RMAF 2011: Any tips?

Oh, and one further suggestion, more in the novelty department. I can't recall whether it was RMAF or CES, but I heard an impressive demonstration of Maggie's mini speakers at one of them, when they were still in prototype stage. Here's a brief review of the production version. They are releasing those speakers in September at $1495. They should therefore be at RMAF, and would certainly be worth a listen if you were in the market for a mini speaker for a bedroom or office. I think in the demo they were using a sub with them, and the results in a very large room were quite impressive. I don't think they played them without the sub for that demo so I wonder what they'd sound like without it.

I recommend that you start the show on the main floor. There is a large atrium and rooms on the West side. Larger systems,,really large. Start there. Also rooms in that hall way that goes behind the elevator, the Conifier rooms and a few more. Then do the rooms above the atrium, the 4th. 5th. etc. floors. Cover those areas. Takes about 3 hours. By now the crowds headed up to the tower will have diminished and you can head over to that direction. check out the rooms on the mezzanine. Don't fall in love with any room. To early for that. Just adjust your ears. Now you can head up the tower. I recommend going all the way up to floor 11. The elevator going up gets crowded, going down is easier.

Be prepared to be disappointed.... those highly reviewed amps speakers etc. don't always sound that great.

Take a CD or two that you like but I recommend if you go to a room and like the sound you might just ask them their favorite CD/Album and have them play that.

Have fun

Jim

John - I don't know anything about Fritz or Zu other than hearing about them occasionally here on A'gon. I will be sure to check them out. I was planning on hitting the Empirical Audio/Salk room, as I am a happy customer of EA (though I know absolutely nothing about Salk).

Jax - I was unaware of Maggie's mini speaker. Neat.

Jim - Thanks for the detailed advice about how to proceed. I will follow it.

bc

bc- One other thought, sort of in the novelty dept; if you've ever considered headphones, there is usually a room on the first floor where you can listen to pretty much all of the high end hp & amp combos you could imagine.

Per Swamp - that is CanJam. Even if you are not into headphones you might enjoy some of the stuff they'll be sure to have there. Check out Stax 009's (look for the crowd) and perhaps you'd enjoy Audeze's LCD-2's, which I use whenever my wife needs a bit of quiet in the house. Good call. There will also be various vendors hocking actual music, some of it difficult to come by otherwise.