Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2009

[slowGEEZR]

mbl 111F

This speaker came very close to being my favorite of the show. In all fairness, I would have to listen to it and the German Physiks again, with the same recordings, to be absolutely certain the GP is my favorite (but I still think it is). I had written that this was my favorite speaker until I heard the GP later. The mbl 111F is $34K. This room also used the mbl 1611 FDAC, 1621 Transport, 6010 pre, and the 9008 mono amps. The speakers simply disappear and you are left with an incredible soundstage. They are very dynamic and accurate in tone, to my ears. The 111F is a new design and has a larger woofer enclosure for incredible bass. I listened to Jacqui Naylor singing, "Losing My Religion" from the album, "The Color Five". Her voice was stunning over this system.

I just realized something. My wife is German, my car is German and so is my motorcycle and now my two favorite speakers of the RMAF are both German. Is this some kind of pattern?

 

[slowGEEZR]

Dave, I recognize you, larger than life in the foreground, but who are the other characters?

That's Wayne (theWB) over Dave's right shoulder, me over his left. The other guys are from another board that Dave frequents. The guy to Dave's right provided us with a very nice sampler CD that he had made. Thanks!

 

[slowGEEZR]

Virtue Audio

Another interesting (to me) company was Virtue Audio. In this room they were playing these speakers with this little white amp. The little two inch wide, five inch tall thing sitting above their banner. The sound was loud and clear. I took some more pictures of some of their amps, as the engineer who designed them kept bringing them over to me and showing me their guts. The prices were dirt cheap, too.

 

[slowGEEZR]

WIN Analogue

WIN Analogue had some beautifully made and beautiful sounding amps. Ahem, they also have some beautiful prices!

 

[slowGEEZR]

The Siegfried, by Berning

Here is an OTL amp that I thought looked pretty cool.

 

[slowGEEZR]

Modwright, Abbington Music, Daedalus Audio..

This room was putting out some great sound. They were using a Modwright 36.5 pre and Modwright mono amps. The speakers were the Daedalus Audio Ulysses Reference speakers ($11K) and the CD player ($10K) was the Abbington Music Research CD77. That was one impressive CD player. It looked like it was built to last two lifetimes!

 

[slowGEEZR]

As mentioned in earlier posts, the PS Audio Perfect wave system room sounded incredible. To me, the system sounded analogue as hell, I loved it! The PS Audio boxes are $3K each, I believe (at least the transport and the DAC) and the wonderful Focus Audio Master 2.5 speakers are $20K/pair. Notice that Martin Logan subs were in use here, to great effect!

 

[slowGEEZR]

VTL and Avalon...

The jazz playing in this room was wonderful sounding. There were dynamics aplenty, but not to the degree of the more expensive and larger speakers (TAD, for instance). Bass drum did hit with authority. I sat off axis, yet still had a nice soundstage.

 

[slowGEEZR]

Von Schweikert, Moscode, Cardas

I really liked this room. I liked these products last year, too.

 

[slowGEEZR]

Nola, Audio Research, United Audio

I thought this room had very dynamic, open sound, with great clarity on the orchestral music being played. I detected no boxy sound whatsoever. The source was a refurbished reel to reel tape deck by United Home Audio, the amps were ARC Ref 210 monos and the pre was the ARC Ref 5, and the speakers were the Nola Baby Grand Reference ($55k). A very impressive room.

 

[theWB]

Did anyone hear the near Vandy 7s? I don't see a pic of them. How was there sound?

Here's a pic, but as you can see I was sitting way way off axis.

 

[theWB]

Much of this is repeat, but here is Steve in the Sanders room.
I really liked the sound he was getting, surprised how well they sounded with the speakers so close together.

 

[theWB]

As most did I really enjoyed the Hansens, here's a pic of the small Knights, which surprising sounded much much larger than their size

 

[theWB]

Smaller MBL's the 116, $22,550

 

[theWB]

Wilson Sasha's, Picture doesn't do them justice, afraid I don't have Tim's skills with a camera. I really liked these speakers, one of my favorites from the show

 

[theWB]

Merlin Room sounded great

 

[theWB]

Harbeth Room

This room sounded Great, I dragged Dave back to the room to give it a listen I liked it so much. Just goes to show you what you can do when you pay attention to the room acoustics.

 

[theWB]

YG Acoustics, I think these are the same speakers in 2 different rooms, the first room downstairs sounded very good, the second room upstairs didn't, I think Steve, Rich, and Myself lasted less than 2 minutes in the second room

 

[twich54]

Dave, I recognize you, larger than life in the foreground, but who are the other characters?

Sorry Bernard........ Ok ....L to R...

"Lonewolf" (Chris of Audiocircle.com)
"the WB" (our own Wayne)
"twich54" (some lardass from the M/L forum)
"slowgezzer" (our own Steve)
"Wayner" (another Wayne from Audiocircle)
"Ed" (again from Audiocircle)

 

[theWB]

If I remember correctly these were from Eficion very nice sounding speakers, I think they retailed for $15,000