What were the best and worst rooms at RMAF 2009?

I went on Friday and Sunday. Open-to-Close.

I went to the Bel Canto room on Sunday about 1PM. I wanted to hear Bel Canto's "Class D" as Rowland did it so well in their gear.

This was the super large suit at the end of the hall. All Bel Canto gear leading into Josephs. The host was playing most of the tracks from a music server.

Incidentally I was there to buy after the show. (I live just four miles south of the show) By the end of the show I was pretty worn out but I was ready to buy a demo pair of Focals but they had too many surface damages.

I also liked the Ayon CD2 and Ayon Spirit amp but decided I want to stay with Solid State gear.

The Zu's grabbed at me as very "live" sounding for cheap money. What was everyone's take on the ZU's? They got a good review this month also. (As if you can put any trust in the reviewers from that magazine)

My Favorite cost-no-object: Focal Grand Utopia/MBL
My Favorite Budget system: Focal+Micromega system at $8500

Audio Note Room: Wonderfully organic! But $51,000 for those little "Harbeth looking" speakers shocked me.. oh my..

The Luxman/DevilSound room was another wonderful sound. I spent a lot of time in that room with a smile.

The Nordost room sounded great also!

Not mentioning the wonderfully delicate sound of the VTL/Avatar room would be a crime. Loved the sound there as well.

The Technics Reel-To-Reel room had groovy lighting..

The ZU/Peachtree room was a lot of fun. Good vibe, happy people, lot's of fun to hang out an just "be".

The GamuT room was very impressive sounding. Lifelike organ reproduction for sure!

One room I disagree on is the Bel Canto room. I found the Bel Canto/Joseph Audio room to be one of the worst sounding rooms for the price. Very lean sounding and bright. Listening to their "pre-packaged" demo tracks sounded nice but when I put in a Fleetwood Mac CD which should have sounded wonderful (It has on many systems) it sounded lean and bright. This room was the most disappointing of the rooms I gave a serious listen to. I was considering a Bel Canto amp for myself until hearing this room. I don't understand how people could praise it.. This room sucked IMO.

I concur on the Vienna Die Muzick. I went to Soundings on Sunday after the show and they were playing for a client. I would have considered selling a kidney on the spot if propositioned to get these things. They are that spectacular! And Rod Tomson (The owner) is one of the nicest guys on the planet.

All and All a blast and fun had by all. A "must go" in 2010 for everyone on this site. Disneyland for adults!!

Josephaud:

Those happen to be the speakers I use for home theater. I have 2 systems listed if you notice and I have been using different gear for Redbook and different gear for home theater.

I have been trying various speakers out for Redbook over the past year and haven't bothered to update my profile over on the asylum. This year I have owned a variety of speakers including Acoustic Zen Adagios and B&W's as well. I happen to like the sound of Focal as well and may end up buying a pair.

It's a shame you felt the need to go out of your way in an attempt to discredit what I heard at the show. Researching my id on another site to see what you could dig up in hopes to slander me based on system components seems lame and I am sure others will see it that way as well. And to be honest I went to that room to see the Bel Canto. I was fixating on the Bel Canto gear not your speakers. Perhaps the Bel Canto would have sounded better to me with different speakers. Hard to tell.

The track I played in the Bel Canto room was not recorded lean and in fact sounded quite warm on the Focals, Ushers, Legacys, and other speakers which I tried at the show. Of the speakers I tried with this track, the Bel Canto room was only bright and lean sound I heard when playing this track.

I liked many rooms at the show but not yours. Everyone has an opinion and mine was based upon what I heard using the same track on several systems.

In the same fashion people may wonder how I could have been so disappointed in the Bel Canto Room, I must admit that I am shocked someone could be disappointed with the "Audio Note" room.

When I was in the Audio Note room I heard Holographic images dancing about in the room that were absolutely spooky good. I couldn't believe all that was coming from those two smallish "Harbeth looking" speakers which sat in the corners of the room. To me, that was an extremely pleasurable (and fun) sounding room to visit and spend time in.

I changed my profile (today) to reflect that I am using B&W speakers which is true. At present I am using B&Ws since they work reasonably well for both home theater and Redbook playback.

I heard many many great sounding rooms which excelled for different reasons. I did not like the Bel Canto Room. It's that simple. I didn't even try to assess whether it was the speakers, the amplification, or the source which didn't agree with me.

I admit I was overly strong in my first post. It was my gut reaction to complete disbelief that several people really liked the sound of this room when in my mind I heard the contrary. I should have been more tactful and simply stated that the system sounded bright and lean when I heard it and left it at that. In this regard I was quite the animal and should have restrained myself. I am guilty on this account and admit it.

I also really wanted to hear NAIM at it's best. I have heard NAIM sound spectacular in the past and think NAIM is excellent gear for playing rock music. I was disappointed to hear it sound less than spectacular because I have heard it sound so much better.

Was there a "best of show" at different price points?

Also I started a separate thread for posting "exceptional"
demo tracks. I heard some VERY powerful Orchestral tracks
that I would love to buy on CD if only I knew the composer
or Album name..