austinpop Posted October 8, 2018 Share Posted October 8, 2018 I suspect the Elac room would have qualified. I ended up skipping that room, as it was packed, and I never made it back to that floor again. My Audio Setup Link to comment
pippenainteasy Posted October 8, 2018 Share Posted October 8, 2018 On 10/5/2018 at 1:26 PM, The Computer Audiophile said: New closed back Focal Elegia headphones. Not sold on them after my first listen. They sounded like they were underwater lol. Link to comment
Superdad Posted October 9, 2018 Share Posted October 9, 2018 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. daverich4 1 UpTone Audio LLC Link to comment
AudioDoctor Posted October 9, 2018 Share Posted October 9, 2018 @The Computer Audiophile Chris, I agree the DA1 DAC module in McIntosh gear sounds really nice, and the fact that it is replaceable is a nice bonus as well. The Computer Audiophile 1 No electron left behind. Link to comment
Brinkman Ship Posted October 9, 2018 Share Posted October 9, 2018 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... Hugo9000 1 Link to comment
Popular Post austinpop Posted October 9, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted October 9, 2018 37 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. Hi Alex, If you've been to RMAF's past, you'll know the whole show is setup mainly to demo systems, and so the speakers tend to dominate the experience. I had the same thought as you, but was hard pressed to find, much less navigate, any computer audio announcements or debuts. The only one I experienced was the Innuos Statement, which I've described in the novel thread. I've scoured all the press releases I can find and the only other announcements I could find were: Cary Audio: Cary Audio will be debuting our two newest network audio players at this year’s show! Replacing the awarding winning DMS-500, the NEW DMS-550 and DMS-600 take the DMS platform to the next level. Lumin: Lumin Music - USA Launch. New Flagship model X-1 streamer/renderer/DAC with DAC bypass. Supports Ethernet and Optical Fiber networks. New outboard power supply. New board architecture and PRO series D/A conversion. Lumin Music - Global launch. New model U1-MINI streamer/renderer with 5 digital outputs. The power of a U1 in a smaller package for those who already own DACs Lumin Music – USA Launch. New model 5TB Mini Auto NAS. Drag and drop, then plug and play. USB 3.0, Slave, Gigabit, Ethernet, Zero Config. fidata Japan – RMAF first time introduction. 1 and 2 TB pro series SSD servers. Server, streamer, ripper, tagger, bridge. New design is fully proprietary. Sound result is phenomenal. Lindemann Audio GmbH – USA and RMAF intros, Music Book 25DSD. Streamer/renderer/DAC/Sample rate converter/CD player/pre-amp. Golden Ear Award 2018. Clearly, I missed these rooms. daverich4, wklie and MikeyFresh 2 1 My Audio Setup Link to comment
Popular Post shadowlight Posted October 9, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted October 9, 2018 Can we move the MQA related info from the thread to it's own thread. Maybe is call it RMAF 2018 - MQA Discussion or something easy to find. Pretty, please. austinpop, left channel, rickca and 2 others 2 3 Link to comment
rickca Posted October 9, 2018 Share Posted October 9, 2018 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 Link to comment
Popular Post austinpop Posted October 9, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted October 9, 2018 11 minutes ago, shadowlight said: Can we move the MQA related info from the thread to it's own thread. Maybe is call it RMAF 2018 - MQA Discussion or something easy to find. Pretty, please. Yes, please ^ 2! Other than Chris' seminar, and some pathetic MQA Live posters, MQA was a complete non-event at RMAF. Indeed, most rooms chose not to stream at all, and those that did were having a ton of trouble connecting on the crappy Marriott network. One exhibitor even showed me an error message on his browser, which suggested the regional Tidal server was at capacity! As for Qobuz, who were sponsoring quite a bit of the conference, apparently that did not extend to network infrastructure. I was told by a lot of vendors that they chose to forego network access rather than pay a hefty fee for it. Probably smart in hindsight, given the network issue many were having. As a result, I was disappointed by the archaic methods of playback so many were using. I had gone expecting a lot of rooms to be streaming Qobuz, and had made an RMAF playlist I could point them to, but that didn't work except in one room. Many rooms wouldn't take requests, period. Others wanted physical media like CDs and records, surprisingly few could even deal with something like music on a USB stick, and only a handful could grok an iPhone playing out of a Lightning USB adapter. Jud and MikeyFresh 1 1 My Audio Setup Link to comment
shadowlight Posted October 9, 2018 Share Posted October 9, 2018 1 hour ago, austinpop said: an RMAF playlist Can you share the link to your playlist, so I can add it to follow :-). I pick up new music / artist that way. I am 99% sure that the playlist is likely to be classical but hey I might learn something new and might get a start on good classical music. daverich4 1 Link to comment
Superdad Posted October 9, 2018 Share Posted October 9, 2018 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. UpTone Audio LLC Link to comment
crenca Posted October 9, 2018 Share Posted October 9, 2018 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! Link to comment
Popular Post austinpop Posted October 9, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted October 9, 2018 1 hour ago, shadowlight said: Can you share the link to your playlist, so I can add it to follow :-). I pick up new music / artist that way. I am 99% sure that the playlist is likely to be classical but hey I might learn something new and might get a start on good classical music. Not all classical, and it's hardly a primer on classical music! FWIW - https://open.qobuz.com/playlist/1925869 spin33 and Archimago 1 1 My Audio Setup Link to comment
Popular Post Superdad Posted October 9, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted October 9, 2018 1 hour ago, crenca said: 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. If you say so. But here was the Hovland (the former venture I co-founded) CES 2008 exhibit room where we played from computer and cheerfully played tracks from visitors--from CDs or thumb drives. That's often how we discovered great music for ourselves--and how visitors would be impressed with reproduction of their own reference tracks. We did shows for 10 years straight. Sure some years we felt it was a wash, but the connections we made and the good will engendered was invaluable. [BTW, that is the year we met @The Computer Audiophile. We were showing the pre-production prototype of an ahead-of-its-time (and ahead of available tech) digital music source that was CD reader/player, DAC, with Ethernet and USB inputs, 4.3 color LCD, Linux computer-module controlled unit--it's the one on the left. Again, that was 2008. Not only did Chris spend a lot of time asking us questions about it, but PS Audio was just down the hall and Paul McGowan was intensely curious about what we were showing (this was before their PW units).] So I guess I really don't know what "status quo" you think I am "putting a positive spin on." RichB and look&listen 2 UpTone Audio LLC Link to comment
Popular Post The Computer Audiophile Posted October 9, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted October 9, 2018 I split the MQA talk off into the MQA RMAF presentation topic here - https://www.computeraudiophile.com/forums/topic/54226-mqa-the-truth-lies-somewhere-in-the-middle/ Superdad, rickca, darkless and 3 others 6 Founder of Audiophile Style | My Audio Systems Link to comment
shadowlight Posted October 9, 2018 Share Posted October 9, 2018 2 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said: I split the MQA talk off into the MQA RMAF presentation topic here - https://www.computeraudiophile.com/forums/topic/54226-mqa-the-truth-lies-somewhere-in-the-middle/ Thank you Chris. Makes it easier to follow both threads. Link to comment
left channel Posted October 9, 2018 Share Posted October 9, 2018 Comment thread: The Computer Audiophile 1 Everyone wants to date my avatar. Link to comment
Blake Posted October 9, 2018 Share Posted October 9, 2018 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 Link to comment
luisma Posted October 9, 2018 Share Posted October 9, 2018 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 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 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. 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. Another great-sounding room with Rockport Avior 2's, this time with CH Precision electronics. 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. 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 Link to comment
luisma Posted October 9, 2018 Share Posted October 9, 2018 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 Link to comment
Madra Posted October 9, 2018 Share Posted October 9, 2018 Any feedback on the Sanders’ Eikons? Link to comment
The Computer Audiophile Posted October 9, 2018 Share Posted October 9, 2018 1 minute ago, Madra said: Any feedback on the Sanders’ Eikons? @Derek Hughes is a big fan of these. I now he spent time listening at RMAF. Founder of Audiophile Style | My Audio Systems Link to comment
Derek Hughes Posted October 9, 2018 Share Posted October 9, 2018 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. Madra 1 Link to comment
hvbias Posted October 9, 2018 Share Posted October 9, 2018 Was either Kii Three or Dutch and Dutch 8c there? If so anyone care to write what they thought of them? Link to comment
Kal Rubinson Posted October 9, 2018 Share Posted October 9, 2018 28 minutes ago, hvbias said: Was either Kii Three or Dutch and Dutch 8c there? If so anyone care to write what they thought of them? The Kii Three was there mounted on their BXT woofer/stands. Kal Rubinson Senior Contributing Editor, Stereophile Link to comment
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