LATEST ADDITIONS

Continuing my tour on the first day of this year's RMAF, let me just say in the first sentence that the beautifully matched system I found up and running in room 9026 fit me like a glove. I have had direct experience over the years, as have many others, with several of the fine audio brands represented in the room hosted by The Audio Alternative, a retailer out of nearby Fort Collins. On show was excellent gear from Audio Research Corporation, Vandersteen Audio, AMG, AudioQuest, and Harmonic Resolutions Systems.

Jason Victor Serinus, Sasha Matson, and myself spent crazy time before the show started talking, scheming and dividing up RMAF rooms. But, in the end, after hours of planning, I finally declared, "You two cover the audio rock stars, I'll go find the rooms of the lesser known, still unknown, or up-and-coming, exhibitors that may have not made show-report headlines in the past. One such newcomer was Dennis Fraker, of Serious Stereo ("We Build What It Takes"). . .

The Rocky Mountain Audio Fest decided to give press a head start this time around by inviting us in two hours before the show's official noon opening on Friday. While not all manufacturers got on board—several of the rooms I tried to visit on the 2nd floor of the Marriott Denver Tech Center's Tower were locked—digital audio pioneer dCS leaped into the breach by staging a 10am press conference for the official release of the dCS Rossini CD player. The company's Martin Reynolds (above) flew over from the UK to do the presentation.

Register to win a pair of Morrow Audio High-end Speaker Cables with SSI Technology (MSRP $139.00) we are giving away.

According to the company:

"Standard version shown in the photo. Bi-wired & Bi-amped versions also available on the Morrow website. The SP3 (shown) consists of 24 runs of solid core, small gauge and individually insulated, silver coated copper wire (renowned SSI Technology) which is then silver soldered to the termination of choice. Silver coated copper wire was chosen for the excellent balance of sound that it provides. "

[This Sweepstakes is now closed.]

Standing in front of the poster for the November issue of Stereophile, new at the show, is Michael Mandell, who used to provide IT services for the magazine when it was first based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Michael is wearing a vintage T-shirt with the "Lonely at the Top" illustration we created for our April 1988 "Recommended Components" issue.

Thursday night, I took the F train to Manhattan's Blue Note, the 8pm set, to see Trio 3—the longstanding improv band, consisting of Oliver Lake on alto sax, Reggie Workman on bass, and Andrew Cyrille on drums—joined by Jason Moran on piano . . . Moran, the most inventive pianist on the scene today, can play anything with anybody.

A lesser known but no less active music town is Northampton, Massachusetts.