RMAF 2012 Postmortem

I'll chime in eventually, I just have to rewrite my notes. One small correction, the DeVore speakers were the Orangutans and not the Gibbons. Did you like one over the other? I personally preferred the 96s. Excellent well defined and intimate midrange for jazz, slight lack of pronouncement in the lows and tended to be somewhat bright for the symphonic recording that someone had brought in...which is a stretch for these speakers driven by 8 watts of power IMO. I visited this room all three days, so I admit that I did like the speakers and they're on my list. John is also a very interesting guy with many other intriguing and divergent pursuits. I could easily spend hours engaged in conversation with him.

If you like efficient speakers then you must of died when you heard the Volti Vittora with the Border Patrol S10. Did you hear the Volti with the NF5 Feastrex driver or either of the two speakers in the Feastrex room? Voices are just heavenly.

As for price, nothing compared to Steve Nober's Pranafidelity fifty 90 IMO. If you had a chance to sit in the sweet spot you may agree with my assertion.

More on my best of show picks later.

I live near Denver, but this was my first time at this show. I don't think I've ever been to a "consumer focused trade-show" before, so it took a little while for me to get into the groove (I've attended more broadcast and cable technology shows than I care to count).

It was interesting to listen to such a wide variety high-end systems, some of which sounded amazing and some of which didn't (or at least they had characteristics that are not pleasing to my ears. I was surprised to find some of these unobtainium systems exhibited characteristics that I've had to avoid or suss out of my far more modest systems over the years, e.g. mid-bass resonance, overly brash highs or a dull, veiled sound.

It was great to walk into Roy Hall's room and hear great sound, even though the system he was demo'ing cost less than a single firehose cable from some of the other rooms. And speaking of cables, it was interesting to see that (including some high-end rooms), high-dollar cables and interconnects were not required for great sound (and even look rather overwrought and silly in comparison).

I expect that I'll go back next year, but the one thing that I will do differently is I'll be careful to take notes on the great music I hear (I'm kicking myself that I didn't this year).

Dpe:

Yes, I meant the Orangutans, not the Gibbons. I expect the 96s were better than the 93s, but at a cost uptick from 8 to 12k, and I thought the 93s had *a lot* of what I liked in the 96s, particularly a certain sweetness of sound. My hunch is that for me, the 93 would be the way to go.

I agree completely that John D. is an unusually nice man, and a lot of fun to talk to. I'd expect Devore to be a great company to deal with.

John

I have attended every year since the inception of RMAF and I found this year to be a little disappointing in some of the manfacturers that weren't there. However, I did enjoy seeing/hearing some products that I had not seen before. Adam-Audio stands out in my mind as a speaker that is fairly affordable and quite good in sound. Also getting to hear the new Totems was a good opportunity, I did find that some rooms were playing the same equipment and music they have for the past few years and it makes me wonder why they don't show something new. I wanted to hear the New Magicos and if they were there I didn't find them. Also it seemed that the TurnTable count was down this year. I always like to see what each manufacture has developed in vinyl playback but I would say about half as many were repesented. I would say attendance was down from past yeasr and according to one dealer I spoke with yesterday, many vendors were packing up early Sunday as they realized the show was over. Regardless of how the show came off I hope that it returns next year as I know I will attend. It is is a wonderful opportunity to see equipment not sold in the area and meet some people that share this passion. I just really hope I win the PowerBall before next years show, so that I can really enjoy it!