This was my first audio show. It felt like Disney World times Christmas plus a unicorn on a skateboard. I had previously heard only half a dozen systems besides my own, and this was the chance to hear a hundred and fifty more. Others reported that the show seemed to be losing its luster, but for me that point was more than moot. If you saw an out-of-place threesome of young-ish dudes, I was the one with the handlebar mustache.
I love to study subcultures of all sorts, and this was my first true immersion in the audiophile population. As I explained to my wife on the phone one night, there are two kinds of people who go to audio shows: 1) Awkward introverts in their 50s. 2) Awkward introverts in their 60s. (To be fair, though, I should mention Asian dudes in their 40s.) Seriously, that first elevator ride with fellow audio geeks was painful. At this shindig, no one could even make banter for half a minute. _Crickets_. We sound-nerds are quite a peculiar lot, and I wouldnÂt want to have it any other way. :-)
My buddies and I took a decidedly non-scientific approach and just wandered the halls in a loose attempt to hit every room that we could. We tried to spend 2-3 songs in any room that did not suck. Here are my personal take-home observations:
I may now safely declare that I am a Tube Guy. A little roll-off at the frequency extremes is acceptable to my ears; the hardness and sterility that solid-state amps can bring to bear are not. I heard great transistor sound from a Dan DÂAgostino integrated driving the Wilson Duet monitors, and from several rooms with Ayre amplification; however, vaunted setups featuring Boulder and Jeff Rowland power left me unimpressed.
The two speakers that are haunting my dreams now are the new Volti Alura and the Vapor Audio Joule. I was entranced to learn that Vapor killed at last yearÂs RMAF with a Nimbus model priced below $7k  and was deflated to watch the price of said Nimbus jump this week to $12,600.
I made a sampler CD entitled ÂTrust Me On This. Instead of listing tracks and artists on the sleeve, I gave each song a vague descriptor and asked hosts to pick one according to their mood. It furrowed eyebrows every time I presented it, but invariably they would begin to smile at my selections and play a couple more.
Went into the Wilson/VAC room and felt a very pretentious atmosphere. Peter McGrath was playing crazy-dynamic orchestral stuff and blew a tube on the left monoblock. That was fun.
We found a small manufacturer of full-range drivers called Audio Nirvana. He had a 15Â with a whizzer cone and huge copper phase plug, leashed to a $995 pentode amp, and it was mystifyingly good for the price, as in top 10% of all rooms.
Hegel makes a sanely-priced integrated/DAC unit. Hooked up to some less-sanely-priced Magicos, it sounded fantastic. DevialetÂs more-expensive integrated/DAC powered a couple of tiny bookshelves that pressurized their medium-large room enough to make my jaw drop.
It was a blast to drink from such a firehose of soundwaves for a full weekend. We have already declared intent to return in 2015. Kudos to Marjorie, her staff, and our fellow attendees for making this one of the most outrageously fun vacations IÂve ever taken.
I love to study subcultures of all sorts, and this was my first true immersion in the audiophile population. As I explained to my wife on the phone one night, there are two kinds of people who go to audio shows: 1) Awkward introverts in their 50s. 2) Awkward introverts in their 60s. (To be fair, though, I should mention Asian dudes in their 40s.) Seriously, that first elevator ride with fellow audio geeks was painful. At this shindig, no one could even make banter for half a minute. _Crickets_. We sound-nerds are quite a peculiar lot, and I wouldnÂt want to have it any other way. :-)
My buddies and I took a decidedly non-scientific approach and just wandered the halls in a loose attempt to hit every room that we could. We tried to spend 2-3 songs in any room that did not suck. Here are my personal take-home observations:
I may now safely declare that I am a Tube Guy. A little roll-off at the frequency extremes is acceptable to my ears; the hardness and sterility that solid-state amps can bring to bear are not. I heard great transistor sound from a Dan DÂAgostino integrated driving the Wilson Duet monitors, and from several rooms with Ayre amplification; however, vaunted setups featuring Boulder and Jeff Rowland power left me unimpressed.
The two speakers that are haunting my dreams now are the new Volti Alura and the Vapor Audio Joule. I was entranced to learn that Vapor killed at last yearÂs RMAF with a Nimbus model priced below $7k  and was deflated to watch the price of said Nimbus jump this week to $12,600.
I made a sampler CD entitled ÂTrust Me On This. Instead of listing tracks and artists on the sleeve, I gave each song a vague descriptor and asked hosts to pick one according to their mood. It furrowed eyebrows every time I presented it, but invariably they would begin to smile at my selections and play a couple more.
Went into the Wilson/VAC room and felt a very pretentious atmosphere. Peter McGrath was playing crazy-dynamic orchestral stuff and blew a tube on the left monoblock. That was fun.
We found a small manufacturer of full-range drivers called Audio Nirvana. He had a 15Â with a whizzer cone and huge copper phase plug, leashed to a $995 pentode amp, and it was mystifyingly good for the price, as in top 10% of all rooms.
Hegel makes a sanely-priced integrated/DAC unit. Hooked up to some less-sanely-priced Magicos, it sounded fantastic. DevialetÂs more-expensive integrated/DAC powered a couple of tiny bookshelves that pressurized their medium-large room enough to make my jaw drop.
It was a blast to drink from such a firehose of soundwaves for a full weekend. We have already declared intent to return in 2015. Kudos to Marjorie, her staff, and our fellow attendees for making this one of the most outrageously fun vacations IÂve ever taken.