Rocky Mountain Audio Fest; Oct. 8, 9, and 10, 2004

gonefishin

Super Member
Rocky Mountain Audio Fest; Oct. 8, 9, and 10, 2004


If you can make it, this should be one heck of a show!

Quite an impressive showing of exhibitors!


Also, I think I'd bring some cash too. I know a good number of the exhibitors usually bring "show pieces" at special prices..such as getting a Welborne Amp or preamp...or maybe some 500Hz "saladbowls". I would also hope that Jack Elliano of Electra-Print would have some transformers for sale :dunno: but I dunno if he will. Not to mention the rest of the guys that'll be there...looks to be a very good show!


take care>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
 
Oh yeah...I've had my eye on this for some time. I plan on going. I have a friend that lives near there whom said to come on up and the lodging is free. Works for me!! Very excited about going. Looking especially forward to Bruce Edgar's stuff. (hope he goes anyway)
 
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Be kewl if you went Bill, you could buy drinks LOL Hey, did you get my e mail? I want to get these drivers out to you...
 
Cool, I'll be there regardless!! Right here in my backyard, for now. My family might be making the transfer to the Lone Star state this summer.

john
 
Here is some pictures and comments of the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. My camera needs a bigger flash for this kinda thing and a number of pictures didn't come out well. Anyway, I don't have as much as I had hoped to. Just wanted to post another perspective from what some already posted in other forums. The following is just some opinions and pictures so don't read to much into anything ok? Thanks...

This was a very fun event for those really into two channel and especially high efficiency speakers with lower power amps. Lots of this kind of gear was there. For me, I can’t imagine any other audio type event that I would have wanted to be at. Yes there was also some Home Theater there and of course solid state and smaller speakers too. Shoot, they even had big ass speakers and big ass solid state amps. A variety of line array stuff, some neat open baffle type speakers and some other unusual cabinet designs that I simply can’t remember who they were. Over all just an excellent event that went off smoothly. You can't say enough for the people that organized it and the sponsors. Not to mention the beautiful Marriott Tech Center, they were very accommodating! I was impressed and very happy that this is an event I made an effort to be at. Exactly the kind of things I needed to audition and pros chatted willingly in depth. Have to say, I was quite ignorant of how many styles of speakers sounded. This event really broadened my point of view and I sure needed it.

There was six half full each floors of scattered rooms with various vendors in them. Some rooms were much bigger than others. Wow, headphone amps and lots of headphones. Tubes for sale. LP's, speaker drivers, cables, amp kits, remote control kits bla, bla, bla for sale. LOL That was all fun stuff to go through. Bill bought some valves and I got a 200 gram LP on his recommendation. (Was fun rifling through all those new analog LPs. It would have been easy to drop hundreds of dollars there!) Sure wanted to make an offer to Dr. Edgar on his show Titans. Maybe get a show discount which all vendors were doing. LOL yeah right. I can see me renting a van and driving those home. Wife, oh yeah, I used to be married LOL Anyway, they were Bruce's demo Titans so likely he wasn't even selling them, hard saying. Dr. Edgar was a wealth of information and such is a fun person to listen to. One evening we got to sit in a little group in front of the Titans and hear him respond to questions asked. He really understands what he is doing and it shows with the performance of his product. We feel that he had the "Best of Show" in speaker sound.

There appeared to be a new turntable out on the market that a few vendors were using called the BIX. It has a very competitive price that makes it a winner. Likely to turn into a real buzz we think. I have a picture of it but not a good angle. Shot it in Bottleheads room as they sell it too. Here's a link to the DIY site to see it...
http://www.diyhifisupply.com/diyhs_bix.htm

The live Patricia Barber concert was very good. Those folks can sure perform. Drummer was most excellent, whew! We had seats right up front and could see well. Was nice!

The seminars with Wally tools and Rives Audio were fun and informative. Wally is a funny fellow that really has been around the block with respect to tone arms. I learned some things from that seminar which I took home with me. Thanks Wally!
Rives Audio really knows their stuff for making ones room sound right. They didn't use the seminar as a forum to advertise their business as much as to help us guys get our rooms working better to enjoy the music. Excellent content and well done Rives!

Yup, all in all, a great time and show. The restaurants in the hotel were good and one called The Great Divide had their home brewed bears. Bill could have drank me under the table I think LMAO! I so enjoyed hearing his stories of travel with his wife to the Philippines. Oh man LOL, something I just remembered. We approach an elevator... One vendor had made a little paper business card holder and stapled it to the nice papered wall by the elevator buttons. Then someone had written “tacky” on it. LMAO so true! Tacky as hell and sure doesn't’t help make us audio folks look like a very bright bunch gezzzzzz. The show did’t seem over crowded one bit and you could see and do what you wanted there. (I think more could have been done in the Denver area to bring in people. Somewhere the ball got dropped in marketing this event there it seems) If someone didn't see a system they liked then they were not looking hard enough because it all was there. (Well ok, new stuff that is) Have to say though that we walked past many rooms. Yawn…Just another box speaker, some big, some small, for the masses… There were many SHARP industry professionals to chat with and we had a long conversation with Jack at Electra-Print Audio. As someone with an electrical industry background I enjoy hearing folks like this speak. That man knows transformers like you wouldn't believe! He talks to you and not down to you and he was very willing to just chat at his booth for a long time with us. Real nice guy…

So like I said...We thought Dr. Edgar had the "Best of Show". We found ourselves wandering past his room often to see what kind of music was playing. Sadly I didn't get to hear it a the louder SPL levels which I would have liked to but regardless of that,
what I heard made me fall in love I tell ya...

Hmmmm looks like Bill is picking the Doc's brain. Hey Bill, when you get done building your Titans give me your notes and blueprints will ya!? hee hee hee
;) :yes:
 
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These Galibier Exemplar's and Oris horns were incredible too. Excellent build and sound. Wouldn't mind having anyone of these in my living room...
 
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WOW! These Hartsfields from Classic Audio were GREAT too! The build on them was to die for and when he spun some Linda Ronstadt for me I thought she was right in front of me. I could live with these too! Wish I got a close up of them. So well built...
 
We really got a kick out of the sound of these open baffle Prometheus speakers. Very nice to say the least. Price was great too for around 1,500 bucks. I wouldn't mind listening to these all day...

Bill says to him..."Why the dual stereo subs?" and the fellow answers back, "because we are in America". We enjoyed that response LOL :lmao:
 
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These horn speakers from Cogent were interesting. He makes this driver himself. Might not be my cup of tea though. Bill said to me "Dave, move your head about six inches over". I did and I was amazed to hear the sound stage collapse. That directional whew...
 
So WW now that you've heard some "real" horn speakers with big woofers what is your take? How do they compare to the ravens and what is your next step?
 
Well it's really no contest. While my Raven based MTM speaker is an excellent speaker in many respects, it certainly isn't a Titan or similar. The "dynamics" of a well designed, high efficency horn loaded speaker really is more fufilling and real sounding. I want to say though that I still found the highs of a ribbon tweeter more enjoyable and it may be simply because I am used to it. New speakers are not in the picture for a while. Where I will go someday is something very similar if not a pair of Edgarhorn Titans. Bill will have it all down by then so it will be a slam dunk for me if I decide to DIY. Likely save about 4 grand that way. (Excluding the sub)

Here is a picture of the Tannoy room. How can you not love a room full of brand new Tannoy's being pushed by 845 SET monoblocks?! :rockon:
 
A few turntables. (This show was full of turntables. I should have shot more. Was nice to see them all though)
 
You can sorta see the new BIX table in this shot. Think this was in the Bottlehead room. (Those look like em) We really thought this table was hot chit. Price even made it more attractive!
 
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Of course there was many rooms of speaker boxes. Some home theater too. I bet I didn't go into every one of these types of rooms. Oh well, ya like what ya like right?
 
Wally sure poured it on with respect to tonearm set up. Was an informative and funny seminar.
 
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