Best sound at RMAF

This was my first RMAF, and I am already looking forward to next year. I agree that show conditions limit what the equipment is truly capable of, but don't let that stop you from going. I had a blast! I was drawn more toward rooms that had real world equipment that might be affordable for me. I really liked the Dream Maker and Jazz Modules speakers in the AudioKinesis room. Duke is a super guy to talk to. I also liked the new Serac TT with Artisan arm in the Galibier room. At $4000 it is a great buy. I thought the sound came very close to the more expensive Gavia with Tri-Planar arm. There was some great music for sale too. I bought all 3 of the LP's that Bernie Grundman was selling at his Straight Ahead Records booth. They sound fantastic. I also enjoyed the music in the M-A Records room. The Seminar given by Roy Gregory on Analog Setup was very interesting and a real eye opener. I enjoyed Bernie Grundman's talk on mastering too. I wish I could have met Mehran from Sorasound, but he could not make it due to an emergency. Theree were many more highlights, but I have taken up enough space.

I must've of completely got my ears In a mess with the MBL room, they were playing some Instrumental track and It was way way to bright and harsh sounding for me, I did go on friday afternoon, so maybe you guys that have raved about It went later than that?, so what changed between my listening and yours?hmmmmm. I think I am In a class of one on that one.
Hey Marco, I am predominantly a horn lover also, but prefer S/S to tube amplification. This all goes to show that It is different strokes for different folks. I wouldn't swap my mere lil 'ol Oris 150 speakers for the Acapella Trilons!

Thought I’d take some time to comment on the RMAF some, my impression of some of the systems seem to correlate (for the most part) with posts/blogs I’ve read about on other sites. So.. in no particular order here we go:

I wanted to spend some time really giving the Cary stuff a good listen, but like many rooms the exhibitors chose to talk loudly and socialize with people, it made it impossible to relax and enjoy the music. If I spent a bunch of money hauling gear to a show and several days promoting my company I would probably step into the hallway to chat. I’d also play interesting music, I wandered into some rooms simply because they weren’t playing audiophile dreck. I’m sort of in the market for a new CD player so I did pay attention to a variety of different digital front ends, my short list is coming together.

Laufer Teknik speakers were the talk of the show, they do so many things right these guys are bound to be successful. The LT’s are panels, however they are neither electrostatic nor ribbon speakers. They have four 3” drivers on the back of the speakers that drive a single flat panel. The panel is made of a sheet of mylar, a honeycomb structure, then a second sheet of mylar. The drivers excite the mylar membranes and produce impressive sound, there really wasn’t much missing except maybe the very lowest octaves, a subwoofer may be required. Claimed to be 93db but 2.8 ohms impedance.. they were driven by a 300 watt amplifier. No dealer network just yet, they are selling direct for $6995 and several orders were placed while I was there. Keep your eye and ears open for Laufer Teknik.

Another equally surprising set up was a complete Bel Canto system driving Pioneer TAD S-1EX speakers. Yes, Pioneer! The sound was very detailed and coherent, I would wax eloquently about the system but I didn’t audition it for too long, the music wasn’t to my taste and they would not play music the audience brought along. Regardless, this system s generally accepted as top ten at the show and well worth seeking out. Who woulda thunk..Pioneer?? $7000 for a pair of ‘em, pretty crowded price point these days.

I had a great time at the Art Audio room, listening to a wide variety of music for quite some time with a very musically inclined and sociable lady. They were using a Bluenote Koala CDP. On Saturday they had the 845 mono amps driving the larger Dadaelus speakers. The sound was very articulate with excellent center fill; listening to Steely Dan, Blue Rodeo, and Red Hot Chili Peppers was a lot of fun, my feet started cramping up from the toe-tappin’ going on. The system did get congested when I threw some complex rock music at ‘em (Marillion Live) but all in all, a very musically satisfying system.

I wandered into a room and lo & behold, a pair of Apogee Duetta Signatures were set up, the rest of the gear was Audio Research. I still kick myself for selling mine many years ago, man I love the sound of these speakers. The pair in use were re-built with Graz’s (Australia) ribbons, they look a bit different as the ribbons are cut using CNC machines rather than the old Apogee technique of the good old razor blade. The sound was exceptional, I went back to the room several times to revel in the incredible midrange. Graz is selling his own models now, the equivalent to the Duetta Sigs sell for $21,000. That’s not a typo.

Some fellow ‘phools insisted I go hear the Amber Wave/Intuitive Design Summit room. The Amber Wave tube amps have some of the biggest damn tubes I’ve ever seen/heard, probably 18” high and the heat coming off the amps was like sunbathing in Phoenix in July. The sound was excellent (airy and holographic come to mind) but I couldn’t live with the heat thrown off by the amps, nor can I afford $40,000 for a pair of the Amber Wave amps.

Saw Gilbert Yeung and dropped in on his Blue Circle room for a bit, our favourite mad scientist is building speakers now too! I suspected they would be voiced similar to the electrostats he has always loved, and for the most part this may be an accurate assessment. They look like most other box speakers but do seem to be more panel-like in sound. I found the sound a bit too rolled off, Gilbert sez someone else found them a bit bright so he toed them in to alleviate the perception, probably over-did it some. Lacking in the lowest octave Gilbert sez that’s easy enough to fix and will be addressed in the production version. I remain intrigued with Blue Circle.

AV123.com are offering up some pretty good products (imported from China, natch) at very compelling prices. Anyone looking for really good bang-for-the-buck ought to check out their website.

So Hack, did you take the time to give Audio Note a fair listen? Yes, I did. I spent about 45 minutes in the AN room, for the most part alone with the AN gent and listened to the system extensively. AN brought a Level Two system to the show that included a 10 wpc tube integrated, their turntable, transport, DAC, cables, speakers. We listened to a wide variety of music, very gracious and accommodating hosts. The verdict: I asked why the system couldn’t get the lower midrange right, it seemed to be missing something at 150hz-200hz. AN told me It could be one of two things: the tube integrated has a so-so preamp section (if they set up some of their separates evidently I’d have a different opinion), and, the room was set up the day before and clearly some more tweaking/experimentation was in order to bring it up to snuff. My impressions at the end of the session: the AN folks are really nice to hang with and really enjoy music, they probably should have brought a more ambitious system to the show.

I’m not sure which room/system I’d give best of show kudos to, sort of a two-way tie:

BAT electronics and the Wilson MAXX system was absolutely uncanny, the sound was detailed yet had PRAT in spades. It’s fair to point out I’m a BAT owner and fan, however I have never liked Wilson speakers and for whatever reason this combo rated as one of the very best at the show. Geoff Poor from BAT was acting as DJ and before he played a cut would provide fascinating background on each piece of music. He gladly took requests and played music attendees brought along too. Yes this system is expensive but a mere drop in the bucket compared to…

Kharma with MBL electronics and Vyger analog front end. The system:

Kharma Midi Exquisite speakers: $80,000
Kharma Enigma Cables: $6,000 per meter
V.Y.G.E.R Indian Signature Turntable with Carbon Arm $42,000
LAMM PL2 Deluxe Phono Stage $7,300
Air Tight PC1 Phono Cartridge $5,500
MBL 6010D Linestage Preamp $20,000
MBL 9011 Mono Amps $76,000
MBL 1621a Transport $21,850
MBL 1611 DAC $22,300
Finite Elemente Pagode Signature rack $2,095

What did it sound like? I can’t even begin to describe the system but suffice to say it’s a good value. I’m not kidding.

This was my second year and here are my picks. I refuse to list a speaker that doesn't have adequate bass response to be realistic to what's recorded.
1. Acapella Triolons
2 Scaena line array plus subs
3 Thiel 3.7
4 Sunny Cables horn speakers
5 Mark & Daniel Aragon
I figured the first two would be great but the Thiel was the big shocker for me. Probably the best top to bottom balance and imaging of all. I went back 3 times and every time walked out stunned.
As for Mark&Daniel, I think their Heil type air motion driver is awesome. The upper notes on a piano sound so real. Can't wait to hear their two biggest ones (Apollo 1&2) with the largest version of the AMT. Tough to integrate with the woofers though.
I heard lots of great speakers as far as resolution and clarity but most just don't have any foundation. They sound great until you hear the same cut on a speaker that has the lower freq. done well.

I would say the TAD/Bel Canto room for overall realistic performance. The smaller rooms physically couldn't compete because of the limitations of the room. With that being said, however, I had to wonder why the guys with the smaller rooms didn't do more to make them sound better. For instance, every room had a mirror attached to the wall on the right side (as you were facing the speakers) which could not be taken down. A number of rooms had covered that mirror to avoid the earlier reflection it would cause but MANY more just left it uncovered - should be no surprise those rooms sounded bright. Other rooms had glass patio doors that weren't covered, listening chairs sitting 3-4 feet from the speakers, speakers sitting a couple inches from the side or front walls, etc. Its little things like that which drive me crazy. They are exhibiting equipment that costs tens of thousands of dollars but they won't take the time to demo it correctly! Anyway, I would say the new BlueCircle speakers were very good and Jim Salk's HT3s were very impressive as well. I mostly enjoy talking to the various "characters" in the hi-fi industry since the actual listening is so compromised.