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Best of RMAF 2008

For those who attended the 2008 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest this past weekend, what were your favorites? (If you're a dealer or manufacturer, please name products *other* than the ones you sell or manufacture.)

This was my second year attending RMAF, and I found that I enjoyed many of the same products that I heard last year, although there were some new discoveries, and I had some different impressions from hearing the same equipment this year.

Regarding speakers: I was smitten with the Feastrex concentric speaker drivers. They sounded good in the Maxxhorns, but I thought the Feastrex room (particularly the one with the tall Arusha models) really stood apart. They also make their own tube amplifiers and preamp, and those sounded remarkably good. Very natural, balanced tone with good definition and sense of space.

Other speakers that impressed me this year were the large Joseph Audio RM55LE's. I liked their smaller speakers last year as well, so this came as no surprise. What did surprise me was that they sounded so good with the Bel Canto class D monoblocks, which sounded awful last year. Obviously, the quality of the sound those amps produce has a lot to do with the choice of speaker.

I also give kudos to the giant Yokohama Baysidenet speakers. They looked a little bit like space aliens, but the sound was quite good. I didn't imagine they could get that much bass from such a small driver, but if anything, the room was too small for them. Very nice design.

Although there were a number of interesting horn speakers, I'd have to say that my favorites were the AvantGarde duos. Nice neutral sound, good imaging, good bass.

As amplifiers go, I do enjoy the single-ended tube amp sound, and this year was no exception. I think I was perhaps most impressed with either the Feastrex amps, or the Tektron Italia's, which I somehow missed last year. The Tektrons were paired with some nice concentric speakers, I believe they were called Ridge-? Other pleasant surprises included the German-built Thoress amplifiers, which exhibited some of the finest qualities of tube amplification to my ears, although they seemed somewhat constrained by the speakers they were paired with. The deHavilland room had some new Kara Chafee amps, the "KE" models, which I enjoyed very much. I thought they had a somewhat tubier, warmer sound than the standard deHavilland monoblocks, but they were very inviting. Of course, it's hard to go wrong with the Wilson Benesch speakers, although I think I prefer the smaller "bookshelf" type speakers to the uprights.

As usual, there were a number of really excellent turntables on display (although fewer this year than last, it seemed - I hope that trend is reversed next year). If I had to choose a favorite, I'd say it was the TW Acustics 4-armed model in the Thoress room, playing a very fine Ortofon cartridge and tonearm.

As digital sources go, there were a number of nice cd players, but being a Squeezebox fan I was partial to the Modwright tube-modified Transporter.

I may have to amend this list as other items come to mind, but those are my favorites from this year's RMAF.

Chris
benthos
mosin
410 posts
 
Drubin,

Thanks for mentioning our room. I'm glad you liked it, and it was really nice meeting so many of you AudiogoN guys.

We were somewhat apprehensive about the size of the room, but it worked out fine. I suppose all any manufacturer can do is try to plan ahead, and keep his fingers crossed because in the end, it is only the performance in that given space that counts. Overall, we are plenty happy with it.

Also, thanks to those who liked my turntable. I worked very hard developing it, but I admit that as a designer I have always been a bit self-conscious about my work. So, when someone, anyone, appreciates it, I am absolutely beside myself.

Best,
Win
rhythmace4218
53 posts
 
Vienna Acoustics " The Music"/ Rowland/ Soundings
Von Schweikert VR-9's/Vac
Von Schweikert VR-5 Anniversaries/Moscode
Joseph Audio RM55 se/Bel Canto
Acoustic Zen Maestro's/Halcro

These are not in any particular order and liked these systems for various reasons. The Vr-5 Anniversaries could have sounded even better with a bit more room.
teddy_bear
112 posts
 
TAD/Belcanto
SMC/Genesis
MBL/Kharma/Sooloos
Kubala-Sosna/Mcintosh/Bryston/Audio Epilog Issa
Marten/EAR
dgad
782 posts
 
I would love to upload photos if anyone can make them available for download. Please let me know.

I am going to post a comprehensive show review with a few limitations. The equipment I own I did not listen to. This includes the Highwater Sound room. It sounded so much better w. the Hornings setup in Jeffs place it wasn't worth listening. Also, I didn't listen to any Wilson rooms. I have them so why bother. Also, day 3 of the show is when most rooms truly began to sound their best. The rooms I heard on day 1 (Friday) usually sounded poor.

Going from memory & my pictures:

The 1st day. Me & a few Agon members went together. We all seemed to agree in our sound biases within reason.

JM Lab Grand Utopia EM. In theory these speakers should blow me away. I really like the original Grand Utopia Be but I didn't care for the new ones. Something wrong w. the setup on the 1st day? Or maybe, the associated equipment - Boulder vs. VTL which I love. If they only played the speakers w. an SET since they are so efficient I would have probably fallen in love. As they were used in a controled demo, they sounded dry and my seat, while not bad didn't help.

Vivid Audio Room. Got offered some Irish Whisky by Philip Ohanlon. What a great guy. I couldn't make it due to too much to do & not enough time. But this room was a revelation. They played a simple Luxman 30 Watt Class A integrated amp in a very large room, w. the Vivid speakers. This sounded musical and great. They played CD through a Luxman CD player which also sounded great. And they played some Master TApe. This was incredible. We all loved it. And the CD was very good as well. I love the simplicity of the integrated w. the Vivid speakers. What a room. They were using the Synergistic Research cables & some active shielding. They turned it on & off. Me & my friends all felt it sounded better w. it off when using master tape. Better turned on w. CD. Go figure. The Luxman integrated deserves to be on a short list. It didn't sweat & I could see the meters the entire time.

The Von Schweikert VR9s didn't sound too great. But the next day the new VR3s? sounded incredible. The Hansens (big ones) sounded just like they are described in the review I read on the flight back in TAS. Enough said. I have heard them elsewhere and they can sound better but their character is as described. Nice to know that reviews can be spot on. If you want a summary, slightly bright but nice overall. They were using a Clearaudio Goldfinger that I was interested in. But noone could set it up. I listened to this room a few times. Both w. digital & analogue.

The Oswald Mills room, w. the Slate Table & the Horn Speakers. I actually really liked this room a lot. A beautiful natural sound that was not hifi at all. I don't like the looks of the speakers. I do of the turntable. I can't isolate anything apart, but he was playing the horns w. 2A3 tube amps. So SWEET. I just loved it. Maybe too sweet, but I think I could live with it. A friend tried his amp instead of the 2A3 amps and everything just went bye bye. So as a system I really liked it. And what cartridge was playing? The Voice from Soundsmith. A great cartridge. I wanted to buy it, but I spent all my money on Vinyl. A great collection that I got to sift through. It made my day.

I am at the bottom here and some people will get upset if they read this far, but I didn't care for the strain guage. Every time I hear it I find it thin & detailed. Not my sound. As a contrast I love the Voice. Great body. Sounds like music. People say the strain guage never shows itself off at shows, but no having compared it to the Voice which I heard in a few rooms, I can say it is not the room, but the cartridge. I have heard it in other shows as well. Some might love it as it can resolve detail extremely well, but I want a fuller (more tone) sound. The Voice is one of those great bargains in cartridges. If you want a cartridge to do it all, for cheap get it. $2200 Retail. From what others say, no one wants to say how good it is for fear of hurting sales of higher end cartridges. They just might be right.

Rooms I heard that I remember but left no impression include the RAAL room. Cool speakers, but I was told they had problems when I bumped into them on day 3. Probably true. Atmasphere in any room w. the Classic Audio Reproduction Speakers. My friend loved it. I didn't. I realize I don't like in your face tweeters (and I have Wilsons, what does that tell you.) and the TAD tweeters didn't do it. Any speaker sporting Bereylium tweeters just sounded wrong for me. A little hissy. As a friend of mine explained, like they are spitting. So well put.

Feel free to email w. questions etc.
benthos OP
4 posts
 
I would echo Dgad's comments about the Oswald Mills room.. I liked the sound of the speakers (and I'm not generally a fan of horns), but I'm not sure if it was just a good first impression, or whether it was the kind of sound I could actually live with.

I'm also not so enamored of the Soundsmith Strain Gauge. Generally, I found the Soundsmith room hard to assess. Am I the only person who heard their speakers distorting at higher volumes? The tiny space almost certainly diminished the soundstage, but just in general, those speakers had problems.
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