An Enlightening Afternoon At The Rocky Mountain Audio Fest

Estimated read time 6 min read

RMAF 2014-10-11-41-2920Photos by Jim Mimna

This past weekend a couple of friends and I decided to head out to the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest which takes place each year at the Denver Tech Center Marriott.  This event is the largest consumer audio and home entertainment show in the United States and features more than 400 companies exhibiting the best-of-the-best of “consumer” audio gear.  Now, to be clear, this isn’t the same kind of equipment that you’d find at Best Buy, or any other big box retail store for that matter, this is the real deal.  For the most part, this is extremely high-end equipment that your buddy’s wife does NOT let him have in his basement.

In all honesty, I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I signed up to check out this show.  I thought maybe I’d wander around for an hour or two, see some neat stuff and go home.  I had no idea I would have my mind completely blown not only by what I saw, but by what I heard as we walked from room to room, and floor to floor of the huge two tower hotel complex.

On the “saw” front, there were two things that really blew my mind at this show.  The first was the turntables that almost seemed to the be the norm as we walked around.  These were not your typical, dad’s Hi-Fi, or DJ style turntables.  These were beautiful works of art that featured belt drives, external motors, high-tech suspension systems and more to ensure you get the absolutely best sound possible out of your vinyl collection.  Now, I do have a massive collection of music but sadly none of it is on vinyl, so while these devices were beautiful to look at, I am not going to sit here and tell you that I understood the first thing about why they were constructed the way they were.  What I will tell you is that the vinyl I heard played on these turntables sounded beautiful and damn near pristine and while the speakers and other equipment surely had a role in that, I’m guessing the turntable was a critical element in the equation.

The second was a technology called the Electrostatic Loudspeaker and let me tell you that even before I heard these things (I’ll get to that in a minute) I was blown away.  They stood as tall as I am (over six feet) and you could see right through them.  Most of us are familiar with your typical tweeter, midrange and woofer speaker configuration.  Well, throw that right out the window and open your mind to something completely new and foreign.  These Electrostatic speakers generate sound by exerting a force on a membrane suspended in an electrostatic field (according to this wikipedia article which I promptly read when I got home) and the result is nothing short of breathtaking.  Not only because of how great they sound, but because of the fact that your brain (at least my brain) is not accustomed to hearing sound produced by something that looks like this.  It’s simply surprising and it takes a minute to step back and just enjoy what you are hearing.

We took the time to sit in on probably ten or fifteen demonstrations during our relatively brief visit to the show and there were a few that really stood out to me.  At the top of that list were the Sanders Sound Systems Model 10 electrostatic speakers.  I was amazed at the clarity of the sound and the way they presented the music with a beautiful and incredibly well defined soundstage.  After I suspended my disbelief that these virtually transparent speakers were producing this incredible sound, I was able to really enjoy what I was hearing.  At a relatively modest $14k (which mercifully includes an amplifier and digital electronic crossover in addition to the speakers) these were by far the least expensive of my favorites but still WAY out of my price range.

The other two that I really enjoyed were NOLA Metro Grand Reference Gold series and the YG Acoustics Hailey series.  The NOLA speakers had a presence that seemed to bring the music to life in the room and, as a live music fanatic, I really appreciated this.  As I listened to the Jazz that was emanating from these beautiful speakers I almost couldn’t help but close my eyes and picture a band right there in the room with me.  I was almost startling to be honest.  The YG Acoustics (a company that is based right here in Arvada Colorado) speaker cabinets are surprisingly constructed of aircraft-grade aluminium which they claim “allows for the most acoustically desirable enclosures achievable” and I have to say that, after hearing the Haileys, I might have to agree with them.  That said, given the fact that their price-tag could be a down-payment on a house, I don’t see them making their way into my basement any time soon.

When it was all over I walked out of the show understanding a bit more about the world of high-end audio, and recognizing that I’d have to get another job in order to begin to afford the base model of any of the equipment I’d just experienced.  I caught a price tag on one turntable that read $4,850 (and that was probably on a show discount) and the YG Acoustics speakers we enjoyed retail for around $48k.  That’s more than 50 grand right there and that doesn’t even take into account the amps, pre-amps, digital signal processors, cables (did I mention there were entire rooms dedicated to the cables, plugs and connectors that link all this equipment together to ensure the absolute best sound is produced) and other equipment that I didn’t understand but is apparently critical to making these systems work.

So while the show was a bit like drinking from a fire-hose at first, after an hour or two that feeling wore off and I really enjoyed getting to hear music on some of the absolutely best equipment that money can buy.  I would go again in a heartbeat and I would recommend the experience to anyone who truly enjoys music and wants to find out if they can hear the difference between their crappy Apple earbuds and a hundred-thousand dollar audio system.  Trust me, what you hear will surprise you and color the way you listen to music forever.

tdwenger http://www.listenupdenver.com

Music has always been a part of my life. It probably all started listening to old Grateful Dead, Peter Paul & Mary, and Simon & Garfunkel records that my parents had, but it wasn't long before they were taking me to concerts like Starship, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and Huey Lewis & The News. I got the bug to write about music after reviewing an Eric Clapton concert for a creative writing project in high school but didn't really take it up seriously until 2002. Since then I have published countless articles in The Marquee Magazine and done some work for Jambase.com, SPIN Magazine, and various other outlets. I started Listen Up Denver! as a way to share the music information that is constantly spilling out of my head with people who care. Please enjoy!

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