RMAF 2014 Observations


I made it back from RMAF and over the three day period I think I saw and listened to almost every room/demonstration. Since I am contemplating a potential new loudspeaker in the next year or so, I focused on loudspeakers. Here are my thoughts including my top five rooms and my worst of show rooms too. Preface: These are my observations only and subjective to my ears only - everyone has different tastes and observations and if you like a certain loudspeaker or sound then its right for your ears!

Caveat: I used the side one of Dead Can Dance 'Into the Labyrinth' as my test music. I was allowed to play it in all rooms except the Raidho and Voce rooms which wasn't using vinyl set ups, but did have mp3's of the record.

5th best sound/room: Voce Audio Loudspeakers with Plinius electronics: This sound was all sparkle yet very detailed and musical. Bass overloaded the room some, but this was a room issue. Great imaging and sound staging. Build quality of the loudspeaker was world class. Reminded me of Rockports.

4th: HWS: Horning Eufrodite Loudspeakers with TW Acustic analog front end and electronics with Tron preamp. This was the most enjoyable room at RMAF. Great music, no audiophile recordings and just plain fun. There was a remarkable relaxed quality about the Hornings and for the money probably not a better bargain. Jeff Catalano is a first class guy and most audiophiles would be hard-pressed to find better person to do business with. This system just 'worked.'

3rd: Audio Alternative: Vandersteen 7, ARC electronics and Brinkmann turntable with Lyra Atlas cart. This was a spectacular room. Other than the bass being a little bloated at times and on certain recordings, the Vandersteens did it all. Incredibly musical, images were solid and 3-D and soundstage width was wall to wall. Soundstage height a little low for my tastes, but I am nitpicking here.

2nd best sound: Raidho loudspeakers with Constellation Audio electronics. This was craziest room to visit. It was like a magic act. New Raidho X1 mini-monitors with stands for $8K. In this room set up, they sounded better than the D1's! Incredible purity and soundstaging. Non-fatiguing and very musical. And the bass was exceptional. I could not believe there wasn't a subwoofer hidden somewhere. I am betting these super small cabinets got down to 30 cycle bass in the room.

Best of Show: AAAudio Imports: Lancshe 5.1 loudspeakers with Ypsilon electronics and Thales turntable with Ikeda cart. This was the best sound I may have ever heard. On all types of music. Soundstaging and air was phenomenal. Extremely musical with no grain at all. Tonal balance from top to bottom was perfection. Plasma corona tweeter gave detail to recordings I have yet to here in my room at home. Was it a match of components or a perfect room (it was a large room)? I don't know but it was fantastic and I will definitely want to listen to some again. Only draw back is that the corona tweeter lasts for around 5000-7000 hours and needs to be replaced.

Honorable Mention: I didn't hear a Joseph Audio room I didn't like. Jeff Joseph is definitely doing something right!

Underwhelmed sound: Wilson Audio room with Sashas and the big VTL monos was very dynamic and detailed. But just something about the brightness to my ears of Wilson speaker and the thin midrange. I can certainly see why many would like this set up, it was just not for me.

More underwhelmed sound: Polymer Audio room - just plain analytical and boring. Great build quality though.

Even more underwhelmed sound: The two rooms with Focal Grand Utopias with either VAC or Soulution electronics. Both of these rooms were very average in my opinion. Soundstaging was two dimensional and only between the two loudspeakers. Very disappointing.

Worst of Show: Aesthetix and Focal Mezzo Utopias. This room was horrid. It had to be the set up. Soundstaging was horrible, detail was missing and bass was bloated. If I was either manufacturer, I would have been pissed at how this room was set up.

Again, these are just my opinions based on my ears and listening preferences. Feel free to add thoughts from people who were there and what they liked and disliked.

I certainly admire everyone in the business who work tremendously hard to set up rooms and put on a show for three days. Cudos to everyone who had rooms there.
philb7777
Thank you all for taking the time. I was unable to attend (want to every year but my work this time of year makes it difficult) so this gives me my "fix", plus the videos on some of the other sites.

Thank you!
We wanted to upgrade our normal room to a ballroom this year but there was never even a return call or email from RMAF management so we scraped the whole show and I'm glade we did.
Hi Philb7, I don't think that it is about flavors. If I had been happy with just subjective results like what is engaging and fun to listen to then I would be in heaven with my Klipsch LaScala speakers. But the sound that I am getting has very little to do with live music and at the highest end of audio, systems are capable of coming quite close. These are systems that unfortunately I can't afford.

I thought that the VAC room with Focal speakers was remarkable both on vinyl and digital. The sound was a bit bigger than life but after a while you might think you are at the live performance.

The Polymer system was also superb,I forget what electronics were used but these were some small solid state amps. It didn't have the warmth or smoothess of the VAC and Focal but the resolution and transparency were the best I've heard. I felt like I could hear much deeper into the recording. I wonder what these speakers would sound like on good tube amps and vinyl.

Another system that took me there was the room with TAD CR1 monitors. Don't recall the electronics there either but this system was a bit less expensive than other two and it had a spectacular presentation.
Larry, I respectfully disagree. I think it is actually very subjective at times. And it depends on our listening preferences we gave developed over time.

I thought the two big Focal rooms were bad. Certainly bad for the price point. In both rooms the soundstage was 2D and in between the speakers. Everything seemed compressed with little air. I'll say the VAC room was better than the Soulution room, but not by much. Down the hall, the Focal/Aesthetix room was even worse. But again, that was my take on these rooms and I'm not surprised that others would love them. I thought the Lansche room was spectacular, but others have posted it was dull and lifeless. I really think, oftentimes at this level, beauty is in the ear of the beholder.
Larrystain - The Polymer room was superb? Surely you must mean the girls and not the sound! I went to this room several times across three days and it was boomy, two dimensional and just plain bad sounding. $60,000? Give me a break. I heard $5000 Ryan Speakers that mopped the floor with those.

Just not my cup of tea I guess. But like the OP said - the Polymer room was definitely a "most underwhelmed" for me.