I so badly want a pair of the Debut Reference, because it really should be the "standard" by which all bookshelves must compare themselves in terms of "minimum viable product". If your speaker is over $1,000 and it doesn't sound significantly better than the Debut Reference, then you can be certain you're paying for exotic veneers more than good design.
RMAF 2019!
Just got home from a long day at RMAF. I had a great time! The venue is spectacular this year but definitely spread out. Get ready to walk :-)
Some rooms you should check out are (in no particular order):
Vandersteen, Joseph Audio, Salk, Revel, Classe, Jeff Rowland (Vivid Speakers), Kii Audio (Bryston Room), Mark Levinson, YG Acoustics,
There were some I missed and some that I didn’t mention that sounded great but the ones I mentioned above all sounded really nice and are definitely worth checking out. Hopefully my little list will help someone out Saturday or Sunday. Enjoy the Show!!
Some rooms you should check out are (in no particular order):
Vandersteen, Joseph Audio, Salk, Revel, Classe, Jeff Rowland (Vivid Speakers), Kii Audio (Bryston Room), Mark Levinson, YG Acoustics,
There were some I missed and some that I didn’t mention that sounded great but the ones I mentioned above all sounded really nice and are definitely worth checking out. Hopefully my little list will help someone out Saturday or Sunday. Enjoy the Show!!
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- 69 posts total
Ohm published a wrapup in the news section of their site. https://ohmspeaker.com/news/rmaf-2019-wrap-up/ |
East Texas guy here. I was there all three days. The YG room was just fantastic. Incredible imaging, clarity, dynamics, realistic sound. The Revel room actually demoed the new F226Be, the smaller brother to the F228. Amazing the amount and quality of bass they get out of a relatively small tower, which seems to be the same size as the F206. I want the new F328Be! Prana Fidelity. This was one of the best rooms in the show, fantastic sound, and I kept coming back to listen more. He was demoing a new powered tower speaker. Just, wow! Salk demoed the new SS9.5, which sounded great to me. Great for full scale orchestral music, with its deep and impactful bass response. The hotel is incredible, but expensive. I attended RMAF last year at the Tech Center and I thought the sound was noticeably better this year. |
I attended all three days of RMAF, the venue is beautiful, as in very well appointed. I did not stay at the hotel so I can't comment on pricing. I had no trouble eating lunch at the Mountain Pass sports bar on premises, but I tend to eat early. Have to agree with the OP of rooms to check out. The one that stood out to me was the Bryston Room. Not exactly inexpensive, but sounded really good. The Goebel room was the best as far as I'm concerned. At $225K those speakers should sound that good. I also thought the Audio Research/Sonus Faber sounded excellent, they had no digital it was all vinyl. Again $200K plus speakers. The biggest disappointment was the Wilson room, seemed like a half-hearted attempt to me. I'm not a Wilson fan, but this was really poor. The PS Audio reveal of their next iteration of the AN3 speaker (still pre-production) was a game changer for me. For a "paltry" ~$15K those speakers imaged so well I couldn't make them stop imaging. Sounds a little crazy, but most speakers I listen to develop an image that's gets better as I listen. These powered speakers (700w each) instantly create an image and if I stare at one of them attempting to disrupt the image it just won't collapse. No, I'm not a shill for PS Audio. They just hit a very sweet spot. Granted they had $50K of their gear running them. Too bad they are going with a direct sales approach, so the final design won't be available at a dealer for a demo. Interesting to me is that both the PS Audio and the Bryston rooms were the only two that were using all of their own equipment and both of them sounded excellent. I didn't go in the Sony room, but I suspect they were using all Sony gear. Please correct me if I'm wrong. |
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