For some system configurations, hotel rooms present near impossible challenges. Such was the case in one padded cell on the 5th floor of the Marriott Denver Tech Center, where the frustrated purveyors of a modestly priced A/V surround system raided the linen closet in a desperate attempt to tame errant sound. I didn’t have the heart to ask if the reflective surface of the black plastic tape might be making matters worse.

Photographed in a state of mild panic, as your truly was trying to figure out what was wrong with his new Canon digital camera [<I>Answer: nothing but his brain</I>], the dedicated Serinus RMAF work area at the Marriott is pictured in its characteristically unglorious state.

Gilbert Yeung of Blue Circle Audio never fails to brighten my day. In this case, his electronics did likewise.

At the suggestion of a fellow BAAS (Bay Area Audiophile Society) member, I abandoned futile attempts to cover every room on a given floor, and instead pinpointed systems that had turned my brothers on. In this case, it was the room shared by Flying Mole Digital and Green Mountain speakers.

Texas' political scene is clearly crazy&mdash;which is just one more reason why Kinky Friedman might make the perfect Texas governor. The state has clearly elected clowns before, why not try a pro?

Sting's recording of Dowland lute songs has certainly generated a lot of hooey&mdash;ranging from accusations of Sting making commercial move (yeah, recording a disc of lute songs is <I>sooo</I> calculated to run up the charts) to complaints about Sting's "inauthentic" performance.

My gosh, Bj&#246;rk's new video is just lovely. How many levels of recursion can you spot?
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As mentioned in the <A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/rmaf2006/102006welcome/">introductory post</A> to this blog, Peter "PJay" Smith (above), Bob Cordell, and Darren Kuzma presented gratis "Amplifier and Loudspeaker Listening and Measurement" clinics throughout the show. One of the clinics, which I was unable to attend, interpreted amplifier measurement data supplied by <I>Stereophile</I>'s John Atkinson.

My <A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/rmaf2006/102206acoustic/">photo of the system</A> in the Acoustic Sounds room featured the Manley Labs Snapper monoblock amplifiers. This was the system front-end, comprising (from top to bottom): Funk Firm Vector Turntable with MK3 tonearm and Lyra Dorian phono cartridge; Sutherland Direct Line Stage; Sutherland's new battery-powered Ph3D phono preamp; and Silver Circle Audio Pure Power One 5.0 power transformer. Rack is the Symposium Acoustics Isis.