Continuing on with our coverage...
In this report, all photos by Dave Clark, words by Carol Clark, except those in parentheses, which are by Dave Clark who will do his best to be nice.
Pangea Audio Octet.
Pangea Audio won a PF Writer's Choice Award in 2017 for their Vulcan rack. They also showed speaker stands, interconnects, and power cables. ELAC Vela BS 403 bookshelf loudspeakers and Discovery Connect DS-C101W-G. Vincent SA 32 preamplifier and SP332 amplifier.
Larsen loudspeakers.
The Larsen loudspeakers are beautifully crafted.
GamuT.
Pear Audio Blue turntable.
Pear Audio Blue preamplifier with Pneupods underneath.
We loved the sound in the DeVore Fidelity room. Pictured are the Orangutan Reference four-piece speaker system. Beautiful to look at, fantastic to listen to.
Air Tight ATM-211 amplifiers in the DeVore room. The room also featured A brinkmann Spyder turntable. John spun a lot of records. The rest of the electronics were also from AirTight.
Another shot of the Orangutan four-piece loudspeaker system. Incredible! (Powered subwoofers that are fully adjustable to fit the room and wherever they end up in the room.)
Halo by Parasound, Tekton Impact Monitors, and cabling by Straight Wire.
High Water Sound. Tron-Electric Atlantic integrated amplifier and Convergence phono stage. Holbo air-bearing turntable system. Cessara Horn Acoustic Wagner loudspeakers. Furutech cables, Silent Running Audio, Shun Mook Acoustics.
Wynn Audio Corporation, Metronome, Kalista, Karan Acoustics, ZenSati, Entreq, and Penaudio.
Another room we enjoyed, Ayon Audio. The system included Ayon Epsilon Gen 4 mono amplifier, Auris preamplifier, and S-10 network streamer. Lumenwhite Kyara loudspeakers. BBS Audio Rack Systems.
Lumenwhite Kyara loudspeaker.
The room included Ayon Audio, BBS Rack Systems, and Luminwhite.
Charlie Harrison of Ayon was the DJ, he played "Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats to get our toes tapping!
Lone Mountain Audio. ATC SCM50SE active loudspeakers, CDA MkII CD player/preamplifier/DAC. Cardas Audio cabling.
Dragonfire Acoustics desktop loudspeakers with Kimber Kable. Way good sound here.
PranaFidelity, Pure Fidelity, Furutech, Factulta Mutabilis. Great sounding room!
PranaFidelity Bhava loudspeakers with oem stands by Sound Anchor. (Always love what Steven does at any and every show.)
Pure Fidelity Eclipse turntable. The system also included PranaFidelity purna/ca preamplfier and purna/ma amplifier.
Harbeth Monitor loudspeaker.
Vinnie Rossi Audio preamplifier.
Crescendo Fine Audio, Wilson Audio, Octave Audio, Ayre Acoustics, EAT turntable, Cardas Cable, Quick Silver.
Elite AV Distribution. Furutech, Kuzma, High Resolution Technology, L'Art du Son, Relaxa 530.
XACT Audio, CH Precision, Rockport Technoloties, Kodo turntables, Schröder tonearms....and the door sign promised, "No Diana Krall!"
Fidelis Music, Stenheim, Acoustic Signature Turntables, Exposure Electronics, Stein Music, Aurender.
Acoustic Signature turntable.
Tekton Design loudspeakers with Parasound.
Schiit Audio with Salk Sound.
Gloriously beautiful JWM Acoustics loudspeakers! They shared a room with Believe High Fidelity.
The Aries Cerat, represented by Believe High Fidelity.
Joshua Miles, JWM Acoustics, and Joshua Masongsong of Believe High Fidelity, are two people who "get it." ("Get it" in terms of playing music people like and not what is heard from room to room. And I "get it" that people also like the audiophile accepted music too, but seriously, enough is enough with the same tracks played to death. Ask people what they want to hear, offer them Tidal or Quboz and let them choose.) They know what kind of music we like, and before we knew it "Summer Romance" by Incubus was blasting forth from this turntable... and it sounded amazing! We stayed in this room easily an hour, chatting, listening to tunes, and hanging out with Joshua Miles' cute dog Elby. Awesome!
Nola loudspeakers, always sound great!
Harman Luxury Audio Group, Revel, Arcam, JBL, Mark Levinson. (I would take the new JBLs, match that with my vintage Marantz 2230 receiver and a digital source, plop that in a second system, and be quite happy.)
An all Soundsmith system.
Soundsmith ES cartridge. Schröder tonearm.
We had a lot of fun at RMAF this year, and there were some rooms playing music we liked. A few of the rooms played things especially for us, and a few (see below) just had exceptional taste in music. This room, Well Pleased A/V was a standout, especially for me. The system included QLN Prestige Three loudspeakers, LinnenberG Telemann preamplifier and WIDOR amplifier, Innuos Statement music server, Aqua Formula xHD DAC, Gigawatt PC-4 EVO+ conditioner, SGR Symphony Model racks, and Swisscables.
When we arrived in the room Mark Sossa of Well Pleased was alone. He asked how the show was going, and I reckon we complained about the music. He offered to play anything we wanted to hear from Tidal, but first he played something he wanted to hear, a hardcore band called Turnstile. It was the polar opposite of anything you'd hear at a show, but I kind of liked it. After a few songs, he turned the iPad over to me. My favorite song by The Notwist, "Noah," disappeared from Tidal for some reason, so we listened to "Torture Day" instead. One of the things I like about The Notwist is that they change their style from record to record, and I remembered that their self-titled debut was more of a hardcore style. I couldn't find it on Tidal, but I did find their second release Nook, and played "Belle De L'ombre / Walk On." Then I told him they also have songs that border on audiophile-approved jazz, and played "Moron" from Shrink. All three of these songs are completely different, but I love them all, and Mark did too. Unbeknownst to me, this trio of gentlemen had entered the room and were sitting behind me. (And all are well-recorded and easily accessible.)
The guy in the middle proclaimed excitedly, "You're the coolest grandma I've ever seen!" And you know what? I took that as a compliment of the highest order! In other words, this gray-haired "old" lady likes kind of cool music! Truly, the highlight of the show, and yes, that's me smiling back there. I'm sure these gentlemen selected whatever they wanted to hear, and I'm sure they had a fantastic time listening, and at the end of the day that's what matters the most! (Bingo! Exhibitors, I hope you are taking notes.)
High Fidelity Services. Verity Audio Monsalvat loudspeakers, Pro-6 DAC/preamplifier/processor, Amp-6 amplifiers. TW Acustic phono preamplifier, Raven Black Knight turntable. Melco N1ZH MK1 music server. Cables by Signal Projects. (Those are subs in the corners.)
Verity Monsalvat loudspeaker.
The lovely people from Schiit Audio, always a delight to see them! (Great gear priced affordably and made right here in SoCal.)
I can't remember what I was going to say.....oh, and this is my custom Schiit t-shirt, "I beat the Schiit out of cancer!"
Can Jam was full of smiles! Nordost!
I encountered this lady a few times, and you know I'm a weirdo because I noticed she had the same glasses as me! I was disappointed when I got new glasses this summer, and no one noticed. When I looked at her I thought, "See! I knew these were cool glasses, look how good they look on her!" So, I had to flag her down, and we compared glasses. You had to be there.
I'll end on this note. As mentioned above, there were other rooms at the show playing fantastic music, case in point: American Sound/Listen Up. With Avantgarde Acoustic loudspeakers and Phasemotion, this room was adjacent to the elevators on the 7th floor. We spent quite a bit of time in the elevator lobby one day waiting, and we heard Low, The XX, and Joy Division wafting out of this room! (Played on their own... meaning these people are part of my music tribe. I own everything they were playing—it is what I listen to on a regular basis. I went in and shook their hand thanking them for playing music that is way different than what everyone else was playing... and their room was full of younger people—under 45! Oh, and the music is well recorded as well. There might be hope still.)
