RMAF 2018 A.A. Show Report & Pictures

[mcpaf76]

Nice photos and reviews. Eventually one day I’ll get to one of these myself.

[Antonmb]

A couple of shots from CanJam:

Woo Audio’s Eclipse, very nice sounding amp/DAC driving Senn HD800s. Battery powered, quite small. I’m thinking it would be very nice for a small bedroom system.



AmpsandSound McKenzie headphone amp. Very solid, musical, good bass driving ZMF headphones. The owner hand-builds them.

[Antonmb]

Originally Posted by audioguy3107

Words really don't do justice for the monstrosities that made up the ESD Acoustics room, a Chinese company new to me. The hosts were very nice but none of us could get over the sheer amount of equipment that made up this system. We listened to it, enjoyed it, but still don't really understand what was going on here, I mean, just look at all the electronics, holy crap. By the way, they were bigger in person than in the pictures. We think that gold thing on the top is a CD player but we're not entirely sure, maybe it dispensed potpourri, who knows. Also, they told me that EACH basshorn alone weighs close to 250 kgs. yikes. As for the sound, they sounded nice...interesting but very diffuse, like a large wall of sound but hard to tell with the demo material. We'll be back here to demand different songs!

They told me today the total system cost is $500k, or $330 for just the speakers. I actually thought the tonal balance wasn’t that bad on a piece with trumpet and acoustic guitar, but it sounded like the world’s biggest guitar - the imaging was impossible.

[Antonmb]

Atmasphere amps and Classic Audio speakers. I thought this system sounded pretty good - well-balanced and smooth with articulate bass.

[Antonmb]

Raven Audio with Legacy speakers. Sound was a bit boomy and muddy, and too much background noise in the room.

[Antonmb]

Here are the Focal Grand Utopias with EMM electronics. They played a live version of Tom Petty “Free Falling” and it was like being there, awesome power and clarity, but like listening in an auditorium. Also I found the sound a bit hard.

[Antonmb]

The Soundsmith room. Very nice sound and great looking amplification. Forgot to take a picture of the TT. Click on the URL to see the cool blue lights on the control knob that pulse to the music. Throwback, but fun.





https://photos.smugmug.com/RMAF-2018...G_7546-640.mp4

[Antonmb]

PureAudioProject: these were cool modular speakers from Israel. They’re a kit, and you can select different modules for the center either horn or concentric (pictured). The crossover is very simple and you can “roll” different resistors. They sounded pretty darn good, too.

[Weirdcuba]

This is killing me. I’m going to Munich and rmaf next year.

[mtrot]

Given their size, the JA Perspectives were impressive in the impact and scale of the music they were producing. I would describe the sound as very coherent, dynamic, natural, and accurate. It didn't hurt that they were playing excellent tapes at 15 ips.

DSC_0029 by MDTshots, on Flickr
DSC_0032 by MDTshots, on Flickr