Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2006 Show Report
In aquiesance to the requests for both large and small photos, we have gone back to posting them in 3 different sizes: 500 x 500 pixels, 1000 x 800 pixels and 1500 x 1000 pixels.
Enjoy!
Not sure if everybody saw this, but Jason Victor Serinus, who wrote the show report for the Stereophile Blog this year, said some very nice things about the sound in our room:
Stereophile’s comments on our room at RMAF 2006
Funny, during some of the time that Jason was listening to the system I was talking to Albert Porter about cameras. Albert is a photographer and thinks nothing of spending big bucks for cameras whereas I agonize over spending $1200 bucks (and get looks from my most significant one like I was crazy for spending that kind of money 🙂 ).
Anyway, we effectively got kicked out of the room because we were making too much noise (which we were – apologies to everyone – but I was spacing out being so intent on trying to pick Albert’s brain because over the years as I get better at photographing hardware, the better his photos look in comparison to mine – I know, kind of backwards, but it is true).
I guess that is one of things about shows – it is both a social event and a listening event – and the two are really quite incompatible.
Anyway, we just want to thank Jason for his nice report.
A snow storm yesterday brought a foot of snow and snow this massive at this time of year usually KOs a few tree branches that still have some leaves left, knocking said branches into devices that supply power to Neli and Mike’s house.
So we had no power yesterday.
You know, it is awfully hard to live a modern life without electricity,not to mention playing recorded music.
But it did allow us time to make a lot of phone calls on the ONE phone that does not need power to run and setup the systems for the day when the Power returns….
The Coltrane Supremes day before yesterday
The Coltrane Supremes yesterday
We appologize that it is taking us so long to get up and running (and finish the show report). We’ve had a few industry reps over (we don’t care if THEY don’t get the full impact of hearing all four of our systems running on all cylindars – the Acapella Triolon speaker, Edge reference ‘pyramid’ amp and Audio Aero Prestige CD / SACD player system IS, however, up and running), but, well, here is Mike & Neli’s October exercise program:
Step One: carry 2000 lbs of equipment down the stairs
Step Two: carry 3000 lbs of equipment up the stairs
Step Three: survive step one and step two 🙂
Listening room number three’s mess
Listening room number two South side mess.
Look Ma, no TV! Yes, it is true, no video with high-end audio for Mike until we get a front projector (90% chance it will be the Sony Ruby).
This is where the Marten Coltrane Supremes will go. You can’t tell it from this picture, but the view out the windows is very nice – the same view as our main room, but a little more intimate because it is closer to the ground and the trees block more of the view.
Putting the Coltane Supreme loudspeakers here will allow us to learn about how to setup these puppies in a more-or-less reasonably sized room (15 x 27 x 8 feet tall). The SoundLab Ultimate loudspeakers you see here are going to be moved to the North side of listening room #2.
Listening room number two’s North side mess. These crates are the crates for the Coltrane Supremes. Yay, we got them up the 30+ steps up from the garage to this lower level – and by just the two of us (with an extra push from an industry rep who shall remain namesless for the time being – it was great seeing you guys!).
Now comes the hard part, picking which racks to put where and which components to set things up with initially.
I want to put the double-wide RixRax here on the North side, but instead of in the normal configuration (which would trap a lot of space behind the rack because it is a doublewide and the wall is shapped like the end of a octagon) I want to position it so that it sticks out into the room – so that there is easy access to both the front (i.e. what would not be the left side) and the back (which would now be the right side). But Neli thinks I am crazy – especially now that I have proposed this non-standard orientation for the rack.
Anyone else think this is a good idea? All of you who do not post an opinion, I will try and convince Neli that you all think it is a good idea too……
…..yeah, I know, she won’t believe me even for a second…
As of last night, the proposed allocation of components to speakers goes like this:
Coltrane Supremes:
—————————
Audio Note CDT Three transport and DAC 4.1x Balanced
Lamm L2 linestage
Lamm LP2 phono stage
Walker Proscenium Gold Signature turntable
Lamm ML2.1 amplifiers
[This system sounded so AWESOME on the smaller Coltrane loudspeakers – we are hoping this awesomeness transfers to the big boys].
Soundlab Ultimate 1 (with guest stars: the Kharma Mini Exquisites and Acoustic Zen Adagio loudspekaers)
—————————
Emmlabs CDSD Signature transport and DCC2 Signature DAC digital source
Audio Note M10 preamplifier
Edge Signature One amplifiers
[We used this system to break in the M10, but it sounded so wonderful – the Soundlabs really sounding organic and warm enough to compete with speakers costing a heckuva lot more than the $31K that these go for].
Audio Note AN/E SEC Silver Signature (with guest star the Marten Coltrane loudspeakers):
————————————————-
Brinkmann Balance turntable
Audio Note M8 full-function preamp
Audio Aero Capitole CD player
Audio Note Kegon amplifiers
[We want to try a turntable on the Audio Note spekaers and we want to hear how the Coltranes sound in this small, 10.5 x 20 x 9 feet tall room]
Of course, all this could change today as we move stuff around.
Wow, how much fun is this, the critic critiqing other critics 🙂
They liked our all Audio Note room (what is not to like), but had an interesting take on our other room.
This is so funny, because we quite worried that the system would be overly loud. This system had a tendency to play at really high volumes, and with such amzingly low amounts of distortion it was sometimes hard to tell just how loud it really was.
And I quote:
I think maybe that CSNY is not the best match for Dave and Carol…. 🙂
It was my choice to put on “Suite Judy Blue Eyes”, which is what I think I put on from that album at that time (one of my all time favorite songs – along with most of the other songs on that LP – along with most of their other LPs – and all of Neil’s LPs. I know we played Cinnamon Girl but I do not remember Down By the River… Oh well, next show :-)).
I also played a whole album side of Abbey Road. which I also played at pleasant volumes (you had to talk loudly to be heard over it but not shout). And Peter Tosh ‘Legalize It” [THAT we played LOUD]. Yes, they are somewhat compressed and my playing it was to some extent risky. Why? Because they aren’t AUDIOPHILE SHOW APPROVED.
There is an AUDIOPHILE APPROVED volume.
There is an AUDIOPHILE APPROVED artist and track list (somewhat dependent on the particular audiophile).
There is an AUDIOPHILE APPROVED song length.
There is an AUDIOPHILE APPROVED recording quality.
There is an AUDIOPHILE APPROVED drum solo length (OK, we all have this :-)).
There is an AUDIOPHILE APPROVED amount of Partricia Barber and Diana Krall (which now rests at zero :-)).
Personally, what I wanted to show at RMAF is that our systems can play music people actually want to listen to. And we did and it worked. The room was packed just about the whole show (re: lack of pictures I was able to get out of the room to take this show – but we did take around 1000).
We played Stevie Ray Vaughn at live show levels.
…and we played Holst the Planets where you soemtimes had to strain your ears to hear what was happening (and hold on to your seats 30 seconds later).
But *if* you evaluate systems largely on their dynamic capabilities, then you should evaluate the systems when they are playing dynamic music. [Dave and Carol requested to hear more dynamic music, but left a scant few seconds later. ??? ]
As this post concludes itself, I want to talk about how much fun it is to DJ at a show.
First, a show is like one gigantic party. I mean, 1000s of like minded people kind of mill around, wandering from room to room amoungst 100s of rooms, listening to tunes, chatting with friends, playing their own CDs her and there, hearing new music, getting to play it louder than their situation at home may allow… It Is A Blast.
Now imagine you get to DJ in one of these rooms. A room is like a Club. The DJ gets to play music they like and that they think the Club goers will like. There is a lot of “Oh, I bet people will think this is cool.” or “This is such wonderful music, and it brings back such memories and it sounds amazing better now that it did on my old plastic turntable (or 1st generation CD player for you younger people out there 🙂 … or first IPOD for you even younger people out there :-))”.
Often, I like to play quiet peices between pieces that rock out – kind of like Led Zepelin albums, or even Deep Purple [although some albums are just one long intense nuclear rocket-powered roller coaster ride :-)] . Have you noticed that they interperse quiet or acoustsic tracks in amongst the adrennilin-inducing ones? Well, people at a show are no different – sometimes we need to recover a bit after a particularly emotional, or aggressive, or delicate, or nostalgic …piece. So as a newbee DJ, I practice the “Mix It Up” technique of realtime playlist generation.
We all have our personal tastes… We can’t play AC/DC or Sonic Youth, or… with Neli in the room, We can’t play anything from Hell Freezes Over with either Steve or Neli in the room, we can’t play hip-hop or rap with anyone else in the room but me (and Ben 🙂 ) ….:-) etc. etc.
Anyway, being DJ at a show allows one to play not to a captive audience, but an interested one, which is much more fun, much more challenging, and much more rewarding.
We want to thank everybody for visiting our room. We hope you enjoyed your stay. Thank you and good night.
… well… not quite.
We finally got all our stuff out of the Marriot RMAF show hotel and drove up around 2:00pm to stairs covered in 8 inches or so of snow. But, at least the driveway was melted!
Now comes the setting up of all the equipment once again, warming it up… Just like a show, but the show is ‘here’ and not ‘there’.
BTW, carrying all this heavy audio gear up and down 45 steps I have found to be quite a workout. So, I was thinking, if any of you are thinking about getting in shape, just start moving your audio gear around from room to room. What a great excuse to offer the more audio-shy significant others…”It keeps me off the streets and provides a healthy anerobic workout”.
🙂
Sunday was a suprisingly busy day for us. There was a lull around 2:00pm (start of the Broncos game?) but otherwise the room was usually full.
I did get to go play a few of my CDs on the Kharma Midi Exquisites / MBL system and listen some more to the Isomike 12 SoundLab system.
We stopped playing music around 4:30 (show ended at 4:00pm) , which is earlier than usual for us but we had a lot of packing to do. Even with help we were still packing at midnight and have a few more hours of packing and loading the truck later this morning.
My personal overall impression of the show was that most things sounded pretty good – which is to day that most rooms did not sound so horrible that I had to grit my teeth taking pictures of the room (there is a lot of gritting of teeth at the Stereophile shows and even some at CES).
That said, there wasn’t much that was spectacular either. My favorite non-Audio Federation room (though we do carry Kharma, we do not carry MBL) was the Kharma Midi Exquisite room… the new bass drivers work for me.
The show report is going to be a little strange this year. For one, I didn’t get a heck of a lot of time to listen to things. Second, many of the rooms that exhibited speakers we carry sounded better than most other rooms. There are several reasons for this – one is that we carry a lot of gear that we heard sound good at shows, figuring that if they can sound good in hotel rooms at shows they should sound good in people’s listening rooms. Another is that we only carry what sounds good, at least to our ears, as opposed to the myriad other methods dealers use to pick which equipment they sell.
This is all to say that show report will talk about these rooms and provide updates / opinions on others that we have recommended / panned in the past. If something that we have said sounded great at other shows but wasn’t up to its normal greatness this time out, we will say so (Starsound’s Caravelle speaker room and Cogent True-to-Life horn speakers… sorry guys, you’re still two of our favorite speaker designs, but…). And things we did not like sounded pretty darn good at this show, we will also say so (Can’t think of anything). The other rooms, not only of local dealers who we never cover – great or not, but others that, yes, have this flaw or that, will not be critiqued.
As far as Audio Federation’s two rooms goes…
The Audio Note room seemed to be an excellent example of just what can be done with Audio Note equipment, and we and the show goers seem to be very happy with the sound.
The big room seemed also to really knock people’s socks off – which is to say that they loved it – even though I personally agonized over a few sonic artifacts related to the fact that both the Marten Coltrane Supreme speakers and the Audio Note M10 preamplifier were not yet really broken in. Maybe I am just pickier with our rooms than I am with others – and perhaps I should be 🙂 But I can’t wait until a few months have gone by and these two REALLY start cookin’ – and then everybody who heard our system at the show can come up for another listen if they get a chance (yes, you are all invited). Or, there is always next Fall at RMAF 2007!
[After this was written, I learned that the 4 ohm taps on the Kageki are located where the 8 ohm taps are on the Kegons. So, stupid story short, the description below is of the Kageki on the 4 ohm outputs. That therefore most likely means that the enhanced bass and decresed resolution had more to do with the using the 4 ohm instead of the 8 ohm outputs than it had to do with the difference between amps – BUT that the difference in emotion and dynamic swell will likely only be MORE different than reported here]
Been a very busy show for us. I am trying to get at least a photo or two of each room – and we are about 90% there. But even with help from our friends, the high amount of interest has kept me in our exhibit room quite a bit.
We did get to play junior Mixibitors this evening. We swapped out Audio Note Kegon amplifiers for the Audio Note Kageki amps next door for a long listen.
The old high-gain Kageki amps in our RMAF show system
The Kageki are 2A3 tube-based and about 7 to 8 watts in comparision to the 300B tube-based Kegons at 22 watts or so.
The Kageki have slightly richer harmonics and a slight ’tilt’ to the tonal signature in comparison to the more neutral Kegons.
The dynamic ‘swelling’ on the Kageki was more pronouced. The bass was also gripped slightly tighter in the mid-bass, but was not as controlling nor beefy in the lower bass.
Listening to the 2A3 Kageki was a somewhat more emotional experience, with perhaps a slight reduction in resolution as well. I also wonder if the separation on the Kageki was slightly better as well – but this may be because the bass on the active (self powered) Marten Coltrane Supreme loudspeakers was reduced a bit in comparision with the Kegons because we did not have time to dial it in – and the bass in this room is a little problematic, often negatively affecting the overhang and imaging and separation.
All in all the two amps were quite comparable in my opinion – but definitely different flavors…. So of course we want both! But.. not going to happen any time soon, unfortunately. Reason must prevail… right?
Last I looked the Kegons are at about $50K and the Kageki at $40K.
Anyway, those darn Mixibitors did not get to have ALL the fun this show…. 🙂
One thing that may be of interest is that the new Emmlabs sinlge-box CD / SACD player, the CDSA, was shown for the first time yesterday. It will be $10K but it will not have a variable output stage (i.e. no built-in linestage).
At this time, Decemeber 1st is the expected release date.
Emmlabs’ CDSA CD / SACD player
In the final version only a couple of LEDs will be glowing like this.
It looks remarkably like an ordinary CDSD does it not? Sounded like one too, but I only had a wee bit of a listen… really less than a wee bit when I think back to it….
So much to hear, so little time.
Giant pictures on the daily photos…
… and they would be here:
… except for the panic.
Early system configuration… We did most of the setup using the EDGE signature One solid-state amps.
Introduction of the Audio note Kegons… During the polishing phase…
Adjusting the distance from the wall. Leif from Marten did most of the adjusting of his “Coltrane Supreme” speakers.
The rack configuration… The rack configuration stayed mostly the same during setup – thankfully – with only a major swap out of interconnects (Neli wanted to move the Jorma Prime up front between the crossover and the amps) and and another of power cords (we needed power cords for the Kegons – right now thay are Shunyata Anaconda Alpha Helix – which I like but we might try the Elrod Statements before the show tomorrow).
More later on all this… it is 5:15am and I had better get back to sleep .. Show opens 12pm tomorrow.
