Friday, October 10, 11:30am: the line to enter the 11th Rocky Mountain Audio Fest stretched into the Marriott Denver Tech Center's parking lot (Photo: John Atkinson).
Thursday, October 9, 6:00pm: New York to Denver —from mountains of iron and cement to "Mountains of Sound" . . . For the last hour on the plane all I could see were the low-lying grassy and then the much higher arid plains of Iowa, Kansas and Colorado. When I squinted I could see legions of 18-wheel smoke signals threading their way towards one coast or another. When I looked up I could see the Big Dome Sky. Denver is a kind of high point center to the North American continent. It is where the Rocky Mountains begin. Just beyond, ground water starts draining west instead of east.
My first-ever experience of the annual Rocky Mountain International Audio Fest takes place in the Atrium Rooms of the Marriott Denver Tech Center and I am grinning and looking right left up and down—the Atrium is the indoor version of the Big Dome—and everywhere I go all I meet are tired (the show hasn't even started yet) but very happy people—and, guess what? I think I am the biggest grinning happiest person of them all.
Lobby: I had to stop and admire and dream a moment at the Tyler Acoustics "Dream Console." This substantial, one-piece, wood monolith comes in a choice of over 100 veneer finishes and is equipped with a VPI Traveler turntable, Grado Platinum wood cartridge, a Rogue Audio Amp and, (among many other things), a TEAC CD player and a Musical Fidelity Blue Tooth Receiver. (Starting at $29,000.)
Room 446: MG Audio Design is a relatively new audio cable manufacturer and we all know (or think we know) that the world absolutely does not need another cable manufacturer. Right? Wrong! There is always plenty of room in high end audio for a couple of super nice local (Thorton, CO) guys like Lee Matuszczak and Greg Graff to make excellent sound with what appear to be very well-crafted cables in the $350–$1600/m price range. The amps and speakers were also crated by Greg and Lee but they are not for sale—yet!
Room 541: Okay, I've been waiting for this my whole life and now it's here. That's what these shows are so good for—the "Oh my god—look!" factor. Just above I am praising some new cables but in truth, I hate cables. I don't care what or how they are made cables are ugly and they suck! I can't tell how many beautiful expensive systems I have seen ruined by ugly twisted convoluted cables. I had been gone from audio for ten years and when I returned I am like, what? You guys got Blue Tooth, Wi Fi, Streaming, high-rez, and DSD . . . and you are still using cables? Don't you guys read Cyber Punk? Open your eyes! The time to end cables is now and the venerable Swiss Company Goldmund is working very hard, and having great success doing just that! Their new Prologos Plus ($69,000) are active, triamped, triDACed (!), fully constructed in metal, and equipped with a wireless receiver so thy can be run directly from a computer by using the Goldmund dongle or the Mimesis 11 wireless hub/preamplifier. The sound was impressive, but I was still feeling bad about those fat garden-hose line cords powering each box. Where is Nikola Tesla when we need him?
