I recently attended the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver, I went on Sunday only and was there for about 5 hours. With that I was able to cover most of the rooms, but didn’t really dive too much into any particular room. This was the first time I’d attended an audio show. Here are a few notes from that experience. I wandered into way more rooms than I have here, but this is what caught my attention. If I remember anything else, I'll add on.
Benchmark – They make DACs and have a small amplifier. I was rather impressed with the small unit and the sound that sound out. They have been on my radar for a DACs and have seen some good reviews as well. I talked a little with them and they started out in broadcast and commercial audio and have started bringing their DACs into a consumer market. They seemed to think that because they started in a professional systems they already know how to ‘downgrade’ to consumer audio. I heard that several times at the show as well – not sure not realistic that is. Nonetheless for a $2K DAC, it was rather good.
Magico – I’ve heard a lot about their speakers lately with some rather impressive reviews. They were NOT at the show, and I only saw/heard one set at the show. What I saw/heard was the S3 hooked up to some Hegel equipment. I wouldn’t say this was a good match, but it seemed to give enough character of the speaker. It’s certainly different listening to a speaker with an metal chassis/frame instead of wood. I’d have to listen longer to see if I really liked it. But good to get a first impression.
Hegel – This is a new company to me. They had a number of nice products in a decent price range as well. Nice aesthetics too. They were being used in two different rooms. There was something there, but not enough of a listen to really know.
Devialet – Again, I’ve seen a number of really good reviews about the Devialet systems. I was skeptical, but not anymore. They had displayed a stereo unit, but I’m not sure which one. The source was digital music. The speakers were Focal. Really beautiful sound, smooth, engaging, I could listen for a while. The amps in the Devialet were easily driving the speakers. Even at mid to low volume, really nice. They have a new technology they call SAM which is specific to each speaker. Something about phase matching I guess, but I’ll let you explore at their website. Anyway – a piece to really consider.
Off of equipment for a moment. A majority of what I saw was digital input. A lot of MacBooks feeding a DAC somewhere. A few rooms were using CD players and few had turntables. I know many people rave about analog sound and what comes from a turntable. I only listened a short while, but I have to say I prefer a high quality production in digital. Even Thomas’s setup with Lejonklou amps and preamp with a LP12 didn’t convince me. With digital there is definitely a convenience of so much material so easily available – it just needs a really good DAC to go with it. With digital I also seem to find more of an empty background against which music is heard.
In the digital realm, lots of new DACs exploring DSD (and DSDx2 ???). Sampling rates and overall bandwidth increases as well.
Salk Audio and Audio by Alstine – Two I’ve never heard of – but really amazing. Mostly I listened to the music, but did read just a little. Salk is Jim Salk and he handbuilds speakers which are both beautiful and very musical. Pricing seemed rather good as well. Audio by Alstine is another one-man operation (that’s what it seemed like) with nicely built and great sounding DACs, amps, preamps. Both seemed to have years of experience in Audio. They had two systems, one around $9K for speaker, amp, preamp, dac, source – the other around $18K. Both were beautiful for what they offered.
Lumin – A newer competitor to Linn with their own streaming/rendering piece. Absolutely, it sounded really good, but didn’t really grab me.
Wadia/McIntosh – McIntosh had a strong presence at the show from various dealers. I don’t remember who this was but seemed like a smaller venue, but it had the Wadia Computer with Wadia mono amps into McIntosh bookshelf speakers. Really quite nice. I didn’t hang around long because I’m not a big McIntosh fan, but I enjoyed it still.
Lejonklou – I stopped by Thomas’s room from Nokturne Audio twice. He was the first stop once I arrived and then a return stop just before leaving. I really enjoyed the Tundra mono and Sagatun mono. I would have preferred a digital source to his LP12 and I wasn’t super fond of the DynAudio speakers. Still the Lejonkou pieces really shine, almost in a way that is hard to compare or describe, they are just sublime.
Big systems – another diversion. I did stop into a number of the really high end rooms – Wilson, PS Audio, McIntosh, Esoteric, and others. In almost all cases, I wasn’t impressed with the music at all. It certainly sounded really good, but it didn’t draw me in. I also place a premium on the aesthetics of the components and speakers. In most of these cases they have large or very large speakers (meaning much bigger than a typical standing speaker) with huge racks and large components. There were times I really wonder if it was overengineered. Anyway, I definitely preferred systems that were much cheaper.
Marantz – It was surprising to see Marantz there, but they were. They had a room with their Reference pieces. I like Marantz and have owned several pieces in the past. But they sure screwed this one up. The speakers (I don’t know what they were) were terrible. When I walked in there was a terrible rockin’ LP playing. After hearing so much smoothness elsewhere, this was simply just jarring. Quite a contrast.
T+A – This was an interesting room, they had their new high end pieces showing. It sounded pretty good. I was more interested in some of their other less expensive pieces, but they weren’t showing them. I’ll be curious to hear these again sometime.
Wavelength Audio – This was a room I just wandered into. Wavelength Audio does Tube based USB DACs. They were feeding speakers with bamboo on them. I don’t have the name of the speaker company. This was the best sounding system I heard the entire show. Wow – just wow. I’m not sure what his secret is, but this is definitely something unique. This is probably where I spent most of my time just listening.
After wandering through many rooms, there were several rooms I wanted to go back to get a second impression. These included Salk Sounds/Audio by Alstine, Lejonklou, Devialet, Wavelength Audio. Each one of these was just as good or better the second time around.
Overall I really enjoyed it.
I wanted to describe the experience to someone, and I came up with a good analogy. Going to an audio show is like going to Napa Valley and driving around to do wine tasting. Audio and Wine have a magical mix of art and science. Each person comes up with a different variation on the same source (audio or grapes). There’s all kind of terminology to go with it as well. With wine, it’s a big easier because you’re pretty sure it will still taste the same years later, but with audio it’s difficult to determine what the sound will be like once you put together your unique set of components. And oh yeah – wine is usually cheaper!
Rocky Mountain Audio Fest Notes
Moderator: Staff
RMAF
I attended this years RMAF show as well, on Saturday. It was interesting to read your comments as I went in a lot of the same rooms.
I felt the same way about the Hegel/Magico room. There are aspects I like about Hegel, but at the end of the day I can't help but think they are missing something. Hegel amps have a lot of drive and punch, but I think they lack subtlety. The other Hegel room was driving KEF LS50's. They get a lot of good reviews, and their first impression is always impressive, but I don't recall live music leaping out at you quite like these amps do.
A new brand for me this year was PureAudio, click for details http://www.pureaudio.co.nz. Their amp was driving some Opera floor standing speakers and it sounded superb.
The Vandersteen Model 7 room, with the new liquid cooled Vandersteen mono-blocks was excellent, among best in show.
I did some listening to the Wilson Duette 2 running on Dan D'Agostino integrated. I also spent some time in the big Wilson room running the Sasha's w/dual Watchdog subs. I also did some listening at a dealers showroom recently, Sophia's, and I have decided I don't like the Wilson sound. Every system running Wilson's I walked away feeling the sound was too bright. We are talking systems running on VERY high-end electronics, so not sure if Dave Wilson is loosing his hearing in the upper register or what, but I don't like it. The new Sabrina's where their, but not plugged in.
I met Paul Barton of PSB, was neat running into him! I have his Alpha PS1's w/ the sub woofer on my computer, they are awesome for their size. He was also displaying his new reference floor standing speaker, Imagine T, sounds pretty good.
I did go up and meet Thomas O'Keefe in the Nokturne Audio room. This is the first time I have ever heard a Lejonklou product or seen one for that matter. Sorry to say, I was underwhelmed with what I heard. There where aspects of the sound that showed promise, but it lacked a lot compared to other system is this price range. Where was the bass in those Dynaudio floor standing speakers?!?! Might as well run bookshelves if that is all they have, sounded like something wired out of phase to be honest. And no, I couldn't here the difference the little squares of foam on the bottom shelf made...
I finally heard a McIntosh system I enjoyed, they were using the new McIntosh speakers and they did something right. I never felt such a sense of a complete sound when listening to McIntosh on other brand speakers. They were playing some blues/Rock and I think that lends itself to tubes though, gives you that warm, fluid, tube guitar amp sound.
I enjoyed getting to hear the Linkwitz Labs kit speakers! Both models, LX521 and LXmini, sound very nice. I was very impressed with the sound from the mini's as they look so unassuming and are very inexpensive to build. I got to meet Mr. Linkwitz himself, he is quite interesting and very friendly.
Legacy audio had a new beta version of a flagship model, was interesting, had some room correction system running. It seemed to have bloated bass in the room though, which you would think the room correction would have corrected. I was standing behind the seating area though, could have been better in the sweet spot.
The best sound was Robert Silverman playing a Steinway concert grand piano in the Cardas room.
Frog
I felt the same way about the Hegel/Magico room. There are aspects I like about Hegel, but at the end of the day I can't help but think they are missing something. Hegel amps have a lot of drive and punch, but I think they lack subtlety. The other Hegel room was driving KEF LS50's. They get a lot of good reviews, and their first impression is always impressive, but I don't recall live music leaping out at you quite like these amps do.
A new brand for me this year was PureAudio, click for details http://www.pureaudio.co.nz. Their amp was driving some Opera floor standing speakers and it sounded superb.
The Vandersteen Model 7 room, with the new liquid cooled Vandersteen mono-blocks was excellent, among best in show.
I did some listening to the Wilson Duette 2 running on Dan D'Agostino integrated. I also spent some time in the big Wilson room running the Sasha's w/dual Watchdog subs. I also did some listening at a dealers showroom recently, Sophia's, and I have decided I don't like the Wilson sound. Every system running Wilson's I walked away feeling the sound was too bright. We are talking systems running on VERY high-end electronics, so not sure if Dave Wilson is loosing his hearing in the upper register or what, but I don't like it. The new Sabrina's where their, but not plugged in.
I met Paul Barton of PSB, was neat running into him! I have his Alpha PS1's w/ the sub woofer on my computer, they are awesome for their size. He was also displaying his new reference floor standing speaker, Imagine T, sounds pretty good.
I did go up and meet Thomas O'Keefe in the Nokturne Audio room. This is the first time I have ever heard a Lejonklou product or seen one for that matter. Sorry to say, I was underwhelmed with what I heard. There where aspects of the sound that showed promise, but it lacked a lot compared to other system is this price range. Where was the bass in those Dynaudio floor standing speakers?!?! Might as well run bookshelves if that is all they have, sounded like something wired out of phase to be honest. And no, I couldn't here the difference the little squares of foam on the bottom shelf made...
I finally heard a McIntosh system I enjoyed, they were using the new McIntosh speakers and they did something right. I never felt such a sense of a complete sound when listening to McIntosh on other brand speakers. They were playing some blues/Rock and I think that lends itself to tubes though, gives you that warm, fluid, tube guitar amp sound.
I enjoyed getting to hear the Linkwitz Labs kit speakers! Both models, LX521 and LXmini, sound very nice. I was very impressed with the sound from the mini's as they look so unassuming and are very inexpensive to build. I got to meet Mr. Linkwitz himself, he is quite interesting and very friendly.
Legacy audio had a new beta version of a flagship model, was interesting, had some room correction system running. It seemed to have bloated bass in the room though, which you would think the room correction would have corrected. I was standing behind the seating area though, could have been better in the sweet spot.
The best sound was Robert Silverman playing a Steinway concert grand piano in the Cardas room.
Frog
Klimax 320A, Akurate DSM, Rotel RT1084HD, OPPO BDP-105D.
Now that I have had time to recuperate (the drive to Denver is 1270 miles each way, so 4 days of travel one day of setup and one day of breakdown for a 3 day show) it is time I wrote up a show report from my point of view. I would have done this earlier but I only managed to get the boxes out of the living room and my system set back up this weekend.
Overall I feel the show went about as well as I could have expected - the response to the room was almost universally positive. I was one rack short on the Harmoni racks due to a shipment delayed by customs so I had to use a table for the smaller system but I did have the two planned racks for the bigger system. The two comments most often received were how good the system sounded and what great musical taste I had. Many people commented about how good it sounded in my room including three gentlemen who were commenting that it was the best sound at the show while they were walking out and Micheal Fremer of Stereophile and Analog Planet was walking in. Mr Fremer visited and requested a Gaio for review. Whether it will show up in Stereophile or only on Analog Planet I am not sure. Many others were really impressed as well and one couple commented they had never heard such a musical system with the husband coming back the next day to get my information saying he would be in touch as they really both felt it was the most musical equipment they had heard. These positive comments were quite common including from several people in the industry. One interesting thing is that a salesperson form one dealer who sold and personally owned Dynaudio speakers said the sound was really good and he would take my information to his buyers. A salesperson from another dealer who came down to check out the phono stages said that he normally didn't like Dynaudio speakers as he felt them to be a bit clinical but commented that he had never heard Dynaudios as engaging as they were in this system. Since “engaging” is one of the words most often applied to the Sagatuns the comment didn’t surprise me. But if you can impress both the lovers of the speakers you are using as well as someone who normally doesn’t care for them I think you are doing well. Three guys from Dynaudio (who had a couple of their own rooms two floors up) came down to hear the setup and commented that I was “doing their speakers proud”.
I did have one person who complained that the system had no bass but since he spent a whole 2 minutes listening to a Porcupine Tree record he had never heard before I somewhat discounted his comment - especially as most people were quite pleased with the bass. (He said he had actually never even heard of Porcupine Tree yet after saying there was no bass he wrote down the name of the album as he really liked it??!) Seeing as frog commented the same thing on the forum it may be that there was a room node making certain seats bass shy. A comment in one of the online show reports indicated the reviewer had found a bass node problem in another room and had been asked to move up a row whereon he found it sounded balanced. He had since listened from a couple of locations whenever there was any doubt. I didn't try all the seats so this is a possibility. I can tell you that when The Cream Reunion records were playing there was no doubt about bass output!
As mentioned, several people also commented on the quality of my musical taste with a couple stating I had the best musical taste in the show (one of them after seeing the Porcupine Tree album). One of the main reasons for that is I made a decision early on that I was not going to bring along any of the "audiophile warhorses" that get played to death at these shows and at Hi-Fi stores in general. So there was no Dianna Krall, no Sarah McLachlan and minimal of the other beat to death pieces. Instead I brought a very diverse and eclectic mix of music that I know is good and played a range of different stuff. One person who looked through the records said; "Wow, you have something for everyone in here!" and indeed I did. Cream, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Porcupine Tree, Beethoven, Johnny Cash, Amy Winehouse, Lana DelRay, Holly Cole, Feist, Norah Jones (a live record that was really good), Cannonball Adderley, Oliver Nelson, Miles Davis, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Jethro Tull, etc. and, of course, Satchmo. The variety was appreciated by everyone with The Cream and Amy Winehouse definite favorites and usually able to fill the room whenever playing.
I also received positive comments from a number of dealers, some of whom took my information and three of whom left business cards for me to contact them. I have contacted them and hope to pick up a couple of new dealers, as that was one of the main reasons for doing the show.
I received a request from a gentleman who writes for Audioxpress to review a Tundra amp. He commented that from the lit it looked like an amp he’d like to review and added, “Especially if that is what I am listening to now”. I assured him it was. He was one of the writers of the popular Amarra software for the Mac and will be writing up a report on RMAF for Audioxpress so I hope to get some positive press there. This brings up my one disappointment with the show – the press coverage. It seems some organizations have decided instant coverage is too much work so the show coverage looks like it will dribble out over a number of weeks. Also you can see in some of the show coverage so far that the products that get the photos posted tend to be those with a fair amount of bling – amps with big tubes, turntables that look like small skyscrapers, etc. As Lejonklou certainly doesn’t fit in this category the many photos that were taken certainly aren’t the first thing posted on most sites. However, if the exposure helps us as much as I hope it will be worth the effort. All the positive comments from showgoers and dealers make me feel displaying there was a good decision.
Overall I feel the show went about as well as I could have expected - the response to the room was almost universally positive. I was one rack short on the Harmoni racks due to a shipment delayed by customs so I had to use a table for the smaller system but I did have the two planned racks for the bigger system. The two comments most often received were how good the system sounded and what great musical taste I had. Many people commented about how good it sounded in my room including three gentlemen who were commenting that it was the best sound at the show while they were walking out and Micheal Fremer of Stereophile and Analog Planet was walking in. Mr Fremer visited and requested a Gaio for review. Whether it will show up in Stereophile or only on Analog Planet I am not sure. Many others were really impressed as well and one couple commented they had never heard such a musical system with the husband coming back the next day to get my information saying he would be in touch as they really both felt it was the most musical equipment they had heard. These positive comments were quite common including from several people in the industry. One interesting thing is that a salesperson form one dealer who sold and personally owned Dynaudio speakers said the sound was really good and he would take my information to his buyers. A salesperson from another dealer who came down to check out the phono stages said that he normally didn't like Dynaudio speakers as he felt them to be a bit clinical but commented that he had never heard Dynaudios as engaging as they were in this system. Since “engaging” is one of the words most often applied to the Sagatuns the comment didn’t surprise me. But if you can impress both the lovers of the speakers you are using as well as someone who normally doesn’t care for them I think you are doing well. Three guys from Dynaudio (who had a couple of their own rooms two floors up) came down to hear the setup and commented that I was “doing their speakers proud”.
I did have one person who complained that the system had no bass but since he spent a whole 2 minutes listening to a Porcupine Tree record he had never heard before I somewhat discounted his comment - especially as most people were quite pleased with the bass. (He said he had actually never even heard of Porcupine Tree yet after saying there was no bass he wrote down the name of the album as he really liked it??!) Seeing as frog commented the same thing on the forum it may be that there was a room node making certain seats bass shy. A comment in one of the online show reports indicated the reviewer had found a bass node problem in another room and had been asked to move up a row whereon he found it sounded balanced. He had since listened from a couple of locations whenever there was any doubt. I didn't try all the seats so this is a possibility. I can tell you that when The Cream Reunion records were playing there was no doubt about bass output!
As mentioned, several people also commented on the quality of my musical taste with a couple stating I had the best musical taste in the show (one of them after seeing the Porcupine Tree album). One of the main reasons for that is I made a decision early on that I was not going to bring along any of the "audiophile warhorses" that get played to death at these shows and at Hi-Fi stores in general. So there was no Dianna Krall, no Sarah McLachlan and minimal of the other beat to death pieces. Instead I brought a very diverse and eclectic mix of music that I know is good and played a range of different stuff. One person who looked through the records said; "Wow, you have something for everyone in here!" and indeed I did. Cream, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Porcupine Tree, Beethoven, Johnny Cash, Amy Winehouse, Lana DelRay, Holly Cole, Feist, Norah Jones (a live record that was really good), Cannonball Adderley, Oliver Nelson, Miles Davis, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Jethro Tull, etc. and, of course, Satchmo. The variety was appreciated by everyone with The Cream and Amy Winehouse definite favorites and usually able to fill the room whenever playing.
I also received positive comments from a number of dealers, some of whom took my information and three of whom left business cards for me to contact them. I have contacted them and hope to pick up a couple of new dealers, as that was one of the main reasons for doing the show.
I received a request from a gentleman who writes for Audioxpress to review a Tundra amp. He commented that from the lit it looked like an amp he’d like to review and added, “Especially if that is what I am listening to now”. I assured him it was. He was one of the writers of the popular Amarra software for the Mac and will be writing up a report on RMAF for Audioxpress so I hope to get some positive press there. This brings up my one disappointment with the show – the press coverage. It seems some organizations have decided instant coverage is too much work so the show coverage looks like it will dribble out over a number of weeks. Also you can see in some of the show coverage so far that the products that get the photos posted tend to be those with a fair amount of bling – amps with big tubes, turntables that look like small skyscrapers, etc. As Lejonklou certainly doesn’t fit in this category the many photos that were taken certainly aren’t the first thing posted on most sites. However, if the exposure helps us as much as I hope it will be worth the effort. All the positive comments from showgoers and dealers make me feel displaying there was a good decision.
Thomas,
I agree, the rooms varied a lot and some sounded better than others, system notwithstanding. In some rooms, moving over one chair made a huge difference in the sound and others were a more evenly dispersed sound. I probably was sitting in a void as it was definitely thinner than expected for floorstanding Dynaudio speakers, which I generally like. I think the other 'bass shy' guy was leaving as I was entering. The 'shows promise' that I heard was a nicely detailed mid range and smooth high range. I didn't get a HUGE sound stage, but again these rooms are a puzzle, and if I was in a node the lack of bass would shrink the perceived sound. I think these hotel rooms are an art to setup on short notice, some of the systems work really well in them and others don't. Sometimes, it is hard to know what is the room and what is the system. Build quality of the Lejonklou equipment looks nice too.
It was nice meeting you and you do have good taste in music for sure. Not sure if you got any good pics with you in them...if not, you do now!
You can click the link to the right of the thumbnail and it will open the full resolution picture up in Flickr.
The serious Thomas...
20141011_122013 by Photozguy, on Flickr
Thomas after I coaxed a smile out of him...
20141011_122106 by Photozguy, on Flickr
Regards,
Frog
I agree, the rooms varied a lot and some sounded better than others, system notwithstanding. In some rooms, moving over one chair made a huge difference in the sound and others were a more evenly dispersed sound. I probably was sitting in a void as it was definitely thinner than expected for floorstanding Dynaudio speakers, which I generally like. I think the other 'bass shy' guy was leaving as I was entering. The 'shows promise' that I heard was a nicely detailed mid range and smooth high range. I didn't get a HUGE sound stage, but again these rooms are a puzzle, and if I was in a node the lack of bass would shrink the perceived sound. I think these hotel rooms are an art to setup on short notice, some of the systems work really well in them and others don't. Sometimes, it is hard to know what is the room and what is the system. Build quality of the Lejonklou equipment looks nice too.
It was nice meeting you and you do have good taste in music for sure. Not sure if you got any good pics with you in them...if not, you do now!
You can click the link to the right of the thumbnail and it will open the full resolution picture up in Flickr.
The serious Thomas...
20141011_122013 by Photozguy, on FlickrThomas after I coaxed a smile out of him...
20141011_122106 by Photozguy, on FlickrRegards,
Frog
Klimax 320A, Akurate DSM, Rotel RT1084HD, OPPO BDP-105D.