Rocky Mountain Audio Fest coming next!!!!

[garylkoh]

I'm really lucky that the organizers had a spare room available. Our North American distributors Rutherford Audio snagged it and gave us our own room! So, come visit in Denver, hang out and spin some LPs. Bring music!

I am also very excited that Rutherford Audio has given us our own room and decided to feature the G7-series. This will give us a chance to show off just how much performance Genesis loudspeakers can achieve in a smaller space and on a modest budget. This isn't your usual entry-level, this is a goose-bump inducing musical system to bring you to the performance venue. Music both large scale and small will be featured. I'll be bringing a collection of my rare test pressings, promo copies and first issue LPs to play. I guarantee great music to visitors to our room. Stay tuned here for the music that I'll be bringing.

To ensure the very best source signal to drive the speakers, we are going to be demo-ing with the brand-new Burmester 101 Integrated Amplifier, and the Thorens 2035 turntable. I'll be using the reference-level Burmester Ph100 phono stage and my favorite highly modified ruby-cantilevered Magic Diamond cartridge.

The details: Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, Denver Marriot Tech Center, Room 1021, Friday October 11th to Sunday October 13th.

The shameless plug: The Genesis 7.2f is the smallest full-range loudspeaker in the Genesis line with a built-in servo-controlled subwoofer. The 200W built-in bass amplifier and 8-inch woofer delivers a true 22Hz in-room from a small and elegant enclosure. The Genesis 7.2c is a high-end audiophile loudspeaker that is also a convertible and can be used as a center channel for home theater installations. The Genesis 7.2p is the smallest of the Genesis loudspeaker family, and yet it has the same quality of execution as the flagship Genesis 1.2 Dragons. The Genesis ring-ribbon tweeter and the same quality of crossover components are used throughout the Genesis family. All Genesis loudspeakers share one common characteristics - a large sweet spot, so that the whole family can enjoy the music. Bring your spouse and kids

 

[cjfrbw]

Look forward to hearing it. May bring some of my offbeat vinyl.

 

[garylkoh]

Look forward to hearing it. May bring some of my offbeat vinyl.

.... and I would love to play it in my room. I'm also bringing a few big beat albums.

 

[garylkoh]

It's a wrap, I'm back in foggy, rainy Seattle.... and Genesis Candy Index was just a little below average.......

Every show, we have a bowl to give candy away. Audiophiles need energy and sustenance as they trudge through the halls. I usually figure on about 5 pounds (about 2.3 kg) of candy per day - so for RMAF I bought 15 pounds for the three days.

By the last hour of the show on Sunday, I had just under a pound left. We usually never finish one bag of 80 Dum Dums which goes to show how few suckers attend audio shows.

Kit Kat disappears the fastest, followed by Reeses Peanut Butter cups (I guess that there are few peanut-allergic audiophiles), next Nestle Crunch. The three pieces of Lindt Lindor extra-dark snuck away before the end of the day (I ration these out slowly).

 

[amirm]

Hehe . Seems like it was a successful show for you. Maybe next year I come and taste the candy.

 

[garylkoh]

Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2013 was kind of a last-minute thing. I hadn't planned on doing a big demo because we did not book a room, and we had given up distribution of Genesis loudspeakers in the US/Canada to Rutherford Audio - distributors for Burmester, Thorens, Elac, among others. However, a couple of weeks before the show started, they noticed that there was a room available just across the hallway from their other two rooms and asked me if I wanted to host a room. Of course, I jumped at the chance, but it also meant that I had a week to build speakers, run them in, and ship them to the show!

My usual show process include building the entire system up (and I mean EVERYTHING) in the Genesis factory to run in for a month so that I can break it down, box up in numbered, labelled boxes for easy set-up at the show. This show was a little less organized..... but thankfully everything went smoothly. Because gear came from all 4 corners of the US to Denver, on the first day I set up with the system to warm up using the Genesis prototype preamp and power amp before the Burmester gear we planned on using finally arrived.



The show system comprised:

Genesis 7 floorstanding loudspeakers ($12,500/pr)
Genesis 7 convertible loudspeakers ($6,000/pr)
Genesis 7 petite loudspeakers ($4,800/pr)

Thorens TD2035 turntable with TP92 tonearm ($6,499)

Burmester Ph100 phono stage ($20,000 with one input)
Burmester 089 CD player ($33,000) with analog input and analog volume control - used also as a preamp
Burmester 956 power amplifier ($19,000)

What I had wanted to showcase and emphasize was that even when the sales tax on the whole system cost more than the speakers, they could keep up in sonic terms. The Genesis 7-series, even though they are our entry-level, are not "trickle down technology" from our flagship Genesis Dragons. They use the same tweeter and crossover components as the big boys. I took more time developing the crossovers of the G7p than I did doing the crossovers of the G2.2. You could buy the G7p as your first loudspeaker out of college, and spend the next 10 years of your audiophile life upgrading the electronics and source, and still may not hit the limits of the speaker. I was very glad to meet three young audiophiles who came to the room to talk to me. They all own the first generation of the G7p, and are still happy with them and have not been tempted with anything else.

 

[Steve Williams]

That must really warm your heart Gary

 

[garylkoh]

Hehe . Seems like it was a successful show for you. Maybe next year I come and taste the candy.

Looking forward to it Amir.

That must really warm your heart Gary

Yes, it does. I told them I look forward to a long journey together.

 

[garylkoh]

Probably the most frequently played album at this show is still one of my favorites. After playing it 5 times a day, it is still my favorite big band jazz album of all time.

Count Basie did one very famous album in 1983 - 88 Basie Street. This won a Grammy, is recommended by both Stereophile and Absolute Sound, and over-shadowed what I thought to be the better album that was released just a few months earlier - Me and You. As a result there are various re-issues of 88 Basie Street in vinyl and digital (I think the best is the 1997 JVC XRCD), but unfortunately there was only the first 1983 vinyl release of Me and You (in US, France and Germany). If it is available on CD, I don't know of it.

It used to be easily available, and relatively cheap, until I started talking about it on WBF...... and I haven't seen another copy for sale since then. *sigh!*

The most often played track was Side A Track 2 - Moten Swing, and Side B Track 3 - Bridge Work. This was also the album I brought over to mosin's room to play on the Saskia turntable. There were a few appreciative people in the audience who didn't want me to take the LP off the table!

 

[garylkoh]

Another album I played quite a bit of was something quite far off the beaten track. This is the first time that I'm demo-ing it at a show. I suspect that like Touch Yello (which I played this CES and then again in the New York Audio Show) it will become a staple at audio shows pretty soon (at which point I will retire it).

The Propellerheads are a British big-beat electronic duo - the tracks on this album is much more familiar to people than the album itself. Almost every time I played this album, someone would say - hey, I know that song......

Side A Track 1 - "Take California" was picked by Steve Jobs as the song for the very first iPod commercial

The track I played most often, Side B Track 3 - "History Repeating" features vocals by Shirley Bassey and was used in a shampoo commercial and also on the Jaguar S-type commercial.

Side C Track 3 - "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" a collaboration with composer David Arnold and his Orchestra was used as the theme song for the James Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Side D Track 4 - "Spybreak" was used in The Matrix during the famous lobby shootout scene.

I have no clue why this album is not more well-known. The sonics are exemplary, dynamics excellent. Since it's mostly electronic, I don't know if the recording is tonally correct, but Ms Shirley Bassey certainly sounds like Ms Bassey. Grab it before they all disappear like Count Basie's Me and You. The US version loses one of my favorite tracks on this album (Side 1 Track 2 - Echo and Bounce) so the one to get is the UK pressing.

 

[garylkoh]

An album that impressed Steve and many others was a budget pressing that I bought for a couple of bucks. I played it whenever I could because it sounded so immediate, like the duo teleported in time and space with their home-made harp and guitar right into the room. It was originally released in 1968 and mastered by Bob Ludwig just barely a year after he began his professional career. I like to tell my listeners that the reason the album sounds so fresh and live was because they couldn't afford expensive mastering to screw up their performance.

The album can still be easily found on-line in NM, EX and VG+ condition for $2 to $5. This was the other album that I brought into mosin's room to play on his turntable.

 

[Steve Williams]

An album that impressed Steve and many others was a budget pressing that I bought for a couple of bucks. I played it whenever I could because it sounded so immediate, like the duo teleported in time and space with their home-made harp and guitar right into the room. It was originally released in 1968 and mastered by Bob Ludwig just barely a year after he began his professional career. I like to tell my listeners that the reason the album sounds so fresh and live was because they couldn't afford expensive mastering to screw up their performance.

The album can still be easily found on-line in NM, EX and VG+ condition for $2 to $5. This was the other album that I brought into mosin's room to play on his turntable.

View attachment 12226

Gary

That album lit up my ears from the moment you dropped the arm to vinyl How did you find that album

 

[garylkoh]

Gary

That album lit up my ears from the moment you dropped the arm to vinyl How did you find that album

It's easily available. On eBay, there are 5 copies available. Prices seem to have gone up though......
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trk...+chiriguanos+guarani+songs&_sacat=0&_from=R40

 

[garylkoh]

After one album that is unobtainium (Count Basie - Me and You) and two relatively obscure ones, this next album is easily available. It sold millions of copies, and the single "Compared to What" hit the Billboard Hot 100 in 1970.

There are lots of re-issues, including a couple from Rhino Records (1996 and 2010-on HQ-180 premium vinyl) and 4 Men with Beards. There is a German 1977 re-issue, but I haven't found a copy of that yet.

This is the album which garnered the most "hey, that is my favorite jazz album" from the crowd. Including a "that's the only album my father gave me that I liked".

This is my best-sounding copy, and the one I brought to the show:

 

[jazdoc]

I see you also bought a few of the KUNI lps off Ebay

 

[garylkoh]

I see you also bought a few of the KUNI lps off Ebay

Yep And the jazz albums seem to generally be in excellent condition for something that came out of a radio station.

 

[puroagave]

I see you also bought a few of the KUNI lps off Ebay

i saw that too. maybe Gary got a good one but i generally avoid radio station cast offs because they're beat to crap.

 

[garylkoh]

i saw that too. maybe Gary got a good one but i generally avoid radio station cast offs because they're beat to crap.

That is, in general, true. However, I already had many copies of this album and was working to find a good copy to bring to my event in Hong Kong.

I didn't like the three re-issues I had, and preferred the first Atlantic pressing. In my hunt, I found this radio station white label promo and ended up buying several albums from the same buyer as he consolidated shipping and considered package offers. I made him/her an offer on a few LPs and it was mostly excellent.

 

[Don]

(New guy here ... )

I love this album. I found it a couple of years ago and it's been in regular rotation since. And yes, Moten Swing makes a fun test track. I'm a big Basie fan and could listen to his gang endlessly. Great stuff! (Sorry I missed hearing your room at the 'fest.)

Probably the most frequently played album at this show is still one of my favorites. After playing it 5 times a day, it is still my favorite big band jazz album of all time.

Count Basie did one very famous album in 1983 - 88 Basie Street. This won a Grammy, is recommended by both Stereophile and Absolute Sound, and over-shadowed what I thought to be the better album that was released just a few months earlier - Me and You. As a result there are various re-issues of 88 Basie Street in vinyl and digital (I think the best is the 1997 JVC XRCD), but unfortunately there was only the first 1983 vinyl release of Me and You (in US, France and Germany). If it is available on CD, I don't know of it.

It used to be easily available, and relatively cheap, until I started talking about it on WBF...... and I haven't seen another copy for sale since then. *sigh!*

The most often played track was Side A Track 2 - Moten Swing, and Side B Track 3 - Bridge Work. This was also the album I brought over to mosin's room to play on the Saskia turntable. There were a few appreciative people in the audience who didn't want me to take the LP off the table!

View attachment 12220

 

[garylkoh]

Hi Don, a big welcome to the WBF from me. Since you're a fan of Basie, this one's for you.

Al Grey, The Last of the Big Plungers: Named after the big rubber toilet-plunger mute (see the album cover below) used by Grey, this album shows that Basie does not have the monopoly on swing. Grey (acclaimed trombonist from Dizzie Gillespie's big band) is joined by seven Basietes - Joe Newman, Billy Mitchell, Benny Powell, Charlie Fowlkes, Ed Jones, Floyd Morris and Sonny Payne. While the 50-year-old copy I played at the show was a little noisy, the music more than made up for it. Once the music starts, you don't hear the surface noise at all. What is recorded is a driving swing coupled with relaxed ease that only excellent musicians in the groove have.

The original Argo deep groove stereo album may be a little difficult to find, but well worth the while to hunt down a good copy. Unlike many of the stereo studio albums of the era, the instruments are not panned hard right/hard left and the soundstage and imaging is very natural. I used Side A Track 2 of this album a lot to illustrate two of the characteristics of the Genesis loudspeakers:

1. the fact that there is a large sweet spot - in any of the 9 seats in the room, the trombone of Al Grey images in the middle between the two speakers. Moving the head from side to side or up and down did not make the imaging or tonality vary significantly.

• 
  because the speakers generate a sound wave and does not beam, I can stand between one speaker and the listener and the image doesn't change (since the room was a little too small, it did vary a bit) and the shadow of someone standing between the listener and loudspeaker doesn't cause the soundstage to collapse. I think that I astounded quite a number of listeners when I illustrated this with the tiny G7p bookshelf on Sunday. When I do this with one of the large Genesis line-source speakers, I can see that in the minds of the listeners, they think "yah, but the speakers are so large that you aren't really blocking them". With the G7p, I completely block off the speaker, but not the sound wave, and if I am careful not to stand too close to the speaker or too close to the listener, the image and tonality does not change enough to be very noticeable.

The follow-up album to this one "A Thinking Man's Trombone" is not as well performed in my opinion, but still very good and another treasured 50-year old album in my collection.

(I've been told that my album covers are too large, so in future I'll reduce them to this size)
​