RMAF 2017 Show Report Overview
This year's RMAF event was a success in virtually every way possible!

  "It's going to be a busy week, or two, ahead of me". Looking back at all the amazing things that were shown during RMAF 2017, the many photos, and with page after page of notes, there is no doubt that the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2017 was a major success! With hotel renovations now complete, the venue was familiar in some ways and quite new in others. From large meeting rooms to the smaller spaces spanning many floors, room after room featured great gear, and it sounded sensational too!

As the show began, the line to get RMAF 2017 tickets was the most enthusiastic, and long, as i can ever recall. Even an hour after the above photo was taken there were more people arriving, with show personnel helping everyone get what they needed as the line moved fairly swiftly. Towards the end of the day Saturday, the staff at RMAF said they were already running low on show booklets. Am not sure the exact number of people who attended RMAF 2017, as official numbers have not been released yet. It may be a new record attendance!

With my enthusiastic and lovely wife Heather by my side, we both made it to Denver with only two days to see and hear as much as possible. There were 160 exhibit spaces representing more than 400 companies from North and South America, Europe, Australia and Asia. We could have easily filled four days with things to hear, see and do at RMAF 2017, yet we only had half that time to get as much done as possible to bring you my show report. Making time that much more 'rare', there were many Enjoy the Music.com Blue Note Awards to hand out on the first day. Add in quite a few business meetings plus the usual press events and... 

During the upcoming days will be posting Heather and my impressions of a variety of rooms. In fact Heather felt that RMAF 217 had many great sounding rooms! Enjoy the Music.com readers love show coverage, and you can look forward to Kemper Holt's RMAF 2017 show report that will mainly focus on high-end home audio gear. Our portable / personal audio specialist Dave Hanson will be covering CanJam 2017 @ Denver. All three of us are working feverishly to bring you our best RMAF coverage to date!

High-End Audio... Expanded
There is no doubt that advances in technology in both the digital and analog domain are bringing us ever-closer to aural perfection. RMAF 2017 featured everything from new turntables and phono cartridges to analog / digital preamplifiers, music streamers, disc rippers, tube amplifiers, headphones, portable media players... and even loudspeakers. We've all greatly benefited from new Hi-Res Audio source material, reel-to-reel tapes, and of course the latest vinyl LP releases. Great sound on a budget is back! Sure that $50,000 amp/speaker/DAC/whatever is outstanding, yet in many rooms you could enjoy superb sound for well under $5000.

We can all agree that there's never been a better time for being a music lover. New vinyl LPs, turntables and cartridges for analog'philes, Hi-Res Audio for digital/portable use, and of course streamers (hardware) and computer software such as Roon make their way into many audiophile systems. With all-in-one DAC / amp / monitor units delivering impressive sound all within a bookshelf speaker size, they join massively heavy floorstanding speakers, multi-box preamplifiers, and a staggering variety of cables and tweaks to choose from. After many decades within this industry, i have never seen as many manufacturers who, in total, are producing a large variety of components you may choose from. All the aforementioned and more were at RMAF for you to explore.

And More...
Speaking of more, would love to say there was time to attend one of the many excellent seminars during RMAF, yet time was simply not on our side. Did briefly sit in on a few and there was great info being shared, with excellent questions from the audience. Of course there were live music events too! After show hours, many of us would get together to enjoy dinner to talk shop, or perhaps catch-up on how family and friends are doing. Am sure that everyone who attended RMAF 2017 came away impressed. This year's event was the best to date and am looking forward to RMAF 2018!

As always, in the end what really matters is that you...

Enjoy the Music,

Steven R. Rochlin

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