What were your takeaways from RMAF? Still very impressed with NOLA's showing

caesar

Well-Known Member
May 30, 2010
4,290
767
1,698
Before the show fades into the netherworld of the brain and becomes a distant memory, what do you still remember about it?

It seemed that every where I went - every room, every hallway, every elevator, the most ubiquitously spoken words were: "They want THAT $$$$ for that? It's a joke!". But high cost of audio gear is nothing new. Even big companies like Sony and Pioneer, who can easily shift costs from the millions of "cheap" electronics they sell, still charge a lot of money for TAD and SS-AR, their elite lines of gear. Selecting the drivers, selecting the wood for the cabinets, engineering the crossovers, etc., is a lot of work. Developing and building high end gear is expensive, and not a whole lot will be sold. Only imagine what TAD and SS_AR gear would cost if someone built them in their garage...

Now I know there are some folks here who think high end audio is a scam, so they can stop reading right here. (Other than enjoying to argue, what the heck are you guys doing here anyways?) But the fact that the really expensive gear doesn't demonstrate its real benefits at a show doesn't stop exhibitors from trying. Is that really a smart marketing move? Should consumers be left with the thought of a company charging a lot of money for dreck mit pfeffer?

To my ears, the $10K NOLA KO driven by the more modest ARC gear was a clear winner for a speaker under $70K. The NOLA sonic signature and Carl's genius were obvious to anyone who stepped into the suite: there was MUSICplaying in Carl's suite, not a bunch of audio gear that makes sound yet brings a whole hoard of media elites, as there was in the Wilson Alexa room. As a result, anyone who was introduced to or re-acquainted with the NOLA sonic signature can now step into a dealer that has several NOLA models on display in more comfortable surroundings and compare the KO to the more expensive models. They can easily determine if the sonic benefits of the higher priced models are worth paying for. So NOLA was not only the best of show, but did a brilliant job of marketing as well, as it was obvious what value NOLA delivered for what they charged.

What were your takeaways?
 

flez007

Member Sponsor
Aug 31, 2010
2,915
36
435
Mexico City
Harbeths, Devialet with YGs, Ypsilon, Lansche, Venture, Vivid, Aesthetix, Vandersteen, Antelope, Nagra, small Volti. DeVore and FM Acoustics.
 

mep

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
9,481
17
0
I'm still impressed with the NOLA speakers as well. What 'scares' me is that they were driven by $60K of gear and cables. Somebody correct me if I am wrong, but aren't the Nordost speaker cables $30K alone? The price ratio between speakers and speaker cables seems odd to me. Speakers: $10K. Speaker cables: $30K. Seems like this ratio is inverted. I would rather have a $30K pair of speakers with $10K of wires. But then one could certainly argue that Carl's pair of $10K speakers sounds better than some other people's $50K speakers.

The bottom line is that the Nola speakers were very special sounding to me. I loved them.
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
I'm still impressed with the NOLA speakers as well. What 'scares' me is that they were driven by $60K of gear and cables. Somebody correct me if I am wrong, but aren't the Nordost speaker cables $30K alone? The price ratio between speakers and speaker cables seems odd to me. Speakers: $10K. Speaker cables: $30K. Seems like this ratio is inverted. I would rather have a $30K pair of speakers with $10K of wires. But then one could certainly argue that Carl's pair of $10K speakers sounds better than some other people's $50K speakers.

The bottom line is that the Nola speakers were very special sounding to me. I loved them.

But Mark, you had a similar experience with the EA MMOne's and loved them as well. I bet in that scenario the ratio of cost of cable to that of speakers was even higher
 

slowGEEZR

Member Sponsor
Sep 20, 2010
1,317
74
968
72
Colorado Springs, CO
The first time I entered the Nola room, I stayed for about 30 seconds and had to leave, as the sound was so bad. Having heard Nola before, I knew they were good speakers, so I went back a few minutes later. Now they sounded wonderful, as I had remembered Nola sounding. Turns out, they were playing someone's demo music earlier and it was the culprit. Garbage in, garbage out.

I thought the MBL joint room demo was great. It was nice to hear the differences and similarities between their top line gear and the less expensive gear playing the same material. The MBL main room gets my nod for best of show and most memorable.
 

mep

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
9,481
17
0
But Mark, you had a similar experience with the EA MMOne's and loved them as well. I bet in that scenario the ratio of cost of cable to that of speakers was even higher

Steve-I don't know how much the EA cables are. JT showed with cheaper amplification this year because of people running their jaws about how much his amplification chain cost and claiming that is why the little EAs sound so good. I believe the Chinese integrated amp with the funky meters that JA used this year is $8K. That wouldn't even buy you the ARC REF 5SE preamp that Carl was using. And for the record, while I am impressed with the sound quality and the amount of sound that comes from the tiny EAs, I'm not in the market for a speaker like that. I just don't see speakers that small pressurizing a room like mine.
 

mep

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
9,481
17
0
The first time I entered the Nola room, I stayed for about 30 seconds and had to leave, as the sound was so bad. Having heard Nola before, I knew they were good speakers, so I went back a few minutes later. Now they sounded wonderful, as I had remembered Nola sounding. Turns out, they were playing someone's demo music earlier and it was the culprit. Garbage in, garbage out.

I thought the MBL joint room demo was great. It was nice to hear the differences and similarities between their top line gear and the less expensive gear playing the same material. The MBL main room gets my nod for best of show and most memorable.

I believe that I previously stated the same thing with regards to which room I thought sounded best-cost no object.
 

Mike Lavigne

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 25, 2010
12,467
11,363
4,410
But Mark, you had a similar experience with the EA MMOne's and loved them as well. I bet in that scenario the ratio of cost of cable to that of speakers was even higher

Jonathan was using modestly priced cables from Gary Leeds in his room this year. total for all the cables in the room was around $1000 as i recall. (i could be wrong, they could have been $1000 each set, but that is still considered medium priced these days).

but even the Evolution Acoustics top of line cables are not excessively priced relative to other SOTA cables. my 12' EA triple run speaker cables list at $9k.....and are better (to my ears) than any i've heard.

in any case, that whole room was modestly priced.....other than the $11k Ampex ATR-102 RTR tape deck.
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Jonathan was using modestly priced cables from Gary Leeds in his room this year. total for all the cables in the room was around $1000 as i recall. (i could be wrong, they could have been $1000 each set, but that is still considered medium priced these days).

but even the Evolution Acoustics top of line cables are not excessively priced relative to other SOTA cables. my 12' EA triple run speaker cables list at $9k.....and are better (to my ears) than any i've heard.

in any case, that whole room was modestly priced.....other than the $11k Ampex ATR-102 RTR tape deck.

I understand that Mike but in years past such was not the case
 

Mike Lavigne

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 25, 2010
12,467
11,363
4,410
I understand that Mike but in years past such was not the case

but as MEP pointed out, Jonathan responded to cirticism from past years and went 'modest' with what was feeding the MM1's. the whole issue is this year verses last year. we know prior years were different.

your comment was directed at Jonathan's room this year assuming that the cables were still expensive.....which i pointed out they were not.

I bet in that scenario the ratio of cost of cable to that of speakers was even higher

you would have lost that bet.
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
what staggered my ears and eyes was Roger Sanders room with a $13K system which sounded killer to my ears and used nothing more than what looked to be zip cable. That is what piqued my interest as to the overall benefit of cables. OK rants begin but I defy anyone who was in Rogers room to say that even with that cable the sound was anything less than killer
 

ALF

Well-Known Member
Mar 15, 2012
531
243
955
Southwest
Zippy

what staggered my ears and eyes was Roger Sanders room with a $13K system which sounded killer to my ears and used nothing more than what looked to be zip cable. That is what piqued my interest as to the overall benefit of cables. OK rants begin but I defy anyone who was in Rogers room to say that even with that cable the sound was anything less than killer

Yep, killer...
 

daytona600

Well-Known Member
Sep 9, 2012
722
151
955
scotland
what staggered my ears and eyes was Roger Sanders room with a $13K system which sounded killer to my ears and used nothing more than what looked to be zip cable. That is what piqued my interest as to the overall benefit of cables. OK rants begin but I defy anyone who was in Rogers room to say that even with that cable the sound was anything less than killer

100% agree just installed my new sanders system 2days ago , bought them unheard and shipped to europe
10c , bi-amped with magtechs , pre & cables
first listening session lasted over 24 hours , floor covered in records & cds stunning sound for the money
 

daytona600

Well-Known Member
Sep 9, 2012
722
151
955
scotland
talking of rock on tomelex , did stop for 30minutes about 3am , turned them up to Ten or " Eleven " for a Metallica session when my mates dropped in.
Police turned up at the door to spoil the party. Sanders Bargain in hifi
.
Why spend more,, financed most of the Sanders by selling my usher Be20s on ebay
 

audioarcher

Well-Known Member
May 6, 2012
1,396
51
970
Seattle area
talking of rock on tomelex , did stop for 30minutes about 3am , turned them up to Ten or " Eleven " for a Metallica session when my mates dropped in.
Police turned up at the door to spoil the party. Sanders Bargain in hifi
.
Why spend more,, financed most of the Sanders by selling my usher Be20s on ebay

Congrats on the Sanders. I have the predecessor Innersound Kayas. Unlike some e-stats you can crank them without fear of arcing the panels. As long as the amps are up to it they will play very loud cleanly. The Sanders/Innersound amps are obviously a good choice.

Enjoy.





On the cable front I use Rogers speaker cables but don't care for his interconnects.
 

daytona600

Well-Known Member
Sep 9, 2012
722
151
955
scotland
did try my lessloss anchorwave interconnects in place of sanders own make ,
lessloss sounded much better , as they should at far higher cost.

They do play never loud
 

FrantzM

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
6,455
29
405
100% agree just installed my new sanders system 2days ago , bought them unheard and shipped to europe
10c , bi-amped with magtechs , pre & cables
first listening session lasted over 24 hours , floor covered in records & cds stunning sound for the money

Please don't add the "for the money" it demeans what seems to be a stellar product
 

daytona600

Well-Known Member
Sep 9, 2012
722
151
955
scotland
yes agree about price comment , should of said " A true giant killer "
 

taters

New Member
Jun 6, 2012
301
0
0
what staggered my ears and eyes was Roger Sanders room with a $13K system which sounded killer to my ears and used nothing more than what looked to be zip cable. That is what piqued my interest as to the overall benefit of cables. OK rants begin but I defy anyone who was in Rogers room to say that even with that cable the sound was anything less than killer

I'm not an expert but I think the whole cable thing is over hyped.
 

About us

  • What’s Best Forum is THE forum for high end audio, product reviews, advice and sharing experiences on the best of everything else. This is THE place where audiophiles and audio companies discuss vintage, contemporary and new audio products, music servers, music streamers, computer audio, digital-to-analog converters, turntables, phono stages, cartridges, reel-to-reel tape machines, speakers, headphones and tube and solid-state amplification. Founded in 2010 What’s Best Forum invites intelligent and courteous people of all interests and backgrounds to describe and discuss the best of everything. From beginners to life-long hobbyists to industry professionals, we enjoy learning about new things and meeting new people, and participating in spirited debates.

Quick Navigation

User Menu

Steve Williams
Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator
Ron Resnick
Site Co-Owner | Administrator
Julian (The Fixer)
Website Build | Marketing Managersing