnerving actually, and I'm sure that someday it's going to hit my pocket book hard. I can't recall the actual price on the Memory Player - but I think it was just north of $20K. Damn...

 

[rtagle]

Hi Mitt,

Good to see you covered this. Can you please give me your more detailed impression? Since you had the chance of playing your own CD on the MP, how did it compare to your system?

I'm looking at getting one with the 32 bit dacs, tube output stage and all the other upgrades. I also asked them to add a high quality video outs. I'm going into this without hearing it and just basing it on several high stellar reviews and feedback from others who heard it. Your impression would be highly valued!

Rudy

 

[DrPig]

My favorite high end dealer in Denver, Audio Unlimited, is a regular sponsor of the RMAF, and a relatively new Wilson Audio dealer. Their first room featured the Wilson MAXX II's ($49K), paired with the Balanced Audio Technology REX Pre-amp ($18K), feeding the VK-600SE monoblocks ($24K). Sources were a Clearaudio turntable via the BAT VK-P10SE phonostage, and the newest dCS Paganini series digital gear featuring a discrete Transport, DAC and Master Clock ($65K for all 3). Cabling was all Tara Labs The One (ass-tro-nomically priced).

I heard the original MAXX's a few years ago and thought they were essentially a very non-musical sounding speaker that happened to sell for an arm and a leg. While they still sell for an arm and a leg (plus maybe a kidney too), they are the real deal. Music was an amazing acoustic version of Boz Skaggs doing "Lowdown" followed by a great cut from his "Dig" album, and then Fank Sinatra doing "What's New". I don't know if I've ever heard Mr. Sinatra sounding so good, and there was a trombone line and solo on the cut that just sounded so real you could reach out and touch it. Very, Very good sounding system. The styling and build quality on the dCS gear was above reproach - stunning in fact. I got audio wood.

The Sinatra thing is weird. I was there on Sunday and some guy had a 2nd gen master of Sinatra in that same room. I'm not a Sinatra fan, but it sounded great. MiTT. Did you check out the $170,000 Acapellas?