What were the best and worst rooms at RMAF 2009?

Just back home and still jet-lagged.

Not as crowded this year (economy?) but that actually made it more manageable.

Was hoping to see David Gill's new stuff; sorry he couldn't make the show.

Room I want when I hit the Lotto: MBL. One can walk all around that room and it still images great. Heavy, black/gold tones to the electronics and those speakers! Sitting 5' from them and you think you would be shouted at, but it stays musical.

Agree that Bobby P. has his room, VSM's, and electronics dialed in as usual. Just a great sound for the $$'s, so much bigger than it should be. Merlins are alright.

I came away impressed by the Joseph floor standers. They have the impact of a Dynaudio C1 but better dispersal quality.
Went back twice on successive days to make sure I was hearing what I thought. May have to bite on these one day.

I liked the Wilson Benesch/de Havailland last year more due to the bigger salon. This is quality stuff and I also made 2 visits just 'cause I like the sound.

If I have any change left over from my big lottery winnings, I get the Wilson Sasha's. Never was a big fan of the Watt Puppy's, but these are immenently enjoyable, completely non fatiguing, and, at least in this setting, image beautifully with each note laid down perfectly. I sat in the front seat until the staff (politely) asked me if I had a room for the night or was I going to stay there, seated.

Wadia & Dynaudio are very good, but priced out of the common man's wallet. W's little IPod dock, however, is cheap and could find all kinds of uses in a 2nd-3rd, or office system.

Couldn't comment on horns, electrostatics, or analogue. Just don't know that much about it and didn't stay in the rooms that had these components since there was so much I did want to see.

Several rooms (no names) hit me wrong. I usually knew this when I walked in but often stayed for awhile just to see if I was being judgemental or prejudiced due to the music/looks/staff/??? I think one can get a visceral hint quickly that (like your first answer on a multiple choice test) tells you something ain't right. I'm not saying this is the way to judge equipment, but when faced with 6 floors of audio rooms, one has to make choices on what you want to hear/see.

I was hoping to get a basic primer in a seminar setting in setting up a Mac based music server system. You know, the nuts & bolts, what to hook to what, choices in backup, which connectiion (USB, firewire, etc) and the arguments of each, choices of dacs and why each one is the best (according to the manufacturers), etc. There is a tremendous amount of knowledge and talent at this meeting and dolts such as myself could use some "dummy-down" teaching.

Said enough, see you next year.

I don't wish to be detractive but I'm quite curious now given the contrasting statements made herein about specific demos. Further, as to notes posted here about particular items comprising only a part of the entire rigs being played too... CDPs, speakers, amps, etc.

I remember hearing this said to me early on, by both individuals, and makers of high end gear:

"Don't judge components from what you hear at a show."

Is this correct or have things changed?

I can imagine a number of reasons why it could well be true. But from the overwhelming positives posted here as to what was heard here and there abouts, maybe one should 'judge' only whole systems... as so many here have done just that so far... mostly. I can't see how any could do otherwise and have anything short of a speculative perspective or outright guess as to individual component performance (s).

I hope to get to one of these some day yet I feel what is demonstarted there could only be taken on the whole of things and nothing gained in part, by way of actual appraisal of specific items.

in any event, it's gotta be cool to meet those responsible for designing all the neat stuff... as well as other folks we talk to online yet seldom meet.

This was my second trip to RMAF (back to back). Both years, my friend and I thought that the Joseph Audio room had some of the best sound in the show. I would love to have a pair of his larger speakers but will have to shop used to buy.

Other very good speakers for reasonable prices I thought were the Bamberg Audio & Reference 3A Grand Veena.

At headphone room was very interesting. My friend bought the JH Audio top of the line in ear headphones. Moon Audio showed an electrostatic tube amp with Stax headphones that was awesome if you can foot the bill.

It was a great time - we had a number of people visit from the Houston Aduio Society and everyone really enjoyed it.

I heard the Vandy 7's and ARC setup on Friday and was nonplussed. I returned on Saturday and was much more impressed, but I thought they were hampered by the small room. I look forward to hearing that system again.

The YGA Kiphods were in my top five; huge soundstage and seemingly unlimited dynamic and frequency ranges; smooth and utterly palpable image.

What were those monitors in the Nordost demo room? I never heard a small speaker handle large orchestra at high volume (Stravinsky!) with such aplomb. Would have listened longer, but that's when the first power outage occurred and I didn't get a chance to return. I was just sitting down to hear the Thiel 3.7's when the power went out again, so I didn't hear them either.

I agree with the positive reviews of the Joseph Audio Pearl/Bel Canto setup, the VTL/Avalon system and the Bamberg Audio(?) speakers.

If I had someone else's checkbook, though, I would have written a check on the spot for the Boulder electronics/Vienna Die Musik setup at Soundings. For me, it was the very best among many good systems. Simply amazing.

DCSTEPs cautioning about the origin of the slight limitations of the Gamut room are absolutely on the money. The room was too alive and somewhat too large for optimal results, regardless of speaker setup. A handclap test I performed exposed a painfully high amount of uncontrolled slap-echo. In spite of room limitations, Lars of GamuT addressed the initial unspecificity in the mid bass by repeatedly tweaking the positioning of the speakers until the very final session on Sunday with results that in the end were very impressive. Dave and I played once again Bach's organ Toccata Adagio and Fugue in C-minor Sunday afternoon and the result was tremendous. No mid bass wobble could be detected at all. . . bass was deep, taught and as tuneful as I could expect from a top flight large system. As we did not repeat the playback of the piano and string quintet tracks by Dvorak, I do not know if low level resolution was in the end les/greater than the Vienna/Boulder/Rowland suite at Soundings. In the end room interactions may still have been a factor in my slight pref for the musicality of the latter.

Regarding the Bel Canto room in 589-590. . . yes, the sound of the room was not 'warm' to my ears. . . rather, I found it to be rather neutral with a very slight overpressure in the treble region, and a minor tendency to intermodulate in harmonically complex sostenuto passages in the upper treble. The overall gracefulness of the sound was perhaps that is one of the reasons why DCSTEP and I remained there for the better part of an hour or may be even more, in spite of a slight tendency to tippiness in the treble that made the sound suboptimal. As I am not even faintly familiar with the Joseph Audio house sound, I have no idea about its impact on the overall result. However, being quite familiar with the sound of the suite from last year, with Bel Canto Ref series sonic signature, and having found XLO somewhat tipped up for my preference over the years, I am inclined to impute some of the slight treble anomalies to the wiring.

Lastly, a generic recommendation for manufacturers to refrain from public electronic joustings with the customer set. The 'high road' may be found to be a more effective corporate markcom technique in the long run. G.