Denver, Colorado.

Thought I was going to get a nose bleed. I'm told by the cabbie the city is located 5,000 feet above sea level (some quoted as much as 15,000). Didn't know what that meant until I arrived at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. The very second I drew my handy camera out I started feeling uneasy. First thought was the guy sneezing on the plane seated directly behind me caught up and infected me. Rats. Ran into Mike Kochman of Echo Busters and he informed me that the likely culprit was the altitude. Though relieved, I didn't feel any better until I downed about two quarts of bottled water.

The $59.00 taxi from the airport to the Denver Tech Center tells you either the show was held quite a distance from the airport or the driver knew I was from New York...and charged me accordingly!  Here I thought I was getting away from all the hustle and bustle and I got hustled and near busted! Something told me this cabby saw a died-in-the-wool audiophile, full of riches and rewards, with plenty to spend, in his wide angle rear-view mirror. To illustrate how rich I was I made a record of his ID number and promised I would seek an investigation. Denver is absolutely beautiful however, the snow-capped mountains, and wide open land contrasted by its city skyscrapers gives an appeal I've not encountered in all of my travels. Maybe the cabbie took the scenic route?

But the highlight of my trip wasn't the incredible views, great sounding rooms or Denver's strength of local audiophiles, whom many I met for the first time. The highlight was seeing my old friend George Black. He and I grew up together and I hadn't seen or spoken with in over ten years. Family and proximity can have that effect. George, once a star basketball player in high school and college, gave me fits on NY's basketball courts back in the early '80s when I dreamed of one day making the pros.  Admittedly, I didn't like him that much on the court because he was so much more naturally gifted than I and was standing in the way of my dreams. Off the court, he was one of the cool cats who I secretly admired. All I knew was that he relocated to Denver back in '98 or thereabouts, got into the real estate market and is doing quite well for himself. I simply got in touch with him through a mutual friend and just like that we hooked up after all these years. We chatted like two noisy housewives at a tea party.

Okay, back to the show...

Colorado Audiophile Sound and Design's Randall Marder and and local New Jerseyite Bill Parrish of GTT Audio (photo above) put together these beautifully finished Kharma Audio products. Parrish proudly displays the new Kharma MP-150 mono amp which I'm almost certain, based on its size, is running DSP somewhere in its circuit (switching power supply I'm informed) ala the NuForce our Frank Alles swooned over. Don't let the size fool you because this 150-watt book-end look-alike took control of the Kharma 3.2s in a way that could only be described as viscerally pleasing. Personally, I was shocked at how good this setup sounded considering how the Kharma's were always paired with Lamm amplification at previous venues. The Kharma CsSb model powered sub only provided the subterranean bass that many choose not to live without. Parrish makes no bones about what he considers as giant killers in the MP-150s ($6800/pair). I could not have agreed more. I think it will be tough however convincing audiophiles what this little dynamo can do. This baby slaps the testosterone out of the big boys.

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Harmonic Precision  Caravelle Compact Monitors ($5k) are seen here atop the ultra sophisticated Sistrum isolation stands. Amplifiers are the musical Thor TTA-30 monos while digital was by way of dCS using the Verdi transport, Verona external clock and Elgar dac. All cabling throughout was Harmonic Tech Cyber Light. The sound was quite open, detailed and liquid; exactly what you'd expect using Thor amplification. I was taken by the Caravelle's ability to disappear so completely right there before me. I'm told this loudspeaker sports a tuning device on its rear that allows for users to adjust its resonant (harmonic) frequency to ones delight.  I am hoping to get a review pair in the not too distant future. Stay tuned.

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Dale Pitcher of Intuitive Design showed quite an impressive home theater demo using their Pinnacle, one of the biggest dedicated center channels I've seen sandwiched between a pair of mains sitting atop Coordinate Powered Stands using internally powered 300-watts of amplification. This room also featured the active anti-vibration device platforms from Halcyonics which I personally use and find vital to ridding my Reimyo CD player of harmful vibrations.

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ESP's Sean McCaughan's introduced a scaled down version of his reference Concert Grand SI in the new and more affordable Bodhran SE loudspeakers ($16k). Driven by the heavenly Concert Fidelity 6B4G Fusion mono amps ($28k) and Concert Fidelty CF-40 preamp ($14K) that had me engrossed back at the '04 CES, this was the perfect opportunity to hear this setup again minus the bigger Concert Grands and Alex Paychev excellently modified Philips 1000 SACD Player (this room boasted a John Tucker modified Denon 3910 from Exemplar Audio).  Needless to say, the Bodhran's did not disappoint. In fact, I was so smitten by the luxuriously expansive depth and soundstaging capabilities of this smaller model, I questioned Mike Verretto of Critical Mass Inc. and ESP's distributor, what the differences in the two models were that would justify one being more than double the price (the Concert Grand list for $40k) After a few minutes of listening between discussions I got a clearer picture. Well, neither model has removable grills which makes it hard to see what lurks behind the cloth but the Concert Grand's sport twice the amount of drivers (in a compound configuration) and were designed for "take no prisoner, state of the art" performance.

The one thing both models have in common - which in time will become their hallmark - and a bi-product of their odd build and well executed design, is their ability to throw images backward and away from the listener in layers upon layers of instruments. This is no secret. Years back, the original ESP Harps that guru and pal Bill Brassington proudly owned, threw such a wonderful sense of depth and image coherency that it still stands as one of my most memorable experiences. Bill would faint if had the chance to hear this new and improved version in the Bodhrans SE's. Congrats Sean!

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