2010 RMAF Analog Reports + Meet and Greet


The Rocky Mountain Audio Fest is quickly approaching. I’m planning to use this thread to capture anticipated analog related information about the show as well as impressions.

The past three years of RMAF visits have been fun, entertaining, and rewarding. I go to the show for many reasons but mostly to meet other music lovers/audiophiles and industry professionals. The diversity of music, equipment, and personalities are very interesting to me. A link to last year's comments can be found here: 2009 RMAF Comments

There should be quite a few interesting things going on at this year’s RMAF. If you haven’t attended the show, you should seriously consider going. I’ll post a few things I anticipate seeing at this year's RMAF in the tread reply below.

I’ve also found out that AudiogoN member Cello has set up a meet and greet on Friday night @ Garcia's Restaurant located across the street from the Marriot. More details to follow. The past two meet and greets in 2008 and 2009 have been very enjoyable. I expect the same from this one as well.

Please feel free to post your attendance plans now and your analog experiences after the show.

I'm looking forward to meeting many of you at the show,
Dre
dre_j
Some of the things that interest me this year include:

High Water Sound: Jeff Catalono will be showing in a different room this year that is larger. The new room number is 589. I believe he will be showing the TW acoustic Black Knight and Raven One turntable along with the new TW 10.5 arm and Thales arm. Speakers will be Horning and Asparas driven by Tron and Thoress electronics. Stealth cables and SRA isolation will be employeed as well.

Galibier Design: Thom Mackris will be showing the Stelvio-II turntable with the Durand Talea tonearm using Atma-sphere electronics and green mountain speakers (the type is TBD) in room 1130. In the Daedalus room 1030 there will be a Stelvio-I with Talea using Atma-sphere driving the Daedalus Ulysses speakers and a new subwoofer driven by Modwright amps. The Gavia turntable with Tri-Planer arm will be shown in the Lowther America room 1007.

More to follow…

Dre
I am looking forward to listening to the High Water Sound room. I want to listen to the Raven 10.5 and get a good look at the Thales arm. Jeff's sound is always top notch.
Hopefully there will be more analog there this year overall.
Nice thread. You might be interested in the deHavilland room which is 9016 in the tower. Kara Chaffee of deHavilland will be there to introduce her new tape head preamplifier. This means you avoid some of the terrible tape deck preamplifiers and just use them as a transport.

To get a little glimpse of what to expect you can check out this blog:

http://blog.stereophile.com/cas2010/

Stop by the room and say hello to Kara. I will be there as well.
Jim
All you K&K Audio fans, Kevin is going to be demo'ing his new Sonas Veritas phono pre and line stage in the Analysis Audio room. Having beta versions of these products in my system I say with some certainty that you should make a point of checking them out.
It's nice to see that Coincident Speaker Technology is (finally) going to be showing in Denver.
My favorite rooms last year were the TW Acustic room and the Wavelength/Vaughn room. I was also intrigued by the Ohm room, and don't see them on the exhibitor list; but hope they'll be there.
Coincident will be attending the RMAF for the first time in suite 453 showing the following:

Pure Reference Extreme Speakers
M300B Frankenstein Amps
Statement Line Stage and Phono Pre.
I will be there for my 4th time. Hope to meet everyone @ Garcia's

Audiofeil are you going?
Getting back to the 2010 RMAF...

In the previous years, it has been suggested that we put our AudiogoN Monikers in the field below our names on the RMAF badges. I think this is a great idea to continue into this year.

I hear there will be a Walker turntable (or two) to listen to this year as well. One of the systems will feature Technical Brain electronics and TAD speakers. Having listened to this turntable on many occasions with multiple cartridges I know you will be in for a treat as long as everything else is firing on all cylinders.

I’m not sure what Artemis Labs has up their sleeves this year but each of the past few years has been impressive and enjoyable. It should be interesting to see what Schroder has cooked up.

I know there are more surprises to be shared. If I get the go ahead to share, I’ll defiantly post it here. If someone else has any analog related goodies that you know of for 2010 RMAF, please share.

Dre
RE: New and Debuting Analog Components

Burmester USA will be deputing Burmester's new Model 100 Phono Stage as part of their Top Line System. (The Table/Cartridge combo to be used remains TBD at this time.)

This is Burmester's first return to analog since the 80's. Among other features, the deluxe version of the 100 will allow for two separate, independent, and saveable phono cartridge settings, full remote switching on the fly, manual or automatic impedance and balance setups, built in recording to digital source processing, and many other intriguing features.

The bad news..... there are only 50 of these pieces being built worldwide with less than 20 being allocated for North America.

http://www.burmester.de/en/produkte/index.php?product=2,14,52

RMAF should be outstanding this year!

DISCLOSURE: I am a full line Burmester dealer currently covering Utah, Colorado, and much of the Intermountain West. The above not withstanding, I'm pretty excited as a individual music lover and audiophile to put this piece through it's paces. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or to schedule a meeting in Denver.

Cheers,
Additional info…

Xact Audio will be showing the new “The Beat” turntable along with Reed tonearm, Allnic cartridge and electronics. According to RMAF info, the room number is 1126.

Dre
RE, RE: Burmester Phono 100 Debut at RMAF 2010

I'd like to thank the multiple inquirers that I have received emails from already. It occurred to me that I did not list my company name in my above thread disclosure.

BTW: Burmester USA will be in Room 510.

Auravis Systems LLC
Draper (SLC), Utah
(801) 558-1625

Thank you,
i've been to every RMAF so far and will be there again.

looking forward to hearing all the exciting new analog gear and the Friday night get together.
Dre

I suggest that if you don't put your audiogon moniker on your bag that we all use the secret hand shake, known only to ourselves.

Jim
Does'nt that mean you have to shake everyones hand at RMAF. You'll get some strange looks and repetitive strain injury.
Why not borrow something else from the Masons and role your left trouser leg to above the knee.
I enjoyed the meet and greet last year. I can'nt be there this year, so You all have a good time. There are certainly some exhibitors coming I would love to meet, particularly Kevin Carter of K&K audio. I recomend a listen to his phono stage
Mike, It was nice sitting with you and chatting during the meet and greet last year.

Jim, The handshake would then be a secret to all. Now that will be strange to watch a bunch of music lovers with different handshakes hoping the recipient knows why it’s different.

David, It was great to meet you and your wife last year at the meet and greet. You sat with my friend (Slowhand) and his wife during the meet and greet.

I should have official meet and greet information to post soon.

Dre
Meet & Greet your friends from AudiogoN & Audio Asylum
All are welcome to join

2 for 1 Happy Hour

Where:
Garcia’s Mexican Restaurant
5050 South Syracuse
Denver, CO
Tel# 303-779-4177
Directly across the street from Marriott Tech Center

When:
Friday, October 15th, 2010

Time:
6:00pm - 8:00pm

You can receive a PDF version of the Meet & Greet from myself or AudiogoN member Cello. Just contact one of us by e-mail.

Looking forward to seeing you all there,
Dre

. More on the 3rd Annual Meet & Greet @ Garcia’s Mexican Restaurant…......(an easy walk across the street from the Marriott)
.
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There will be 2 for 1 drinks along with Happy Hour priced Snacks (plus free Chips & Salsa). You can order dinner at any point as well.
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We were fortunate to book ahead and reserve the large back room with plenty of space that is conducive to mingling. There will be a nice mix of AudiogoNers, Audio Asylums and a few friendly manufacturers. It’s a great chance to put faces to names, make some new friends, and share notes on favorite rooms.
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Please invite/encourage anyone from our Audio Community to join us.
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Steve Dobbins (Vetterone), Dre, and I are looking forward to seeing you all.
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Best Regards,
Larry (Cello)
Dre I do indeed remember the pleasant evening we spent in Garcias. I hope you are still enjoying your TW turntable.

I hope RMAF is as good as last year and the weather is as great. I bought overcoats and sweaters last year, thinking the snow would be falling in Colorado by October and the weather was hot.
Hi,

I'm considering attending this year's RMAF. How crowded does the fest will get over the weekend? I'm flying into Denver and currently debating if I should get there mid afternoon Friday and departing early on Sunday or arriving mid morning on Saturday and departing on Sunday eve...

Thoughts and/or recommendations appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike
Mike, Frankly, I found it so big, that few of the rooms were really busy, unless some special Dem was going on. Because it is so big, it pays to give it as long as possible. I started Friday at opening time and had to leave Sunday morning. My wife decided she needed to see the Botanical Gardens, give me strength.
I realised afterwards, I missed some important rooms.
The rooms seem to about the same, regardless of the time of day.
I will be there, too. I am on a quest for high-ish efficiency, high-impedance full range speakers that can work well with my Atma-sphere amps and pose a challenge to my present Sound Lab M1s in terms of coherency and transparency. I hope to listen to Coincident, Daedalus, etc, etc. Otherwise, it will be interesting to see and perhaps meet the humans I know only by their products or as posters of posts on this and other websites. Staying at the Marriott.
Actually Sunday morning is not too crowed at all. If you're local and just want a "taste" of RMAF then Sunday is it. I've noticed that a lot of couple go on Sundays. Friday and Saturday is full-on audio-geek time.

I'll be there, assisting our friend Guido as best I can. Maybe we'll make the meet and greet on Friday.

MikeL, hope to see you again.

Dave
I booked my travel today. Will be there Saturday and Sunday. Looking forward to it.
One more bit of information:

Basis Audio will be showing the Inspiration turntable with Vector IV tonearm (which I believe is a first time appearance for Basis at the RMAF) along with VTL Electronics, and Wilson Maxx 3 speakers. Basis Audio was uncertain of the room number when we communicated.

Dre
RMAF is three weeks away...

Three weeks from now, I'll be in Denver preparing for the Friday opening, visiting some friends, checking in on a few manufactures, and enjoying a day away from work.

If you’re on the fence about going, it is a worthwhile trip.

Dre
This will be my second time, went in '08. I have a list of rooms I would like to visit but not many with phono or line stages other than room 9026 with the Alaap full function pre. Any recomendations for must see phono or line stages?

Dre can you email me the info for meet and great, is there a RSVP?

Brad
Hi Brad,

I'll send you the PDF of the info posted on this thread about the meet and greet this evening.

Dre
Hi Ecir38,

At our Saturday night after hours tonearm play session with Frank Schroeder and Joel Durand (suite 1130), we'll have a few very nice phono stages, including my reference - the Atma-sphere MP-1 (whcih will also be one floor below, in the Daedalus room - 1030).

Frank Schroeder never fails to impress, and has promised to bring a "radical" phono stage. I'm not sure if it is a retail product.

While the Atma-spheres will be running throughout the show's duration, anything Frank chooses to bring will only be in my room for the Saturday festivities.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier (dealer & manufacturer disclaimer)
Saturday night Schroeder and Durand Tonearm festivities - the tonearm play session in suite 1130.

It dawned on me that there will be some "down" time if Frank and Joel choose do do a cartridge swap.

If this is the case, I'll fill the dead air with a presentation on using an arc protractor to perform your geometry setup. I'm sure we'll involve whoever isn't involved in a cartridge setup at the time (Frank or Joel).

Depending on how much dead air we have, I may give a humorous presentation entitled "Navigating the High End Mine Field" - a talk I gave at the Colorado Audio Society in January.

When: Saturday evening 8:30 until we drop
Where: Suite 1130 in the tower

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier (dealer & manufacturer disclaimer)
This will be my first RMAF but looking forward to it and hopefully meeting a lot of you there. Still looking at exhibitor list and trying to figure out where to start!
Ecir38,
I believe Steve Dobbins is showing a new Allnic phonostage, and Nelson Pass has a new one, too. Also, Artemis Labs has a new LCR phonostage that I want to see.
Hi Paul,

By all means, come one come all. It will be great to meet you after all these years' meetings in various parts of cyberspace.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier
For those who have attended in the past, is there much happening on Sunday, or is it basically a day for tearing down the tents, so to speak? I am trying to decide on flight times to and from Denver and wondering whether there is any point in staying late on Sunday.
Lew,

They are still going strong on Sundays. All rooms and seminars are still going on.

Personally I use Sundays as the day of verification and getting back to rooms I passed up due to missing them completely, room full when I stopped by, or a recommendation from friends. Sundays are also good because most of the systems have started to settle down and slight adjustments may have been made over the past couple days. Additionally, the crowed will thin out a little which will allow you more time in the room of choice with your own software. You are bringing your own music right?

There was one year I left on Sunday to go home and I regretted it. I’ll never do that again. Even with three days, I don’t see how you could visit every room. I’m not saying that you would want too though. If you can do all three days, I think it’s worth it, especially given your additional interest in the frontend equipment.

Dre
Dre, Thanks. Will do as you suggest. Hope to meet some of you guys there.
Lew,

Sundays are indeed great, especially the morning.

One other show hint (for all three days): work your way down from the top floor. Being in the top floor of the Tower, we're not all that busy for the first hour of the show.

The majority of people work their way up from the bottom floor (herd mentality), and you can get some better listening sessions in by going against the flow.

I just completed documenting the room lineup for the three rooms I'll be in: http://www.galibierdesign.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=155.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier
For you first timers there are rooms spread out over the entire hotel. I always like to go to the big and expensive rooms on the main floor. Don't miss the rooms behind the bar area with the TV's. That would be off to your right as you head toward the bar. Then there are rooms behind the elevator to the 5th floor tower. These are the rooms around the atrium area. The you can take that elevator up to those floors, I think there were about three floors there. Then down towards the tower at the North end where all the crowds tend to go first and you can go up to the top and work down, don't miss the mezzanine level.

If your ears are not screaming at you for a beer by now then you should reconsider this hobby and get into therapy.

Have fun.

Jim
Man it's getting to all I think about is this event! I will be interested in K&K's phono stage with Soundsmith's best cart in Analysis Audio's room - Bluebell. And High Water's room - 589 is always fun. Picked up some Jap pressings from Jeffrey last year.

Times tickin'

See ya there.

Neal:-)
I would be interested in a report back about the K&K. That is the new reference phono stage I think. The standard one is pretty good, so this new one must be special.
I think Kevin is marketing his new fully differential phono amp and line stage under the Sonus Veritas name, and not the K&K moniker. I am looking forward to (finally) meeting Kevin. See you all there!

Looks like next year for us. We have some close friends nearby and mabe I will send them on a recon to check it out, Their son loves music.

BTW, if anyone is going, Please stop by the Octave room and check out thier stuff. I would like to hear what others in North America think of their stuff, besides me, the lone ranger here in Germany.

Ciao,
Audioquest4life
Choosing Music LPs? What are you bringing?

As the days get nearer to the RMAF, 3 days remaining, I’m looking through LPs to bring along. Like years past, I try to bring music that allows me to observe what’s going on with the system being listened to. At the same time, I want to make sure that the music is something that is enjoyable for others listening while I’m listening to my music. That is not always an easy task. This year I know a couple LPs I’m bringing are not going to be in that category but necessary nonetheless. I'm working through, Shelby Lynne, Anita Baker, Solomon Burke, Herbie Hancock, Kenny Burrel, Pete Townshend, Sara K., a dose of clasical and some others to get started.

With that said, what are you bringing along with you this year?

You are bringing LPs with you, right!?

Dre
In the past month, people have called me asking about flying with benign things like tonearms, tubes and transformers. I usually carry on all kinds of valuable yet odd looking things and check the obscene. I occasionally get the second check but it wasn't until leaving a short "gambling with mom" layover in Milwaukee that I realized the true threat!

As things usually go I get flagged for a second screening which takes about 2 minutes and is generally a quick swab of my palms for "forbidden stuff". When leaving Milwaukee, I got the flag for a second search and presented my hands. The TSA dude said "No sir, we need the bag opened, is there anything pointy inside?" I replied that I was Flagged at LaGuardia for a digital caliper which appeared "weapon-like" to security but once identified I was on my way.

This wasn't what they were after. The TSA dude quickly rifled through my messenger bag and pulled out the box of vinyl I was carrying. He quickly opened it up and proceeded to dig to the middle and swab Lou Reed.

The test failed and I was pushed to a larger table where everything could be unpacked. They swabbed several other random things which all passed yet repeats on the vinyl failed.

To make a long story short, I'm not flying with vinyl anymore so bring some for me :-)

see you all at Garcia's

dave
Hi Dre,

I'm taking a different approach, 'cuz I like this music more than most of the audiophile stuff. ;-)

Pearl Jam, Ten
Porcupine Tree, Lightbulb Sun
Gentle Giant, In a Glass House (Br. import)
Dave Grisman, Hot Dawg

maybe one or two more. See you in Denver!