Amir RMAF 2015 Picture Thread: Part 1

[amirm]

Hello everyone. These are the booths that I saw the first day. I am remarking on notable demos. Naturally I can't remember the details of every booth that I saw. Or for that matter, most of them .

As I noted in my teasers, I found the demos nicer than at CES. People were more relaxed and the show overall much less crowded than CES. Someone told me attendance was down from previous year as waits for elevators was not much.

 

[amirm]

 

[amirm]

This was our Phillip's room. Of course, being the absent minded person that I am, I did not know that until Bruce told me two days later! I gave Phillip my flash card and he was one of only two people who accepted playing my tracks. Alas, he had the volume so low and the noise from outside so high that I did not get a good impression of the system. What I did hear sounded pleasant.

 

[amirm]

Now this is a manly turntable!

The business end with interconnects and such:

 

[amirm]

I must say, you turntable guys have us digital people beat and beat good with such industrial designs!

 

[amirm]

It is remarkable how much you can do with low cost equipment when you pair it up with excellent demo content and in this case, a massive room. This sure was an odd system from Peachtree with the pair of subs in front. Very much enjoyed this room.

These Zu Audio speakers were lost in that big room visually but helped with those subs, they did a fine job.

 

[amirm]

This was one of the most strange rooms at the show. This guy/company was in the process of building an analog capture system for LP that stored its data on tape cartridges. It was a super complex system with massive amount of data it generated. A PC was used to capture and store the data but the representation remained in analog domain.

 

[amirm]

RMAF had three systems set up ranging from $500 to $1,500. Great idea. Except that they produced some of the worst sounds and worst experiences at the show! They had a few kids manning them, with cheap set of tables and equipment thrown around. With proper demo material and setup these rooms could have produced good sound. Instead, they did the opposite, giving low cost systems a really bad name.

 

[amirm]

This is how you do low costs systems right. Andrew Jones broke up with Pioneer and teamed up with German ELAC company to do the same wonderful work he did at Pioneer for them. Except that he is taking it to the next level. If you never heard his $200 Pioneer speakers, you don't know what you are missing. Here we were listening to loudspeakers that retailed for just $279. Yes, you heard that right. Tower loudspeakers for just that much money each. Sure, they are manufactured in China but the fidelity was so good as to nicely fit in this show. You need a system for a young person, this is it:

His Music Server for the show:

You can see an old friend and colleague of mine from Pioneer who left that company after decades to follow Andrew. Well done Chris:

He explained that they were building a Linux based appliance that ran the full Roon server software. This means you have a turnkey Roon server instead of building your own PC. Great idea. Will ship around CES. I think he said the retail was around $1,000.

They are also building an integrated DAC, amp, DSP, Crossover and clever way to calibrate it all for the room using any smartphone! Since they know the response of the speaker, you put the phone in front of the loudspeaker for calibration, then put it where you sit and hit a button and the system auto calibrates. Combine this box with the speaker and you have one heck of a system for very little money. Can't wait to hear it at CES.

Here is Andrew with a shot of the $279 speakers:

The little black box on top is the embedded Roon server. If you have not heard of Roon, you need to give it a serious try. It is my new music server and I will post a detailed review later.

Current electronics used for the demo:

 

[amirm]

Rats. My photo service just broke!!! . So let's have an intermission. I will open up the thread for now and post the rest of the images when they are back up tomorrow.

 

[DaveyF]

Great photos, Amir. Thank you for taking those.

In Andrew Jones's room above, it strikes me as a little odd that he is using the Shunyata Triton and Typhon with his new $279- speakers. The Shunyata pair is basically 35 times the price of his speakers!! Is anyone really going to use a pair of speakers costing $279 and then spring out $10K for power correction..???

 

[Billy Shears]

Great photos, Amir. Thank you for taking those.

In Andrew Jones's room above, it strikes me as a little odd that he is using the Shunyata Triton and Typhon with his new $279- speakers. The Shunyata pair is basically 35 times the price of his speakers!! Is anyone really going to use a pair of speakers costing $279 and then spring out $10K for power correction..???

I thought the exact same thing.
A Isotek strip would have been way more appropiate....

 

[amirm]

Great photos, Amir. Thank you for taking those.

In Andrew Jones's room above, it strikes me as a little odd that he is using the Shunyata Triton and Typhon with his new $279- speakers. The Shunyata pair is basically 35 times the price of his speakers!! Is anyone really going to use a pair of speakers costing $279 and then spring out $10K for power correction..???

Good point . I too found them odd. Will be interesting to see how he demos them when he has his own electronics at CES.

 

[Steve Williams]

Carl from Nola speakers always uses a King's ransom in Odin cables for his inexpensive speakers that he shows. I think Andrew was aware of the power issues in his room and tried to deal with them with some very good line conditioners

 

[amirm]

That's a good point Steve. Commercial power in hotels especially in this situation can be quite nasty.

Anyway, my server seems up so I am going to close the thread and continue posting pictures.

 

[amirm]

This was my first demo of Lampizator. I must say, whether it was it or the overall system, I could tell the appeal of good resolution and warm sound provided.

Is this mess of cables really helped by the devices holding it vertical here and there???

 

[amirm]

I should add that big loudspeaker definitely had an unmistakable edge over smaller units. And those with massive woofers even more so. As much as we like to talk about little speakers having huge stage and such when well designed, whether it is visual bias or actually what one hears, they can't reach to the level of competence and fullness of presentation that large towers do.

 

[amirm]

As always, VTL was showing tube gear with little hint of it being tube gear . That is, little coloration comes across in the system. Alas, I did not get to listen much as I was introduced to the dCS folks and I spent 15 minutes talking about state of industry and how they were doing (don't ask, I can't share such detail ).

 

[amirm]

I am sorry to say this Nola was one of the loudspeakers that gave me the impression of everything these days being very bright. They played them loud which I very much like. But not when it is so bright and crisp.

These flat cables were in many places. What brand are they and are they really good?

I saw quite a few loudspeakers with open back drivers. To my surprise they did not sound phasey and such.

 

[amirm]

This is one of the other show produced systems which sadly sounded really bad:

I mean who would put a monitor directly on a desk and expect it to sound good? They could build a stand out of some bricks and make them sound a lot better.