I'm not sure what Dave Wilson prefers. Over the years he has shown with most of the major electronic players.
Greg
The best and worst at rmaf 2012
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I'm not sure what Dave Wilson prefers. Over the years he has shown with most of the major electronic players.
Greg
Hard to say for sure; I was told by a couple of people who should know that the VTL's were his choice; perhaps Steve or Debbie know?
Steve Williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Did anyone hear the new Frank Schroeder pivoted linear tracking arm? It was in room 1126 on The Beat TT with a Lyra Atlas on it. I thought it was fantastic and was sounding better every day.
For me the Weiss, FM Acoustics, Venture Audio room was a revelation. I went back to this room multiple times on Saturday and Sunday. At one point they were playing Listz' Hungarian Rhapsody #1 and the illusion to be listening to a live orchestra was overwhelming. By comparison, the excellent MBL room, which gets my vote for second best, still sounded like hi-fi music reproduction IMHO.
Same impression here. I don't know how much of the end result is attributable to the FMA gear, but as one of the "doubters", I'm now on the "believer" side.
Simply the most natural and realistic music at the show, and they were nice enough to play some of the music I brought, so I could properly compare.
Truly incredible stuff, and the gentlemen handling the room were all very nice and attentive.
alexandre
I went there twice as well. Both times they were playing some female torch singer music which sounded really good but bored the hell out of me (I get bored easily). They also had a used FMA amp over on the right side of the room on a table for sale. The little placard on the amp stated how rare it was for this FMA amp to come up for sale on the used market and what a wonderful opportunity it would be to buy this used amp for $38K.
I found it was not that easy to point to a a truly "best sound of the show" this year. To be honest, there were few memorable "best sounds", whereas there were far more "worst sounds". However, unquestionably, one of the most extraordinary demos was the Sanders electrostatic speaker system. I'll tell you this, it may be a "one seat" system, but it has to be the hands down hi-end bargain of the century. 13K buys it all- and that includes speakers, crossover, the incredibly well-reviewed Magtech 500w amp (REG in TAS loves this thing), preamp and cables. It may even include a bow for all I know. As far as speaker cables, I swear Roger must have gone to Radio Shack and asked for something inexpensive to use. When they showed him 18-2 lamp cord, he must have said, "got anything thinner?". I'm telling you, if I didn't hear it I would never have believed it. He played some powerful drum material that knocked me on my ass, in addition to the usual sonic bon bons we typically hear at shows. Extraordinary resolution, transparency, and most importantly, musicality. All at price that can't be touched by anything else, anywhere at anytime. A total and complete mindfk.
Moving up into the upper echelon, the Aesthetix demo on the mezzanine (can't remember the Denver dealer who sponsored the room) was extraordinary. However, that only became clear when they stopped using the zillion dollar Clearaudio turntable and played CD or computer. That's right, you heard it here first. In fact, the most disappointing thing globally at the show was the often pitiful performance of turntables, in the same booth as a modest CD. Why take a zillion dollar table to a show if it isn't set up well is the question I kept asking myself? But once Jim switched to CD computer material, his modest 8K CD player, and 8K 300w hybrid monoblock amps through the Focal Maestro (50K) speakers were magnificent playing Steely Dan and other assorted material. In fact, that room sounded far superior to the more expensive top of the line Focal Grand Utopias running on Solution gear just down the hall. (Does anyone really thing the Solution gear sounds good on anything except Jon Valin?). No need to spend that kind of money folks. The modest (for high end) Aesthetix/Focal stuff was superb.
I also agree that the FM Acoustics, Venture speaker demo was outstanding, and would probably get my vote for the best "price no object" class of gear at the show, although overall I'm not sure that is was truly better than the Aesthetix/Focal demo described above.
Lastly, I am obliged to nominate the Cardas room for "best sound at the show". What, you say? The Cardas room was a dry demo, and there was no sound. Exactly.
Moving up into the upper echelon, the Aesthetix demo on the mezzanine (can't remember the Denver dealer who sponsored the room) was extraordinary. However, that only became clear when they stopped using the zillion dollar Clearaudio turntable and played CD or computer. That's right, you heard it here first. In fact, the most disappointing thing globally at the show was the often pitiful performance of turntables, in the same booth as a modest CD. Why take a zillion dollar table to a show if it isn't set up well is the question I kept asking myself? But once Jim switched to CD computer material, his modest 8K CD player, and 8K 300w hybrid monoblock amps through the Focal Maestro (50K) speakers were magnificent playing Steely Dan and other assorted material. In fact, that room sounded far superior to the more expensive top of the line Focal Grand Utopias running on Solution gear just down the hall. (Does anyone really thing the Solution gear sounds good on anything except Jon Valin?). No need to spend that kind of money folks. The modest (for high end) Aesthetix/Focal stuff was superb.
I also agree that the FM Acoustics, Venture speaker demo was outstanding, and would probably get my vote for the best "price no object" class of gear at the show, although overall I'm not sure that is was truly better than the Aesthetix/Focal demo described above.
Lastly, I am obliged to nominate the Cardas room for "best sound at the show". What, you say? The Cardas room was a dry demo, and there was no sound. Exactly.
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The biggest revelation for me with the Lightharmonic DAC. I talked to Larry Ho; great guy. His DAC is really very special. The sound is unlike most any other DACs i've heard; sounded alot like my DAC.The lightharmonic was in two rooms. It sounded best in the Von Schweikert and KR audio room.
That is interesting on what you heard in that room. I was there on Saturday afternoon and I had the room pretty much to myself. They were playing some cuts from Blue Coast records which are usually high quality recordings. Of all the rooms that i had heard at RMAF, this was not particularly good sounding. I do not know what was causing the poor sound as I was looking forward to hearing a system with the Light Harmonic DAC but unfortunately I couldn't make any judgements about it based on what I heard while I was in there. At least to me, the sound was harsh at the top end with a very 'steely' sound.
Its always interesting to read these threads and read such divergent opinions. I guess that's what keeps all these manufacturers in business.
Personally I found the FM Acoustics/Venture/Weiss room to be the head and shoulders "best of". The soundstage and dynamics were to die for. I enjoyed the MBL room. Normally their source material is carefully controlled - the rep always plays material that shows off the 101E's strongest assets (as well he should). On Sunday a return trip found an empty room. I was surprised to find that they were allowing people to demo their own source material. I had them play a track from Salvatore Bonafede's "Journey To Donnafugata" - an extraordinary recording on Camjazz and a soundstaging champ. It sounded very good - it didn't sound great. It knocked the MBL listening experience down off the perch as "best in show". The MBL room is always fun but I wonder if long term this is a speaker I could marry. I could definitely date them.
The Taiwan based Lawrence Audio "The Violin" was a superb sounding speaker. Not cheap at $18k but the cabinetry was first class - if this was manufactured in the US it would easily sell for double. Excellent room. In the mega-bucks category I thought Brian Ackerman did a great job with the Lansche/Ypsilon room. Very nice. Although I'm not a huge fan of Harbeth speakers, I thought Bricasti did a nice demonstration of the difference between the linear and minimum phase filter sets. A late night listening session in the Veloce room clearly demonstrated that it is possible to squeeze emotion and soul out of YG Acoustics. Synergistic Research did an impressive demo of their Tranquility Base accessory.
There were a number of rooms that featured very expensive equipment that I didn't feel lived up to its reputation. The DaVinci DAC was a disappointment relative to the cost. The Soulution rooms were bland. There was a very expensive weird looking speaker from a German manufacturer called Gobel. The soundstage was nonexistent. For my personal taste I felt the much anticipated Wilson Alexia was a tremendous let down. I should preference my comment that I'm generally not a fan of Wilson Audio speakers. I've tried many times with various models but they don't move me in any way and I've always found a better alternative. In the Wilson/DCS/VTL room there was over $400k worth of gear in that room and I can't remember hearing a less involving sound. I made a second visit to the room and again I found the sound to just lay there. Peter McGrath was playing one of his recordings with the Florida Philharmonic. I was expecting explosive dynamics and rock solid bass. For my taste, from the midrange on up it was quite nice. The bass was a huge let down. My apologies for being so blunt - I know there are many owners of Wilson speakers on this forum. I was hoping for sonic nirvana and didn't get anything close to it. Great craftsmanship and attention to detail doesn't alway produce great sound. Personally I wouldn't trade my similarly priced Rockport Aquila for the Alexia. YMMV.
The highlight of the weekend was the factory trip to the Boulder factory. As an owner of the 2060 amp and 1010 preamp it was a blast to see the incredible detail that goes into the manufacturing process. When you actually see what is entailed in the in-house construction of their product line you have a better understanding of the retail price.
Ken Golden
P.S. - I hope to never hear Shelby Lynne again
Personally I found the FM Acoustics/Venture/Weiss room to be the head and shoulders "best of". The soundstage and dynamics were to die for. I enjoyed the MBL room. Normally their source material is carefully controlled - the rep always plays material that shows off the 101E's strongest assets (as well he should). On Sunday a return trip found an empty room. I was surprised to find that they were allowing people to demo their own source material. I had them play a track from Salvatore Bonafede's "Journey To Donnafugata" - an extraordinary recording on Camjazz and a soundstaging champ. It sounded very good - it didn't sound great. It knocked the MBL listening experience down off the perch as "best in show". The MBL room is always fun but I wonder if long term this is a speaker I could marry. I could definitely date them.
The Taiwan based Lawrence Audio "The Violin" was a superb sounding speaker. Not cheap at $18k but the cabinetry was first class - if this was manufactured in the US it would easily sell for double. Excellent room. In the mega-bucks category I thought Brian Ackerman did a great job with the Lansche/Ypsilon room. Very nice. Although I'm not a huge fan of Harbeth speakers, I thought Bricasti did a nice demonstration of the difference between the linear and minimum phase filter sets. A late night listening session in the Veloce room clearly demonstrated that it is possible to squeeze emotion and soul out of YG Acoustics. Synergistic Research did an impressive demo of their Tranquility Base accessory.
There were a number of rooms that featured very expensive equipment that I didn't feel lived up to its reputation. The DaVinci DAC was a disappointment relative to the cost. The Soulution rooms were bland. There was a very expensive weird looking speaker from a German manufacturer called Gobel. The soundstage was nonexistent. For my personal taste I felt the much anticipated Wilson Alexia was a tremendous let down. I should preference my comment that I'm generally not a fan of Wilson Audio speakers. I've tried many times with various models but they don't move me in any way and I've always found a better alternative. In the Wilson/DCS/VTL room there was over $400k worth of gear in that room and I can't remember hearing a less involving sound. I made a second visit to the room and again I found the sound to just lay there. Peter McGrath was playing one of his recordings with the Florida Philharmonic. I was expecting explosive dynamics and rock solid bass. For my taste, from the midrange on up it was quite nice. The bass was a huge let down. My apologies for being so blunt - I know there are many owners of Wilson speakers on this forum. I was hoping for sonic nirvana and didn't get anything close to it. Great craftsmanship and attention to detail doesn't alway produce great sound. Personally I wouldn't trade my similarly priced Rockport Aquila for the Alexia. YMMV.
The highlight of the weekend was the factory trip to the Boulder factory. As an owner of the 2060 amp and 1010 preamp it was a blast to see the incredible detail that goes into the manufacturing process. When you actually see what is entailed in the in-house construction of their product line you have a better understanding of the retail price.
Ken Golden
P.S. - I hope to never hear Shelby Lynne again
It should be no surprise that they sound good Lloyd...they should for that amount of dough. What would be interesting is to hear that gear against other gear in that or even much less of a price point on a level playing field..ie: Same room, source electronics, ect...alas, that will never happen.
i went to the FMA-Venture room once each day and listened. i liked it but it never really connected with me. i heard a number of familiar recordings that i have in the room.
particularly i listened to 'Why Worry' from Dire Straits 'Brothers in Arms' redbook in the sweet spot with me as the only person in the room. this track has lots of textural nuance and can be quite a trip. it was good in this room, but it did not really get up and take flight like i would have expected. it did not seem to have that decay and spacial specialness, nor the micro-dynamics i'm use to. i don't expect any show system to quite measure up to my reference, but this system ought to go farther.
is it the amps? the speakers? the cables? the source? the room?
as always, it's a show. and YMMV. but when you are talking multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars and a big room the expectations are high.
particularly i listened to 'Why Worry' from Dire Straits 'Brothers in Arms' redbook in the sweet spot with me as the only person in the room. this track has lots of textural nuance and can be quite a trip. it was good in this room, but it did not really get up and take flight like i would have expected. it did not seem to have that decay and spacial specialness, nor the micro-dynamics i'm use to. i don't expect any show system to quite measure up to my reference, but this system ought to go farther.
is it the amps? the speakers? the cables? the source? the room?
as always, it's a show. and YMMV. but when you are talking multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars and a big room the expectations are high.
I am so glad to see so many people gravitating towards FMA. Too bad we lost 'wizard' and his posts. And so glad to hear about Sanders... some people ask me why I stay with my current speakers - well, they are Sanders-designed, and it all goes up from there. Thanks for everyone's comments.
I am also wondering how much of the magic in that room was due to the FMA electronics vs. the Venture loudspeakers. The US importer of FMA commented that in his opinion the Venture were actually a better match with the FMA electronics than the FMA speakers.
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