Amir's RMAF Day 1 teaser

amirm

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Apr 2, 2010
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Hi guys. No time to upload pictures. Have to run to today's sessions. But thought I share this one image of the best sound I heard yesterday which was from YG (both here and in Rowland room):



Could sit there for days listening to this system. Yes, it was playing LPs. :D

Some general comments:

1. Rooms seemed to be pretty damped. Many exhibitors were using side panels to absorb reflections. Add carpet to it and dropped ceiling in the case of Mezzanine floor, and you had the made up of fair dead rooms. I think this took away from performance of some of these systems for someone like me who likes to hear a more live room for music enjoyment.

2. Overall, the presentations were superior to CES. Larger rooms with much better configuration than the ones in Venetian hotel at CES.

3. This is the really sad part... Seems like audiophiles as a group are not fond of taking showers!!! I kid you not. You had to hold your breath in the elevator and common areas. What's up with this guys? We need to leave a better impression with local folks :). The place smelled so much better around 8:00pm or so when I left.

4. I listened to a live Piano recital for few minutes and it sounded wonderful. Michael heard another earlier in the day. Did not expect that, nor sadly had the time in my schedule to do more of it.

5. I find Denver people very friendly. Was driving in remote areas in dirt road on top of mountain passes and locals going by would still take their hands of steering wheel to wave!

6. Had a flat in my rental car yesterday morning. Called Dollar Rental car and she asks me, "sir, would you like to buy a new tire from us or do you want us to charge you to send someone to replace it with the spare?" What the heck? I am accountable for flats now? "Oh sir, you waved that protection." SOB. Had to drive to one place to put air in it, and go to Discount Tire to get it patched. It was a nail and they fixed it for free.

8. Bummed that there is not much opportunity to have one's own music play. Brought my own flash drive but other than Phillip's booth (funny story on that later), I could not get anyone else to play it.

9. Ran into an old friend/colleague, Chris Walker who worked for Pioneer for years. He had left to join the German company (ELEC?) with Andrew Jones and once again pulled a miracle by creating very good sounding loudspeakers for what we will pay for dinner tonight!

10. As I noted elsewhere, I was very disappointed with the demo of Kii loudspeakers. If anyones to beat me up with "DSP and measurements don't translate to good sound," this is your opportunity. :D By every metric I use to listen to a loudspeaker, it did poorly. Don't know what was going on. And oh, this was another room which refused to play my sample tracks despite playing everything on their computer.

Anyway, don't want to be late again today. Don't say anything bad about me while I am away from the computer. :D
 

Elberoth

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Dec 15, 2012
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Andre Marc

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Hi guys. No time to upload pictures. Have to run to today's sessions. But thought I share this one image of the best sound I heard yesterday which was from YG (both here and in Rowland room):



Could sit there for days listening to this system. Yes, it was playing LPs. :D

Some general comments:

1. Rooms seemed to be pretty damped. Many exhibitors were using side panels to absorb reflections. Add carpet to it and dropped ceiling in the case of Mezzanine floor, and you had the made up of fair dead rooms. I think this took away from performance of some of these systems for someone like me who likes to hear a more live room for music enjoyment.

2. Overall, the presentations were superior to CES. Larger rooms with much better configuration than the ones in Venetian hotel at CES.

3. This is the really sad part... Seems like audiophiles as a group are not fond of taking showers!!! I kid you not. You had to hold your breath in the elevator and common areas. What's up with this guys? We need to leave a better impression with local folks :). The place smelled so much better around 8:00pm or so when I left.

4. I listened to a live Piano recital for few minutes and it sounded wonderful. Michael heard another earlier in the day. Did not expect that, nor sadly had the time in my schedule to do more of it.

5. I find Denver people very friendly. Was driving in remote areas in dirt road on top of mountain passes and locals going by would still take their hands of steering wheel to wave!

6. Had a flat in my rental car yesterday morning. Called Dollar Rental car and she asks me, "sir, would you like to buy a new tire from us or do you want us to charge you to send someone to replace it with the spare?" What the heck? I am accountable for flats now? "Oh sir, you waved that protection." SOB. Had to drive to one place to put air in it, and go to Discount Tire to get it patched. It was a nail and they fixed it for free.

8. Bummed that there is not much opportunity to have one's own music play. Brought my own flash drive but other than Phillip's booth (funny story on that later), I could not get anyone else to play it.

9. Ran into an old friend/colleague, Chris Walker who worked for Pioneer for years. He had left to join the German company (ELEC?) with Andrew Jones and once again pulled a miracle by creating very good sounding loudspeakers for what we will pay for dinner tonight!

10. As I noted elsewhere, I was very disappointed with the demo of Kii loudspeakers. If anyones to beat me up with "DSP and measurements don't translate to good sound," this is your opportunity. :D By every metric I use to listen to a loudspeaker, it did poorly. Don't know what was going on. And oh, this was another room which refused to play my sample tracks despite playing everything on their computer.

Anyway, don't want to be late again today. Don't say anything bad about me while I am away from the computer. :D

Thanks for the detailed teaser!!!! Great read.

#3...Ewwww!:eek:

BTW, Audionet makes a superb control app for iOS.
 

Johnny Vinyl

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
May 16, 2010
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Now that I've taken a shower and put on some deodorant I was wondering if you could do me a favour Amir? I love all of the pics people take and post, and some of the gear is most drool-worthy. It is however way beyond my ability of ever owning, so could you take some pics of less expensive gear that impressed you or that you saw?
 

DaveyF

Well-Known Member
Jul 31, 2010
6,129
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La Jolla, Calif USA
Amir, thank you for finally pointing out one of my pet peeves at an audio show. Your point #3 is even more of a 'distraction' at shows like Newport, where the weather is a little 'warmer'! Come on guys, if you can afford $$$ for gear, a few cents for deodorant and a shower???Yeez!
 

Blizzard

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Sep 30, 2015
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If you have a chance, check out the Resonessence Labs room. They are debuting their new Veritas DAC. I was going to supply the speakers for the show, but I would of had to build a custom passive system. Since my focus is active now, I backed out. Heard they decided on some small Maggie's instead.
 

amirm

Banned
Apr 2, 2010
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Seattle, WA
Now that I've taken a shower and put on some deodorant I was wondering if you could do me a favour Amir? I love all of the pics people take and post, and some of the gear is most drool-worthy. It is however way beyond my ability of ever owning, so could you take some pics of less expensive gear that impressed you or that you saw?

Sure. Taking pictures of everything...
 

amirm

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Apr 2, 2010
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Seattle, WA
If you have a chance, check out the Resonessence Labs room. They are debuting their new Veritas DAC. I was going to supply the speakers for the show, but I would of had to build a custom passive system. Since my focus is active now, I backed out. Heard they decided on some small Maggie's instead.

Will do.
 

amirm

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Apr 2, 2010
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Seattle, WA
Amir please stop back into the Ki room before you go to see if anything has changed, Groucho brought up perhaps a very good point, is this stuff designed to work on 120vac or even 110 or so volts.....

I don't know if eclipse has speakers there, but they are supposed to be pretty good, model TD712zMk2.

What did they fix?
 

JackD201

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Apr 20, 2010
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Amir please stop back into the Ki room before you go to see if anything has changed, Groucho brought up perhaps a very good point, is this stuff designed to work on 120vac or even 110 or so volts.....

It would only matter if 15A is not enough to drive their built in amps properly. If anything was wrong I seriously doubt that THAT is the reason. It would have to have been extremely poorly designed and honestly, given Bruno's track record, I certainly doubt that of all things he'd screw up on he switch mode power supplies.
 

BruceD

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I was told the reluctance to play attendee's Thumb/Flash drives is the potential for Virus's attached

BruceD
 

Davidny

Well-Known Member
Nov 29, 2014
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image.jpg

I just came back from 7 hours of roaming the halls at RMAF. And I spent a fair amount of time listening to the Kii Audio room. I had heard Kii Three's in Munich but since that was a pre production model I wanted to hear the finished version. The Kii's were driven only by a MacBook Pro connected via an internet cable, with no intervening electronics. The room itself had zero acoustic treatment, horrible acoustics, you could hear how "hard" the room sounded when there was no music, just people talking.
Well the sound from the Kii's just filled the room, there was a very spacious soundstage that projected well in front of the speakers. Dynamics were excellent and frequency response was impressive, particularly in the bass area. I sensed no distortion which really surprised me given how bad the room acoustics were. Obviously the technology Bruno has designed into this all in one DAC-amplifier-speaker is something very special.
Needless to say I was very impressed. I can't wait to hear them in a good room.
 

Jazzhead

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Aug 26, 2012
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View attachment 22505

I just came back from 7 hours of roaming the halls at RMAF. And I spent a fair amount of time listening to the Kii Audio room. I had heard Kii Three's in Munich but since that was a pre production model I wanted to hear the finished version. The Kii's were driven only by a MacBook Pro connected via an internet cable, with no intervening electronics. The room itself had zero acoustic treatment, horrible acoustics, you could hear how "hard" the room sounded when there was no music, just people talking.
Well the sound from the Kii's just filled the room, there was a very spacious soundstage that projected well in front of the speakers. Dynamics were excellent and frequency response was impressive, particularly in the bass area. I sensed no distortion which really surprised me given how bad the room acoustics were. Obviously the technology Bruno has designed into this all in one DAC-amplifier-speaker is something very special.
Needless to say I was very impressed. I can't wait to hear them in a good room.

Color me confused !!! :confused:
 

DaveC

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Nov 16, 2014
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10. As I noted elsewhere, I was very disappointed with the demo of Kii loudspeakers. If anyones to beat me up with "DSP and measurements don't translate to good sound," this is your opportunity. :D By every metric I use to listen to a loudspeaker, it did poorly. Don't know what was going on. And oh, this was another room which refused to play my sample tracks despite playing everything on their computer.

They played my test tracks for me. I think they are limiting the music selection, not a bad idea given the issues with room acoustics.
 

Whatmore

Well-Known Member
Jun 2, 2011
1,011
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438
Melbourne, Australia
View attachment 22505

I just came back from 7 hours of roaming the halls at RMAF. And I spent a fair amount of time listening to the Kii Audio room. I had heard Kii Three's in Munich but since that was a pre production model I wanted to hear the finished version. The Kii's were driven only by a MacBook Pro connected via an internet cable, with no intervening electronics. The room itself had zero acoustic treatment, horrible acoustics, you could hear how "hard" the room sounded when there was no music, just people talking.
Well the sound from the Kii's just filled the room, there was a very spacious soundstage that projected well in front of the speakers. Dynamics were excellent and frequency response was impressive, particularly in the bass area. I sensed no distortion which really surprised me given how bad the room acoustics were. Obviously the technology Bruno has designed into this all in one DAC-amplifier-speaker is something very special.
Needless to say I was very impressed. I can't wait to hear them in a good room.

Interesting first post .........
 

flez007

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Amir - I read somewhere else that no CD players (almost) were around, your take on this?
 

amirm

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Apr 2, 2010
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Seattle, WA
Amir - I read somewhere else that no CD players (almost) were around, your take on this?
Not true. I recall at least half a dozen to a dozen CD players used as sources. One example was in PS Audio room where I remember someone bringing their own CD which they played. Indeed I wished I had brought a CD with me in addition/instead of a flash drive. I just couldn't figure out how to fit it in my pants pocket :D.

dCS had a new DAC with optional optical drive.

That said, they clearly, clearly have fallen out of favor. By far LPs were the #1 format. Playback from a Macbook/server was second. CD after that and as I noted, tape was not used anywhere.
 

DaveC

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Nov 16, 2014
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Not true. I recall at least half a dozen to a dozen CD players used as sources. One example was in PS Audio room where I remember someone bringing their own CD which they played. Indeed I wished I had brought a CD with me in addition/instead of a flash drive. I just couldn't figure out how to fit it in my pants pocket :D.

dCS had a new DAC with optional optical drive.

That said, they clearly, clearly have fallen out of favor. By far LPs were the #1 format. Playback from a Macbook/server was second. CD after that and as I noted, tape was not used anywhere.

There's a rtr in the PranaFidelity room :)
 

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