RMAF 2010

Physical Sound from Kaiser, GTE Audio, and Fono Acustica

Stephen Mejias  |  Oct 21, 2010

Perhaps the very prettiest gear of all I saw at RMAF was in the room occupied by Kaiser Acoustics, GTE Audio, and Fono Acustica. This was also the most physical sound I heard at the show; this system, more than any other I heard at RMAF, seemed to bring the musicians and instruments into the room with really impressive body and force.

Everything in the room was so foreign to me, my time spent there was a blur of luxurious equipment and that forceful sound.

I met with Kaiser’s technical director, Rainer Weber, who walked me through the system. They were using a PC front-end running Vista and the memory software player from Netherlands’ XXHighEnd with FireWire output to the Weiss Vesta where the data was converted to S/PDIF. The impressive Trinity DAC and AMP came from Germany’s GTE Audio. Speakers were the Kaiser Kawero ($65,000/pair), also made in Germany. All cables were from Spain’s Fono Acustica. Components were sitting on Stillpoints racks and platforms. There was no power conditioning or overtly obvious room treatments, but Stein Music’s Harmonizers and Magic Stones were scattered about the room.

COMMENTS
Darren's picture
Submitted by Darren (not verified) on October 21, 2010 - 11:03am

Loved this room. There were 3 Kaiser rooms. The 5th floor room sounded very poor and was large but empty. The 4th floor rooms were much better, this being best. The speakers sounded fabulous 2 years ago and with the new Solid State equipment as opposed to tubes 2 years ago equally excellent but but different. I would rank this in the top 3 of show. If money is no object, I would put these speakers on my short list. Something special about the RAAL tweeter.

Jim M's picture
Submitted by Jim M (not verified) on October 21, 2010 - 2:09pm

I agree that the sound in this room was tight and dynamic. I thought it was one of the better rooms in the show.

Dave Garretson's picture
Submitted by Dave Garretson (not verified) on October 22, 2010 - 11:01am

This was an impressive room and an auspicious debut of Fono Acustica cables in North America. I have since had the pleasure of joining the Fono Acustica team as their sales agency tasked with growing a dealer network in North America. Afterhours Fono Acustica Harmonico precious metal cables traveled around for demos-- most notably a bake-off against Echole Obsession in the Silicon Arts room. Suffice to say that Harmonico acquitted itself honorably. We welcome inquiries from dealers and end-customers in North America.

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