RMAF 2007 Day 2

[MiTT]

Aci

Another company that offers extraordinary value in my book is ACI, and they were back this year again with their remarkable little Sapphires. At $1700 in the Piano Gloss finish shown here these are among my favorite mini monitors. Something was amiss this year though (I suspect the electronics from a company I can't remember now and have never heard of before) as the root cause because when I put on my Damien Rice disc it was not Damien Rice I was hearing. The sound was slow, plodding and muddy - not at all what I've heard from the Sapphires on multiple other occasions. Just goes to show how subjective and brutal show conditions can be. Anyone coming to listen to these speakers in particular would have been disappointed I believe.

 

[MiTT]

Red Rock Audio

Now one of the offical sponsors of the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, Denver based Red Rock Audio makes what I consider to be a very beautiful set of fully Class A Triode Mono-blocks in their flagship Renaissance amps. The Piano Gloss units they were using to power the very interesting Proclaim Audio speakers were exceptionally beautiful, but at $1000/watt, these 40W amps are not likely to find a home driving our Martin Logans. They are a sight to behold though. The $26K Proclaim speakers sounded pretty dynamic, but I guess I was expecting more from them considering their novel appearance and significant price. I'd like to hear them again though under better conditions.

 

[MiTT]

Art Audio/Daedalus

Another manufacturer of exceptionally beautiful looking and great sounding high cost/quality amps is Art Audio. I have never seen or heard an Art Audio amp I didn't like, there's just something very right about them. This year they were paired with the new $8800.00 Reference Audio Series speakers from Deadalus - a brand I didn't care for at all last year. In talking with owner/designer Lou Hinkley he said he basically redesigned the entire speaker over the past year, making some 28 significant changes in the design. While still not my favorite speakers at the show, they were significantly better sounding than a year ago.

 

[MiTT]

Analysis Audio

Boy these babies were good! Analysis bills themselves as "makers of full range ribbon loudspeakers of exceptional build quality and outstanding sonic performance". Check! With electronics from Pure and analog by virtue of a VPI Aries 3 fitted with a Strain Gauge cartridge (look familiar Dave?), these things sounded amazing enough to keep my butt planted front and center for a good 40 minutes. Great big sound when called for, intimate sound when that was what was presented. Coherence in spades - it was impossible to tell when the sound crossed over from the ribbon tweeter/midrange units to the full bass panels. Sonny Boy Williams doing "The Sky is Crying" had me right there weeping with him. Muddy Waters "Folksinger" had the entire room riveted to the performance. This was serious, engaging music making. Price of admission is $48,000.00.

 

[twich54]

Hi Tim, nice to see the Aries 3 in action !, BTW, did you get a chance to hear any of the ZU Audio stuff ???

 

[MiTT]

Hi Tim, nice to see the Aries 3 in action !, BTW, did you get a chance to hear any of the ZU Audio stuff ???

Dave,

Zu was a sponsor of the show this year and they were doing all of the sound reinforcement for the live music that went on in the hotel atrium all weekend. As such, they didn't have a separate room for showing their stuff. They had a new model on display in the atrium, but I believe it was a static demo. The stuff that they were using for the live entertainment sound very good in that role, but a busy hotel atrium isn't very condusive to critical listening as you might imagine. I hope that they have their own room again next year as the room last year was quite good.

 

[MiTT]

Artemis Labs/Verity Audio

The Artemis Labs and Verity Audio room was yet another standout to my ears. Artemis was demonstrating their entire line include these gorgeous sounding 14W Class A monoblocks ($14K) driving the great sounding Verity Salastre's ($35-$40K depending on finish). Stevie Ray Vaughn's "Couldn't Stand the Weather" sounded gritty and raw on the Classic reissue. Coincidentally, Sara K's cover of "Vincent" on some unobtainable Japanese vinyl sounded delicate and intimate. A very musical system.

Artemis was spinning all of their vinyl on a new prototype turntable they will be marketing under the Artemis name; designed by Schroeder. Tasty!

 

[MiTT]

Acapella (Room 1)

Acapella had two big rooms this year, the first one featuring their truely Gi-Normous 4 way horn masterpiece. BIG doesn't describe these monsters, they are a good 9 feet tall by 4 feet wide by 3 feet deep and they must weigh 600 lbs each - they are HUGE! So is the price tag - $170,000.00

They were driving these monsters with a whole boatload of Einstein tubed electronics that managed to keep the large room warm on an untypically cold and rainy day in Denver.

The sound was what you might expect - Fast, BIG, detailed, but to my ears at least it was almost too much of a good thing. I threw on my copy of Richard Thompson's "Live in Austin" and had them que up "Shoot out the Lights". The stage was lifelike for the most part, and Richard's guitar solo's were furious in their attack, but the instument itself sounded like it was as big as the whole stage rather than of appropriate scale grasped in his hands as he occupied the stage if that makes any sense.

 

[MiTT]

Acapella (Room 2)

Much more to my personall liking were the smaller (yeah right - still about 9 feet tall by 3 feet wide by 3 feet deep and a good 250 lbs. each) Acapella Campanille's at a much more reasonable (yeah right) $88,000.00.

These speakers had a smaller overall presentation than their big brothers, but that presentation sounded more realistic and true to the music. Dire Straits "Brothers in Arms" sound like a group of guys in the studio, arranged about playing real instruments. Miles Davis "Tutu" was just amazing, the bell of his trumpet clearly defined and downright tangible in front of me like a real person standing in the room playing 10 feet away. The FM Acoustics electronics hooked up to this system were incredibly smooth. I'm a tube guy, but I liked these electronics (SS) better than the tubed Einstein gear lashed to the big Acapella's.

As I was mentioning in a reply to DrPig in the Day 1 thread, these plasma tweeters are something to behold. They sound amazing with extension galore while not being harsh at all, but occasionally, like when a brush is riding on a high hat, or when Miles would streatch out to hit the high notes, these things would start to glow like fire in the belly of a furnace or something. I had this image of them belching out flames and cooking me alive if the amplifier started to clip or something. Kind of mesmerizing and intimidating at the same time.

This was another room that I would put into my Top 10.

 

[MiTT]

Genesis

I've always been a Genesis fan, especially since they are another home grown Colorado company. The new Genesis 5.3 at $18K sounded great playing ht e Opus 3 "Flaminco Puro" disc through a Remyo CD player and Eisntein integrated amp.

 

[MiTT]

Beveridge

I think it was Spike who was asking about Beveridge prior to the show, so I was sure to seek them out. Beveridge is indeed back after some 30 years, and they are currently accepting orders for their G3 system. They are all made to Order only and the price is $50K. They were using the EMM Labs single box player for a front end with Joule Electra pre amp and the wonderful VZM 100 Grand Marquis OTL mono-blocks for power.

The sound was very good - cohesive would be a good word to describe it. There was no differentiation between the stat towers and the subwoofers at all, in fact I wondered if the woofers were even on at all until there was some music with significant low frequency content. They sounded like a single driver speaker in that regard. But, I didn't think they were nearly as dynamic as the current Martin Logan speakers, or even my old ReQuests for that matter, so that would be my biggest concern with them. If I were going to drop 50 Large on a set of speakers, I'd want them to blow me away, and the Beveridges just didn't do that for me. I wonder if they just had them really dialed back since they were in what I would consider a VERY small room for such large speakers?

 

[MiTT]

Esoteric

The last room I visited on Day 2 was Esoteric. They were showing their wonderful new entry level seperates in the P05/D05 Transport and DAC ($14K). They also had the signal running through the G3 master Clock, and the amplification was from an Esoteric Integrated amp that I didn't even know they offered (sorry - I forgot to get model number and price). They were also showing their newly introduced family of speakers with the smaller stand mounted set selling at $5500.00 for the pair and the larger floor standers selling for $8400.

The sound was what you would expect from Esoteric - clean detailed, accurate and very musical. I'm a big fan of Esoteric because they manage to make digital sound very, very musical. Love their Industrial Design too!