The 2006 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest

Peter Smith, Darren Kuzma and I had never been to the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest , but we had heard good things about it. On a lark, we decided to try to go to the RMAF and put on some speaker and amplifier workshops. We had never worked a show before, but we had given numerous demonstrations at DIY gatherings that had been fun and informative. We felt we could put something interesting together. We put together a brief description of what we wanted to do and floated it by the folks at RMAF and a few potential sponsors - there was no way we could afford the exhibit room and the cost of the trip without some help. The folks at RMAF and Ray Kimber came through, and their combined help and generosity made our workshops possible.

After six weeks of intense planning and preparation, we loaded all of our speakers, amplifiers and test equipment into Peter's SUV and left New Jersey for Colorado. So began our road trip. We made it to Denver in two days, arriving Wednesday night at the Marriott Tech Center to be greeted by a thin brush of snow still on the grass from a snowfall the night before. Welcome to Denver!

Thursday was set-up day for us and for all of the other exhibitors. I think the experience left us with a much greater respect for the blood, sweat and tears that go into the set-up for a show by exhibitors. Having been to other shows, we were mindful of the difficulty of setting up in a strange hotel room and getting good sound. During the show we noticed that some exhibitors were much more fortunate than others in this regard. We were also mindful that we were setting up a sound room with DIY amplifiers and speakers at a show filled with high-end audio equipment that retails for many thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars. By Thursday night, and after a few tweaks, the room sounded pretty good and the test equipment was working. We were ready for the show.

The Show

This was the third annual Rocky Mountain Audio Fest put on by Marjorie Baumert and Al Stiefel with the support of the Colorado Audio Society. They put on a wonderful show, and it is easy to see why the RMAF has taken off like a rocket since its birth just a couple of years ago.

The show opened at noon on Friday October 20. The Marriott Tech Center in Denver was a great venue, with room after room of great sounding equipment and audiophile eye candy. It reminded me of the good old days when the Convention of the Audio Engineering Society was at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. The intimate, friendly atmosphere was home to over two hundred vendors, large and small, and over 2000 enthusiastic audiophiles for three days. We were instantly comfortable at this show.

Indeed, the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest is a less expensive venue than many other shows and is more affordable to the smaller entrepreneur. At the same time, the Halcros and Boulders and Kimbers and Focals and Wilsons were all there as well.

There was plenty of vacuum tube electronics in evidence, complemented by many high-efficiency speaker systems. There were numerous gorgeous turntables on display and a great selection of vinyl on sale to go with them. I was treated to some of the best vinyl reproduction I have ever heard in the room shared by Walker Audio and Red Rock Audio. Being auditioned there were the Walker Proscenium Black Diamond turntable and Al Stiefel's beautiful Red Rock Renaissance push-pull triode 50-watt amplifiers.

Ray Kimber's room was a sight to behold, not to mention hear. His presentation of experimental high resolution recording with the IsoMike™ technique was a highlight of the show. We were surrounded in Ray's room by huge panel speakers fed by over a dozen Pass amplifiers in an intriguing surround-sound setup. As always, Ray was very accessible and lots of fun to talk to.

There were many great-sounding rooms at the show, but the one that did it for me was the one with the Wilson Sophias. Call it setup by the Wilson folks, call it blind luck in a strange hotel room, they sounded the best of all speakers I heard at the show - even better than their big Maxx siblings. Driven by Pathos amplifiers, the Sophias enjoyed dead-on stable imaging, and seemed to do nothing wrong in producing a smooth, effortless sound. These are not really large speakers, yet they produced extended and well-balanced bass. The other Wilsons I heard at the show were very good, but they didn't do anything special for me, so I was not prepared to fall in love as I entered the room with the Sophias. As a speaker designer (albeit serious DIY speaker designer), the rightness clicked, and I new I had a new clear target to aim for.

The friendly show and intimate atmosphere was topped off by some very good live entertainment on Friday and Saturday night. Marjorie and Al did a fine job, indeed.

Our workshops

We named our group of workshops "Amplifier and Loudspeaker Listening & Measurement". In a sense, we tried to plan something for everyone. The six workshops are listed below:

Amplifier Measurement Clinic
Amplifier Listening Comparison
Loudspeaker Listening Comparison
Loudspeaker Measurement Clinic
The Peak Power Demands of Well-recorded Music
Active Loudspeakers - An Example

Quite honestly, we were thrilled with the response to the workshops. We went into this not really knowing whether our presentations would be a success or a bust. We had consistently good room traffic and all of the workshops were well-attended. The room was virtually never empty. In many cases, attendees stayed the whole hour for a workshop. Indeed, we were humbled by the fact that some people came back to the room several times. There is a very real thirst for knowledge and healthy curiosity out there among our audiophile brethren. One thing that may have worked in our favor is that we were simply different from most of the other rooms at the show.

We were also gratified that a number of attendees remarked that our room sounded very good; this is certainly a compliment for DIY equipment at a show dominated by very expensive high-end audio gear.

Detailed summaries of each of the workshops appear on adjoining pages on this site.

Looking forward to next year

The Rocky Mountain Audio Fest ended at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, October 22. It was a splendid weekend. My only regret is that I did not get to see more of the show. As an "Exhibitor", I discovered how difficult it is for exhibitors to see all of the show. Once again, Peter and Darren and I thank Ray Kimber and the RMAF for their help and generosity in making our workshops possible. Don't miss this show next year if you have a chance to go.

Pictures from the Show