RMAF 2013 Day 1 highlights
Much thanks go out to Albert Porter for loaning me a memory card after I somehow in a characteristic display of raw and fearsome intelligence forgot to bring mine to the show.
We’ll put the whole show up on Ultimist. But for now, some highlights.
Room 9002 – The Ayre Room. The Ayre guys setup a full-immersion record store time-warp in their room, called it Charlie’s Records, and transported a demonstration hi-fi system right into the middle of it. This is a real store [although LPs are from Boulder’s own ‘Absolute Vinyl Records & Stereo ‘] and there are lots of nice used vinyl here folks.
Vaughn Speakers. Room 9007. Plasma tweeter.
Dail speakers with U.S. flag. Room 8020.
FIM CDs for sale in the First Impression Music room in 2004
More tomorrow morning… OK. It is morning… and here’s more.
A 3-conductor cable weaver in one of the IsoMike / Kimber rooms.
A closeup of the cable being weaved and the 3 spools of conductor. Looks like there is room for 5(?) conductors on this weaver.
The Kimber Kable mascot [I think that is what it is. I forgot what Ray Kimber called it. Doh!]
A prototype 1500 watt 220V amplifier from EmmLabs. Effortlessness. Surprisingly truly significantly different from the big Pass Labs amps of years past on these Sony speakers. In the big IsoMike room.
The crane used by EmmLabs to lift the 400 lb amps out of their crates. We want one. My arms and back feel better just looking at it. 🙂
Acoustic Sounds in the Bluebell room [far side of the first floor] was playing good music.
The Audio Note U.K. room number 566 was showing an older version of their smaller ‘K’ speakers [$3000-ish]. We all listened to some reel-to-reel fabulousness at the end of the day. The Beatles, for me, was exceptional [way better than the commercial releases, though I have not heard the latest re-mastered re-released re-pressings].
Any thoughts on the Audio Note UK room? Curious, since they usually show gear higher up the ladder and at least the E’s.
Hi Kevin,
I think I remember Dave Cope [Audio Note rep] saying that this was only the 3rd time AN has shown the K speakers in the U.S. at a show. These were actually older K’s and Neli said that they were a couple revs behind in driver updates. This pair is scheduled to be updated – although I am not sure if they will be shown again in the near future or not.
My immediate impression was that the K’s settled into the corners better, sonically, than the E’s and presented a more believable soundstage. Dave thought that was because the E’s tend to excite the cheap walls more than the K’s, with their larger woofer [the walls are not the common solid white plasterboard on 2×4 studs we see in most homes in the U.S. When I bang on it with a fist it feels more like cheaper and bouncier paperboard with studs spaced very 4 to 6 feet. This is true also for the ‘exterior-looking’ wall in this room which in fact just faces the interior atrium of the hotel]. The K’s, being smaller, will just fit tighter in the corner … a good thing for horn-driving the corners in a room.
Over the few days of the show, however, the guys [Dave and John Geisen – Wellington Audio] moved the speakers out from the corners [but still against the front wall]. First about 4 inches? Then about 10? in order to tighten up the bass and present a crisper mid-range. Although this reduced the overall amount of the bass – always a struggle with such small speakers – it did provide for a more universally pleasurable listening experience.
Take care.
-Mike
Over the years, I’ve shown everything from a full level Zero system to a fulevel five system in North America. With 44 page price, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover.
E’s were shown at the previous 8 RMAFs and all but 4 shows in the last 12 years. It’s high time for a bit of variety, thus 2014 will be the year of the K and the J speakers.
Dave