RMAF 2011

For those of you that might possibly have missed it, I think WyWires provides some of the best bang-for-the-buck wires currently available. Their speaker cables and interconnects both carry specialty connectors from Xhadow and sport […]

I’ll admit it. I’ve always been fascinated by the Linkwitz Orion loudspeaker. Using quality drivers from SEAS and almost always sold in a kit, the new v4 Orion was shown as a pre-built, completely finished, […]

The $10,500 Volti Audio Vittora is a fully horn-loaded, three-way, 104dB sensitivity loudspeaker is good for 50Hz – 20kHz. One look, and you’re probably thinking “Klipsch”. I was, anyway. But the sound … definitely not […]

One of six rooms showing YG Acoustics speakers at the show, the $18k Carmel loudspeakers in room 537 were one of the best-sounding of the YG bunch. Driven by a $17k D-Premier Integrated Amp/DAC from […]

I’ve never heard room put together by High Water Sound‘s maestro Jeff Catalano sound anything other than stupid-good. Well, he’s still batting 1,000 in my book. RMAF 2011 was a base-clearing home run. I’ve never […]

DeVore Fidelity was showing off a pre-production model of the Gibbon 88 ($5k, est), which will replace the Super 8. The 88 has an all-bamboo cabinet and new, upgraded drivers. The sound? Delicate, detailed, punchy. […]

Steve Nugent, Empirical Audio Steve Marsh (writer) & Mike Stahl of Stahl-Tek Chris Connaker of Computer Audiophile, shopping Lars Kristensen of Nordost, about to start a power cable demo. David Solomon of Peachtree. Luke Manley […]

Saturday night was live entertainment night. 7pm was Lori Lieberman. Dean Peer took the stage at 9pm. All in all, I think about 100 folks stuck around for Lori’s rather intimate set and about 50 […]

Avatar Acoustics always puts on a good show. At RMAF, the Himalayan rock salt was out, and the walls were festooned with ASI Resonators and Sugar Cubes. The big $27k Rosso Fiorentino Siena loudspeakers were, […]

This “hobby” of mine does provide many scratch-my-head moments. The Onedof room was one of those moments. Undeniably, the Onedof turntable, short for “One Degree of Freedom”, is very pretty. According to the literature, it’s […]

And now for something completely different. That’s the way I felt coming into room from The Signal Collection. Todd Garfinkle of MA-Recordings was spinning some of his superlatively recorded material out of his Korg MR2000s […]

Brodmann Acoustics was showing off several speakers at the show over the weekend, paired with some wonderful gear from Electrocompaniet. But unfortunately for me, I can’t find the sheet of notes that talked about them. […]

Rick Cullen (far right) is the genius who rewired my old PS Audio DAC III into the giant-killer I happily took to DAC shootouts. I loved that DAC and I happily used it right up […]

I remember finding the Red Wine Audio room last year almost by accident. Vinnie Rossi was alone in the room at the time, foot tapping, head gently bobbing to the music, oblivious. He clearly didn’t […]

Merlin has been making 2-way speakers for the last 20 years. They’ve won best in show. Stereophile has given them a “Class A” rating every time they’ve been reviewed. They have a cult-like following. And […]

It’s a trite little truism that “good things come in small packages”. Well, in this case, it was true enough for my Best in Show award. The Clue, Sjöfn Hifi’s $999 wonder, knocked my socks […]

The big TAD speakers are … well, big. Huge even. Massive. The big VTL amps? Well, they match. And the Nordost Odin cables, well, they’re expected. A full dCS Scarlatti system. All reference grade VTL […]

Sultry. That’s the word that came to mind as I slipped into the GR Research room. Everything was black. Lighting was low. Music was rhythmic and pulsing. Groovy. The $2500 GR Research Super-V kit loudspeakers […]

The Nola Baby Grand Reference, powered by an all-Audio Research front end. I think those were Nordost Odin cables. This room had very nice sound, but it was loud, the doors were open, and that […]