Rocky Mountain Audiofest 2008 was full of the usual and the very unusual audio components. Some very reasonably price and others priced more than the average American home. I guess for the affluent readers the components priced more than a home might be reasonably priced. It's all relative , I won't judge. There were more Wadia 170 iTransports on display than any other component. There was also a lot of external DACs on display and more wireless music distribution than I expected. In my opinion RMAF is a really fun show, in part because consumers are allowed to attend everything just like those in the industry. Whereas CES is an industry only show and it tends to be a little more pretentious. I met many consumers at the show who were extremely friendly and with whom I will probably keep in touch. If your looking for some new components that a local dealer does not carry I really encourage you to attend RMAF next year. You can listen to just about everything on earth over the course of a weekend and mingle with many like minded audiophiles. What's better than grabbing lunch and a cold beverage between listening to the VTL / Avalon system and the Boulder / Focal Grand Utopia system without a salesman in sight? No offense to the salesmen here at Computer Audiophile, but even they should no I'm talking about :-) Anyway, here are some components I found interesting or worthy of a photograph for the CA readers.
Sonic Studio's Amarra / Harbeth speakers
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Sonic Studio's Amarra / Gradient speakers
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Amarra!
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Escalante Design Freemont Loudspeakers
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Escalante Design Freemont Loudspeakers
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Escalante Design Freemont Loudspeakers
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Escalante Design Freemont Loudspeakers
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Escalante Design Freemont Loudspeakers
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Escalante Design Freemont Loudspeakers
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Ultra Fi MusicStream USB DAC
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Ultra Fi MusicStream USB DAC
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Ultra Fi MusicStream USB DAC
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Ultra Fi MusicStream USB DAC
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Ultra Fi MusicStream USB DAC / Ridge Street Audio USB Cable
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Halcro Amps galore
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Halcro Amps galore
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Halcro Amps galore
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Bright Red Halcro amp
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Bright Red Halcro amp
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Bright Red Halcro amp
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PS Audio Perfect Wave Transport & Ultra DAC
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PS Audio Perfect Wave Transport & Ultra DAC
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PS Audio Perfect Wave Transport & Ultra DAC
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PS Audio Perfect Wave Transport & Ultra DAC
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PS Audio Perfect Wave Transport & Ultra DAC
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PS Audio Perfect Wave Transport & Ultra DAC (rear reflection)
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PS Audio Perfect Wave Transport & Ultra DAC
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PS Audio Perfect Wave Transport & Ultra DAC
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PS Audio / Avalon Indra loudspeakers
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PS Audio / Avalon Indra loudspeakers
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Nova Physics player
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Nova Physics player
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Nova Physics player
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Nova Physics player
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Nova Physics player
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Nova Physics player
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Nova Physics player
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Nova Physics player
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The next three photos go together. Studio Electric loudspeakers and amps were being used with an iPhone, Wadia iTransport, and Benchmark DAC1 PRE
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Studio Electric loudspeakers and amps
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Studio Electric amp close-up
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Manley Labs / Squeezebox
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Manley Labs / Squeezebox
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Manley Labs
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Manley Labs
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Focal Grand Utopia / Boulder amps
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Focal Grand Utopia / Boulder amps
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Focal Grand Utopia rear
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Focal Grand Utopia rear
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Focal Grand Utopia rear
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BD Design CrazyT DAC
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BD Design Components
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Yokohama Baysidenet music server in Origen S21T case
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Yokohama Baysidenet music server in Origen S21T case
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Yokohama Baysidenet music server in Origen S21T case
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Yokohama Baysidenet music server in Origen S21T case
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Yokohama Baysidenet music server in Origen S21T case
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Yokohama Baysidenet music server in Origen S21T case
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Yokohama Baysidenet music server in Origen S21T case
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Highcraft HC-TY500 speakers
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Highcraft HC-TY500 speakers
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Chris Connaker
Founder
Computer Audiophile
Thanks Chris,
Computer Audio systems in shows get very little coverage in other internet sites.
It is very pleasent to see increrasing number of quality computer audio devices.
Thanks again for the very informative pictures.
Chris, how do they overcome issues regarding sounds leaking across from neighbouring booths at these events? Is each booth soundproofed to some extent?
I would assume it would be hard to reach a conclusion about the sound of a system playing some classical minuet when next door is a system belting out Dire Straits! (Or don't they use Dire Straits for this sort of thing? ;) )
Peter
Western Australia
Good questions Peter. Each system is in a separate hotel room and some are in much larger banquet type rooms. The isolation is not perfect by any stretch of the term. Possibly the most annoying thing is the noise from people in the hallways. It's definitely a fact of life with these shows, so you do your best to tune it out. If you wait long enough you can usually get some quiet time to really listen. This brings up your second point. Bring your own music!!!! I am so sick of Diana Krall and Patricia Barber! There is a lot of the same music and not much Dire Straits. I brought a few GB worth of music on a USB drive this time.
Chris Connaker
Founder
Computer Audiophile
So the manufacturers will allow people (only certain people presumably?) to plug a flash drive into their systems? A potential security risk for those exhibitors running systems based on Windows, not too bad for Macs though!
Someone could write a 'virus' that sends all audio on Windows systems through the kmixer and resamples it to 11025kHz mono, then plug it into a competitor's setup LOL ;)
Back to a serious note, what sort of volume levels occur at these events? I assume there needs to be sufficient volume to drown out as much of the hallway traffic noise as possible without impacting to severely on the neighbours?
Peter
Western Australia
Ha! I've been thinking along the same lines as you. Windows based systems are very vulnerable at these chows. Plus, nobody wants to run anti-virus on their music server!
The volume fluctuates from quiet to way too loud. It all depends on what the person listening wants to hear and how loud the next guy is over in another room.
Chris Connaker
Founder
Computer Audiophile