What were the best and worst rooms at RMAF 2009?

I echo TVAD's assessment of the fabulous Bel Canto room. . . incredibly engaging and refined.

My absolute preference in the hotel, regardless of price goes to the GamuT room with their big mono amps and the large GamuT towers. Performance of the Bach organ Toccata Adagio and Fugue in C minor was visceral, 3 dymensional, emotionally engrossing, and superbly listenable without a hint of fatigue.

If I include suites outside the hotel, my preference would go to the large showroom at Soundings Hifi across the parking lot: Boulder CDp, Boulder 2010 pre, Rowland 312 stereo amp, Vienna Die Muzick speakers. Similar to the Gamut room for staging, imaging, authority, extension, fantastic ease of listening. . . exceeding GamuT for low level detail and harmonic resolution. speakers in both rooms were set up by true masters of the craft. . . the designer of the GamuT speakers and Rod Tomson at Soundings. . . both Masters of the craft.

I was also delighted by the Belles/Usher/JPS room. . . what a graceful and revealing amp Belles makes. . . definitely the kind of amp I'd be proud to own and the Usher speakers are delicious. . . . but everything would not have worked if the wiring had been any less synergistic than the JPS wires.

I really wanted to hear the new Chapter electronics based on a very advanced class D design but they were not connected.

Cullen/Wired4Sound was quite delightful in the $2K price range fine imaging and speed and particularly fine treble resolution. W4S is working on a reference level amp that will include a user selectable tube/SS input section. . . very promising and I am very much looking forward to hearing it.

Perhaps the most Uber-Bestest room of them all was. . . the bar in the evenings. . . mixing with fellow audiophools is the most fun experience of the show!

Saluti e buone cose,

Guido

PS. The very worst rooms were very very very bad and are left. . . anonymous.

IMO GamuT had serious problems with muddy mid-bass. I don't get the buzz about Classic horns(w/Galibier and in several other rooms.)

Cost-no-object best of show was close between Janszen(w/Bryston & Wadia), Dynaudio Consequence(w/Octave & Wadia), The Lotus Group's Granada (Feastrex hybrid), Tidal(w/Bergman & Ypsilon). I heard several other Feastrexes and Lowthers-- none which came close to Granada. I wanted to like YG Anat(w/Solution Audio), but the demo was too quiet for critical evaluation.

In compact floorstanders I was impressed by how well the US/Canadian cottage industry is doing in the $5-$15K range-- some are direct-to-consumer with exceptional performance & value. Stand-outs were Merlin, Daedalus, Sonist, Vaughn, Bamberg, Silverline, Sentient, Eficion, and in small monitors, Green Mountain, Joseph(w/Bel Canto), Ref 3A(w/Naim), and Omega.

I like battery power. The stand-out in this regard was Veloce electronics with Gemme Katana ceramic speakers-- in an altogether different league(and price) from Dodd. Veloce also has the only hybrid Class D amp I can't find fault with.

Just getting familiar with the Hansen sound. The best match was Prince 2 with very expensive Silicon Arts Design electronics.

I heard only one truly awful room at the show and am not telling tales. However, the designer in that room introduced himself by saying that he makes "the best amplifier in the world."

Good to see another one who appreciated the Sonist and Vaughn rooms.

Those Joseph Audio monitors were exceptional, IMO.

My Favorite cost-no-object: Focal Grand Utopia/MBL
My Favorite Budget system: Focal+Micromega system at $8500

Audio Note Room: Wonderfully organic! But $51,000 for those little "Harbeth looking" speakers shocked me.. oh my..

The Luxman/DevilSound room was another wonderful sound. I spent a lot of time in that room with a smile.

The Nordost room sounded great also!

Not mentioning the wonderfully delicate sound of the VTL/Avatar room would be a crime. Loved the sound there as well.

The Technics Reel-To-Reel room had groovy lighting..

The ZU/Peachtree room was a lot of fun. Good vibe, happy people, lot's of fun to hang out an just "be".

The GamuT room was very impressive sounding. Lifelike organ reproduction for sure!

One room I disagree on is the Bel Canto room. I found the Bel Canto/Joseph Audio room to be one of the worst sounding rooms for the price. Very lean sounding and bright. Listening to their "pre-packaged" demo tracks sounded nice but when I put in a Fleetwood Mac CD which should have sounded wonderful (It has on many systems) it sounded lean and bright. This room was the most disappointing of the rooms I gave a serious listen to. I was considering a Bel Canto amp for myself until hearing this room. I don't understand how people could praise it.. This room sucked IMO.

I concur on the Vienna Die Muzick. I went to Soundings on Sunday after the show and they were playing for a client. I would have considered selling a kidney on the spot if propositioned to get these things. They are that spectacular! And Rod Tomson (The owner) is one of the nicest guys on the planet.

All and All a blast and fun had by all. A "must go" in 2010 for everyone on this site. Disneyland for adults!!

Tom92602, what day did you hear the Joseph Audio room? Are you talking about the room with the Pearl speakers, or the room with the monitors?

I remember a gentleman coming into the monitor room, and laying claim to the speakers as he hugged the right one and declared them, "Mine!"

I do wonder about the decision to use Bel Canto amplification, though. There are so many possibilities, including some beefy tube amps that would have been superb on the Pearls, IMO (they are easy to drive at 8 ohms nominal and 7 ohms minimum).