RMAF 2012 Postmortem


Doesn't seem to be an RMAF 2012 thread yet.

Wondering what people thought, so I'll make a start.

Best in Show:

The big Ventures. Hard to describe how good these speakers sounded without being sappy. IMHO, embarrassing to other "statement" speakers at the show, like the big TAD and Lansche.

I was mostly interested in high efficiency speakers. Especially good were:

Zu Defintion IV
Devore Gibbon 93 and 96
Sonist C4

The Sonists, playing in the Snake River system, sounded especially good considering their (comparatively) reasonable price.

A few other noteworthy speakers were

Vapor's new 3 way

Vivid's space alien rendition of a mini-tower in the Tweak geek room

The Evolution mini-monitor was the best (reasonably) accessible speaker I heard, at 2500. Very good.

Opinions based on information overload, over a day and a half of listening.

Any other impressions?

John
jdoris
I have attended every year since the inception of RMAF and I found this year to be a little disappointing in some of the manfacturers that weren't there. However, I did enjoy seeing/hearing some products that I had not seen before. Adam-Audio stands out in my mind as a speaker that is fairly affordable and quite good in sound. Also getting to hear the new Totems was a good opportunity, I did find that some rooms were playing the same equipment and music they have for the past few years and it makes me wonder why they don't show something new. I wanted to hear the New Magicos and if they were there I didn't find them. Also it seemed that the TurnTable count was down this year. I always like to see what each manufacture has developed in vinyl playback but I would say about half as many were repesented. I would say attendance was down from past yeasr and according to one dealer I spoke with yesterday, many vendors were packing up early Sunday as they realized the show was over. Regardless of how the show came off I hope that it returns next year as I know I will attend. It is is a wonderful opportunity to see equipment not sold in the area and meet some people that share this passion. I just really hope I win the PowerBall before next years show, so that I can really enjoy it!
were there any panel speakers at the show ?

was there any interesting hirez software ?

was there any great sounding digital hardware ??

obviously i did not attend the whow.
Mrtennis:Sanders and Magnepan. I was very very impressed with the Sanders. Really have intergrated the sub well and the bass came thru extremely well. I didn't hear the Maggies but one thing I noticed is how many speakers are using the planar or Air Motion transformers. And sounding quite well. As far as your other questions, I can't say as I have not been bit by the digital bug beyond SACD yet.
Hi Jdoris, Focusing on efficient speakers, did you get a chance to hear the Vaughn Cabernet lls. I couldn’t make the show and would welcome any comments and comparisons on these speakers.
I have only heard of the company peripherally before, but my big winner was YG Acoustics, especially in the Veloce room. Veloce is newer amplification company that employs a sophisticated battery system to power their hybrid amps and preamp.

Also really liked BSC room with Harbeths. Bret D'Agostino is a cool guy, and that room was certainly the best sound I heard with sub $10k components. Glad someone is making a fairly affordable class a amp with decent power rating.

I also liked Devore and am considering purchasing them, unless an extra several grand falls out the sky for the Carmel.

I heard most panel speakers, just not Magnepan as far as I know. I was impressed by Sanders' integration of the panel and woofer. The transition is really smooth as the frequency drops, and stays together even with very dynamic music. Sounded good even off-axis; there were only three seats were in the room, arranged in tandem. Better though, for more money, was Analysis Audio, which had the benefit of being located in ballroom. A.A. did not have the standard diaphragm excursion "thwap" sound of electrostatics. Not as clear sounding with not as good woofer integration was M.L.

There was also a lot I was curious to hear, but didn't enjoy.
More to discover