What were the best and worst rooms at RMAF 2009?

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).

I went on Friday and Sunday. Open-to-Close.

I went to the Bel Canto room on Sunday about 1PM. I wanted to hear Bel Canto's "Class D" as Rowland did it so well in their gear.

This was the super large suit at the end of the hall. All Bel Canto gear leading into Josephs. The host was playing most of the tracks from a music server.

Incidentally I was there to buy after the show. (I live just four miles south of the show) By the end of the show I was pretty worn out but I was ready to buy a demo pair of Focals but they had too many surface damages.

I also liked the Ayon CD2 and Ayon Spirit amp but decided I want to stay with Solid State gear.

The Zu's grabbed at me as very "live" sounding for cheap money. What was everyone's take on the ZU's? They got a good review this month also. (As if you can put any trust in the reviewers from that magazine)

Tom92602,

I don't think that it is fair for you to blame the Bel Canto amplifiers for your dislike of the sound you heard in their room with our Pearls. When I saw your posting on the Asylum I was puzzled until I looked at your system description.
http://cgi.audioasylum.com/systems/9260.html

According to that profile, your speakers are the Klipsch RF-82.

Under system goals you write "Trying to make Classic Rock sound warm and rich without loosing refinement and speed."

As you mentioned, the system sounded nice until you played your disc.

I do not share your goal of trying to make Classic Rock recordings sound warm and rich, *unless they were recorded that way in the first place*. I greatly prefer the purity of a natural, even balance that lets me hear what the recording actually sounds like rather than trying to goose up the upper bass to add false warmth. The nice thing about evenly balanced speakers is that you do still have the option of patching in an equalizer to adjust for harsh recordings, as opposed to trying to tame a system that is has errors "locked in" as part of the speaker design.

This hobby is about listening enjoyment, first and foremost. I am not trying to tell you what to enjoy for your personal listening. I just felt that some context and insight into why your perspective would differ from my own and the vast number of visitors like Tvad who were very pleased with how our systems performed at the show would be useful.

And you should not rule out Bel Canto for your system as you cannot predict how that combination might sound based on your audition with my speakers.