RMAF 2012 Postmortem

Mrtennis: Like others, I found the Sanders impressive. The MSRP seemed pretty reasonable, as these things go, at 10k -- although I note that's a lot more than the Maggie 3.7. Unsurprisingly, the Sanders are big: not super wide, but maybe 7' tall.

Phaelon: did not hear the Vaughns. Probably should have. Lots to hear, though.

John

I thought that the big Ventures were the best sounding rig that I have heard in my last 5 trips to the RMAF. It's too bad that they retail for $139,000; none of us will ever own a pair...Saturday evening at 8pm they switched-out the FM Acoustics SS amps for a set of Thrax Audio class A tube mono blocks and the sound got even better!

The April Music room with the Stello Ai 700 and Marten speakers sounded really nice as did the Devore room.

I totally agree, Stickman, the big Ventures were jaw dropping; surprised the are not on every best of show list. For example, I thought they were in a completely different category -- and obviously so -- than the new Wilsons, which made some people's list.

Do you suppose Venture offers mortgages?

I liked the big Ventures too as well as the Sanders room. But I'm amazed more were not smitten with the Leonardo ribbon speakers along with the $179,000 tube amps and Memory player. The system was beautiful in sound as well as looks. The ribbons reminded me of the Apogee sound and look. But much more efficient to drive. Voices were just uncanny. Great dynamics and bass too. If I had $65,000 to spare I'd have a pair.

I listened to the Ventures both with the FM Acoustics and the tube set up. Either way they were the best at the show.

I was kind of disappointed in the Wilson room. They were playing their new speakers with the big VTL amps. The room needed to be the same size as the Venture room.

The little Silverlines were impressive as well and run by the small chassis Parasound amp as well.

I was afraid I wouldn't like my humble setup at home after hearing multi thousand dollar setups at the show, but was delighted to find my little Legacy system could more than hold its own with anything I heard at the show.

Steve

The Saunders room was probably the best in the show for me, very open sound with lots of clarity, very well priced to.
I liked the Volti Audio room that had the 3 way horn speakers making nice noises, and also quite nicely priced.
The downside for me as in all years I have attended the show is the totally mind numbing easy listening pap that always seems to get played in a lot of the rooms.
Man up guys,and play music to stir the blood.
Can't really remember any stand out rooms as they all sounded very similar, or was it just the music being played?