RMAF Loudspeakers?

My first visit and my last. Not that I did'nt enjoy it, It's just too expensive to come from the UK. I did'nt ask if anyone else had come from abroad, as a civilian that is. There did'nt seem to be many. The place was crawling with working Brits.
In general I thought the sound quality was a cut above British shows, with some pretty awful exceptions. They tended to be, as in England, the most expensive ones. Some set ups seemed far too ambitious for the awful hotel room environment. The smaller speakers seemed more satisfactory.
I agree with Tvad, one of the most suprising was the Moscode/ Von scwhiekert room. A really integrated, enjoyable sound. I have become very interested in the Moscode amps.
I liked the LSA room with the basic integrated amp and standmount speakers. I liked the new version of the Silverline Bolero's on demonstration, but at $14000, way too much for me with shipping and import tax. I liked the Sanders Electrostatic speakers. I hate horn speakers, a defect in my character, but the Rehm speakers were making a very nice sound too.
Ultimately, I went to choose a new, last pair of speakers and to convince my wife that I needed said speakers. I managed on both fronts and hopefully, a pair of Daedalus Da Ra mas will be over here in 2 months. Lou was helpful and patient as usual.

Thanks Larry, for arranging the meet at Garcias, the cheap beer helped too. It was a great pleasure speaking to a few of the guys at RMAF
Thanks Larry

The Von Schweikert/Moscode combo just works for some reason. I once owned Von Schweikert VR4 Gen III HSE and drove them with a Moscode 401HR, and the result was excellent. Wish I still owned that system, in some respects.

IMO, the Daedalus DA-Rma were superior to the Ulysses at this particular show. More cohesive and balanced. The bass went surprisingly deep...no doubt assisted by the smallish room.

I don't mean to go against the grain but I spent some time in the Von Schweikert room and I thought they were not great. I thought they imaged well but I found the soundstage from top to bottom to be totally unrealistic. For instance on one track one guitarist sounded like he was coming from the floor and another from about 4-5 feet above the speaker. Having heard that track in other systems it was totally distorted. I would suspect the detached cabinets gets in the way of seemlessly integrating. Just my two cents. I was on a similar quest in terms of speaker selecting and I didn't come away with anything that totally fit the bill that I loved. The best I found was a speaker I'd never heard of called Salk. The materials in that speaker are probably close to 1/3 or better of retail. They only sell direct. That's a far cry from the 1 to 10 ratio most manufacturers try to hit.

10-05-09: Mmike84
I don't mean to go against the grain but I spent some time in the Von Schweikert room and I thought they were not great.

No need to apologize for having a different opinion.

If everyone had the same taste, then there'd be only one room at RMAF.

TVAD,

You and I must have very similar tastes as my list of favorite rooms are nearly identical to yours.

The Classic Audio room was my favorite. Merlin/Joule was also fantastic as were the Joseph Audio Pearl/Bel Canto room.

I also liked the Esoteric room and the odd combination of Parasound and Wharfdale.