|
ROCKY MOUNTAIN AUDIO FEST
Part 1
Bill Wells
Hey folks, guess
what? I believe the reason they call the Rocky
Mountain Audio Fest (RMAF) an “Audio Fest” is
because that’s exactly what it is. This year’s
show was truly an audio fest and one that
provided a wonderfully warm, friendly
environment along with lots of good sounds.
Basically a feast for the soul and the ears.
Obviously, these folks know how to plan,
design, organize and deliver a really fun
high-end audio event and one that meets the
needs of most everyone who attends – including
exhibitors, audiophiles, general public,
curiosity-seekers and other. For me, having
the opportunity to reconnect with long-term
friends, audiophile colleagues/acquaintances,
manufacturers as well as being introduced to
new friends is always a treat. Additionally,
and most importantly, getting to see/hear all
the new products is always a big part of the
fun of this type of show.
My departure from Minneapolis was on a gray,
overcast morning but only after a couple of
hours in the air and then landing in Denver –
I was greeted by a bright, sunny day with blue
skies overhead. From there, a bit of a ride to
the Denver Tech Center/Marriott Hotel and
adjacent Convention Center, located in south
Denver, and I was ready to start my day. As
has been in the past, arriving at the show and
getting registered was again basically
straightforward. No long lines, warm smiles
and greetings from everyone – including the
hotel doorman helped the day get started.
Perhaps my good editor Clement Perry is right
and could be that the high altitude of the
Mile-High City affects folks in a most
positive way. Whatever the reason, it works.
Unable to check into the hotel at that time,
basically I dropped my bags off with the
front-desk, grabbed a quick bite to eat with
several good friends and then I was off to
start checking out the many exhibits. Armed
with the show directory and a batch of my
favorite CDs, I developed my plan of attack.
As such, my first stop was at the Wilson Audio
suite where they had on display both the
Watt Puppy 8s
and their flagship
MAXX 2s.
Whereas I’ve had numerous opportunities to
hear the bigger speakers, my high real
interest was in finally getting to hear the
company’s much talked about
Watt Puppy
8 speaker
system. Mated with
Boulder electronics (i.e., Series
1000 – 1012 DAC/Preamp at $18,000 and model
1060 stereo amp at $21,000),
Accuphase
digital playback and
Tara Labs cables throughout
(speaker cables were run in shotgun
configuration), the sound was very good.
Listening to a selection from Clark Terry’s CD
titled Trash Talking, my notes read like this:
great midrange, strong, powerful bass with
deep extension. Additionally, the vibes from
this recording were clear and clean, the
trumpet was crisp with a strong blat quality,
no smearing and the overall snap and attack
was on point.
Although the room wasn’t helping and seemed to
cause a slight warmth in the bass region – it
was fairly easy to tell that both the
placement of the speakers and room was causing
this effect. Moving on to a Joey Defrancesco
CD, the overall resolution and detail
retrieval was excellent. For example, it was
very easy to hear Joey D’s footwork on the
pedals of his Hammond B-3 organ along with
subtle shuffling. Added to this – the vibes
were totally solid, organic and clear as was
the drum work, percussion and especial the
brushwork. All were outstanding. All in all,
the Watt Puppy 8 speakers made a very good
account for themselves. I was impressed.
Usher Audio
Next I checked
out the Usher suite where I was able to catch
their new, 3-way model BE-10 loudspeaker.
Finish was very nice and similarly so was the
sound which is not a surprise for speakers
coming from the Usher folks. Selling for
$14,000 – this speaker was actually shown for
the first time earlier this year at CES 2006.
Somehow I missed them at that show. Anyway –
what I heard caught my ear. Their sound was
very open, clear and overall highly musical.
Interestingly, the system was powered by
relatively low-cost Usher electronics
including their CD player at $800, mini
monitor ($800), preamp (P307A, new this year)
for $2280 and the R1.5 amplifier for $2520.
Everything was connected with Analysis Plus
cables.
Audio Limits, Colorado Springs
Getting a tip from several other show goers, I
then moved on to hear what had to be one of
the highlights for me at this year’s show.
What I heard next was the absolutely
sensational sounding and handmade
Acapella Violon MK III loudspeaker from Acapella Audio Arts, in
Germany. At $48,000 this is a serious speaker
and being powered by
Einstein tube electronics (i.e.,
The Final Cut MK60 mono block OTLs - $25,250
pair, The Tube
Preamplifier - $14,5000),
Lector CDP-7T MKII
tube CD player - $4,490, Purist Audio Cables (Musaeus
and Aqueous 20th Anniversary Line) and
Adept Response
power line conditioning.
The fit and finish on this speaker was
something to behold (no pun intended) and the
dark, rich metallic blue was quite striking.
This is not your conventional 3-way speaker
system and instead employs a large spherical
horn and special ion plasma tweeter. What I
heard playing Mary Stallings CD - Manhattan
Moods (You Go To My Head), wow – big, big
sound however not over blown and the image
placement and size were totally realistic.
Tonally, the sound was warm, rich, detailed,
open, clear, clear, clear with a solid,
tactile feel and great depth. Piano was
stunning with power and tons of delicacy,
seamless integration and totally coherent
across the audio frequency. Overall the sound
had a very lifelike quality and the music
seemed to be right in the room. Cymbals and
other percussion were naturally bright, shiny
and metallic with a wonderful shimmer and
floating quality. I was stunned and returned
to this room numerous times.
Blue Circle/Selah Audio
Needing to catch my breath after this
experience, I headed off to where I thought I
could hear something more down to earth and
accessible to the average audiophile,
music-lover. This is where I caught up with my
esteemed Stereo Times editor, CP for short,
and proceeded into a room full of surprises.
This is where I met Rick Craig of Selah Audio
and was treated to a very good sounding
system. What I heard was the Selah Audio Model
Three DiPole speaker selling for $5,000. See
Clement’s
Show Report for technical specs and
details for this speaker. Essentially it is a
three-way design featuring a ribbon tweeter.
The sound was excellent and quite engaging. I
know ‘cause they tolerated me listening
through much of my Mary Stallings and Keith
Jarrett CDs. Basically, I had a hard time
tearing myself away from this room but finally
moved on at the urging of my editor who
encouraged me to visit as many other rooms as
possible so I could also do a show report.
Hmmmm – almost thought for a moment that I was
there just to have fun, check out the exhibits
and enjoy listening to the music. Anyway,
thanks Rick – I’ll catch up with you at the
next show!!
Another room that I visited and was very
pleasantly surprised was the Verity Audio
suite. Here they were featuring their new
Verity Audio Rienzi
speakers at $7,995 retail powered
by Nagra electronics
and digital playback gear (i.e.,
PL-L line stage - $8,495, PSA amplifier -
$6,595 and totally brand new CDC CD Player -
$14,995). Everything was connected with the
wonderful Silversmith
Palladium interconnects and Silver
speaker cables. These relatively small
speakers were set up in a fairly large room
and what I heard was shockingly good. The
overall sound was solid, balanced, smooth,
open, dynamic, full and with decent bass and
good punch.
Not only did these speakers fill the room, the
bass had excellent extension, power and
impact. Along with this the imaging was
typical Verity style being precise and spot on
with good lateral spread, depth and focus.
This was a speaker that I, and others in the
room, all felt could provide hours of endless
listening enjoyment. Beyond that – they were
essentially a no-brainer and I would purchase
a pair of these in a heart beat.
Moving on to the
Escalante suite and greeted by the
distributor, Frank Kraus of FLK Audio – there
I found a very cozy room setup with the sound
being excellent. Featuring their flagship
3-way speaker (i.e.,
The Fremont at $18,990 retail with
stands) they had all Pass solid-state
electronics, Esoteric X-01 Limited CD/SACD
player all hooked together with Shunyata
cables. Listening to one of my favorite jazz
performers, Milt Jackson, his vibes came
through with a wonderfully rich and textured
sound along with sparkling, solid piano
presentation from Monty Alexander and nicely
articulated acoustic bass from Ray Brown.
While this recording was playing – I noticed
others in the room were having a similar
reaction to the music with their toes tapping,
heads bobbing and shoulders swaying back and
forth. The Escalante Fremonts are a favorite
of our own Dave Thomas, and based on what I
heard each time I visit their exhibit(s) -
it’s quite easy to understand why. These are
really good speaker and are definitely worth
checking out. Highly musical and highly
recommended.
My next serious visit was to the
Sonicweld
suite. Truly, with a name like that – I had to
go check it out. Right? What I found was a
total speaker system that was both stunning
visually but also very, very, excellent
sounding as well. Here I found myself
intrigued with the overall design and where I
spent quite a bit of time. Not only did I play
a variety of music, I also had an opportunity
to chat at length with the designer, Josh
Heiner. Josh is a very engaging person and
quite willing to converse about his very
special product.
Essentially what Josh has designed is a total
system where he completely does his own design
work, performs his own machining, develops his
own circuits (w/ICE power modules), etc. The
total system costs a cool $64k and features a
unique machined aluminum. According to Josh, his
design is geared for not only high sonics but
also high domestic compatibility – also known
as Wife Acceptance Factor (WAF).
The system consists of 2 separate speaker
towers, speaker construction is relatively
compact (i.e., not requiring a large amount of
space), beautiful and with precision
machining. Each tower consisting of: 13
drivers each – six four inch mid bass drivers
configured with 3 firing to the front and 3
firing to the rear). In turn, these drivers
are powered by their own dedicated, internal
200-watt amplifier. Along with this, there are
six other drivers covering the midrange and
high frequencies. These include two-inch
titanium dome midrange drivers and one-inch
tweeters. Again, they have their own dedicated
internal amplifier. The grill for each speaker
is made of photo-etched stainless steel.
The two subwoofers each sport 15” drivers and
its own internal 1100-watt amplifier. Another
unique feature of the system is the Preamp/DAC
unit that includes DSP processing for EQ and
listening room calibration. Basically this is
a complete system package and all the user has
to do is provide their preferred digital
source. The sound of the system is excellent
and engaging. Very open, dynamic, solid deep
bass, clear mids, open extended highs,
transient attack and impact were superb, and
overall sound was very detailed and pleasingly
smooth. Imaging was outstanding. Josh and I
listened to many tunes with the Gonzalo
Rubacalba CD, The Blessing, capturing the
heart (and ears) of everyone who visited this
room. No doubt, the Sonicweld system is
likewise something special and for whoever
goes this route – they too will have a
blessing in their home. Hmmmm - is that a
review coming that I feel Josh?
This next report has more to do with what
actually happened on the final day of the show
since the ESP suite finally managed to pull it
all together and produce one of the finest
sounding rooms at the show. Featuring their
flagship Concert Grand Si speakers ($40,000),
powered by the incredibly musical hand built
Shoreline 300 watt tube mono block amplifiers
($42,000 pair), Concert Fidelity line stage
($14,995), APL modified Esoteric X-01
($21,000) and Concert Fidelity cables.
Throughout the first two days at the show,
this room had various problems and seemed to
be particularly plagued with some sort of
power gremlins. Unfortunately, the sound
varied and had everyone scratching their
heads. Fortunately, with lots of effort - it
all came together and on Day Three the sound
was essentially transformed. Much credit goes
to the revised cabling that was used on the
final day.
In particular, installing the Nordost power
cords and Thor power conditioner very
effectively addressed the power situation and
helped to stabilize things considerably.
However, things really got interesting when
Jeff Smith provided some of his highly
regarded cables. In doing so, the Silversmith
Palladium interconnects and Silver speaker
cables were installed and the level of
improvement was nothing short of startling.
The sound was now totally cohesive, powerful,
absolutely effortless, fully dynamic,
detailed, transparent, open, wonderfully rich,
textured and with tremendous layering. There
was also a wonderfully organic feel to the
music and basically the system rocked. Also,
it didn’t matter what type of music was
played. Whatever went into the CD drawer –
came out was authentic and musically
compelling. To my ears (and many others) – the
sound was now outrageously good and close to
what I’ve come to expect from these speakers.
Also much credit goes to the wonderful
electronics feeding the speakers. All I can
say is – I’d sure love to have a pair of those
Shoreline amps (i.e., either mono blocks or
stereo version) in my reference system. Hey
John (McCormack) are you listening and can we
talk? Needless to say, as a result of the
final outcome, speaker designer Sean McCaughn,
distributor Mike Verretto and all the members
of the supporting cast were finally pleased.
Wow – what a treat coming from the ESP suite.
|
