If all goes as planned, anyway.

The 10 rental foot truck is packed to the ceiling. Somebody is nuts. Therapy is required [my arms and legs tell me, and Neli’s knees tell her]. If at least we didn’t have 45 steps down from the front door to the truck - we could at least pretend to be sane.

Inquiring minds want to link to them!

Only Enjoy The Music seems to have a page setup for the show.

Stereophile usually has a page ready before the show - but I couldn’t find it.

Everyone else seems to wait until they have a report ready, from AudioJunkies to Dagogo, from UltraAudio to AudioXSell.

Well, we are linking now to EnjoyTheMusic.com and the heck with the rest of the slackers until after the show

Packed up. Muscles sore. House empty. Wondering just why we take so much stuff.

Actually, we are thinking about doing a much lighter system next year. Not sure if it will be less expensive. But lighter.

Whew!

While checking out what other websites are talking about the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest I came across this thread at Steve Hoffman’s forum:

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=153011

Which talks about what kind of music a new exhibitor should bring to a show with them.

I don’t know who any of these people are, I am not registered there and the site does not let you see people profiles unless you are registered .

Well, besides disagreeing vociferously with the suggestion that exhibitors should not play show-goer’s CDs because they will invariably sound bad [a true signature of a bad sounding system all around, eh? If the system can’t play the music that an audiophile loves, then what use is that system for that audiophile? An accent for the livingroom decor?] - our suggestion would be to bring music that you love.

If the exhibitor brings music they love, or just music they want to play to see what it is like, then at least one person [i.e. the exhibitor] in the room will be enjoying the music. Sure, show some eclecticism - don’t just bring country, but bring some of your runners up like western and rock-a-billy and country-rock and bluegrass, etc.

This has the side effects of at least putting the exhibitor in a good mood and of attracting ‘like minds’ who love the same music. There is also a level of honesty implicit in this kind of approach - which we happen to think is a good thing.

Yeah, we get blasted for this approach [as being ‘unprofessional’] from some other dealers and reviewers - who, in another industry, would not let people test drive their prospective new car, or maybe just for 2 or 3 minutes [yes, there are still car dealers out here like that - ones that we visit just ONCE] nor review a car without Corinthian leather bucket seats [OK, my metaphor sucks - but moving on…].

This year I feel that we want to bring mostly things we have gotten recently: a CD by the Dave Holland Quintet - Extended Play [yeah, yeah, plenty good audiophile quality - but the songs are long - a no no at shows and it is complex enough that it’s depths are hard to plumb in just a few listenings… like Radiohead … except it is Jazz . Oh, and way less complex than Sun Ra or even Ornette Coleman - or is that Ornette Coleman and even Sun Ra?].

Anything else? I don’t know … usually we just do a mad rush through here and pick things we like and want to hear. The only problem is that Neli and I usually disagree significantly on the selection. So - we just end up with a his and hers side on the CD and LP collection at the show.

Our extensive show coverage will be here:

RMAF 2008 Denver’s High-end Audio Show.

The large room at 930 will have:

Marten Coltrane Supreme loudspeakers
Lamm ML3 Signature amplifiers
Lamm L2 Reference linestage
Lamm LP2 phono stage
EMM Labs TSD1 transport
EMM Labs DAC2 DAC
Brinkmann Balance or Audio Note TT3 turntables
HRS MXR and SXR equipment racks
Nordost ODIN and Valhalla, Jorma Design PRIME and No.1, and Audio Note PALLAS cables, along with assorted ELROD and AcroLink powercords
Computer laptop as music server

The small room at 926 will have:

Audio Note AN/E SEC HE Signature loudspeakers
Audio Note Kegon Balanced amplifiers
Audio Note M9 or M1 phono preamplifiers
Audio Note DAC4.1x Balanced DAC
Audio Note CDT-Three transport
Audio Note SOOTTO, SOGON and PALLAS cables
AcroLink power cords
Acoustic Dreams equipment rack and amp stands
and possibly the Audio Note TT-2/Arm 3/S4/IO1 turntable setup [requires that something else besides amps go on the floor - because that 4 shelf rack only has… 4 shelves].

Lamm Industries generously loaned us a pair of ML3 amps for the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest - and we got them setup and they were warmed up enough for listening last night.

We did most of our listening on the Brinkmann Balance turntable, since the Emm Labs TSD1/DAC2 digital is still breaking in. Even so, we are running it through the Emm Labs DCC2 DAC’s linestege as we wait for our Audio Note M9 and Lamm L2 preamps to arrive.

I spent a lot of our listening time comparing these to the big Audio Note amps: The Kegon Balanced and Ongaku.

For now, my matchbook cover, over simplification of the difference is this:

Our friend Dave Cope once described the top flight Audio Note amps [and specifically the M10 linestage] as drill-sergeants - they are so intent on controlling each note with an iron [titanium] grip.

Well, in comparison with the Lamm, the AN primarily controls the MACRO dynamics with an iron grip, and leaving the micro-dynamics to be slightly less controlled [in comparison with the Lamm] and the Lamm controls the MICRO dynamics like nobody’s business [as Neli would put it], and the macro-dynamics is less controlled [in comparison with the AN]. Get it? They are PRIMARILY focused on different parts of the dynamic spectrum - not that they don’t control all parts of the dynamic spectrum better than any other amps out there, because they do. It is just that their APPROACH to the reproduction of the sound is different from each other.

So with these ML3’s, you can hear WAY into the music, the details are very, very three dimensional, the micro-harmonics incredibly varied and complex, the micro-separation really excellent.

For example, on Stevie Ray Vaughn’s Tin Pan Alley LP, the Lamm ML3 had an ability to convey how HARD each note was played on the guitar [which I grew up with and play on and mostly off - so I can hear rightness better than say, Neli ] not primarily through the different levels of dynamic punch, but because you could HEAR that the string was stretched and hear the pick as it slid rapidly and with great force across the string as it was picked. So this resulted in a sound that just whacked the listener across the ears - sometimes it sounded like that guitar string would BREAK if Stevie kept doing that - which is just like it is supposed to sound on those particular notes.

So this was a case where something that might be considered macro-dynamic was clearly rendered perfectly by the ML3. That is why I talked about how, using this hypothetical model of the two amps, their PRIMARY focus seems to be on different areas of the dynamic spectrum - but that this is just their APPROACH to the sound, that they still dominate all areas and aspects of the reproduction in ways that will take quite some time to understand [probably longer than the two weeks or so we get to hear these particular amps] .

[P.S. Neli tells me to post that she thinks that I am not being enthusiastic enough about the amps… not the Lamm nor the Audio Note. I guess I am being very analytical but I do have to focus mightily on understanding the sound so I can try and describe it in these clumsy words we all communicate back and forth with - and maybe I am just tired of the very, very long reviews that I read - when I read any at all these days - that, for their extreme, time-wasting length, are nothing really but vacuous cheerleading at best and disingenuous brown-nosing more often than not.

Hopefully describing WHY these are great amps speaks louder than “OMG Best Amp/Speaker/Digital Ever!!!” (… even though in these particular cases they, in all likelihood, ARE the best… )

It is like, I imagine our very friendly, intelligent and passionate hypothetical readers to say “OK Mike, we have read and surfed our fingers to the bone and it seems like there is nothing out there that is not ‘The Best’. Now you say that these are the best. Now, describe WHY and HOW they are the best. And describe for us how they are different from all the other bests and second bests you have there. ….. And, only if you must, just briefly describe how these bests are better/different than the ’stuff’ that other reviewers, dealers and manufacturers swear up and down are the ‘best’… but JFYI you can skip the comparisons with Bose”)

If any of you very friendly, intelligent and passionate hypothetical readers want to add to that, please let us know].

OK… photos:

The system all setup

Warming up

At night. Those GM70 tubes are quite bright.

Earlier in the day, the ML3 front

The ML3 rear

Closeup of the rear

The ML3 power supply front

The ML3 power supply rear

The ML3 power supply rear closeup

The ML3 without tubes

Closeup of the socket for the GM70 tube and the controls for feedback etc.

Some photos of the amps while warming up

Closeup of the glow of the ML3’s GM70 vacuum tube

Here are some photos of the new EMM Labs TSD1 transport and DAC2 DAC we are taking to RMAF 2008 in a few weeks.

Here is the blurb sent to us which will fill you in on some of the particulars:

“The chassis is completely machined thick aluminum in gorgeous brushed silver with matching metal remote when bought as a set completely redone and retooled from the CES units so they look and feel a lot better and seamless.

The DAC2 is our next generation converter with a host of digital inputs and can be used EASILY with ANY digital source. It has Ed’s MFAST technology that allows it to completely get rid of source jitter and phase distortion inherent in all 2 or multibox systems and acquire audio seamlessly in milliseconds even from the most difficult sources like Satellite Radio, DVB, Computer systems, portable media players etc. It also has all of Ed’s prior technologies, MDAT up-conversion technology where incoming audio is up-sampled to 2X SACD (5.6Mhz) and Ed’s discrete custom built DA converters all built on composite aerospace EMMbed PCB circuit boards. Along with the regular I/O like AES, SPDIF, TOSLINK etc. it also has USB Audio port for connection directly to computers and music servers.

The TSD1 is has the built in MDAT up-converter and 2008 German drive plus it sports the new transport software and LCD screen. It also has the new single fiber EMM Link for interconnection between it and the DAC2.”

DAC2 MSRP is $9,500 US
TSD1 MSRP is $11,000 US

We can testify that when you look at them [and especially when you pick them up ] you can see that they are made with a thick aluminum chassis that feels very solid and robust.

First impressions, after about 3 whole hours(!) of playing [with ] them is that they are very lively like the CDSA but more so [through-out the entire note], that the notes are very well controlled throughout the entire note - something that neither analog nor digital has really contributed to in my experience [instead, we rely on uber amplifiers to do the best that can be done with the signal they are given], and a very black background [the honorable competition, and even the Emm Lab’s own CDSD/DCC2 pair to some lesser extent, seems to try and fill in the background with a lot of extra information - amplifying the quiet sounds so they do not get lost, or to please the listener with a sense of higher resolution - similar to the tipped up midrange on showroom speakers and tipped up contrast on showroom TVs? I don’t know but the digital revolution is still advancing at a rapid pace and this sounds like this will be de’rigeur in a few years. The feeling is that there is a lot more separation between the subtle notes].

But it has only been THREE HOURS. Right now we have to listen around the Cold New Player Effect - things will likely get even better if past experience [with new players] is any predictor of the future experience [improvements associated with broken-in players]. Already I think both Neli and I prefer this pair over the previous Emm Labs digital [and we preferred THAT over other digital we have heard - with the POSSIBLE exception of the Esoteric P-01/D-01/G-0s, which is much more expensive [at $60K+] and we would have to hear much more closely to get a feeling which is ‘better’, or just ‘different’. But this *is* the league EMM Labs is playing in - the best in the world.].

More in a few hundred hours or so. Or come to the show and hear for yourself

The TSD1 transport

The TSD1 transport turned on

The TSD1 rear panel

The DAC2

The DAC2 rear panel

The new remote

The new remote next to the remote that comes with the CDSD/DCC2. Not as wide, same thickness, and without volume controls… Both feel great in the hand

[unlike Sony XBR remotes - boy, my mute button is already squished in after 2 weeks of use. What a POS remote - and these are their top-of-the-line LCDs too].

With our smaller room hosting the king of 300B amps, the Audio Note Kegon Balanced amplifiers - our larger room will be host to the king of GM70 amps - the Lamm ML3 Signature amplifiers [and for those of you who were looking forward to the KB’s on the Supremes - please visit us here in Boulder - anytime, day or night].

With help from Lamm Industries, we will spoil the visitors to our room [and ourselves!] once more this year with the ML3’s on the Marten Coltrane Supremes loudspeakers.

We are not all that familiar with the Lamm ML3 - though for the couple of hours that we heard them on the Wilson MAXX II at CES we were very, very impressed - and this will give us all here in Denver a chance to get a good dose of what they can do. As a reference point, we have had the ML3’s baby brother, the Lamm ML2.1, on the Supremes for most of this year - and most people really love THAT sound. This will be much, much better.

The Supremes present a very high-resolution, very easy, 94-95dB efficient load for the amps because the bass towers, handling everything below 100Hz, are driven by some beefy 2000 watt/channel solid-state amps. This should let us hear exactly what the amps can do in a optimal situation [without having to worry about a speaker’s bass impedance curve shenanigans and listening around bass integration issues] - and likewise hear what the speakers can do driven by amps with a very sophisticated sound [the complexity of each note’s harmonics and micro dynamics being nothing short of remarkable] a sound with what we think of as an innate sense of Russianesque drama and romance.

So… we are psyched! Neli is jumping up and down [and keeps counting HRS isolation bases to see whether we really do have enough to handle the FIVE boxes up front [when one includes the Marten cross-over box], and Mike is [along with talking in the 3rd person for some reason] trying to figure out the cable compliment to use, what TT to bring, etc. We STILL need to try the ODIN speaker cable on the Supremes - but I think we might as well wait for the ML3 to get here at our shop first - because I think the amp->ODIN->Jorma Design PRIME-inside-the-speakers might make the sound very dependent on the amp. What powercords go where …. yadayadayada.

It should be GREAT fun! We hope all of you can make it.

.

OK, so our large room will have the EMM Labs DAC2 / TSD1 - unquestionably the best solid-state digital in the world [to most calm, cool, collected people ]

And this source will be driving a whole system of ‘best of breed’ components:

The Marten ‘Coltrane Supreme’ loudspeakers.

And, lets see, the Harmonic Resolution MXR equipment rack [the best rack, and good looking to boot] and at least one SXR rack.

All of our Nordost ODIN cable will be there - though we may not be able to deploy the ODIN speaker cable - since we only have one run and we would need two for the Supremes [one for the bass tower and one for the main tower].

Also our Jorma Design PRIME, our 10 meter run of Valhalla, our ELROD, Valhalla, and AcroLink power cords and …

Our Audio Note room will also be world class this year - as opposed to the last two years when we brought one of the least expensive - yet best sounding systems at the show [OK, the bar is pretty low at these shows, so this really isn’t more election year hyperbole - it really was one of the better sounds].

This room this year will have our AN/E SEC Signature speakers in Madrone Burl - Audio Note’s second best speakers and one which, if you ‘get it’ [which really means that you are addicted to the immediacy of high-efficiency speakers but at the same time do not like the problems most horns and HE single-driver speakers have - aka you have the reasonable but not all that common requirement that reproduced music should sound like music] is one of the best speakers as well.

And one of our rooms [see, you are starting to see into our juggling of components between the 2 rooms and here - preparing the most special feast ever for all of our guests - and we keep coming up with more ideas… and we are afraid that some might be decent, in amongst all the many, many crazy ones ] will have the best 300B tube-based amplifiers, the Audio Note U.K. Kegon Balanced [see, by separating out amplifiers into which power tube they use, we can have a whole bunch of ‘best amplifiers’ - and it makes sense since each tube has such a different sound]. The other amp will be the 1st or 2nd best amp - with hopefully a different tube… can you guess which one?

And, uh, that is all we know for now.

I do not know why it is, but around here we seem to have a hard time agreeing on what to take to a show - and especially our ‘home town’ show the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest.

But we do know that we are taking the new Emm Labs DAC2 [a DAC … but you probably guessed that But it has no preamp; unlike the DCC2, which does] and TSD1 transport.

Here are some factory photos [we hope to get the pair here and post some more shortly]:

There are some new buttons Particularly the one for PC Audio kind of stands out. We will have a laptop at RMAF to demonstrate this capability…

The remote looks more like the DCC2 / CDSD remote than the newer CDSA remote - but I like them both [I just don’t like heavy metal ones that get really cold in the Winter - we think we already have enough c-o-l-d things here in the Rocky Mountains]. There are also a few new buttons there… can’t wait to try them out