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RMAF 18


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14 minutes ago, Brinkman Ship said:

There are numerous RMAF reports on countless sites with endless pics of speakers, amps, DACs, and cables, and old grizzled men with big bellies.

 

Actually, my quick tour of 10+ other sites looking for decent show reports did not turn up much.  I would like to know about announcements of new products relevant to "computer audio"--specifically streamers/renderers, servers, networking, DACs, and software.  All the sorts of things that interest the CA citizenry.  If you have some links to such, please post them.  Otherwise I'll just hold my breath and hope that either this thread gets back to its title or that someone starts a new, MQA-free show coverage thread.

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26 minutes ago, Superdad said:

 

Actually, my quick tour of 10+ other sites looking for decent show reports did not turn up much.  I would like to know about announcements of new products relevant to "computer audio"--specifically streamers/renderers, servers, networking, DACs, and software.  All the sorts of things that interest the CA citizenry.  If you have some links to such, please post them.  Otherwise I'll just hold my breath and hope that either this thread gets back to its title or that someone starts a new, MQA-free show coverage thread.

I get it..but if you are surprised that MQA is a hot topic on this thread, it IS no surprise..it was started by the gentleman who also started the most viewed MQA thread on the planet, MQA is Vaporware, and Chris gave a seminar on, yep, you guessed it, MQA.

 

The show only ended less than 24 hours ago..so the reports will come..

 

Stereophile did some RMAF posts already.,and Darko Audio seems to have been pretty active:

 

https://darko.audio/

 

https://www.audiostream.com/content/rmaf-2018-islands-audiostream

 

I know we live in an era where we expect information within seconds of an event ending...

 

 

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23 minutes ago, austinpop said:

New model U1-MINI streamer/renderer

That's nice.  It's only $2K vs nearly $6K for the U1.

Pareto Audio AMD 7700 Server --> Berkeley Alpha USB --> Jeff Rowland Aeris --> Jeff Rowland 625 S2 --> Focal Utopia 3 Diablos with 2 x Focal Electra SW 1000 BE subs

 

i7-6700K/Windows 10  --> EVGA Nu Audio Card --> Focal CMS50's 

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1 hour ago, crenca said:

Disappointed but not surprised I hope.  Audiophiledom in general has a problem with digital - most of them are so far behind the curve they play it safe by avoiding it altogether.  Also, digital is empowering to the consumer in almost every way, so again the impulse is to control it at a show that is not about consumers, but  about "the industry" putting on a show for and talking to itself.  It's about empowering them, not the customers...

 

That seems overly cynical.  Especially given that end-user shows such as RMAF and AXPONA have fully eclipsed the trade-only CES in recent years.

Any manufacturer who exhibits [at a show open to the public] without having the attendees’ interest foremost is just wasting money.

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5 minutes ago, Superdad said:

 

That seems overly cynical.  Especially given that end-user shows such as RMAF and AXPONA have fully eclipsed the trade-only CES in recent years.

Any manufacturer who exhibits [at a show open to the public] without having the attendees’ interest foremost is just wasting money.

 

These shows are demos and a bit of insider baseball, and a presenter who did not control the what/when/how of what the consumer sees and hears would be a demonstrator who was in fact "just wasting money", thus the preponderance of the archaic playback method and denial of consumer requests.  Ask Chris how the failure to do this worked out for him.

 

Seems to me that as part of the industry, your just putting a positive spin on the status quo...

Hey MQA, if it is not all $voodoo$, show us the math!

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By chance, did any attendees get to listen to the Rockport Atria speakers, or TAD ME-1's (aka Micro Evolution Ones) at the show?

 

I am not sure if any of these speakers were at the show, but if they were, I'd love to hear your thoughts as these speakers are on my radar.

 

 

Speaker Room: Lumin U1X | Lampizator Pacific 2 | Viva Linea | Constellation Inspiration Stereo 1.0 | FinkTeam Kim | Revel subs  

Office Headphone System: Lumin U1X | Lampizator Golden Gate 3 | Viva Egoista | Abyss AB1266 Phi TC 

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On 10/8/2018 at 12:36 PM, austinpop said:

Back to RMAF 18...

 

Here are my great sounding rooms/systems from Sunday. Like @barrows, I am not mentioning rooms I did not like, but I'd say less than 10% of rooms - and this year I peeked into almost every one - sounded even remotely good. I guess Paul McGowan, who I said hello to - great guy! - felt the same: https://www.psaudio.com/pauls-posts/different-strokes/

 

With that preamble, Day 3...

 

Headphones

 

image.pngimage.png  

These Quad ERA-1 headphones sounded very impressive at the Woo Audio table at CanJam, driven by their diminutive but impressive solid-state WA11 Passport DAC/amp. Especially next to the just-released Focal Elegia closed-backs, which I found distinctly underwhelming. These Quad's may just set the new benchmark for the sub-$1k segment.

 

Good-sounding rooms

 

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These $200k Von Schweikert Ultra 9s, powered by other expensive electronics, did one thing that too many other 6-figure speaker systems didn't do at RMAF - sound amazing. I visited twice, and was underwhelmed the first time they were playing Beethoven's 9th on a turntable. The second time was digital, and that was outstanding.

 

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This was one of my favorite rooms of the show! Falcon had a setup of 6 different generations of the BBC LS 3/5A, including a restored original BBC version, all the way to the latest version from Falcon. Listening to the same track switched between each generation was a real treat. I've got to say - these speakers are astounding, even to this day.

 

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Another great-sounding room with Rockport Avior 2's, this time with CH Precision electronics. 

 

image.png  image.png

Good ol' Vinnie (Rossi). He sets up his rooms so well. And this year was no exception. LIO electronics driving these Harbeth M40.2 Anniversary Editions was really rocking. Room acoustics were'nt perfect, and I've heard this setup sound better at another show, but even so, the soundstage at the sweet spot was incredible.

 

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And last but not least, my first exposure to the Wilson TuneTot's. Very, very impressive sound. These would be killer for a nearfield setup - at a price!

Yeah, Vinnie's pre amp looks nice and I'm sure is good, the 40.2 were nice looking but the sound was lacking, I notice, possibly the room like you said

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So pissed I missed you guys at the show, went with the wife and she wanted to see Denver and could not stayed after 6pm. Next show I'm going alone.

 

Was very impressed by the sound of the Paradigm Persona, that little bookshelf sounded amazingly accurate.

 

And I have not seen any comments on the Audiokinesis (Duke's) Azel speakers with their swarm subs, impressive sounding speakers, at least in my opinion for the money very hard to beat. I'm planning to get one. If someone can comment i will greatly appreciate it

 

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1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

@Derek Hughes is a big fan of these. I now he spent time listening at RMAF.

Yep, spent quite a bit of time at both Axpona and RMAF with Gayle and I really like the whole system concept and sound. I had a friend with me, he's blind but has excellent hearing so I used him as a sounding board, excuse the pun. On Friday he wasn't impressed and heard many systems which he preferred. However, on Saturday he changed his mind. We asked the guy from Aurender if they had changed anything. He said that they had changed the input from their server from USB to spfdif. He also said that he could hear a big difference. Gayle told me that they should be in production pretty soon and he's in the process of lining up a dealer network. As soon as that's in place I'll probably get one. 

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