Article: RMAF 2015 Recap

[The Computer Audiophile]

You can view the page at http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content.php?r=667-RMAF-2015-Recap

[phusis]

Mr. Connaker --

 

Going to audio shows as of late, have you "met" a sonic presentation that led you to be tempted to replace your TAD's?

[MikeJazz]

What a great write-up about the event.

I will look forward to your forthcoming reviews.

 

My favorite passage? "I learned quite a bit just staying relatively quiet and soaking it in". I would follow the same strategies.

 

Features on Playpoint are impressive.

 

Those Larsen loudskpears remind me a bit of Shahinian. I wonder if there is any relation concerning both designs.

 

I also wonder if the Mola Mola distributer said something about Bruno Putzeys new project, the Kii loudspeakers....

 

Thanks for the high quality coverage! very enjoyable.

[mrvco]

I'm looking forward to the Sonore Micro. I'll also be interested in comparing it to the AURALiC Mini (as a streamer) once they get Roon Speakers integrated.

 

I guess I'm still waiting on a Pono / Tidal merger announcement from Neil and JayZ :-)

[ericuco]

It was nice as always to have a chance to chat with Chris on Friday evening along with briefly meeting Alex, John, Barrows, etc.

 

It would have been nice to stay for dinner & visit with everyone but I had Ella, my 3 year old daughter, with me and it was getting a bit late.

[cjf]

Lol...The Wig on the dude in the first pic always cracks me up when I see him in pics. Is that the Totem dude?

[audio.bill]

I believe that's Peter Madnick currently of Audio Alchemy, and a design consultant of Constellation Audio.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Lol...The Wig on the dude in the first pic always cracks me up when I see him in pics. Is that the Totem dude?

It's his real hair.

[Jud]

Chris, before getting into show impressions, thank you - I'm knocked out by your generous compliment (my wife thanks you too). Funny, I felt exactly the way you did about dinner: Wow, it's great to be the guy here with the lowest IQ among all these smart folks, let me just listen to everybody. Your joy is infectious, and it's no accident your site attracts good people.

 

One thing your recap did was remind me of the rooms I wanted to see but missed. Wish I'd managed to get to the exasound and Constellation rooms, but it just didn't happen.

 

I share your opinion of the Mola-Mola/Merging/Vivid room.

 

Other rooms/equipment that caught my attention:

 

- I've owned Vandersteens for over 25 years, and the room with the Vandersteen Quatro CTs predictably bowled me over. At $14,000 a pair they weren't cheap, but weren't close to the most expensive speakers at the show. Nothing else I heard imaged or re-created a soundstage like these speakers. The Doors' "Riders on the Storm" played from LP sounded fabulous. Best of all, I had the chance to thank Richard Vandersteen in person.

 

- Avantgarde Duo Mezzo: I waved my wife Lisa in just to show her full scale horns, which she'd never seen before. She looked, and then, as we were turning to go, The Wall came on and filled the room. Of course we had to stay. Very impressive.

 

- Larry (lmitche) told me I had to hear the Spatial speakers, and I wasn't disappointed. Interesting technology and fine sound for $1295(!) a pair.

 

- The Spatials weren't the least expensive excellent sounding speakers I heard at the show. For most folks the big attraction in the ELAC room was the Roon server, and I'm certainly not discounting the importance of that. But Andrew Jones has to my thinking created a marvel in a pair of floorstanding speakers that produce terrific sound for $558. They also have a marvelously clever and convenient room equalization system that works with smartphones. These could easily be the front of a very fine entry level system, but they're not at all restricted to that. They had several thousands of dollars of electronics playing through them at the show, and didn't seem to limit the system a bit.

 

- I'd looked forward to listening to Schiit's Yggdrasil, and really enjoyed it. I brought my wife over to listen while Bob Seger happened to be playing on the headphones, and she hasn't stopped bugging me to buy Bob Seger albums since. I didn't know the Bifrost multibit would also be there. Monkey Man from Let it Bleed, one of my favorite Stones tracks (at 176/24), sounded as good as I've heard it. From a $600 DAC, not bad at all. I'm not sure how far I should go in mentioning what a delightful conversation my wife, Larry and I had with Mike Moffat (baldr), because I think he may enjoy being thought of as a bit of a curmudgeon.

 

- As Chris mentioned, the Sonore room sounded great (once barrows' yeoman efforts to tame a room mode at a lower frequency than you'd think those little Raidhos could produce paid off). My wife, who spends too much time watching HGTV, really liked the appearance of the Sonore setup, calling it "sleek." As much as I loved the sound and the music being played, which brought me back to the room again and again, getting a chance to spend time chatting with barrows was the thing I enjoyed most.

[Sam Lord]

I didn't even know it was happening. I've had such wonderful online interactions with all the folks mentioned, especially the dinner group...it's a little cabal that I yearn to infiltrate. Wish I'd been there. Thanks to everybody for their reports.

[input username here]

What a great write-up about the event.

I will look forward to your forthcoming reviews.

 

My favorite passage? "I learned quite a bit just staying relatively quiet and soaking it in". I would follow the same strategies.

 

Features on Playpoint are impressive.

 

Those Larsen loudskpears remind me a bit of Shahinian. I wonder if there is any relation concerning both designs.

 

I also wonder if the Mola Mola distributer said something about Bruno Putzeys new project, the Kii loudspeakers....

 

Thanks for the high quality coverage! very enjoyable.

 

Thanks for the great coverage Chris! I am also interested in your thoughts on the Kii speakers, if you made it to the GTT Audio room, that is. I am driving up to NJ next weekend to demo them myself....

[lmitche]

Hi Chris,

 

Thanks again for your company on Friday night at RMAF. My hope in attending RMAF was to connect with CA people face to face. Thanks to you, that was accomplished, and I really enjoyed our time together. Hearing the gear was great, but a far second to the amazing CA people on met on this trip. What fun!

 

Best to all,

 

Larry

[kenreau]

I kind of like the looks of the featured articles photo of room (acoustics?) treatment. Looks kind of like pleated white window shades turned horizontal with light accents. Does anyone know of more information about it? Looks to be in a Naim/Focal room (didn't see them mentioned in the article.

 

Thx

Kenreau

[YashN]

Cool report. Always good to hear about Philip O'Hanlon and the Luxman/Vivid combination.

 

Where are the tube amps?

[crenca]

" It's nice to hear that Tidal isn't abandoning the HiFi enthusiast market despite what appears to be a huge shift in the type of content pushed by the service."

 

As a Tidal subscriber for only about 3 months now, what has changed? I suppose I have always assumed it's "portal" front end would be pushing the big pop names, videos, etc., and the sort of content favored by "the HiFi enthusiast" (such as jazz, classical, "audiophile" singer/song writers, etc.) would simply be in the mix. As someone who has spent no small amount of time sifting for such stuff, I am pleasantly surprised about how much is there. My only real complaint is the limitations of it's search...

[orgel]

Thanks for the report, Chris. That exaSound PlayPoint looks pretty interesting. Also, it's always nice to see a photo of one's speakers hooked up to an $80,000 pair of monoblocks. One can only imagine.

 

--David

[asindc]

" It's nice to hear that Tidal isn't abandoning the HiFi enthusiast market despite what appears to be a huge shift in the type of content pushed by the service."

 

As a Tidal subscriber for only about 3 months now, what has changed? I suppose I have always assumed it's "portal" front end would be pushing the big pop names, videos, etc., and the sort of content favored by "the HiFi enthusiast" (such as jazz, classical, "audiophile" singer/song writers, etc.) would simply be in the mix. As someone who has spent no small amount of time sifting for such stuff, I am pleasantly surprised about how much is there. My only real complaint is the limitations of it's search...

 

Same here.

[AlexMetalFi]

Chris:

 

In a nutshell, what is the MQA initiative trying to solve? Why should audiophiles care?

 

Alex

[Nikhil]

Chris,

 

I would very much like to hear your (and others) comments on the Focal standmounts.

The Sopra No 2 were jaw dropping at a local show here - the No 1 are on my radar.

 

[MikeJazz]

Chris,

 

I would very much like to hear your (and others) comments on the Focal standmounts.

The Sopra No 2 were jaw dropping at a local show here - the No 1 are on my radar.

 

 

They're lovely in their design. Do they still use the berilium tweeter?

[The Computer Audiophile]

Chris:

 

In a nutshell, what is the MQA initiative trying to solve? Why should audiophiles care?

 

Alex

if there is one thing I've learned about MQA after talking to those involved, it's that there's no nutshell explanation. It's a huge initiative with tentacles in all areas of music from production to playback.

[audio.bill]

They're lovely in their design. Do they still use the berilium tweeter?

Yes, both Sopra models use the Focal beryllium tweeter.

[Duke40]

Something unusual in the photo's of the Focal Sopra ... maybe something between the speakers and the stand ?

 

So ... stock Focal stands ... then "mystery device" sandwiched between stands and speaker ... then Focal Sopra speakers.

 

I wonder what the "mystery device" is ? ... and what is it's purpose ?

 

I did something similar (put something between my speakers and there stock stands) to what is in the photo with my Focal Micro Utopia BE speakers , with some Townshend Audio sesimic pods sandwiched between the stands and the Focal standmount speakers. Significant improvement.

[Nikhil]

So ... stock Focal stands ... then "mystery device" sandwiched between stands and speaker ... then Focal Sopra speakers.

 

Those are IsoAcoustics ISO-L8R200 stands

Fine-tune Your Sound: 3 Sizes of IsoAcoustics Speaker Stands

[Duke40]

Those are IsoAcoustics ISO-L8R200 stands

Fine-tune Your Sound: 3 Sizes of IsoAcoustics Speaker Stands

 

 

Nikhil .... Thank you !!! I just could not work out what it was, I appreciate you letting me know