The show is off to a great start. There are some very good products for computer audiophiles. Here is my live feed directly from the demo rooms :~)

Rocky Mountain Audiofest 2009 is less than one month away. I hope many of you have plans to attend this fun weekend of listening to great music on great audio systems from around the world. If you haven't made plans yet it's not too late to join all of us in Denver. RMAF is actually a funner show than CES as the atmosphere is much more relaxed and it's open to the public unlike CES. Last year I met several Computer Audiophile readers and this year I look forward to meeting even more of you. In addition I will be speaking at the Computer Audio seminar moderated by Stereophile's John Atkinson. Read more for the time, date, and list of panelists for this seminar.

According to Wikipedia, "In film and video, footage is the raw, unedited material as it had been originally recorded by video camera, which usually must be edited to create a motion picture, video clip, television show or similar completed work." The follow four videos are definitely in the footage category, but the word lost might be a bit of a stretch. It sure makes the title sound more important though. This footage has been sitting on my MacBook Air since the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show back in early January. As usual other topics have jumped the queue and made the front page of Computer Audiophile before I had a chance to publish these videos. Since this stuff is raw and unedited I hope it at least gives the readers/viewers a feel for what the show is like if nothing else. Some of the footage is blurry, but video of the Manley suite is always good considering the very cool vibe that perpetuates in there year after year. Other footage includes Kimber Cable, Boulder, PS Audio, dCS, and Red Wine Audio. Enjoy.

Old school analog and new school digital were definitely coexisting and thriving at CES 2009. This was never more evident than in the TAD suit where high resolution music was playing back from a music server and a tape machine. There were also suites dedicated to each playback method. For example Winston Ma's hospitality suite featured a MacBook Pro with Amarra and Sonic Studio's FireWire hardware. On the opposite end of the spectrum was the J-Corder suite that featured nothing but custom reel-to-reel tape machines. Both methods of playback were equally as impressive and enjoyable in their own right.

The TAD suite at CES this year produced some of the best sound of the entire show. OK, I must admit to being a little bias because I did build the music server TAD used for the entire show. Fortunately everyone who sat through a demonstration from TAD's Andrew Jones was very pleased with the sound as well. Thus you can be sure I'm not exaggerating just because I was involved in a tiny piece of the sound quality. Much of the build information about this exact server can be found in my previous article titled Absolutely Silent Audiophile Music Server. The hardware is pretty close to what Robert Harley used for his music server article in the January issue of The Abso!ute Sound. In addition to fine tuning the OS I configured Windows XP to operate using only three services and 57MB of RAM at startup. Scaling back a Windows operating system is never a bad thing in my opinion.

At CES this year Ayre Acoustics unveiled its USB DAC. In typical Ayre fashion this component has very nice build quality with a minimalist appearance. The most impressive things about the Ayre USB DAC are 1. It supports 16/44.1, 24/88.2, and 24/96 native sample rates, and 2. This DAC use the asynchronous USB protocol. Think of the Ayre USB DAC as the solid state version of Gordon Rankin's Wavelength Audio DACs. Ayre Acoustics partnered with Gordon to develop this new USB DAC and licensed his asynchronous USB implementation. This Ayre DAC is built solely for USB computer integration. There are no other interfaces available. This allowed Ayre to concentrate all its efforts on one interface without compromises. The DAC is also fully compatible with the AyreLink communication system through RJ-11 ports on the rear of the chassis. I spent some time listening to the new Ayre USB DAC and was pretty impressed even under less than ideal show conditions. I'm looking forward to reviewing this DAC as soon as it's officially released in a few months. Read more for images of the Ayre Acoustics CES suite.

CES 2009 has been over for a couple days now and I've had some time to digest everything I saw in Vegas this year. Computer based playback has finally overcome many of the traditional high-end audio hurdles. Even the old school audiophiles used music servers in their suites at the Venetian. The manufacturers without music servers usually had a new CD player to showcase and didn't want to send mixed signals by using a computer based source. USB was the most popular interface but there was no shortage of S/PDIF, AES, FireWire, and even Ethernet. Many operating systems were in use including Windows XP, Windows Vista, OS X, and different versions of Linux. Plus, there was an important presence by Sonic Studio's Amarra software / hardware package...

The 2009 Consumer Electronics Show is here! Check Computer Audiophile frequently for the latest information about computer based playback and music servers. There will be some great product announcements over the next few days and Computer Audiophile will have photos and videos of everything. All the CA readers in Vegas are encouraged to share their experiences here on the site.

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.

After three very successful days the 2008 Rocky Mountain Audiofest has come to an end. I've talked to many manufacturers, some by reader request, and others simply because they have something we are all interested in. I do have the best sound of the show winner and runner-up in my head. More in depth coverage of these systems is coming. Read more for additional information from the show.