This was my first RMAF and I enjoyed it a lot. I got to about 80% of the rooms. My favorites included:
Lansche Speakers with Wavac pre and power amps and phono state. This was a captivating sound I could comfortably live with. It was simply dreamy, although maybe one should expect as much given the cost of the system $$$.
Focal Grande Utopia EM, driven by Boulder electronics and DCS front end. This really was impressive, and my favorite of the cost-no-object rooms. I was less impressed with the Lamm/Marten Designs room and the Acapella Trillon Excaliber/Einstean room, and also less impressed with the MBL room, despite the fact that I own MBLs. The bass from these Grande EMs was probably the best I've heard - absolutely complete and effortless IMHO.
Another expensive system I really enjoyed was the Verity Lohengrin II room driven by Artemis Labs electronics with two Schroeder-designed turntables and Scrhoeder arms. The sound from this system was soo effortless, nimble and sensual. I was transfixed. But, this was the case only with the vinyl front-end in play. With the digital source on (Nagra transport and some Berkely labs DAC?) the sound was far less inviting, unfortunately - even with my choice, familiar recordings. It leaves me wondering if and when I can get my hands on that Schroeder reference arm.
For the less expensive systems, I was quite taken with the room where the Teres turntable and Art Audio Jota monos were (caveat - I own a Teres table, so I may be biased). They were driving some panel speakers. The sound was to-die-for. We listened to the same track back-to-back on CD vs. vinyl. The vinyl was a little more complete to me, but even the CD sounded soo good. The bass was largely absent from these panel speakers, but what was there was really good.
The GR Research line-array setup sounded pretty amazing, and hard to believe for the price of the speakers, although those Dodd amps looked crazy expensive ($50k I think?)
Speaking of Dodd, they had another little room with the little new Tyler monitors playing with the Dodd battery powered pre and their relatively affordable monoblocks. The sound was very good. I was mighty impressed, but I did learn that there was a servo sub hidden behind some sheets in the corner, which really helped.
I liked the Harbeths too. The room might have been too small for them to breathe properly, but they still sounded very good.
I liked the Eben room, driven by Burmester gear, all wired up with Nordost Odin cables. The sound was super engaging. i could have stayed in that room for a while.
I'm not a horn person, but I quite liked the sound of the Maxhorn speakers I heard. I really didn't like the Duo Omeags I heard though - I gave them just a minute and then I ran for the hills.
One key point I'd like to make is that many rooms seemed to be playing 'music' that was closer to sound effects, to my ear. I heard lots of snare drums and even some tap dancing stuff - crazy. Also, I heard some music that always sounds great no matter what (Jacintha, for example - should be banned from shows like this ;-) It makes it too difficult to judge equipment).
Anyways, there were almost too many highlights to mention. If anything, the show made me realize that with careful attention to equipment choices and room setup I think I can achieve a sound i'm very happy with without breaking the bank.
