What were the best and worst rooms at RMAF 2009?

I don't wish to be detractive but I'm quite curious now given the contrasting statements made herein about specific demos. Further, as to notes posted here about particular items comprising only a part of the entire rigs being played too... CDPs, speakers, amps, etc.

I remember hearing this said to me early on, by both individuals, and makers of high end gear:

"Don't judge components from what you hear at a show."

Is this correct or have things changed?

I can imagine a number of reasons why it could well be true. But from the overwhelming positives posted here as to what was heard here and there abouts, maybe one should 'judge' only whole systems... as so many here have done just that so far... mostly. I can't see how any could do otherwise and have anything short of a speculative perspective or outright guess as to individual component performance (s).

I hope to get to one of these some day yet I feel what is demonstarted there could only be taken on the whole of things and nothing gained in part, by way of actual appraisal of specific items.

in any event, it's gotta be cool to meet those responsible for designing all the neat stuff... as well as other folks we talk to online yet seldom meet.

This was my second trip to RMAF (back to back). Both years, my friend and I thought that the Joseph Audio room had some of the best sound in the show. I would love to have a pair of his larger speakers but will have to shop used to buy.

Other very good speakers for reasonable prices I thought were the Bamberg Audio & Reference 3A Grand Veena.

At headphone room was very interesting. My friend bought the JH Audio top of the line in ear headphones. Moon Audio showed an electrostatic tube amp with Stax headphones that was awesome if you can foot the bill.

It was a great time - we had a number of people visit from the Houston Aduio Society and everyone really enjoyed it.

I heard the Vandy 7's and ARC setup on Friday and was nonplussed. I returned on Saturday and was much more impressed, but I thought they were hampered by the small room. I look forward to hearing that system again.

The YGA Kiphods were in my top five; huge soundstage and seemingly unlimited dynamic and frequency ranges; smooth and utterly palpable image.

What were those monitors in the Nordost demo room? I never heard a small speaker handle large orchestra at high volume (Stravinsky!) with such aplomb. Would have listened longer, but that's when the first power outage occurred and I didn't get a chance to return. I was just sitting down to hear the Thiel 3.7's when the power went out again, so I didn't hear them either.

I agree with the positive reviews of the Joseph Audio Pearl/Bel Canto setup, the VTL/Avalon system and the Bamberg Audio(?) speakers.

If I had someone else's checkbook, though, I would have written a check on the spot for the Boulder electronics/Vienna Die Musik setup at Soundings. For me, it was the very best among many good systems. Simply amazing.

DCSTEPs cautioning about the origin of the slight limitations of the Gamut room are absolutely on the money. The room was too alive and somewhat too large for optimal results, regardless of speaker setup. A handclap test I performed exposed a painfully high amount of uncontrolled slap-echo. In spite of room limitations, Lars of GamuT addressed the initial unspecificity in the mid bass by repeatedly tweaking the positioning of the speakers until the very final session on Sunday with results that in the end were very impressive. Dave and I played once again Bach's organ Toccata Adagio and Fugue in C-minor Sunday afternoon and the result was tremendous. No mid bass wobble could be detected at all. . . bass was deep, taught and as tuneful as I could expect from a top flight large system. As we did not repeat the playback of the piano and string quintet tracks by Dvorak, I do not know if low level resolution was in the end les/greater than the Vienna/Boulder/Rowland suite at Soundings. In the end room interactions may still have been a factor in my slight pref for the musicality of the latter.

Regarding the Bel Canto room in 589-590. . . yes, the sound of the room was not 'warm' to my ears. . . rather, I found it to be rather neutral with a very slight overpressure in the treble region, and a minor tendency to intermodulate in harmonically complex sostenuto passages in the upper treble. The overall gracefulness of the sound was perhaps that is one of the reasons why DCSTEP and I remained there for the better part of an hour or may be even more, in spite of a slight tendency to tippiness in the treble that made the sound suboptimal. As I am not even faintly familiar with the Joseph Audio house sound, I have no idea about its impact on the overall result. However, being quite familiar with the sound of the suite from last year, with Bel Canto Ref series sonic signature, and having found XLO somewhat tipped up for my preference over the years, I am inclined to impute some of the slight treble anomalies to the wiring.

Lastly, a generic recommendation for manufacturers to refrain from public electronic joustings with the customer set. The 'high road' may be found to be a more effective corporate markcom technique in the long run. G.

one of these days (at one of these shows), someone is going to set up a pair of old (pick any old classic speaker for under 500 bucks), a marantz receiver, and a dual turntable, and blow the house down. yes, i'm serious.