Needless to say, RMAF administrator Marjorie…
search
That's sure how it felt when I waded through the mob at the registration table. Graced by the presence of William Togno, a fellow member of the San Francisco Bay Area Audiophile Society, the registration table was swamped a good 90 minutes before the show opened on Friday. There were so many people packing into the elevators to the five floors of exhibits in the Denver Marriott Tech Center Tower that the elevator frequently refused to move; when it finally got up the courage to ascend, it alighted on each floor with a huge thump. Scary.
Lest anyone think that we at Stereophile don't pay attention when manufacturers speak, take a look at Stephen Mejias, virtually mesmerized by Luke Manley's energetic and ever-enlightening prose. Also pictured, Steven Rochlin of Enjoythe Music, Peter McGrath of Wilson Audio, and the empty chair and scattered detritus of the photographer-in-action.
For many of us in the press, RMAF 2010 began with VTL's well-orchestrated press breakfast launch of the new MB-450 Series III monoblocks ($18,000/pair) and TL7.5 Series III preamplifier ($20,000). Speaking before a full house that included representatives from Stereophile, The Absolute Sound, Positive Feedback On-Line, Enjoy the Music, and many other media outlets, VTL's Luke Manley explained that the Series III is VTL's first fully balanced amplifier.
With auto-bias, and three layers of fault sensing, the amps feature a shorter, faster and fully balanced negative feedback loop,…
After years of searching for the right speakers to match deHavilland electronics, Kara Chaffee of Vancouver, WA has happily alighted on the ultra-efficient Sonist line. It's a wonderful match.
When I entered the room, the CD sound was as mellow as can be, with a gorgeous midrange and excellent sound staging. Gone was the darkness I used to associate with the deHavilland Mercury III tube preamp with remote control ($4495) and KE-50A KT88 monoblock power amps ($9995/pair). For this, credit is due Chafee's latest electronic refinements and the excellence of the Sonist Concerto 3…
Philip Bamberg's Bamberg Audio was playing the Series 5 TMW ($8800/pair) and displaying the Steries 2 TMM ($4800/pair) when I entered. The 5 is a 3-way design with a 375W active woofer, parametric EQ, and separate monitor. It is said to descend flat to 25Hz, and down to 18Hz –6dB.
Paired with Modwright's LS 1000 preamp and KWA 100 amp, a Transporter ($3995) and Uberbuss ($995), the system was producing fine, controlled bass, and a lovely midrange glow. Though on a jazz recording featuring a piano of unknown pedigree, the high notes were a bit tinkly, the sound overall was most…
Since my earliest visits to the Stereophile Show, well before I began writing for the magazine, I have always left Jeff Joseph's speaker displays with a smile on my face. This show was no different. Displaying the lovely Joseph Audio Pulsar ($7,000/pair) with not-yet-released-or-priced Pulsar stands, the combo with Ayre electronics (including the QB-9 USB DAC—$2750) and Cardas Clear cabling was a joy.
The sound was so full, so all encompassing, and so natural in the small Magico room (Tower 9022) that I doubt I'll encounter another display at RMAF that will top it. Certainly on the first day of the show, the sound achieved by (pictured, left to right) Tim Marutani of Marutani Consulting (Emeryville, CA), Alon Wolf of Magico, and Maier Shadi of The Audio Salon (Los Angeles) was so satisfying that it topped anything else I heard on Day One by a long shot. A very long shot.
As eager as I was to attend the seminars presented in the room by the likes of Prof. Keith O. Johnson of…
The newest Zu loudspeaker is the Omen. I don’t know much about it. The product literature says: “Omen is the right loudspeaker for every concert fanatic, music junky, skater fool, and snowboarding dirtbag; splitting your cash between your lifestyle outside and your lifestyle inside just got a whole lot louder!” So, Zu has a specific audience in mind. At just $999/pair it is also Zu’s most affordable speaker.
Zu did an outstanding job of transforming their drab hotel room into a comfortable, swanky listening environment, utilizing Flor modular carpeting tiles, a nice lounge seat, and some sweet-looking gear: Zu’s Soul Superfly ($2600/pair), a 16 ohm loudspeaker with a claimed efficiency of 101dB, in dazzling green finish, looks right at home with Luxman’s SQ-38u integrated amplifier ($6000) and D-38u CD player ($4000) and a Peachtree Nova D/A integrated amplifier ($1199). At the time I listened, Zu was using Channel D’s Pure Music front-end software ($129) for iTunes as a source, and there…
Photo: John Atkinson
John Atkinson and I met with Ronny Tsai, president of a new company called Spider International, makers of cables, headphones, and accessories. Here I am listening to a little bit of Kanye West’s “Heartless” through Spider’s Blow Out in-ear headphones ($89), due to be available in January 2011. I had just completed a direct comparison between the Blow Outs and Monster’s Beats by Dr. Dre Diddybeats in-ears ($179.95), and though I heard more bass through the Diddybeats, the bass through the Spiders may have been just a touch tighter. I’m not sure, though; I…