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Rocky Mountain Audio Fest (RMAF) 2017 Day 1

RayDunzl

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Dynamic but super bright. Might be in the source.

Looks hot in the higher frequencies to me (using the YouTube as source).


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amirm

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As a woodworker I often admire what goes into manufacturing beautiful speakers and this is one example. Joshua is both a speaker manufacturer and skilled woodworker. He handmakes each speaker out of hardwoods from Hawaii and puts superb finishes on them. He also buys drivers and then takes them apart and redoes them. No idea how he can do so much manual work and yet price these speakers so reasonably.

He was also using the DAC from Aries Cerat -- a company I have some affinity with.

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amirm

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JWM, Aries Cerat:

Vivaldi: Concerto For 2 Mandolins, Strings And Continuo In G, R.532-2. Andante by James Tyler & Douglas Wootton & Academy Of St. Martin In The Fields & Sir Neville Marriner. https://shz.am/t63035858

Can't find a demo track.

Very nice, open and warm sound. BTW, so far this show has produced pretty warm sound all around. Some shows are dominated by shrill highs. Not so far here.
 
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amirm

amirm

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Our member and my friend Duke from Audio Kinesis was hosting one of the "innovation" rooms at RMAF. As announced here, he had wired his speakers so that the up firing rear driver had its own amps. As a result, it could be turned on and off with a remote button. He had finely tuned its level and as such, it did add nice amount of ambiance without being overdone at all. Note that this is NOT the same as backfiring. the driver is angled and it was hitting the sidewalls. Front wall reflections in general are not a good idea.

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Here he is as always with a smile and great attitude:
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amirm

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Duke's room

Ain't No Sunshine by Buddy Guy Feat. Tracy Chapman. https://shz.am/t42050152


Turning on the back driver nicely increased the overall volume of the soundstage with no negative side effect.
 
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amirm

amirm

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This was the other innovation room. This comprised of tiny, paper cup sized speakers that put out lowest volume I have heard of any speakers. I could barely hear them. They would couple to the table which he said was part of the design. The problem is that the table produced a distorted sound. Overall it was a complete failure in my mind to create a new type of speakers. Considering that the cost is some $3,000 or so, I can't fathom the justification to build something like this.

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amirm

amirm

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It was nice meeting the folks from Korean company SOtM. They were quite nice and hopefully will send some of their new product such as clock source, USB to S/PDIF converter, etc for review.

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c1ferrari

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Thanks, Amir. I heard the Vanatoo speakers some time ago and thought they were very good.
It's amazing some of the good sound we get/perceive out of a pair of small boxes these days!
:cool:
 

DonH56

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The weather outside is perfect with leaves starting to turn and super comfortable temps. But what the heck is going on here???
View attachment 8970

Monday is the day I fly out! How do we go from 70s to 30s with snow and then back to near 70s???? It does not compute!

Welcome to Colorado... Often get warm temps followed but a front that freezes every spec of moisture out of the air. This is at my house. They went from 1"-2", to 2"-4", now 3"-5" on Monday plus a little Sunday night. And dropped our high. This is the first snow of the season for us; we've usually had one or two little ones in Sept. House is at about 7500', quite a bit higher than Denver though about 60 miles south. Back clear and sunny on Tuesday.

Great coverage as usual Amir, wish I could have been there today!

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amirm

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OK, where were we? Oh, still finishing day 1. For now, day 2 was definitely busier with more rooms that were blocked to the door. Polling companies, many were satisfied with the reception, a few not. I am thinking it is less busy than the busiest shows I have been too. Rooms remained comfortable temp wise and as such, I have yet to run into someone who smells like he has not showered for days!
 
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amirm

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This was Vanatoo's own room (as opposed to the budget ones coordinated by RMAF). Here they had the older and larger Vanatoo on display. While that one puts out more bass it uses a passive crossover and doesn't have the active DSP one that the smaller one sports. The smaller one is 4 years newer so benefits from advancements.
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amirm

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When We Were Young by Adele. https://shz.am/t298370665


This was on the smaller Vanatoo Transparent Zero. And it sounded excellent. Did I say these are $359 a pair including shipping? I hope to get one for review.
 
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amirm

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Vanatoo Transparent One (larger one):

Turned My Upside Down by Sara K.. https://shz.am/t10165951

Warmer than Transparent Zero. No subs in this room. And it sounded excellent.

Even though this has passive crossover, the DSP is still used to shape the response.
 
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