RMAF 2018 A.A. Show Report & Pictures

[audioguy3107]

Bill - I liked Ted’s room, I thought it sounded very good, definitely in the top 5.....wasn’t that impressed with his demo. Everyone we talked to raved about the Von Schweikert room......maybe it was the demo material? We heard at least 4 songs in there and everything we heard was excellent. It helped of course that one of them was the AP vinyl of Roger Water’s Amused To Death which can make anything sound awesome.

- Buck

[bart]

Buck, and also Tony, Rob, Marc: thank you for a splendid report!!
I know this takes time and effort.
Bravo!

2 remarks.
Strange that the YG Acoustics Hailey did not sound good. Must have been a badly set-up system?
They were speaker of the show for Jacques (Jem666) and me last year at the Brussels Hifi Show, and this year the Sonja 2.2 was the winner at the XFI in the Netherlands.
The Vimbergs chased us out of the room after 15", they were too harsh to support.
I think show conditions can make or break a system.
Set-up is king, it seems!

[mtrot]

Originally Posted by bart

Buck, and also Tony, Rob, Marc: thank you for a splendid report!!
I know this takes time and effort.
Bravo!

2 remarks.
Strange that the YG Acoustics Hailey did not sound good. Must have been a badly set-up system?
They were speaker of the show for Jacques (Jem666) and me last year at the Brussels Hifi Show, and this year the Sonja 2.2 was the winner at the XFI in the Netherlands.
The Vimbergs chased us out of the room after 15", they were too harsh to support.
I think show conditions can make or break a system.
Set-up is king, it seems!

Wow, some of us others had mostly the opposite impression of the Vimbergs. I guess it goes to show that everyone hears differently.

[audioguy3107]

Yeah, I would chalk these type of extreme differences up to room setup/acoustics......I’m sure the Haileys should sound better than they did, no question. They’re positively reviewed pretty much everywhere but there was definitely something weird going on in that room. More importantly, the Vimberg at RMAF we’re setup I what liked like a normal sized “living room” type room rather than one of the sparse hotel room setups you see. I’m sure that contributed to them sounding better than other rooms.....they even had a couch along one wall if I remember correctly.

- Buck

[bart]

Originally Posted by mtrot

Wow, some of us others had mostly the opposite impression of the Vimbergs. I guess it goes to show that everyone hears differently.

Time to hear them under ideal circumstances!

[FreddieFerric]

Thanks for the effort to post all the pics and share your sentiments on the gear. I have a pile of pics and videos that I took, but I can see that I missed several rooms.

After I have a chance to catch my breath from the trip, I'll post a few pics of some of the gear that hasn't made it to this thread yet.

Some quick observations (and just my personal opinions).

1. The Canton room was a huge disappointment. That whole room just sounded like HiFi and nothing more. I asked the rep why he didn't come with the K1's and he said he requested them, but they weren't available.

2. The Gryphon Room was really good. Those speakers played with a tremendous amount of power and dynamic range. But I did wonder how long I could listen to them without getting fatigued.

3. The Aida's and the AR 160's are a beautiful match.

4. On the first floor the room at the end that had the Constellation amps and the Rockport speakers sounded really good to me when I had them play some Fairfield Four tunes.

5. I heard some criticism of the Auralic room with the YG Acoustic speakers. Not sure what happened, but when I visited it on Saturday, I was quite impressed with that system.

6. The Von Schweikert room left me a bit flat. Gobs of money in that room, but I kept hearing music hanging around the speaker cones. It just didn't project the kind of soundstage I was expecting.

More later...

[mtrot]

Just curious, I wonder why Avalon doesn't seem to show up at audio shows? Are they out of business now? I'd like to hear them.

[audioguy3107]

Originally Posted by mtrot

Just curious, I wonder why Avalon doesn't seem to show up at audio shows? Are they out of business now? I'd like to hear them.

Marc - They were there last year in a suite in the Hyatt with Keith Johnson from Spectral/Reference Recordings doing a seminar. They were showing their new PM 4 reference monitors. I talked to Margo who’s like their business development person but she didn’t say why they weren’t attending this year. It seems common sense since they are right there in Boulder but who knows? They just seem to really like focusing on their business overseas for some reason.

- Buck

[mtrot]

Originally Posted by audioguy3107

Marc - They were there last year in a suite in the Hyatt with Keith Johnson from Spectral/Reference Recordings doing a seminar. They were showing their new PM 4 reference monitors. I talked to Margo who’s like their business development person but she didn’t say why they weren’t attending this year. It seems common sense since they are right there in Boulder but who knows? They just seem to really like focusing on their business overseas for some reason.

- Buck

Thanks, I don't remember seeing them at AXPONA in April either, but perhaps I just missed their room.

[audioguy3107]

This was the PM4 they were showing last year. It sounded amazing with a full MIT/Spectral system.