RMAF 2015

The Rocky Mountain Audio Fest decided to give press a head start this time around by inviting us in two hours before the show's official noon opening on Friday. While not all manufacturers got on board—several of the rooms I tried to visit on the 2nd floor of the Marriott Denver Tech Center's Tower were locked—digital audio pioneer dCS leaped into the breach by staging a 10am press conference for the official release of the dCS Rossini CD player. The company's Martin Reynolds (above) flew over from the UK to do the presentation.

Andy Carr, Marketing Director of the UK's Cambridge Audio, introduced two of the company's systems: a CX series system that included Cambridge Audio Aeromax 2 bookshelf speakers ($649/pair), and an 851 series that used Aeromax 6 floorstanders ($1299/pair). Both speaker models incorporate Cambridge Audio's BMR (Balanced Mode Radiator) drivers and dedicated subwoofers. Playing a FLAC file of Eric Bibb's "Rocking Chair" through, I believe, the CXN upsampling network music player ($999), the lower priced system ($2700 total + XLO cabling) produced really nice, smooth sound that felt just right for grabbing a beer, settling down, and mellowing out . . .

Continuing my tour on the first day of this year's RMAF, let me just say in the first sentence that the beautifully matched system I found up and running in room 9026 fit me like a glove. I have had direct experience over the years, as have many others, with several of the fine audio brands represented in the room hosted by The Audio Alternative, a retailer out of nearby Fort Collins. On show was excellent gear from Audio Research Corporation, Vandersteen Audio, AMG, AudioQuest, and Harmonic Resolutions Systems.

Standing in front of the poster for the November issue of Stereophile, new at the show, is Michael Mandell, who used to provide IT services for the magazine when it was first based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Michael is wearing a vintage T-shirt with the "Lonely at the Top" illustration we created for our April 1988 "Recommended Components" issue.

As the Stereophile Contributing Editor who has attended more Rocky Mountain Audio Fests than anyone except John Atkinson and Michael Fremer—that's me in the center—I've been entrusted with writing the show wrap. (John, it should be noted, deeply regrets that the magazine's production schedule made his attendance impossible.) But this time around, rather than simply relying on my own impressions, I posed questions to and gathered impressions from both my fellow bloggers, Sasha Matson (left above) and Herb Reichert (right above), and no fewer than 25 exhibitors.

One mile high—and when you touch down? The huge and energetic 2015 Rocky Mountain International Audio Fest, or RMAF, based at the Denver Marriott Tech Center. Spread out over several areas of floors in the towers, as well as an extended lobby area with its own mezzanine sections—ithe show takes a bit of initial navigating. This is the first RMAF I have had the pleasure to attend, and seems to have great and varied participation—from both the exhibitor side as well as attendees.

When there are over 150 exhibits to cover at an audio show, as there were at RMAF, I usually have no choice but to skip entertainment. But when Joe Reynolds of Nordost told me that I "must" hear Irish songstress and songwriter Eleanor McEvoy, whose initial work as a symphonic violinist segued into work as a session musician for U2 and Sinead O’Connor before she concentrated on songwriting and performing, I vowed to briefly stick my head into the Aspen Amphitheatre, grab a photo, and stay for part of a song.

Then I heard McEvoy, the composer of the title track of A Woman's Heart, the six-artist compilation that became Ireland's all-time best-selling CD, begin to sing her own music. . .