Audio Federation at Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2006 (Room #9030)
Boulder, Colorado  -  303-546-6503  -  AudioFederation.com  -   Audiophile’s Guide to the Galaxy – HiFi’ing Blog
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Speakers

If you personally want to experience the art and the majesty, the talent and the skill and the message and the emotion and the awesome delicacies and complexities of the human condition as communicated by the musicians to listeners just like you throughout the ages, then perhaps these speakers are for you.

We chose the Coltrane Supremes for this year's show because they are one of the world’s very few price-no-object statement loudspeakers and we thought you might want to hear them To drive them we have assembled a correspondingly statement-level system:

A truly legendary tube amplifier (the Audio Note Kegon) and one of our favorite solid-state amps (there are very few) – silky smooth and fast, with great pacing (the Edge Signature One), a preamplifier that challenges a baby’s laughter for the ability to enchant (the Audio Note M10), a digital front end that is acknowledged by most independent observers as the top CD / SACD player in the world (the Emm Labs CDSD and DCC2 Signature Edition), cables that are closer in spirit to Merlyn than the silver and gold molecules they are constructed from (the Jorma Design Prime), and equipment racks and platforms that tame vibrations in such a manner that they have become as important to the quality of the sound as any of the system’s primary components (the HRS MXR equipment racks and M3 Isolation Bases), power cords from the world’s foremost practitioners of the art (Shunyata, Nordost, Elrod) and in the world of unreliable and over-priced turntables, here is one that is built to last, easy-to-use, and sonically outstanding (the Brinkmann Balance turntable with the Lamm “sounds like it is supposed to” LP2 and Lyra Titan cartridge). Our Coltrane Supreme loudspeakers are brand new and had  gone through only the factory break-in at show time. Similarly, the M10 preamplifier is brand new with only 5 days of break-in. So while we try to demonstrate what is now possible, please pardon us if you catch us tearing our hair out.

Utilizing a light-weight, super-strong carbon fiber enclosure; with Accuton ceramic drivers, the Accuton diamond tweeter and 2” diamond midrange. 20 - 100,000 Hz +/- 1.5 dB. 93dB. Internally wired with Jorma Design Prime cabling. 650lbs includes all four towers. From Sweden.

Amplifiers

We have found these amplifiers to sound quite magical in combination with the Marten speakers, in spite of their relatively low power. Dynamics, verve, sophistication, embodiment, are all exceptional and these are just pure pleasure to listen to.

22 watt Class A parallel single-ended no feedback mono triode power amplifiers, all Audio Note™ silver wired circuit & power supply, Audio Note™ silver foil signal capacitors & tantalum resistors, Black Gate caps wherever possible, all Audio Note™ silver wired output transformer. RMAF 2005 tube complement: 4 x Sophia 300B (or EAT/TJ 300B). From the U.K.

These amplifiers are amazingly synergistic with the Coltrane speakers, the slight warmth and extreme delicacy of both the amplifiers and the speakers combining to produce a very transparent, very engaging sound. 400 watts into 8 ohms. 120 lbs. From the U.S.A.

This pair is an older version – on sale!

Pre-Amplifier

The Audio Note U.K. M10 line-stage preamplifier is like taking the always magical sound of the Audio Note Kegon amplifier and squirting it into a preamplifier. The music just loves this thing.

The M10 utilizes two massive power supplies, installed in two MEISHU size chassis. These patent applied for units provide the circuit with “better than battery” quality voltage and current. From the U.K.

Digital (continued on the flip side)

This Signature Edition transport custom designed for EMMLabs DACs by one of the primary inventors of the new SACD format. Plays CD and SACD discs and, in combination with the DAC, is widely acknowledged as currently the best SACD playback in existence. From Canada.

The DCC2 Signature Edition brings to the home the same sonic performance of its professional sibling (the DAC 8) that was so instrumental in establishing the SACD format as a technical tour-de-force. Compatible with CD and SACD discs. From Canada.

Analog

Clean design. Well engineered. Professionally built. Easy to use. Sounds and looks beautiful. Authoritative. Extended. Outstanding pacing. From Germany.

Cables

Clean, neutral, and fast. When your components are good enough that you want to hear everything they are capable of. These are THE standard, the ones to beat. Made of many thin conductors, each conductor is made from optimized diameter solid 99.999999% oxygen free copper that has 78 microns of extruded silver on the surface. The surface of each conductor is highly polished before a high precision Micro Mono-Filament wrap is helically wound over the conductor. From the U.S.A.

The harmonics and emotion these cables reveal in the music make them invaluable in high-end systems. These cables are made of amorphous metal - i.e. the wire has zero grain or crystal structure. This metal was forged in the USSR back during the cold war and is in very limited supply. From the U.S.A.

[No. 1] This is the only speaker cable we have found that is as neutral as the Valhalla (others seemed to remove too much detail or were compressing large musical transients or worse), trading a little more body for a little less detail. [Prime]. Awesome level of detail with staggering harmonics. From Sweden.

Power cords and distributors

The Hydra model-8 combines high-current capability with Shunyata’s passive form of noise reduction and system protection to offer the perfect all-in-one power-distribution solution. From the U.S.A.

The Anaconda VX ’s with patented FeSi-1000 noise reduction materials (and the Alpha without) and hand-braided matrix conductor geometry act as an arm of refined noise-isolation when applied to noise-sensitive digital or visual electronics. From the U.S.A.

Nordost Valhalla power cords are clean, neutral, and fast, sounding very much like their speaker cable and interconnect counterparts. From the U.S.A.

Giant power cords that give that giant sound. Full-bodied with a capital ‘F’. From the U.S.A.

Racks, vibration control platforms and devices

Ours is gloss black with four HRS M3 Isolation Bases as shelves. Sonically the best rack made. By far. No comparison. These racks are a component in-and-of-themselves – tightening up the bass and midrange to a amazing degree, making it seem as if the system is both more powerful and of a significantly higher quality than it was without the rack. The HRS Isolation base significantly improves the performance of any component that it is placed under. The base consists of a thick slab of granite isolated from a custom metal frame resting on four very special feet. From the U.S.A.

Thanks for stopping by and having a listen. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Sincerely, your hosts:

Neli & Mike Davis (Audio Federation), Lawrence Blair (Brinkmann North America), Dave Cope (Audio Note UK), Jorma Koski (Jorma Design), Mike Latvis (HRS), Lief Olofsson (Marten), Steven Norber (Edge)