Here are my thoughts from the Show
I finally arrived home, got unpacked, and have found a few moments to write down some thoughts from the show.
First of all, let me just say that Denver is an awesome town. We (my wife, two-year old daughter, and I) were there for a whole week and took advantage of lots of fun opportunities, including the Zoo, Aquarium, Botanical Gardens, Children's Museum, shopping, and tons of incredible restaurants. What a great city!
I really enjoyed getting together with my old friends, Dave (Twich54), Tim (Mitt), Gordon Gray, and Wayne (theWB), as well as meeting some new friends like Steve (slowGEEZR) and Andrew (DC Audiophile). A great group of guys to hang out with and enjoy the show. Steve and I had an especially fun time together on Sunday, when just about everyone else had abandoned us. I found that we had very similar tastes in gear (although he is a vinyl nut and I am a digi-head) and had a lot in common otherwise as well. Can't wait to visit him and his lovely wife Joyce when I travel to Austin next year.
Since this was my first show, I was determined to take it slow and easy. I didn't try to hit every room or run myself ragged. I didn't take any notes or photographs, so I won't be providing any detailed reviews or audioporn. I really don't think such reviews hold much merit anyway under show conditions and when the listener isn't familiar with the majority of the components being demoed. And thankfully, Steve and Tim were taking lots of pictures.
I will not be providing any "Best of Show" awards because I really don't think there is such a thing as "Best" in this hobby. There are infinite shades of better and worse, and there is personal preference. Here are my thoughts on what was better and what was worse from my own personal subjective experience at this year's RMAF.
Overall impressions
This show is just an incredible experience. As just an average audiophile (vs. someone who is "in the business"), you immediately feel right at home. They do a great job with the layout and it is easy to find what you want to see and hear. It was smaller this year, or so I heard, but still there was more than you could do in three days. So worth the cost of admission it is not even funny.
Most impressive sound
Overall most impressive sound has to go to the big JM Labs Grande Utopia EM's with the huge MBL amps. The sheer scale of the sound of this system is incomparable. Although those who attended last year said it didn't sound as good this year, I was blown away. It is just impossible to recreate the scale of what these speakers can accomplish in a large room. You cannot mimic it with smaller speakers. It is just amazing. If you have a ton of money, and a really large room, I can't imagine you could do much better than the system in this room. Of course, it was probably a half million dollar system or better.
Most impressive sound from a minimalist system
Having never heard Anthony Gallo's odd-looking speakers before, I was somewhat skeptical of their high-end abilities. Looking at the system they put forth for the show, I was even more skeptical. Probably the most minimalist setup of the entire show. And also, some of the best sound of the show. I am not kidding. Neutral? Accurate? Not necessarily. But it sounded great! And isn't that really what it's all about? Not to mention that it was very reasonably priced. The speakers were his reference Strada speakers, paired with one of their TR subs.
The runner-up in this category would have to be CI Audio. If you need great sound with a small budget and footprint, you need to check out Channel Islands Audio. Very impressive.
Most realistic sound
Steve earlier mentioned the piano piece we heard on the German Physics Borderland Mk IV speakers driven by Ypsilon components. It was a high quality recording of a pianist hammering on a Bosendorfer Piano (and I do mean hammering!). The pianist was striking the keys with incredible ferocity, and I have to admit I have never heard a more realistic-sounding piano note being reproduced by a speaker. That piano was right in the room with us, or so it seemed. It was just real! This was probably the best demo experience of the entire show. Steve and I were both floored.
These speakers, like the similarly-designed MBL's, sound as good off-axis as they do dead-on center. They are good looking, but a little odd. Very modern-looking. But the sound was incredible. You would have to demo them side-by-side with the MBL's to have a clue which you liked better.
The sound was just amazing in its realism. I was impressed enough that I am seriously considering getting a pair of these. Not that I need any more speakers, but these were just that impressive. I imagine Steve is thinking similar thoughts. They were that good.
Most involving sound
For sheer musicality, for music that grips you in a vise (literally) and won't let you go, I have to give the nod to Roger Sanders. His speakers sounded incredible, lifelike, and just plain real. When I first visited, I was the only one in the room and Roger gave me a wonderful demonstration with a variety of great tracks ranging from beautiful female vocals to hard-driving blues guitar. And the Sanders system handled it all with aplomb.
As I have come to expect from his components, absolute neutrality with no sound signature of it's own. His system just takes on the sound of whatever recording it is playing. Roger's response to that was, well, that's what it is supposed to do. Yeah, I said, but it still isn't easy to achieve and few manufacturers manage to accomplish it. He nodded with a knowing smirk.
By the way, Roger was offering some great deals on his systems, including an extra $500 off any purchase for a member of the MLOC forum! I highly recommend his amps and preamp, and now having finally heard the 10 series speaker, can heartily recommend his entire system.
I have to point out a few downsides to Roger's presentation at the Show, though. First, he only had three demo chairs, set up in a line, one behind the other. While capturing the best possible sound for the available chairs, this setup just kind of reinforced in my mind the downside of the flat panel electrostat, which is a very small, vice-like sweetspot. Roger's setup certainly psychologically reinforced that feeling, if nothing else. I would encourage him to re-think that setup for future shows.
Also, Roger didn't manage to bring a CD player along with him, so no one was able to audition their own material. This didn't matter to me, but I am sure it mattered to many. Even worse (to me), Roger didn't know the name of the artist on one of the best vocal tracks he was demoing. It was an Asian woman doing a great version of "I will always love you." I finally figured out it was a girl named Jheena Lodwick and I actually bought an XRCD of the album with that track on it at the show. She has an incredible voice and the quality of the XRCD is fantastic. Great for demoing. (The name of the XRCD is "feelings, vol. 2").
Other than these few things, though, I was very impressed with Roger's room. The sound of his system in the sweet spot is undeniably some of the best sound of the entire show. Kudos to him for that.
Biggest surprises (on the upside)
PS Audio PerfectWave Transport/DAC
I came into this room incredibly skeptical. First of all, I have never been impressed with PS Audio products. I have a Power Director and never really noticed any difference with it in the system (as Steve pointed out -- at least it didn't degrade the sound, but then it never really improved it either). Combine that with the fact that I consider PS Audio to be a Power Conditioner manufacturer, and was skeptical of their ability to produce high end DAC's and such. And then they are hyping the same type of RUR technology as the Memory Player, with which I was thoroughly unimpressed, and you can see why I was more than a little skeptical when I sat down to listen to the PS Audio system.
Boy, what a surprise. The music sounded nice, slightly warm, very natural. As good as just about any sound at the show. This short audition was enough to make me seriously consider these components and I intend to do further auditions. Very impressive.
Class D Technology
Every time I heard the CI audio room and every single room that had Bel Canto gear, I was just blown away at how good and natural the sound was. Class D done right can rival even the best Class A gear. I am not joking. It was that good. And for the price, it is criminal how good it sounds.
If you are short on budget or space, you absolutely must check out Bel Canto or CI Audio. They are small components, reasonably priced, and sound as good as components costing three times the price. Although I must admit I hate the esthetics of the Bel Canto products, I can't deny the quality of sound they produce.
Biggest disappointments
YG Acoustics
When you bill your speaker as "The Best Speaker in the World. Period.", you had better make sure it sounds good at a show like RMAF. Unfortunately, these speakers failed miserably just about every time I heard them. I heard them in several different rooms, about four or five different times (I was trying hard to find something about them that I liked) and they fared miserably almost every time. Once they sounded acceptable. Every other time, they just sounded absolutely dreadful.
In one room, they were playing Dire Straits "Money for Nothing." The source was vinyl, the preamp was a tubed ARC, the amps were tube monoblocs, and the sound . . . was the most ear-achingly harsh, edgy, solid-state hash I have ever heard in my life. I am not joking. How a speaker can take an analog signal from vinyl, through tubed pre and amps, and make it sound like it came from a $100 Sony receiver is beyond me. I didn't think it was physically possible. I am still amazed at just how bad and edgy it was. And I love that song. I have played it on my own system hundreds if not thousands of times. I know how it can and should sound. This was the absolute worst sound of the show (and there were plenty of rooms with crappy sound, mind you). But this was a step beyond really bad. It was just awful. And no question in my mind that it was the speakers (or at least their setup) that made it sound so awful. If you are interested in these speakers, you had better do a lot of auditioning, or you could be making a very expensive mistake.
KingSound
Don't know what the deal was, but I was stunned at how unimpressive and uninvolving these speakers were. And you all know how I love electrostats. But these just didn't do anything for me.
Nova Physics The Memory Player
Every time I heard a system with this component as the source, the music seemed completely lifeless. As best I can tell from hearing it used as a source in multiple rooms, the Memory Player is all hype and no substance. Very disappointing. And insanely expensive.
(continued in next post)
