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!!
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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.

How was the sound in the rooms in general? The last few years at the Marriott, it was pretty bad. I've read many posts here and other places that registration was a nightmare, huge place with rooms a good distance apart, bad sound, etc..  Would you go again at this new location?
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.