Best of RMAF 2008

I am up to day 2 of the RMAF show. I started at the Hyatt. The rooms on day 2 sounded much better than the rooms on day 1. Goes to show how equipment needs time to settle down. If any of you have done cable comparisons and you notice the system doesn't sound as good after moving your cables. For some reason, cables & tubes & equipment needs to settle. Day 2 was good and there was not enough time to listen on Day 3.

To start, I heard Mastersound 845 monoblocks in a large room in the Hyatt. They were driving a speaker which I really liked. I think it was made in Europe or Turkey but I didn't get the name. Ribbon tweeter on top of speaker cabinet and 3 woofer/ midbass units. One driver facing forward and 2 drivers facing back. The room was large. Very large. And it sounded great. They had lots of blue bottles of water on the table. I didn't listen extensively but it was suprisingly good. Decent dynamics and able to image everywhere. Something to be said for space. The speakers were well out into the room.

I also listened to Acoustic Zen w. Halcro electronics. They had a guitarist playing via the electronics and speakers the night before. Not bad. But for regular listening it wasn't my cup of tea.

I went into the GR Research / AV123 Dodd Audio Room. What a deal for these speakers. $7000.00 for a full range linear array w. a ton of drivers. Talk about getting your money worth. The sound was very good for the money. I have a feeling it could be even better. Something was not just right. I couldn't put my finger on it but they were busy adjusting the room for quite a while w. some crossover equipment.

I then heard the Scaena speakers for the 1st time. They were using VTL S400 amps w. DCS as the front end. These speakers are something special. They sounded excellent, but then again I like the VTL house sound which showed through. The DCS also is excellent. The speakers were easy for me to judge being all the electronics were familiar. 1st of all, these speakers had a custom paint job the looked so cool. 2nd, they are an array w. ribbons. I have a feeling this speaker will only get more poplular over time. They aren't cheap. I also think they might need a touch more development. They are so middle of the road. Basically they did everything well. I gave them a good 1/2 hour & would consider buying them if I was in the market again. But..... there was something missing. I need more time to get to know them.

I will mention a few rooms quickly. I heard the medium Ascendos w. the Behold electronics. They were missing a cable so they couldn't equalize the room. So I was explained. I thought I would love the room, but it was bright. We turned on & off the tweeter in the rear of the speaker but it was still bright. In the end I found a lot of rooms bright. My ears??? Not sure but I am home and nothing is bright & I have Wilsons (which people say is bright).

I heard the Harbeth 40s. I can see why some like them, but beyond the ergonomics, I could hear the box. Mind you the box is musical so some might like it. I also heard Ayon electronics w. Escalante Speakers. They were using a decent analogue front end when I came in. I have heard Escalante Speakers a few times now. They fall outside my taste.

I then headed over to the Marriot. I got lost on the ground floor buying records for a long while and decided to stop and finally listen to more rooms. That will be a 2nd post.

I really enjoyed the Voloce mono's with battery powered preamp. They made the Kharma speakers sound wonderful.

I am back. Day 2 Part 2 & the Marriot is the scene. So many rooms & no time. How do you really get to listen to it all. How do you prioritize. I basically ask others what did they hear that they like. I ended up getting stuck downstairs by a bunch of rooms that were all fairly expensive and a few were surprising in both good & bad ways.

In a theater size room a very large pair of Classic Audio Reproductions Speakers w. TAD drivers that are very expensive, and Atmasphere electronics I was able to listen almost totaly alone in the room. The sound was good. I didn't love it. Found it a little bright. This is my impression of TAD tweeters. Not very mind you, but a touch. Still I wouldn't buy these speakers but some would.

Verity Audio w. Artemis Labs electronics. Not bad but I didn't really stop to sit.

I then heard Analysis Audio ribbon full range speakers and VTL MB450s with VTL phono preamp, VPI TT, and VTL preamp. The sound was excellent. I happen to like these speakers a lot. But I like Apogees of the past. Not huge bass, but good enough. It is very hard to get bass from Ribbon panels. Definitely worth consideration, but getting a bass tower/subwoofer would be amazing. Hard to explain the sound, but full size images that are well defined and with detail but not in your face. The images had nice height and speed and decay of notes was very realistic. Coherence in spades. But to integrate bass and you need a balanced room to make them work. EMM was the other source. I am familiar w. VTL & EMM so I know what I heard as a reference to the speakers.

I should mention VTL's new phono stage. Something very unique in terms of convenience. Full remote control, uses 8 tubes, and has adjustable on load, phase for each channel, gain, RIAA, mono & mute. Quite a nice trick. Has both an MM & MC input.

I got to hear the Big Acapellas w. the Ion tweeter. The electronics were Einstein. A very expensive system. It sounds good but I didn't love the detailed nature of the Ion tweeter. I prefer something more natural sounding, like a well executed ribbon. They are good & I can see why people like it, but there is a certain lack of coherence. Not as seemless as the Ribbons, but definitely more power & effortlessness from the Acapellas. Would love to hear them in a 2nd setup, as the feedback from others was not very good.

I then heard the YG Acoustics, the "best" speaker in the world in its most expensive form driven by FM Acoustics. Not sure what the source is but these are the fastest dynamic speakers I have ever heard. The have a scan speak tweeter which I usually like, but here it sounded a little etchy & hard. It could be anything but I listened to the next size down YG speakers in a different system and the sound was similar.

I bumped into Frank Schroder and asked him a ton of questions. Extremely informative. He really understands all the details of his design and more. It was a great conversation. He & Thomas Woshnick are great designers that are the most approachable. I also met w. Luke & Bea of VTL. Once you get to know them, you understand what it is when you purchase a VTL product. You get a company with dedication for the long haul. They are in it for keeps. I am sure there are more people like this in Audio. RMAF lets you meet with them and know if you want to buy from these people. It is great. I also met Alan Perkins, Peter Lederman, and Reinhardt Thoress (he is a teddy bear personality who loves to keep circuits simple).

I got to listen to the new Exemplar Modified Usher Be 10. Driven by Belles Amplification and w. a Exemplar CD player for source or what appears to be a Feikert Turntable. We listened to both the modified and unmodified Usher Be 10. These speakers are a great value for the money. They just did it all & sounded like music. Something special. Bass, clean open mids, and a Beryllium tweeter that sounds sweet. All this with solid state amplification. A great value for the entire system. These speakers can rock, give detail and just do it all. This is a super system on a budget. The only competition they have is the Horning Speakers which also can do dynamics with detail without excluding bass. I listened to them a 2nd time on Sunday Morning w. the new Berning High Power tube amplifiers. I think they are called Quadrature Z. These can push and sound dynamic. The power on tap was excellent. A great amplifier w. a touch of tube like warmth. Mind you the Belles isn't far off, but there is a magic w.the Berning that was missing. The Berning has a purity that is different than most high power tube amps or solid state designs. I need to listen to it again and I do recommend a listen if you need the power. 220 Watts.

I then listened breifly to the Playback Designs Room w. the Wilson Benesch speakers hooked up to DeHavilland. I like Wilson Benesch speakers but this system wasn't anything special to me. It was a quick listen, but something was missing compared to the Usher Suite just before it. I moved on. I took a close up look of the Playback Designs CDP. It looks nice enough, but definitely not my taste. I like the looks of the Esoteric & even the EMM more.

I started to head up. I spoke w. Allen Perkins about the 3 patents on his new tonearm. It really is amazing. There is an amount of brilliance in the design that gives it potential to be one of the great tonearms of all time. I hope it comes out soon. His analogue setup always sounds great. Something to do with his rooms as well.

I then stopped in to relax in the Horning, Tron Room. Today it settled in and sounded great. I went to the Highwater Sound just to hang out. You can't help but listen to music. Jeff always puts on non audiophile pressings that are way cool. I think everyone who goes there experiences the same thing. The room has the perfect balance between a hifi sound & musicality. You can't believe the bass but each speaker has 4 woofers in a push pull configuration. An amazing design that can rock. Of course the new Tron Phono stage is a must listen. Adjustable RIAA and more features. I don't know the model of Hornings by name, but they are $9000 and worth every penny. They do all the tricks but in a most musical way. Nothing in your face, but in no way closed in. This is a sound I love and I doubt there is much comparable in its price range.

It was getting late, so I ran to the Audiogon meet & greet across the street. I met Cello, PCosta, Danselm and a few others. What great guys. Not enough time in the day or the night for that matter. I wish there was more time. Everyone was tired after dinner and wanted to wake early to get a head start.

Dgad , Excellent description of the sound(s)of RMAF.
THANK YOU

So I have been saving the best day for last. This is when everything sounded great. I had to start early to get as much in as possible. Many rooms would be packing up but 3-4 pm.

I went into the Usher Room first. They had a great location. I wrote about it above, but he was running the Berning Amps this time. These are great amps. And the Exemplar Ushers (definitely worthe the extra money for the Exemplar modification) are more detailed and more open sounding. What a deal for these speakers.

There already has been some mention about the Veloce Electronics. Battery Based preamp & amp which uses a Hypex Module. They used them on Kharma speakers. This sounded really good. This is the 1st time I have heard Kharma speakers sound really to my liking. Funny as Kharma has their own Hypex module amplifier. I don't get the price though. If I remember 10K for a Hypex based amplifier is too much. They did sound natural and musical. Almost tube like w. power. A sound I could live with but long term listening is a must as it might have too much of a signature. This is not based on what I heard, but based on the design. They were using an Audio Aero CDP which I have owned and loved. For some reason the smaller Kharmas always sounded better than the larger ones in the shows I have heard them. I heard them large Kharmas with Tenors newest electronics in Germany. They sounded very good, but so did these for a fraction of the price.

I then spent some time listening to the Moscode Room w. the Von Schweikert VR5 anniversary speakers. Something didn't fit, maybe the room. As for the sound, it was very forward and agressive. The smaller Unifield 3 speakers are incredible. I heard the Unifield 3 speakers a little later driven by a Push Pull 300B Audiospace integrated amplifier. What a great system. Got me seriously thinking of trying a push pull 300B or one of the 845/300B combination amps. Something magic in that setup. And it fits in small rooms.

I heard the Focal room w some small Focal speakers driven by Marantz separates. This sounded OK. Not a lot of detail, but musical. I was thinking of a Marantz integrated for a separate system, but now realize it isn't me. The sound is too smooth.

The Emerald Physics / Wyred for sound room was one I wanted to hear. I never listened to an open baffle design. There are some limitations w. open baffles. You can hear the rear wave messing w. the front wave. Also the Wyred for sound amps are class D amps w. the typical class D sound. I find class D (except for the Spectron's newest amps) to be missing something in terms of communicating the emotion behind the music.

I then stumbled on to what I consider one of the best sounds at the show. The Symposium Speakers driven by Emotive Audio top of the line amps running 50 Watts from 2 6550 tubes and the top of the line preamp. They were running real to real. These speakers are big & ugly IMO. They just sound incredible. Something about full range ribbons. I gave them a go w. some familiar music and they did great. They need a long wall for setup which is a problem. They also image incredibly wide w. detail and dynamics aplenty. Plenty of speed. Just missing a bit of the warmth and body. I wish I heard them w. SET since they were using just 50 watts of 6550s. The Vita Mono amplifiers. The preamp was the Epiphinea w. the 300B tube. My friend felt bass was lacking. Tough to tell since it was a show and the bass towers are huge. This speaker could be one of the best if your room can handle it. The best part was the room was empty. Speaking w. the designer he mentioned he uses a Wavac amplifier in the design process. I wonder what more these speakers can do.
I sat in the room for 1/2 an hour. But there were more rooms to go, some on my must listen list.

Red Wine integrated and WLM speakers. A lot of talk about both of these products. I heard smaller WLM speakers before. They were great. These were a size or 2 larger. All I can say is they sounded better in Munich. That also tells you that a lot depends on the setup.

I then heard Tidal speakers for the 1st time. I heard them in 2 rooms. The more expensive speakers w. some electronics I didn't know in 1 room. These are beautiful finished speakers. The wood work is gorgeous. Something special. My other favorite as far as woodwork is Odeon.
Back to the Tidal room w. Ceramic drivers. These were using Tidal electronics as well. The model of the speaker was the Contriva.

Then in the adjoining room were a slightly smaller set of Tidal speakers. These are called the Pianos. These had Lamm M1.2 amps, w. the DCS Puccini as source. I don't know anything about price but this was a great sounding room. As a system it just worked. Both rooms were the same size, but maybe the smaller speaker was better in the room. This is the 1st time I liked the Lamm M1.2s. I love the ML2.1s but the 1.2s always left me lacking at shows w. Kharma. Not now. They sounded great. Dynamic, not dark, but not in your face. Great bass. A nice system. The Puccini obviously is excellent, as many have been saying. A nice liquid sound, that is not to warm and didn't have any bloat.

Now on to another great room. A room I wanted to hear for a while. Lets go down the line, Brinkman table, Lyra Titan (not I), EMM's latest 2 channel w. transport, and Lamm ML3s (one of the world's great amps) and Coltrane Speakers. This room had it all. The Lamms w. only 32 watts put out bass. Amazing. Body, inner detail. It is all there. Another great room. Between the Symposium, & this room I would want .........BOTH. Go figure. A diamond tweeter that I liked. A diamond midrange. The sound was natural........but, I didn't like the sound w. the new EMM electronics. It became a bit bright. Maybe not broken in, but I have never heard an EMM sound bright. I own a Titan I and have heard a Lamm Phono w. Titan combination many times (in fact the Lamm phono was in use in a few rooms, and the Titan I, Orpheus & Skala were in quite a few rooms) Back to the sound w. vinyl. Miles Davis. He sounded in the room. Full scale classical. Sounded real. (I heard Miles sound poor in a room in the Hyatt the day before). And then they played some Stevie Ray Vaughn. Wow!!!!. This is it. Why we go to the shows. To hear great systems strut their stuff. More than 1/2 of them flopped but a few did well enough to make it worth the time.

A little anticlimactic but Daedelus Audio w. Manley sounded good. Musical and natural. I could see how some might actually love the sound.

Next is REference 3A Episodes w. ASL 845 tube amps. Reference 3A is one of the great speaker bargains. I have heard them many times and loved them. This time I didn't love them. I just liked them. Not sure why. Maybe the music. I loved the little ones and still they are probably the best stand mounted 2 way I have ever heard for the money.

Next came another very good room. Actually one of the better turntables. The Spiral Groove. 2 of them. One w. a Triplanar and one w. a prototype Spiral Groove. They don't look it but they are quite expensive. They do sound very very good. I want to try the arm on my Raven AC. The counterweight is unique as is the antiskate mechanism. They were using Sonics by Joachim Gerhard speakers. If any of you remember Audio Physic speakers. The Sonics are equally good and worht your consideration. He is one of the great speaker designers. The room is musical, and has flow. The emphasis is musicality over hifi. A nice balance.

I then heard for the 1st time Spectron Musician IIIse amps w. some speaker that I never heard of. These are quite good. I tried to detect a signature that i find anoying with some of the Class D competition. If anything the sound had warmth and body. These amps are worthy of consideration. I didn't know enough about the rest of the system, but I have heard quite a few Class D amps impose their signature instantly. These didn't. They had these room tweeks all over the place that as usual cost much too much money. Do they work? A little. I just wish people charged reasonable prices and not try to become millionaires overnight.

I am going to finish day 3 later. Still a few more items to go through and some recap.