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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
lewm
12,613 posts
 
Agree that the Raven/Thoress room was great fun and great sounding. TW is also a very nice unpretentious guy with a great sense of humor. I also enjoyed Steve Dobbins room with the Beat direct-drive turntable and "small" MBL speakers. The Beat cum Reed tonearm is a winner for sure. All the vinyl gurus I met: Thomas, Steve, Thom Mackris, Schroeder, etc, are unusually nice guys with a penchant for sharing their enthusiasms with others.

I walked out of the tonearm comparison (not to say "shoot-out") at what must have been around 10 PM. I was stuck at the back of the room and could not hear any important differences between Talea and Schroeder, except to say that the differences I did hear could well have been due to the differences between the cartridges. Others with better seats had more definitive impressions. What the experience proved to me is that choosing among the tonearms and turntables we agree are among the best is largely a matter of personal taste and the availability of disposable income. There are so many excellent well thought out products; we are very fortunate.

I am glad I attended finally.
tbg
5,263 posts
 
Pcosta, I sought out the Thales, but it was broken and no longer in use. I have heard it before and was very excited by it but not by its price. The good news I heard, however, is that there will be a much more modestly priced arm out soon, although probably not by CES.

I was shocked by the new Dobbins tt. With the Reed arm and the Ortofon A-90, I just listened and listened. Were I able that would be my choice. Just outstanding! I heard the little MBLs there. They are the only MBLs that I can listen to. This was one of my top sound of the show rooms.
lewm
12,613 posts
 
Tbg. I could not agree more. The Beat plus Reed plus either the A90 or the Puritas cartridge plus Allnic electronics plus MBL spkrs was one of the nicest systems I heard. I actually preferred the Allnic Puritas over the A90 (slightly). It just seemed a bit less mechanical. Perhaps we were in the Dobbins room at the same time. I would have enjoyed meeting you. In future, A'goners should have a secret handshake or wear a certain flower in their lapels, so as to be identified to each other.

The TW Acustics room was similarly wonderful to experience.
pcosta
241 posts
 
Tbg

The Thales was setup for Friday, but it was setup with the wrong block under it, Jeff could not get the correct VTA range, so I think he decided it was better to not show it for the rest of the weekend.

I liked Steve's room too. He handled it all very well, and his sound was very good.
peterayer
1,382 posts
 
Tbg and Lewm,

I completely agree with you that the Dobbins/MBL room was extremely good. Steve was kind enough to play two of my LPs while I sat front row, center. I went back to that room four times. I slightly preferred the A90 on "This one's for Blanton" bass/piano and female vocals. The "Beat" sounded awfully good, though it was tough to identify/isolate which components contributed most to the tremendous sound.

The other outstanding room for me was the Walker/TAD CR-1 room but that table just had another big price jump.

What did you guys think of the Durand Talea arm in the Galibier room down the hall?

Name tags should include Audiogon monikers to identify us to each other.
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