Finally, I can give my more detailed impressions of RMAF 08,
First off it was a great atmosphere, their is a friendly vibe that CES does not have. I did not have a chance to hear everything but who can, but from what I did hear which was about 70% of the rooms, here are my impressions.
Turntables:
The Saskia Idler is the real deal. It produced the famous Idler PRATT, without the loss of Transparency(tone). This is a very special product, with a big future. Congrats Win! You have raised bar very high.
I liked the Raven in the high water sound room, and the
Sprial Grove in the few rooms I heard it in, these are seriously good tables.
Rooms:
I liked the Classic Audio reproductions room. These are not your fathers Classic Audio Reproductions, these are a whole new animal. I have heard their speakers progress over the years, in the past I thought their older speakers were great rock and roll speakers, with their big dynamics, but thought they lacked the finesse I was used to, this is no longer the case. The new field coil T 1's are still big, bold, dynamic, but now they have the finesse I was looking for. I would love to hear them with a different pair of amps to see if a more iron grip on the bass could be had. Overall GREAT GREAT Room.
The Oswaldsmills room very special. What I find amazing is how enjoyable I found this room, and how enjoyable many others felt it was, under the show conditions. Sure every room is in the same boat "show conditions", but one look at the physical size of these speakers should tell you this is not a speaker for a hotel room. I don't think the pictures I have seen truly capture the scale of these speakers they are 7 feet tall. This speaker system was not heard ANYWHERE near its full potential. The limited listening distance was a huge limiting factor to me, here more than any other room I heard. But still this speaker showed it amazing dynamics and remarkable tonal balance. I would also love to hear these with a more powerful amp. Two watts just can not provide enough bass for any speaker. I would like to put 20 watts on these. I expect these will be SCARY good with a 16-20 foot listening distance so the drivers can "gel", and 8-20 SET watts. These speaker are what SET AMPS are all about. This room was obviously aided by Win's AWESOME turntable. Great Room Guys!!!!
I also enjoyed the Vivid Speakers with the Reel to Reel.
When the tape was playing they were AWESOME. When the turntable was playing they became merely very good ; 0 ).
Source is King, this was further reinforced to me.
Other rooms of interest.
The Da Vinci room and the High Water Sound rooms were very nice sounding, they had sweet, beautiful, balanced tone, only downside not full range.
The JM Labs and Hansen rooms, were cold, lean, thin, and lacked body, horrible displays of big dollar equipment.
The Feastrex room with 5 inch field coil the driver shows potential but the cabinet is still is not right. If this speakers upper octaves were not so sweet and musical I would not bother to complain, but they are. I think their is magic to be had with these drivers, I just have not heard it yet. My complaint the bass is out of step with the music.
The Lansche/Wavac/Continuum room was very musical and balanced, and had great tone. However, it lacked the dynamics of the Oswalds Mill and the Classic Audio Reproductions rooms.
The best small speaker were the little Reimyo Speakers at $6500.00 in the Reimyo Room. I was ready to have them boxed it up, they sounded so good and were so small. I was thinking they would be a great office speakers or for a small listening room. In the limited bandwidth speakers group these are a serious rival to the Magico Mini 2's, and actually better in my mind. How is that for being a great bang for the buck!! Very Very nice.
Just my 2 cents.
First off it was a great atmosphere, their is a friendly vibe that CES does not have. I did not have a chance to hear everything but who can, but from what I did hear which was about 70% of the rooms, here are my impressions.
Turntables:
The Saskia Idler is the real deal. It produced the famous Idler PRATT, without the loss of Transparency(tone). This is a very special product, with a big future. Congrats Win! You have raised bar very high.
I liked the Raven in the high water sound room, and the
Sprial Grove in the few rooms I heard it in, these are seriously good tables.
Rooms:
I liked the Classic Audio reproductions room. These are not your fathers Classic Audio Reproductions, these are a whole new animal. I have heard their speakers progress over the years, in the past I thought their older speakers were great rock and roll speakers, with their big dynamics, but thought they lacked the finesse I was used to, this is no longer the case. The new field coil T 1's are still big, bold, dynamic, but now they have the finesse I was looking for. I would love to hear them with a different pair of amps to see if a more iron grip on the bass could be had. Overall GREAT GREAT Room.
The Oswaldsmills room very special. What I find amazing is how enjoyable I found this room, and how enjoyable many others felt it was, under the show conditions. Sure every room is in the same boat "show conditions", but one look at the physical size of these speakers should tell you this is not a speaker for a hotel room. I don't think the pictures I have seen truly capture the scale of these speakers they are 7 feet tall. This speaker system was not heard ANYWHERE near its full potential. The limited listening distance was a huge limiting factor to me, here more than any other room I heard. But still this speaker showed it amazing dynamics and remarkable tonal balance. I would also love to hear these with a more powerful amp. Two watts just can not provide enough bass for any speaker. I would like to put 20 watts on these. I expect these will be SCARY good with a 16-20 foot listening distance so the drivers can "gel", and 8-20 SET watts. These speaker are what SET AMPS are all about. This room was obviously aided by Win's AWESOME turntable. Great Room Guys!!!!
I also enjoyed the Vivid Speakers with the Reel to Reel.
When the tape was playing they were AWESOME. When the turntable was playing they became merely very good ; 0 ).
Source is King, this was further reinforced to me.
Other rooms of interest.
The Da Vinci room and the High Water Sound rooms were very nice sounding, they had sweet, beautiful, balanced tone, only downside not full range.
The JM Labs and Hansen rooms, were cold, lean, thin, and lacked body, horrible displays of big dollar equipment.
The Feastrex room with 5 inch field coil the driver shows potential but the cabinet is still is not right. If this speakers upper octaves were not so sweet and musical I would not bother to complain, but they are. I think their is magic to be had with these drivers, I just have not heard it yet. My complaint the bass is out of step with the music.
The Lansche/Wavac/Continuum room was very musical and balanced, and had great tone. However, it lacked the dynamics of the Oswalds Mill and the Classic Audio Reproductions rooms.
The best small speaker were the little Reimyo Speakers at $6500.00 in the Reimyo Room. I was ready to have them boxed it up, they sounded so good and were so small. I was thinking they would be a great office speakers or for a small listening room. In the limited bandwidth speakers group these are a serious rival to the Magico Mini 2's, and actually better in my mind. How is that for being a great bang for the buck!! Very Very nice.
Just my 2 cents.