Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2009

[User211]

Those Tri amps look outstanding - love the headphone amp, too. Actually, I am looking for a good headphone amp, but the price of that relative to a pair of AKG 702s looks to be a bit much.

The TT isn't a Woodpecker as far as I can tell... and I agree the PS Audio Perfect Wave stuff looks interesting - it has been given Editor's Choice in Hi-Fi News over here.

 

[amey01]

Those were both power cables, one for the amp (the one that was lifted) and the other for a lamp that was on the floor behind the amp.

Be that as it may, it was worth lifting off the floor for some of the way - obviously just not all of the way!

 

[User211]

A few others have already posted on this room, so I'll just follow on. I've never been much of a Wilson fan. It's not that I hate them, I just never got very excited about them, particularly the Watt/Puppy series. They were always detailed and open. They image well and had extension at both frequency extreems, but they never made me want to spend time with them just listening to music. That has changed. Maybe it was the partnering with the always wonderful Audio Research gear, but the new Wilson Sasha's were nothing short of intoxicating in my book! I didn't hear the Audio Research CD-8 because when I was in the room they had a Linn LP-12 fitted with a Lyra Skala feeding the new Ref 5 pre-amp through a Ref Phono 2 phono stage. I believe the amp was a Ref 110, but I'm not sure (anybody know?). This room had weight and authority. Maybe it was the performance or the pressing, but they were playing a Harmonia Mundi recording of some Mozart chamber orchestra pieces that sounded like Beethoven. The presence was nothing short of powerful. I was very pleasantly suprised.

Posts here are backing up my theory that Wilson + ARC = very good, but Wilson + Krell = not good at all. Looks like a REF110 to me, which sounded lovely driving Summit X's at Silverstone.

This was obviously one hell of a show compared to Silverstone. Some truly excellent gear.

Re Audio Note - yup they do make "kits". Most of the time I usually enjoy Audio Note demos - this year's Silverstone was good, too. Then again I always liked the old Snell paper cone speakers driven by tubes, which is basically what the AN speakers are.

It's interesting that some rooms sound great with modest kit, and some really expensive systems are a real let down. You just have to get wise in this hobby - or waste a lot of money, I think.

 

[Mantana]

I don't know what it is about the Tri gear, but I'm naturally attracted to it. Maybe that red paint has a Zen quality to it, especially when paired with those Acoustic Zen speakers. I liked this room a lot playing a mix of Kodo drum music and jazz when I was there. The 845 based amp was a thing of beauty ($6000.00) combined with their TRV-CD4SE CD player ($2200.00) and TRV-4SE limited edition pre-amp ($2800.00), but the thing that caught my eye on the way out of the room was the TRV-84HD 3wpc Class A single ended headphone/integrated amp ($1550.00). I need some really efficient little horns and this thing for the office!

I really liked the sound in the Acoustic Zen room, particularly his Crescendo speakers. Very nice.

 

[Bernard]

Posts here are backing up my theory that Wilson + ARC = very good, but Wilson + Krell = not good at all. Looks like a REF110 to me, which sounded lovely driving Summit X's at Silverstone.

Would you say Anything + ARC = very good, or have you heard combinations with ARC that did not work for you ?

 

[User211]

Would you say Anything + ARC = very good, or have you heard combinations with ARC that did not work for you ?

The importer here is Absolute Sounds. Interestingly, I have never heard any ARCs outside of an AS demo room. But I have been to many AS demo rooms over the years. And I can't think of a bad one using ARC amps yet, in all honesty.

ARC is insanely expensive here. AS also import Krell. I actually liked the Krell S-300i quite a lot with some Spires recently. I have just never liked Krells with Wilsons, I think it is safe to say.

 

[tonepub]

Considering the Wilson sound is fairly forward and bright overall, that makes perfect sense.

The best I've ever heard Wilson speakers sound were the Sophia's in Dave Wilson's office with Nagra Tube Monoblocks and the X2's in his living room with VTL Sigfried tube monoblocks.

Hmmmm.....

Once you take that harsh edge off, not bad at all!

 

[Ztatic]

JansZens and dipoles

FWIW, when I questioned Mr Janszen on his design he replied that they are still a 'di-pole' design but with a curved and insulated rear to absorb the rear-wave thus providing ease of set-up.............so.........what does that make them....an electrostatic hybrid......"in a box" ??

Hi, Twitch54. Please allow me to elaborate ad nauseam on my original answer to your question.

Essentially, all raw drivers are dipoles, not just ESLs, in that they all have a front and rear to their vibrating surfaces, and thus radiate in both directions out of phase. Most cone drivers are fully enclosed, which makes the finished speakers what some call monopoles. Some cone drivers are mounted in open baffles, which makes those finished speakers at least partially dipolar.

All ESLs except ours are mounted in open baffles, which makes the finished speakers dipoles. JansZen's designs absorb the back-wave in a separate enclosure within the main enclosure. This makes them monopoles, more like conventional box speakers.

Aside from the use of exceptional ESL panels, a JansZen speaker's performance is improved relative to most box speakers, partly because they are lines with narrow vertical dispersion, while the two way ESL array provides controlled lateral dispersion. This helps tame room effects, sharpens the image by eliminating 1st reflections from side wall splash, eliminates interference effects from floor and ceiling reflections, keeps the spectrum uniform throughout the room, and widens the sweet spot to include the entire area between the speakers and beyond.

Part of the benefit of a full enclosure is ease of setup, yes, including placement near the rear wall if desired. Full enclosure also means there will be no comb filtering from interference between the back-wave, the reflected back-wave, and the front-wave. Last but not least, it lets us critically damp the membrane motion, which maintains the fidelity of transient tails and prevents membrane breakup at high SPL, which is impossible with see-through ESLs or other undamped planar speakers.

The curvature of the back is to convert internal pressure waves from the woofers into shear forces in the back plate, which eliminates the possibility of flexure of the back plate. Normal boxes tend to apply substantial flexural forces on wide, flat spans of enclosure material, which requires heavy bracing to control.

Thanks for bringing it up!

 

[Evolution]

Last year I had the opportunity to talk to Al Stieffel several times by phone and e-mail prior to the show when I was trying to set up some MLC related events. Couldn't be a more pleasant person and true audio junkie. Al was a planar guy for a lot of years (owned Maggies, but liked Logans too). He was probably the driving force behind the Colorado Audio Society and the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest was his brainchild. Unfortunately Al passed away last January. The Colorado Audio Society and RMAF have decided to have an Al Stieffel Legacy Room at all the future shows in his honor. This years room reflected Al's tastes in the smaller grass roots companies that were selected for display. The Carnegie Acoustics Grande Lux AS1 (for Al Stieffel) speakers were brand new for the show ($22,900.00). The rest of the equipment consisted of an EMM Labs SACD player ($9,995.00), AMR CD-77 Redbook CD player ($8,500.00), AMR PH-77 phono stage ($11,459), Dr. Feickert Twin turntable and tonearm, Bella Extreme Purity pre-amp ($8,870.00), McAlister Audio M-170 amplifiers ($2,850.00 ea.) with a Synergistics Research Tesla Power Cell ($4,000.00) and cables from TEO Audio ($30,000). While the sound wasn't "Best of Show" calibre, it certainly wasn't chopped liver either. How do they make those amps for $2850.00?

Hi Guys,
Thank you so much for visiting Al's Room. It was truly an honor to be affiliated with his memory. - I will always remember this as one of the highest points in my life. And I will always consider this "another break from Al."

It means a lot to know that the speakers weren't chopped liver. (Unless of course you like chopped liver.) They are in paint finish now (no socks), and I have made several significant improvements to the voicing of these speakers based on the feedback at the show. They will be for sale as prototypes next week (if I can ever stop listening to them) to make room for the next "non-chopped-liver" speaker in my head. The "Evolution" Speaker will certainly be available for your review at RMAF 2010.

My relationship with Carnegie Acoustics has ended. The speaker they named the "Grande Lux AS-1" remains my property. They are going their way toward low-priced import "lifestyle" speakers. - I'm pushing the design threshold with outrageous graphically and sonically-significant audio.

Thanks Al. I wish you could've heard them, man.

- Eric

 

[MiTT]

I am glad that Eric chimed in and commented on the mistaked I'd made in my post on the Al Steiffel room. I also got a PM from Mr. Frank Schroder concerning a few other miscues. I'd not taken good enough notes concerning the turntable that appeared in a couple of the photo's, so I'd like to set the record straight on that subject by quoting Mr. Shroder's very gracious message directly.

Dear Sir,
I stumbled upon your show report and found, on two occasions, that you had mistaken the Artemis Labs SA-1 turntables both in the Artemis Labs room and the Stillpoints room as Products by Dr. Feikert(or some other manufacturer). Our table was also to be found in Jon Verhalen's Lowther room.
The table is in fact an Artemis Labs product, designed by me and and produced in the USA.
For additional info check out:

http://www.artemislabs.com/SA-1-Turntable.html

There are numerous reviews online plus a recent review in Stereophile.

Thanks for the kind words on the sound in our room. The speakers are a "two" off I put together(to avoid the term "designed"), build around a 55 year old Siemens 10" widerange driver with an efficiency of 99db/1W(no typo) and 15Ohm impedance. It covered 100Hz to 8kHz, with the little horn acting as a super tweeter and the bass unit providing the bottom end. You may appreciate the fact that it was a DIPOLE(the "cabinets" were open in the back), not a closed or ported enclosure

Grettings from Berlin,

Frank Schröder

I'm including one of the photo's again here and am very happy to stand corrected.

 

[MiTT]

Ayon Audio

I'm finally getting around to finishing the last of my show observations after these many weeks, but there are a few real jems to share with everyone. The Ayon room really impressed me. I have to admit that I am not very familar with their stuff. I'd seen it a few times before, but for whatever reason I didn't pay them the attention they deserve. This is some seriously good looking, very well built and wonderful sounding equipment. Their $5K CD-2 was feeding their 50wpc Spirit 2 Integrated Amp ($4K). This integrated amp sports 12AU7's at the front end and a quartet of KT-88's as drivers. The Affirm Audio Elation's (formerly MaxxHorn) sounded absolutely great. I'd have to say that this was one of my favorite rooms at the show. I'd like to get ahold of some of the big Ayon monoblocks for an audition with my CLS's!

 

[MiTT]

High Water Sound (Room 1)

High Water Sound out of New York always ends up having some of my favorite rooms - partially because they are a dealer for the TW Acustics line of turntables (one of my most lusted after bits of audio porn), and partially because they just always seem to have great music playing in their rooms. This first room featured the $40,000.00 TW Acustic Black Knight featuring a Graham arm and one of the most interesting motor/flywheel/belt arrangements I've ever seen. Also in play were the Tron Electric Syren Reference pre-amp ($22,000) and the Tron Telstar 211 amplifier ($28,000). Speakers were the Horning Eufrodite Hybrids ($18,000). As much as I like the TW Acustic tables, I've never been much aware of the Hornings or the Tron electronics, but I must say that Neil Young's "Live at Massey Hall" sounded awesome here.

 

[MiTT]

High Water Sound (Room 2)

The second High Water Sound room featured more Horning Hybrids, more Tron Electronics and more TW Acustic tables, including my favorite, the Raven AC-3M shown here. The Tron amp here featured Mission Labs 300B's. I couldn't find a price list and I didn't much care. I listened to cuts from 3 different albums here and wasn't inclined to move on other than it was getting late in the day.

 

[MiTT]

Audio Manufacture

New to me were the Swiss made Audio Manufacture speakers. Fit and finish on these beautifully oiled walnut cabinets was impressive, but for $12,000 I'd want a little more substance for my money. Perhaps it was the pairing with the BelCanto electronics and Nova Physics Memory Player, but the music didn't really grab me like it did in many other rooms.

 

[MiTT]

Galibier Design

The Galibier Design room had a similar turntable to the one Justin had posted in his British show coverage - the Gavia. This very nice turntable featured an upgraded Stevio platter ($10,500) and both a Triplanar Ultimate MK VII tonearm ($4950) as well as the interesting new Durand Talea (price not disclosed). Cartridges were the Dynavector XV-1s ($4500) and ZYX Artisan Cadenza. Elkectronics included the Quicksilver Full Function pre-amp ($3900) as well as their Triode Monoblock amplifiers ($3595 each). The speakers were massive Classic Audio Reproductions T-3 Field Coils. Music was Little Feat's "Dixie Chicken" and most everyone had their feet tappin'.

 

[MiTT]

I didn't get to enjoy the third day of the show this year and I missed a lot of rooms, but others have covered them here. Overall I'd have to say that I think it was a smaller show than it had been the past two years, and perhaps the sound was not as good on the whole. Still - I had a GREAT time and am planning to attend next year as well (that will make 6 in a row for me). I can't imagine another place where I'd get to see and hear so much equipment in such a condensed period of time. Perhaps the best part was getting to hang out with the friends I've made here. Dave and his wife Shirley couldn't join us for dinner on Saturday night, but I was able to host a good sized group at one of my favorite places in Denver - Lola's.

From left to right are yours truely, Gordon Gray, Andrew (DC Audiophile), Wayne (The WB), Steve (SlowGeezer), his wife Joyce (barely visible - sorry), and Rich.

What a great time! I can't wait until next year.

 

[Gordon Gray]

Tim,

Thank you so much for the coverage and the pictures.

It truly was a memorable trip with the highlight being, of course, the opportunity to meet you, the other ML Club members and to see Rich again.

I trust / hope your work life has calmed down.

Best,

Gordon

 

[TrumpetDoug]

Thanks for taking the time to post all of the pic. I really enjoyed looking at them.

Doug - out

 

[User211]

Yup - thanks Tim. Nice to see the Tron gear, and it was interesting to see the overlaps between Silverstone and RMAF.

Here's some unposted Tron pics from Silverstone for good measure, and because it sounded so great with the Avantgarde Duos. Also because I like 'em, and because, well, er.... tubes are better because....!

And because I know you liked the Tri gear, a 300B effort from the same.

 

[twich54]

Tim,

Again, thanks for the time and effort put into "your" yearly recap ! as always I enjoyed the show and the company of my fellow 'audio geeks' , sorry Shirley and I couldn't make the dinner, but that is what next years are for ! That is if you ever get out of the snow bank.........Greg is expecting 2 plus feet up in Pine Jct.