2. misc-audio
  3. 126539-2244

RMAF 2016

What did you think of the show this year? I was disappointed on a few fronts:
1). Atrium area was closed which I thought there were less rooms too see and it made the elevator wait times very long. There was no mention of this and if there was, I probably would have stayed home.
2). Most of the rooms were very small for the speakers the vendors brought with them. 
3). Along with #2 above, there weren't many good sounding rooms. I thought the standouts were the Revel/Mark Levinson room, the Raidho room, and a handful of others.

Not sure what's going to happen next year since the Newport Show is having issues, a new show in LA will surface in September, and because of this, will vendors pony up the cash to come to 3 shows in a short period of time?
rbstehno

Showing 1 response by theo

theo's avatar
theo
2,662 posts
 
I have gone every year since the first RMAF and in the past 2 years the show seems to have lost it's enthusiasm. This year was the smallest I can recall. There were far fewer exhibitors and I am sure that is partly due the remodel of the Marriott. I had a 2 day pass and left a few hours early Friday and stayed home the next 2 days. I thought the Rockport speakers with Boulder amplification was an awesome room and delivered some of the best sound I heard at the show. I would also add the Vandersteen speaker amp combo with Audio Research REF6  was exceptional but when ever I went to listen they were either taking a break or too many people talking to really get a real feel for their potential. One other room that I found to really be dialed in was the Wilson/Ayre/Brinkman set up. 
But I think the biggest disappointment of the show was a seemingly lack of NEW products. The show seems to be rerun of last year and I didn't come home with any excitement of "I gotta get that".
But I am going back next year!
More to discover