The best and worst at rmaf 2012

[A.wayne]

Marty,

I would not try them in the Siegfrieds without VTL official approval. The KT120s tubes are not replacement compatible with the 6550 - some ARC amplifiers needed modifications to accept them. VTLs are operated at higher anode voltage and lower currents than most other amplifiers using the 6550 type tube. I am not aware of how the auto-bias system of the Siegfried works, but some amplifiers can have problems at start-up when using the KT120.

Luke is not a fan of the KT 120 .......

 

[mep]

I tried to listen to the Stahl-Tek in this room, but they were using those corner-loaded horn speakers, and frankly, those hurt my ears.
Couldn't stand in the room for more than 30 seconds.


alexandre

You and me both. Those horns were ripping my ears off my head. And $12K for a 60 watt pair of tube amps??

 

[A.wayne]

I don't think anyone said the sound was bad including me. I said it sounded very good. So did the complete MC system that sold for $8900.

Yes I'm aware no one said so , I was refering to Franz's comment...

 

[A.wayne]

What about the Leonardo planar speaker ... ?

 

[FrantzM]

So if the sound was bad , Speaker or FMA ..... ?

Really

 

[flez007]

I tried to listen to the Stahl-Tek in this room, but they were using those corner-loaded horn speakers, and frankly, those hurt my ears.
Couldn't stand in the room for more than 30 seconds.


alexandre

+1

 

[marty]

OMG Mike and Myles. You are both right. The FM/venture room was LP-less and I did confuse it w Lansche next door. It's not that I'm embarrassed that as they say "memory is the first thing to go as you grow older", but its how little time it took to forget (less than a day)! What I do recall at FM/ Venture about first wanting to leave is correct, but it was because they were using a CD source. When they went to computer the sound got considerably better. I did encourage them to stick with that source as it was far superior to their CD player, of which brand I do not recall. Thanks for straightening me out.

 

[rbbert]

Benchmark DAC2

This has all the features of the Mytek plus a bunch more at a MSRP of $2k.

 

[Steve Williams]

This has all the features of the Mytek plus a bunch more at a MSRP of $2k.

It would be interesting to compare it to the DaVinci

 

[audioarcher]

What about the Leonardo planar speaker ... ?

I liked that room. Nils Lofgren was sounding wonderful in there. I just ordered the CD.

 

[c1ferrari]

This has all the features of the Mytek plus a bunch more at a MSRP of $2k.

Indeed, Robert
I'll have to investigate this further

 

[LL21]

I tried to listen to the Stahl-Tek in this room, but they were using those corner-loaded horn speakers, and frankly, those hurt my ears.
Couldn't stand in the room for more than 30 seconds.


alexandre

Oh well...thanks for the feedback!

 

[LL21]

+1

thanks for that.

 

[A.wayne]

Really

You did say the speaker accounted for most of the percieved quality ....

I liked that room. Nils Lofgren was sounding wonderful in there. I just ordered the CD.

Good to hear, interesting design ......

 

[Glory]

I just wanted to post some quick thoughts on what I thought was the best of show and the worst of show. I will also include the weirdest effect of the show:

Best of show-Cost be damned, it was the MBL room for me. I spent a fair amount of time at the show with Myles and listened to his music over and over again in rooms too numerous to count. Myles has an ancient CD by the Fairfield Four. This is an a cappella group that is older than dirt. They have a bass singer whose onions are dragging the ground. There is one particular cut and I think it is “Roll Jordan Roll” that just highlights the bass singer. This cut sounded great in some rooms, but it sounded unbelievable in the MBL room (or it sounded believable). Everyone who heard it was blown away and Myles was constantly asked who the group was.

Best of show for mere mortals-Hands down for me it was Carl’s room with the Nola KO speakers powered by the ARC REF 5SE, the CD8, and the ARC REF 75 amp. The KO speakers are something very special-at least to me. Caesar beat me to the punch on these. I loved them.

Worst sound of the show-The room that had the newly revived Aragon amp and Thiele speakers with a Cayin tube CD player. The sound was so thin and bright I wanted to run screaming from the room. It was just horrible sounding. I don’t know where to point the finger because I have never heard any of this gear before. Maybe the Aragon brand shouldn’t have been brought back from the dead. Maybe the Thiele speakers suck. Maybe the Cayin CD player is truly horrible. Add the three together and you have AM radio type sound on a bad ionosphere day.

Weirdest sound effect-It had to be the Avalon room for me. There has to be some serious jigger-pookey going on with the crossover networks in these speakers because the soundstage on every track was 15’ behind the plane of the speakers. It’s kind of a neat parlor trick, but I think it would get old quick just as any gimmick that makes every recording sound the same does(calling Dr. Bose…).

I to thought the MBL room was a hit. Heard a singing quartet that was outstanding. Top 3 for sure.

 

[Bill Demars]

Alrighty! So, a couple questions: there is a new cable "High Fidelity" (i think Virtual Dynamics designer is behind it). Do you know if you heard a system using it? And in the Devore room, it looked like they were using Magnetic Line amps - a company that makes a crazy looking 'stack' that look like old WE amps- I don't think this company was formally listed as 'showing' and doubt the big WE style stack amp was there, but curious about that company as well.
Thanks for the capsule.

I came home with a pair of 1.5m High Fidelity Interconnects to evaluate. I have been listening yesterday and plan to listen more today. So far so good-very good actually. Very spacious and three-dimensional. Soundstage is wider than my reference cable and it's very composed. I'll have more to say once I listen for a couple of weeks.
Regarding RMAF I thought the sound was much better this year than in the past. Perhaps after setting up a room in Jacksonville this past spring made me realize just how incredibly difficult it is to not only get your stuff to your room in one piece, but then to go into an unknown room and in less than one day get it to sound decent-a herculean task.
I really liked the Vandersteen 7's with ARC and AMG table in the big end room on the 9th floor. In years past I never really paid much attention to Vandersteen speakers-they were unremarkable, plus the aesthetics don't do much for me-kind of boring looking. They were playing a fantastic record by Ike Quebec called Heavy Soul and it was magnificent! They put my For Duke record on and it imaged incredibly well with the sax sounding darn near outside the right wall. Very luscious sound indeed.
I thought the Lawrence room with Rowland gear was great. The speakers sounded to have very low distortion and coloration, and had perhaps the most balanced sound of any speaker I heard at the show.
The Vaughn Cabernet II's were also very nice. At 100db sensitivity they are up my alley. 9k for a full range nicely balanced speaker and one that can be driven by low power tubes.
I also liked the FAL room a lot. Very nice articulation and very fast with great depth. Mr. Furuyama was also a kick! Very funny guy.
The Laufer room with Leonardo speakers presented a huge, live soundstage. Closing my eyes, I could have fooled myself that I was at a live concert. Soeakers are brand new and they are still working out what ancillary gear goes best with them.
The other big room I hit was the Focal/Soulution room. Janis Ian's Breaking Silence was effortless, and Jazz at the Pawnshop was captured in all it's delicate, playful glory. I wrote in my notes, effortless and big.

 

[Steve Williams]

IMO the Focal, Aesthetix demo next door with the smaller Focal outperformed the Focal, Soulution room

 

[Andre Marc]

I came home with a pair of 1.5m High Fidelity Interconnects to evaluate. I have been listening yesterday and plan to listen more today. So far so good-very good actually. Very spacious and three-dimensional. Soundstage is wider than my reference cable and it's very composed. I'll have more to say once I listen for a couple of weeks.
Regarding RMAF I thought the sound was much better this year than in the past. Perhaps after setting up a room in Jacksonville this past spring made me realize just how incredibly difficult it is to not only get your stuff to your room in one piece, but then to go into an unknown room and in less than one day get it to sound decent-a herculean task.
I really liked the Vandersteen 7's with ARC and AMG table in the big end room on the 9th floor. In years past I never really paid much attention to Vandersteen speakers-they were unremarkable, plus the aesthetics don't do much for me-kind of boring looking. They were playing a fantastic record by Ike Quebec called Heavy Soul and it was magnificent! They put my For Duke record on and it imaged incredibly well with the sax sounding darn near outside the right wall. Very luscious sound indeed.
I thought the Lawrence room with Rowland gear was great. The speakers sounded to have very low distortion and coloration, and had perhaps the most balanced sound of any speaker I heard at the show.
The Vaughn Cabernet II's were also very nice. At 100db sensitivity they are up my alley. 9k for a full range nicely balanced speaker and one that can be driven by low power tubes.
I also liked the FAL room a lot. Very nice articulation and very fast with great depth. Mr. Furuyama was also a kick! Very funny guy.
The Laufer room with Leonardo speakers presented a huge, live soundstage. Closing my eyes, I could have fooled myself that I was at a live concert. Soeakers are brand new and they are still working out what ancillary gear goes best with them.
The other big room I hit was the Focal/Soulution room. Janis Ian's Breaking Silence was effortless, and Jazz at the Pawnshop was captured in all it's delicate, playful glory. I wrote in my notes, effortless and big.

Bill, hello from a fellow Ryan Adams fanatic!

 

[rbbert]

I to thought the MBL room was a hit. Heard a singing quartet that was outstanding. Top 3 for sure.

There are also a bunch of MBL detractors posting on another thread here Isn't high-end audio a wonderful hobby!

 

[Bill Demars]

Bill, hello from a fellow Ryan Adams fanatic!

Hey Andre-Have we met at a RA show? Did you catch any of the solo shows? I only saw one in Boston.