RMAF 2012 Postmortem


Doesn't seem to be an RMAF 2012 thread yet.

Wondering what people thought, so I'll make a start.

Best in Show:

The big Ventures. Hard to describe how good these speakers sounded without being sappy. IMHO, embarrassing to other "statement" speakers at the show, like the big TAD and Lansche.

I was mostly interested in high efficiency speakers. Especially good were:

Zu Defintion IV
Devore Gibbon 93 and 96
Sonist C4

The Sonists, playing in the Snake River system, sounded especially good considering their (comparatively) reasonable price.

A few other noteworthy speakers were

Vapor's new 3 way

Vivid's space alien rendition of a mini-tower in the Tweak geek room

The Evolution mini-monitor was the best (reasonably) accessible speaker I heard, at 2500. Very good.

Opinions based on information overload, over a day and a half of listening.

Any other impressions?

John
jdoris
I think the Sanders sounded good, especially in the bass; but overall they cannot match the Magnepans in the mids and highs...overall I still think the Maggies sound better, especially the 3.7 and 20.7's...
John,

I can hear to 18 kHz no problem. Old CRTs, and whatever is going on in the fluorescent lights or hard drives I can here a continuous high pitch sound. Having worked near wind tunnels for 25 years I've undoubtedly broken off some of the tiny hairs in the cochlea. Thus a small portion of my midrange has dimensioned. Unfortunately this accentuates the highs, which means that any persistent frequency between 10 to 13 kHz will cause extreme listening fatigue for me. I can easily hear a 10-12 kHz buzz from and ribbon or electrostatic tweeter and ribbons can produce sound way beyond 20kHz (hardly anyone past their teens can hear or ever heard 20kHz). I'm more amazed that other people don't have similar issues.

When I say that there’s a pop or punch in the highs I’m just referring to a sudden seemingly uncontrolled burst of energy that doesn’t dissipate well at 10-12 kHz. This is different then the constant buzz of a ribbon; rather it’s punctuated. I can tell you within 30 seconds whether a cone tweeter has this tendency. The buzz of a ribbon tweeter will fatigue you over time because it’s sustained. Just my opinion…
Analysis Audio, I was told, is having 25% off for RMAF that is good until the end of this month.
Thanks Dpe. I'm prone to earbleed and fatigue from etched audiophile detail, but I've not noticed the buzz.

John
Petrakis, WOW! nice and long first post. I am actually looking to dump my Vapor Cirrus Blacks and your post has enlightened me to look into some of these other speakers. Thanks!

I know another recent Vapor customer that may be looking to sell his Cirrus. Send me a pm if interested.

And I must add, for not being on the internet much you sure know how to post like a pro! :) I actually thought I was reading something a reviewer wrote.
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