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Barring the unlikely resurrection of either the summertime Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago or this magazine’s own fondly remembered movable feasts of the 1990s, there is only one hi-fi event for which I would board an airplane: Welcome to Denver. And while this non-flyer is already considering renting a car and driving home Monday, I’m glad as hell to be here: I think this is going to be fun.
Michael Lavorgna, editor of our sister site AudioStream.com, moderated a computer audio seminar on RMAF’s first day. Participants, from left to right: David Chesky (HDtracks.com), Andreas Koch (Playback Designs), Gordon Rankin (Wavelength Audio), Rob Robinson (Channel D Software), Mark Waldrep (AIX Records), Steve Silberman (AudioQuest), and Michael Lavorgna.
A great crowd of enthusiastic audiophiles and music lovers gathered at the registration booth for the 2012 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest.
I spotted this cute little guy on the mezzanine level of the Marriott Tech Center.
Distributed in the US by Music Hall, Epoz’s AktiMate Micro powered desktop loudspeaker ($499/pair) has a top-panel iPod dock, a rear-panel 3.5mm input, and comes in three gorgeous high-gloss finishes: black, white, and, seen here, supersexy red. Girls love it. Read about it in December’s “The Entry Level.”
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.
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.
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. Hence he chose, as his analog source, the superb Spiral Groove SG 1.1 turntable and…
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.
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.
The speakers were being driven by LSA’s Super Statement hybrid integrated amplifier. The source was an Exemplar Audio-modified Oppo universal player.
I walked into Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney arguing over…
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.
Partnered with Tube Research Labs amplification, a Wavelength DAC, and homemade cables, the Bud Fried speakers painted a very pretty picture, with good speed,…