RMAF 2016 Show Report
Rocky Mountain International Audio Fest & CanJam 2016
Part 4 By Steven R. Rochlin

  It's always interesting during shows to find that 'oddball' room that you love. During RMAF 2016 there was a room with both vintage and new Technics gear. The top pic with red Technics rack system was lust at first sight, and quickly sold at $8000. While i did not say this out loud, was thinking if my wife and Muse Heather would mind if we had yet another 'rack' system within out home, and then saw the 'sold' tag and so that nixed my dream there. Whomever bought it, you;re very lucky and color me jealous! Of course there were other reel-to-reel units, a variety of speakers and amplification by Technics. Am all those R2R units sold, perhaps some amps and the speakers too. Just please show some sanity guys and do not bring back the 8-track tape or elcasette.. or minidisc for that matter. Portable/small audio is all higher quality 24-bit/192kHz or DSD, so no need for compromised mp3-like 8-track tape or outdated optical minidisc format.

Von Schweikert and Skogrand double-teamed with the Beethoven interconnects, speaker cables and power cords. In addition, Skogrand Cables presented their world premiere of the new high value line Vivaldi interconnects, speaker cables and power cords that start at $600 each. Von Schweikert really delivered the good with their Endeavor E-5 loudspeakers ($35,000 per pair). Love the design, slim front, and mirrored-style drive alignment top to bottom. Need even more bass, well then Von Schweikert's Shockwave V12 subwoofer ($11,500) was also there pounding the deep lows. VPI's fantastic Signature Reference 4 rosewood turntable was custom built to fit two, yes two 12" tonearms! At the end of the cartridge was Soundsmith's Hyperion cartridge ($7999.95). Reel-to-reel fans were not let down as the J-Coder Technics 1520 ($12,000) played the part, as did digital delights with the YFS Ref 3 music server ($13,500) coupled with emm labs outstanding DAC2x. Big speakers love big amps, and VAC's Master preamplifier ($40,000 with phono pre drve VAC's Signature 200 IQ amplifiers ($14,000 each, monoblock configuration for this room). GIK Acoustics provided their Alpha Panels and Tri-Trap Corner Bass Traps while Stillpoints' ESS Racks gave excellent isolation to all the equipment (Rack One $8625 and Rack Two $8725). Ok, enough of the gear and let's get to what's important, the music! It is easy to hear why the Von Schweikert and Skogrand room was constantly packed with people, as it sounded delightful! From top-to-bottom frequency coherency to imaging, soundscape and transient speed, all there for my ever-wanting ears to receive. Yes indeed, the Von Schweikert room earns one of the Best Sounds At RMAF 2016.

Ok, you've been reading my rambling so far and my wife and Muse Heather generally is all smiles and loving tunes. While visiting the Nagra room she really loved the clean styling of Nagra's full CLASSIC Line of products including otheir new CLASSIC PREAMP. The speakers are INDRA from Avalon Acoustics, a Kronos PRO turntable with Black Beauty tonearm for analog junkies, EMT cartridge, the always-impressive Kubala*Sosna cables and Modulum racks. This system is my wife's personal choice for Best Sounds AT RMAF 2016 with beautiful midrange, silky smooth highs and just the right balance of supporting bass. Being that Heather has been to many shows and heard many systems... So hats off to Nagra Audio as you musically swooned my wife, and me too!

---> Click here for RMAF 2016 show report part 5 by Steven R. Rochlin.