RMAF 2018

Meh

Here are my impressions and images from the Rocky Mountain AudioFest 2018. There is too much to see, so I wasn't able to visit every vendor. I made my list and visited the venders that interested me.

First, stuff I was pretty impressed with
Then there was stuff I just thought was good
There was some I was less impressed with (meh)

Items are presented in room number order

1110 - Triode Corporation Ltd. - Japan

headphone amps- it was set up with speakers

1118 - Fort Collins Audio

Revel speakers f228Be. Lorde, good subbass, but upper bass thin.

2001 - Salk Sound

Just not a very full sound

3004 - Tekton Design LLC

Full towers. Hard to tell. Now familiar with the music. Piano is missing its bite. Bass is nice. Take five sounded good. Still, not overly impressed. Probably needs a bigger room.

3013 - MarkAudio-SOTA

VOD tower. Very clear. $7995/pair. Mids soulsed a little congested to me. Maybe a little too much lower mid

3017 - Serious Stereo

Some old school looks, but not overly impressive. Not bad, but nothing special

4007 - Dragonfire Acoustics

Sucked out mids! Jerry Garcia sounded like he was doing nitrous. Planar. $5k for the speakers. $10k for the whole system. $500 for the sub

4010 - PranaFidelity

Not impressed. Silibant. Possibly worse sounding system at the show.

5000 - Voxativ GmbH

Not impressed. Bright

5017 - Auris Audio

Just thin sounding. Not sure if it’s the speakers or the amp. Good image.

5018 - Synergistic Research Inc.

Nice system. $85k macigo speakers. I couldn’t hear any difference between active items on or off.

Wide angle HFT. I could not tell the difference. Maybe it was louder, but he changed than right when the music got louder

521 - The Sound Organisation

Kii speakers for cspirou on SBAF

The speakers sounded good, but it was a small room for the med/large speakers. Hard to tell how tight the bass was as any muddiness might be room related. Mid centric. I would not call these speaker crisp. BTW, they uses a PS audio amp. Not sure what DAC. I just wasn’t impressed. No sparkle to them. Classical was meh. Jazz was better, but I didn’t get a sense of stage. The speakers were probably too close together in a too small room. In contrast, next door was sanders playing similar jazz, and blew away the Kii

535 - Canton

Ug, lot of bass, but lots of bass reflection. Otherwise full range, with good mid and treble. Balanced, if a little bass oriented. Could be the room. Sitting close removed some of the bass reflections, but still there. Great imaging

551 - German Physiks

Speakers are $38k ($31 at the show)/pair. Room accoustics sucked, really too small for these speakers. Sounded congested

557 - FALCON ACOUSTICS LTD

Falcon GC6500R floor standing speakers. Sounded thin

563 - Riviera Audio Laboratories

Kind of interesting looking speakers, but nothing special in terms of sounds. Not thin, but bass light. Probably the music. Great mids and clear. Good image. Probably need a sub

582 - Analysis Audio

Purty speakers. Giant planars. Typical clear and crisp. Might be thin, but could be the music. Claim mid 20hz for bass. $24-27k/pair. Same kind of clarity we hear in planar headphones, but same challenge with bass. Bass is tight, but you miss the hormonics from the speaker box. Strong mids, great image.

7000 - ELAC Americas

Small, stand mount with AMT. $2k. Nice, but small sound.

7007 - ListenUp

Avant-garde uno fino edition. Clear, good bass, lacks warmth and emotion. But still good. Might just be song they played. $24k

7021 - Alta Audio

Maybe they are good speakers. Music wasn’t great.

8002 - Monitor Audio

Showing the studio monitor. Sound lacks solidity, natural warmth and dynamic expression. $1400/pair.

8009 - Audioengine

Vanatoo was better

9010 - STUDIO ELECTRIC

m4 bookshelf. Pretty full sound. $2400/pair. Pretty balanced for price.

9021 - Kanto Audio

Yuk speaker. Sucked out midrange. Good bass. Any tweeter. Also listened to the $399 speakers. Also yuck.

ATRIUM A14 - Enmusic Inc.

ESS Headphones hybrid. AMT 422. Single ended. Medium comfort. Press o the top of my head. Clear sound. Tight bass, but doesn’t reach low. $199

Rlm173 use wings like AKG, but seem to hold well. Very fun and punchy. $149

ATRIUM A18 - Qobuz

$20 tier for CD quality. Album focused. Looks like it might have more info than tidal. Also, might have a better UI

Blanca Peak - Apex Audio

Some speaker I havent heard of. Really bright. Speakers are piega (Switzerland). Excellent stage.

CANJAM 24 - Dekoni Audio LLC

Blue headphones are ok, but still a bit of a piercing high. Bass is bloated.

Conifer 3 - CLASSIC AUDIO LOUDSPEAKERS

Typical horn brightness, but good, tight bass.

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