Wow, where to begin?
The best part of course, was seeing friends audiophiles and exhibitors, and meeting new people. The first year I didn't know anyone and didn't get much out of it. This year I got a lot of tips from other audiophiles on which rooms to pay closer attention too. Most were rooms that I had visited but not sat down to listen closely. Merlin, Reference 3A were such rooms. I met AC's RobS, TomS, FrankS, Bob Smith, Shek, ecramer, ltr317, woodsyi, Stan from Usher, Scotthobby, a few others I'm not remembering their names.
I enjoyed cruising with LW, Captain Humble and Shek on Saturday morning. We went to the Hyatt where there were some large exhibits. Of these, I enjoyed Harbeth 40.1 driven by dnm electronics. There room was well treated with a wall of FG panels covered in black velvet curtain, so the deep bass was clear and punchy, a big improvement over the untreated hotel room they had last year where I spent a lot of time. Next at Hyatt was Acoustic Zen's new gigantic speakers (3rd model) triamped with Halcro dm88 and all Halcro electronics. That was a very good sounding system, considering the open doors, no treatment at all, and huge domed tray ceiling. Crystal clear, no perceivable distortion. The horn loaded ribbon tweeter was slightly aggressive, but I felt that about all the ribbon tweeters I heard there except RAAL ribbons. I sapoke with a Halcro tech guy for a few minutes, that was fun. He showed me a pic of the dm88 guts and walked me through the most important features. It was mighty impressive, to match the sound I was hearing. chrisa recommended I visit our local Halcro dealer, and I think I might, even though it will just be a joy ride. They do have a class D stereo amp which they market for HT, but he noted variable switching frequency which he said makes it sound unlike other D amps with fixed switching frequency. An hour later I was discussing this very subject in extreme detail with SP Tech's Bob Smith who was an engineer at Crown for many years building that exact type of amp. Only at RMAF can a hobbyist audiophile find that kind of immersion. OK back at Hyatt, the boys from Europe had come over with a pile of exotica. Once again this year I sat next to Robert Harley while he auditioned it. I can't remember all the brand names but the speaker is Kaiser with RAAL ribbon tweeter in a seperate solid stainless enclosure on top of the wooden cabinet with 3 dynamic drivers, and the amps were 50W SET monoblocks with four 845 tubes each. Punchy and extended, but full of SET love and fire. This was one of my top 5. In the Hyatt I also heard maxxhorn with my beloved Feastrex driver. yuk. Last year's cabinet sounded much better. By far the highlight of the Hyatt was the beautiful race driver Christine Jarrett posing and answering questions about her Formula Mazda race car which was covered in sponsor decals from audio brands. It costs $40 to buy, $100k total to race for a couple years, she and her husband are the only crew. Sounds like fun!!
Back to the Marriott...There is too much to describe in detail so I will just hit my highlights for now.
I enjoyed the First watt room very much. I returned there 6 times. A Lowther full range driver in 2" thick solid maple open baffle with tone tubby woofer, driven by First Watt (Pass) F5 and B1 preamp through Jena Labs cable and a masterpiece crossover by John Ver Halen, the Lowther importer. There will be a diy construction article on enjoythemusic.com about this speaker system. The woofers were new and so too I imagine the crossovers, but even on Thursday afternoon it was sounding very good. By Sunday it was incredible. I am now a Pass man. I spoke with Colin Pass at length on Sunday and he was a great rep for his company. Passionate, informed and cool. Talked me into XA30.5. No I did not buy it yet...
I have a lot of friends at the Feastrex exhibit, so I visited there a lot, but did not sit down to listen much, a little on Thursday during setup. It sounded great this year. The traffic and excitement about them was stronger than last year. A folded transmision line (12 feet?) speaker with Urushi finish was brought from Japan which sounded the best of the three cabinets. It could easily play low organ notes with 4" driver. custom SET amps were also brought this year after Lamm proved incompatible last year. I did not get a demo of the Acoustic Revive low frequency generator thingie we talked about last week. I still like the Maiko horn sound better. Maybe I will try to get a pair of those there next year. Talked with a friend there about carbon fiber construction.
Krell brought evolution electronics and their new top speaker model, built with 1" thick aluminum walls. It was pretty amazing. Played surprisingly well in the small room, but was obviously capable of blowing down the walls. No box resonance there. Treble tone was good, which was surprising to me.
McIntosh room got 30 seconds of my attention on Sunday last stop before checkout. I avoided it as long as possible, but Carl wanted to know if it sucked again this year. I can report that it sucked even better this year. They have a new 250W integrated that was not playing. The C1000 preamp and 1200W monoblocks with Mac speakers with a zillion tweeters. The treble was not clear, and it was harsh and aggressive to me. Bass was even more of the yummy smooth Mac bass I grew to love using Carls MC402.
Analysis Audio had two rooms. One was manned by mgalusha, with Spectron amps Moddie 9SWL and Mikes super incredible SB. One of the best sounds at the show. The midrange was more solid than the bigger Analysis Audio (planar ribbon) speakers powered by VTL downstairs in the hall of exotica. I had fun helping Mike Kallelis position speakers and tune treatments in the larger system on Friday midnight. He is a reformed race car builder/driver, so we had fun talking about that. I like F1 and open wheel racing. Standing in security line on the way home my 10yo called to report that he won pole and came second after being spun last lap in his first ever motor race in gokarts. I may need to sell the stereo for racing cash soon.
The spectron amps were impressive in mgalusha's room, and also in the SP Tech room. They are violently fast, clear, powerful. I can see the appeal. You find the music yourself in your heart, not through your ears like you would with a colored tube amp. On the Sunday a genuine spectron speaker cable was installed with feedback lead at the speaker terminals. It doubled the enjoyment of the system and is necessary to get the most out of the amps. To be honest, I enjoyed the sound but was not drawn to stay and listen for a long time. It was nice to meet Bob Smith and a lot of the guys who are drawn to that sound. The Revelations are mightily impressive. I think it is a design still ahead of its time. The accuracy and power is really unbelievable. It is so intense that I would play it much lower, but I didn't have that opportunity. I did ride to the airport in the shuttle with BRIAN DK (AC) who is visiting SP Tech for a long apprenticeship. He was fluent in the SP Tech theory and was able to bring me up to speed on the significance of the design. He has a Revelation on order, 15 months and counting
His friend Karsten a Danish electronics designer and he are starting a company called Blue Cheese Audio which also sounded very exciting. Karsten also has Revelation.
The Focal Grand Utopia Godallmighthy actually sounded pretty good, relaxed and very musical excpt for the dreaded concave beryllium tweeter. Somehow it sounds a lot better on Wilsons. But the speaker is not only formidible presence, but also can emit music. Another surprise after hearing them last year. Boulder electronics.
On Saturday late afternoon, Ken and I enjoyed the new Wilson Audio Sophia 2 with a brand new 75W integrated from Audio Research. It was lovely. Very inviting and comfortable. Great soundstaging. Bass was sized right for the room, but I missed the feeling of authority on my test tracks. Violin tone was not as good as I expected. I blame the AR amp which could be new, or just not up to the standard their Reference series delivers. I think for the same money my Minimax and Snappers are much better.
Ken and I also listened to the Usher Be-10 in the Exemplar Audio room. Exemplar is developing upgrades for the two Usher crown jewels. New crossovers with vastly improved parts quality, JPS wiring, carbon spike footers. The Be-10 version was being played side by side against stock Be10 for comparison. The comparison was flawed because the electronics powering each pair of Be10s were completely different. One Belles SS, the other tubes. I have compared my Be-20s with Belles and Monad at Shganes house, and Belles was not very impressive, although this is a bigger newer model. Anyway the tube amps driving the modded Be10 sounded noticably better, so that's encouraging. We'll see where the new crossovers are priced. Be 20 mod dev is not finished. The clarity of the Usher midrange was amazing, as always. I felt like I was home. The large untreated concrete room sounded very close to mine. haha
Need a break, more later... I didn't take any pics.
Rich