“These blood-red eyes don’t see so good / But what’s worse is, if they could / Would I change my ways?”

So sings Dan Auerbach on “These Days,” the closing track from the Black Keys’ excellent 2010 album, Brothers. As Auerbach sings, achingly, slide guitar weeps, bells chime, bass guitar thumps along woefully, cymbals splash, and floor toms rumble. It’s a beautiful few moments of R&B-inspired pop music, flooded with heartache.

I’m sure you’ll know what I mean when I say I hate “Lilac Wine,” even though I think it’s a beautiful, touching song. A girl once put it on a mixtape for me, and you know how those things go. Lilac Wine is sweet and heady like my love. Yadda yadda yadda. I can hardly stand to hear it. But I sat all the way through it, happily, yesterday afternoon in the Resonessence room.

Fried Audio (“Speakers of Truth”), out of Pontiac, Michigan, is on the scene with the Bud Fried Tower ($2995/pair), a handsome two-way, transmission line design. Manufactured in the US, the speaker is available in 10 finishes and uses a Hiquphon ferrofluid OW2 dome tweeter and two 7” Peerless Exclusive woofers. It has a rated sensitivity of 88dB, a nominal impedance of 4 ohms, and a claimed frequency response of 35Hz–20kHz, +/-3dB.

Living Sounds Audio was showing their LSA1 Statement Monitor ($2800/pair). Unlike the standard LSA1, which partners its 6.25” treated paper mid/woofer with a 1” silk-dome tweeter, the Statement uses a folded-ribbon tweeter manufactured by Aurum Cantus. In addition, the Statement has a revised crossover and features upgraded capacitors, resistors, and internal wiring.

I’ve seen many, many smiling faces at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. These two belong to Sound and Vision’s Mike Trei and CNET’s Audiophiliac, Steve Guttenberg.

Beyond all doubt, the most heralded debut at a show filled with more product debuts than could fit in our show preview was the unveiling of the Wilson Audio Alexia loudspeaker ($48,500/pair). Introduced at back-to-back press conferences, the speaker and its elite companions made a stunning impression.

If there's one thing that Dave Wilson (pictured above) knows besides crossover design and time domain alignment, it's the sound of live, unamplified music performed in spaces that do it full justice...

So what if the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest doesn’t officially open until noon Friday? The Stereophile crew—L–R, Jason Victor Serinus, Stephen Mejias, John Atkinson, and Art Dudley—have met for an 8AM strategy session in the Marriott’s Atrium dining area. Omelets devoured and territory divided up by floor, we can finally sit back for a moment, smile, and savor our two hours before the big 11AM pre-show press unveiling of the new Wilson Audio Alexia loudspeaker.

It’s Thursday afternoon, and all is aflutter in the show office in the Denver Marriott Tech Center. Everyone and their mother is arriving at once, and Show Manager Marjorie Baumert heads to the computer as she and her invaluable staff of volunteers move as fast as they can to meet the needs of multiple hundreds of exhibitors.

I spotted this cute little guy on the mezzanine level of the Marriott Tech Center.

A great crowd of enthusiastic audiophiles and music lovers gathered at the registration booth for the 2012 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest.