Down the hall in room 2030 was the German MBL demo. The more I hear the MBL-101e Radialstrahler Omni speakers the more I like them. They can impart very subtle lifelike details that bring you closer to the performance. A large MBL Reference 9007 amplifier was powering this system.
Over on one side of the room was an extremely interesting little 3 way MBL 121 mini speaker I am interested in I think it might be very good.
Mezzanine floor has 6 large meeting sized rooms with multiple big money systems put together mostly by dealers. All of these large rooms are very impressive and loud and for me they simply do not work. If my listening space were a train station waiting room than maybe they would have some relevance. On the other hand if they just wanted to look very impressive well they certainly succeeded.
Pikes Peak room on the mezzanine, Rhythm Marketing LLC. Question, why was a 2way Gamut Audio L3 speaker playing against the long wall of a 1,800 Sq. foot meeting room? Someone was paying a lot of money for next to nothing.
Maroon Peak and Blanca Peak, Audio Unlimited showrooms. I have to admit the large $48,000 Wilson Max 2 speakers powered by Boulder amplification was able to play O.K. in both large rooms.
Finally I moved downstairs to the ground floor and main lobby were exhibitor space comprises 11 rooms on this level. However not all of the rooms were used for the fest and only a few of them were noteworthy. In the afternoon
Michael Fremer put on one of his Turntable clinics in the Aspen Amphitheater. There was a time years ago, if someone told me a guy was giving classes on adjusting record players I would not have believed it. But back than if the record skipped you taped a nickel on the tone arm. In the Evergreen A salon I witnessed another really big auditorium
demonstration.
Wilson Max 2 speakers with dual Gershman Raven subs and 6-bridged DM 88 Halcro amps and music sourced from Wadia digital. I listened to Elton John singing Candle in the wind and it sounded live from this mega buck system.
I saved the biggest and maybe the best ever surround sound Demonstration for last. Evergreen salons E, D and F were combined to form one huge amphitheater. This was a joint effort of Sound labs, Kimber Kable, Pass Labs, Roland, and the Iso-Mike companies. The room was set up with 12 huge Sound Labs professional speakers arranged so as to form the four corners of a box.
At each of the four corners were 3 Sound Labs panels; the outer 2 panels were toed in so as to form a 3-speaker 66-degree curved array. The 3 corner panels placed side by side combined to measure 120 inches in width by 104 inches high. 200-watt Pass labs amplifiers drove the front left and right side speakers. Roland mono amplifiers powered the rear corners and the whole system ran off a computer controlled touch screen music server. Unfortunately the Iso-Mike surround sound microphone demo was not very dynamic and the overall effect was that everything was far away and distant. Still I must and do applaud Ray Kimber
and the tremendous effort made by so many people.
Well "That's All Folks!" as it is Sunday and it is late, the show sponsors tell me the paid attendance was 2,216 up from 1,900 last year. And the registered exhibitors numbers increased to 316 exact total unknown with many rooms shared by more than one business. I came away from the Fest with the reassuring knowledge that analogue and innovation was very much alive. At the show about half of the exhibitors had setup systems with turntables. Contrastingly I saw a growing number and variety of digital amplifiers. It is my guess that these small cool running solid-state devices have a higher profit margin. Beggar to King garage amateur wannabe's and multi millions manufacturers they were all here.
The RMAF was easily one of the best Hi-End audio shows I have ever attended. I urge every Audiophile on the planet to make the pilgrimage to Denver it is an experience not to be missed. Semper Hi-Fi.
Click here for main RMAF 2006
show page.
High-Performance Audio Reviews
