Bob O'Neill sold advertising for <I>Stereophile</I> in the early 1980s and also contributed record reviews to the magazine. He became a firm friend of J. Gordon Holt's and gave a moving eulogy honoring Gordon's memory at RMAF.
When I last met Charles Holt in 1991, he was a teenager. But I had no problem recognizing him at RMAF—he looks just like his Dad. And, as you can see in Jason Serinus' photograph, in which Charles is flanked by his girlfriend Melissa and me, Charles is wearing the infamous "<A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/the_finger_button/">finger button</A>," which was Gordon's favorite image of himself.
Tube amp designer Roger Modjeski (Music Reference) toasts Gordon Holt with a Martini.
Bea Lam's Martini party in honor of J. Gordon Holt—that's Bea at the right of the photo— concluded with a solo violin recital to remind partygoers what high-end audio is all about.
Restocking the magazines on the <I>Stereophile</I> booth, I saw a familiar face on the booth next door. Audio industry veteran Jim Smith was selling (and autographing) copies of his book <I>Get Better Sound</I>, which is, as the name suggests, about how to get better sound from your system.
Since the demise of of its own Show, <I>Stereophile</I> has been supporting North American audio Shows, which was why you can find us at RMAF in Denver and <A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/ssi2009/">SSI in Montreal</A>. Next March, we are partnering with the Axpona Show in Florida, which had a booth at RMAF. The booth was manned, er, personed by two beautiful girls but, of course, when I went back with my camera, they had left for the day.
As expected, Bel Canto Design's complement of components fully lived up to their reputation for affordable excellence. The top-of-the-line e.One CD2 CD transport/player ($2995), prototype DAC 3.5 (price not yet set), two REF500M Balanced mono amplifiers ($1995/each), REF VBS1 Virtual Battery Supply, which can power up to three front-end products ($1495), USB Link 24/96 USB to /SPDIF link ($495), and new USB Lightlink High Speed Optical ST glass-fiber link (price not supplied) were fed by an Airport Express-equipped computer server. As Bel Canto President Michael McCormick explained, "The DAC 3.5's excellent jitter rejection is at the center of the system." A Running Springs Power Conditioner completed the chain… except for one major component, the speakers.
"This wasn't our choice of music," whispered German Physiks' Robert Kelly when I entered the room they were sharing with Danish electronics manufacturer Vitus Audio. "No problem," I whispered back, " I love Howard Shore's symphonic score to the movie trilogy <I>Lord of the Rings</I>," which a visitor had asked to be played.
Listening to a Toni Braxton cut on the LSA1 Statement speakers ($2599/pair), driven by an Exemplar-modded Denon 2910 DVD player and LSA's hybrid integrated amplifier (reviewed by <I>Stereophile</I> when it was called the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/integratedamps/606dk/">DK Designs VS.1 Reference Mk.III</A>), I was struck by how much low-frequency information was coming from this nicely finished two-way stand-mount.
My attention was caught by the USB flash drive sticking out of the side of the Aura Premier CD player/receiver/headphone amplifier ($2595) in one of the April Music/May Audio rooms. And so it should have caught my attention, because it was styled by noted English industrial designer Kenneth Grange, responsible for some of ther classic B&W designs on the 1970s and '80s. The Premier will play MP3, WMA, and Ogg Vorbbis files from its USB-B input and it also has a USB-A port that will accept data sampled at up to 48kHz with 16-bit resolution.