2010 RMAF/CJ@RMAF

[jp11801]

This amp is going into production soon and is made my Rethm. Awesome match for the LCD 2 and for about $1k it's going to be nearly impossible to best.

Very liquid sound with no sacrifice in detail or speed. I would highly recommend this amp. It's powered by a pair of 6BL7 tubes and is configured for both high and low impedance headphones.

[boomana]

^ I like the way it looks.

[blessingx]

x100.

[crappyjones123]

jp, how big is that amp? cant get an idea of scale from the picture

[AmanGeorge]

jp, how big is that amp? cant get an idea of scale from the picture

Hey - it's an amp made by Rethm (my Dad's company). Size-wise, it's a two-box unit (a power supply and the amp itself) - each one is maybe 9"x9"x5".

[Dusty Chalk]

You can also get some idea about the scale by looking at the 1/4" plug.

[blessingx]

Anyone by chance hear/get a copy of AryeWave?

Stereophile: Wavelength Leads the Way

[Sherwood]

He was all out when I stopped by, and he himself was running Pure music, rather than AyreWave. The system actually sounded very good, but the speakers were really atrociously ugly. Veneered wood cabinets, carbon fibre front baffle, and chrome bars protruding from each side to protect the woofers.

Anyhow, interested parties can obtain a copy of ayrewave here, as I did. It's on sbooth.org, who is also kind enough to give us MAX, the second best audio converter for OS X.

[Asr]

I have to say that this year's RMAF/CJ@RMAF was yet another success and another fantastic time with some extremely cool people. It was definitely the few but strong - the usual Head-Fi MOTs (i.e., Justin), Peter, Mike, JP, Tyler, and Aman. The food was absolutely awesome at a select few places and the beer was flowing! Gotta thank Tyler for finding these great places to eat and drink. I especially liked the milk stout at Great Northern, now that one was really amazing and smoooooth and it went perfectly with the meatloaf I ordered. There was so much awesomeness in general at this event and I didn't want it to end, but unfortunately some things must come to an end.

Kudos to JP and Jude for pulling off yet another awesome event in the Mile High City. Definitely going to remember this one, thanks all.

Peter: it was cool to hang out with you the most, for obvious reasons. Really enjoyed it.

More will be coming later of course, as usual. This time I made sure to come up with a variety of HC-exclusive pics. 200+ pics on the camera, guessing about a third of them will be posted.

[HeadphoneAddict]

I have to say that this year's RMAF/CJ@RMAF was yet another success and another fantastic time with some extremely cool people. It was definitely the few but strong - the usual Head-Fi MOTs (i.e., Justin), Peter, Mike, JP, Tyler, and Aman. The food was absolutely awesome at a select few places and the beer was flowing! Gotta thank Tyler for finding these great places to eat and drink. I especially liked the milk stout at Great Northern, now that one was really amazing and smoooooth and it went perfectly with the meatloaf I ordered. There was so much awesomeness in general at this event and I didn't want it to end, but unfortunately some things must come to an end.

Kudos to JP and Jude for pulling off yet another awesome event in the Mile High City. Definitely going to remember this one, thanks all.

Peter: it was cool to hang out with you the most, for obvious reasons. Really enjoyed it.

More will be coming later of course, as usual. This time I made sure to come up with a variety of HC-exclusive pics. 200+ pics on the camera, guessing about a third of them will be posted.

I'll have to work harder to make the "cool" list someday.

[jvlgato]

Looks like a great time! I really need to make this some time.

[morphsci]

I'll have to work harder to make the "cool" list someday.

But that's the thing. Cool people don't care about the cool list. And it certainly did look like a very good time.

[The Monkey]

That Rethm amp interests me.

Looks like a swell time.

[tyrion]

I will have more to say later. The Rethm amp with the LCD-2's was about as good as headphone listening gets. I was talking about with Aman George about the amp and kept telling him that I don't want to get sucked into headphones again. However, at the price they are looking to sell that amp it is a bargain. For $2,000 you will have one hell of a headphone rig with the LCD-2.

[K3cT]

Interesting, a milk stout... I thought only the Germans produced the finest liqueur but it seems that I have to visit your country sometime just to taste what America has to offer in the alcoholic department.

[shellylh]

The Rethm sounds very interesting but I don't need another amp, right?

[AmanGeorge]

Interesting, a milk stout...

Milk stouts are a wonderful thing...

[tyrion]

The Rethm sounds very interesting but I don't need another amp, right?

Of course you do.

[Asr]

Recap of events/highlights:

Thursday 10/14: Went straight to the airport after work to go pick up Justin and for dinner we stopped at a place called Larkburger (local chain). (Justin ate there 3 more times during the weekend that I know of, so I think it's safe to assume he really liked it.) Inside the venue Marriott we found Jude, JP, Peter, Ray & his wife, Drew from Moon Audio, and one of the UE reps (forgot his name) at the restaurant. Had some beer at the bar too and then Peter and I went over to the nearby Hilton Garden Inn hotel for the night.

Friday 10/15: Set up my gear in the Head-Fi room where things were starting to roll. The vendors included HeadRoom, Ray Samuels, Ultimate Ears, Westone, Sennheiser, HeadAmp, Moon Audio, JH Audio, CEntrance, Head-Direct, Rethm Audio, and Audeze (missing a couple here, forgot who else there was). There was a promising amount of foot traffic in the room, substantially more than last year (which was nearly dead). Stayed around for a bit to check out stuff, take pics, schmooze, etc, and then after a while I ejected myself to go check out some speakers in the atrium area. The most interesting rooms I checked out were T+A w/ PMC, Emotiva, and another I'm drawing a blank on right now.

For dinner we assembled a group that included Tyler/Sherwood and his wife, Aman/AmanGeorge, Peter, & Justin and headed over to a place called Great Northern Tavern. We were joined later by Larry/HPA and his son, Fang, Jude, Drew, Marc Lavry, and some other guy named Steve. We ordered a round of beer called the Left Hand Milk Stout to start that was sublime - very warm, almost creamy even. It almost was like drinking milk except of course with a better alcoholic taste. And the food was....well let's just say that once the food arrived, pretty much all conversation died. Was awesomely good and I'm pretty sure everyone else thought so too. Mike joined us part-way into dinner straight from the airport too, so it was a great crowd. After dinner we all went back to our hotel(s) but a small band of us (Peter, Mike, and JP) went to JP's room to chill and had moar beer.

Peter and I later split to go to our own hotel room at the nearby Hyatt Regency but we were told they'd sold out the entire hotel - and I'd reserved the room weeks before. Long story short, we were ejected from the Hyatt Regency for the night but they completely covered a taxi and 1-night stay at another hotel down the highway plus the ride back to the Marriott for next morning. More hijinks on Saturday morning when I went back led to another thing (sold-out 2-bed rooms) but I wound up getting both Friday & Saturday nights at the Hyatt Regency for free after all the craziness so that was cool.

Saturday 10/16: With a full day to use, I took advantage and spent little time in the Head-Fi room, instead quickly scampering to check out speakers. Most of the rooms are a blur now but I saved my thoughts and where I went on a notepad and in my camera respectively. Overall impression of the speaker rooms: most not bad, not like anything was really terrible, but I didn't spend too much time trying to listen in rooms that were either crowded or otherwise preoccupied. Lots of jazzy or otherwise female vocal music. There were a few rooms where I was motivated to play either Massive Attack, In Flames, or Symphony X. I skipped a lot of rooms though and didn't photograph too many either - too many to cram into one day so I moved quickly.

Toward the end of the day I went back to the Head-Fi room where things had been moving slowly as I found out. I caught the seminar panel that included Jude and it was a good talk. One of the main subjects was attracting younger people into the hobby and Head-Fi was cited there, along with social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter). Another thing that was brought up was hi-res files and downloading, which someone admitted was still a niche but he saw it as a point of future expansion to attract younger people, as the conventional thinking was that "young people" prefer to download music instead of buying CDs or vinyl. Persuade more labels to put digital music out there and everyone wins, right? Well that's what these guys thought, at least.

For dinner we assembled Tyler, Mike, JP, Peter, & Justin and went to the local Cherry Cricket burger joint. Larry/HPA and son joined us too. Hadn't been there before and the burgers were melt-in-your-mouth good. Very tasty. HPA and son left after dinner for parts elsewhere, and the remaining of us went over to Falling Rock Tap House in downtown where they have 40+ brews on tap. They had Pliny the Elder so I tried it and it was good.

Sunday 10/17: Stayed in the Head-Fi room for a bit but left after a while to check out more speaker rooms - QUAD, Ayre, PS Audio, etc. There were a lot of rooms with speakers I saw either last year or elsewhere and wasn't really motivated to listen or take pics of those. Late afternoon I went back to the Head-Fi room and it was already halfway packed back up, so I started doing that too. We cleared out the room quickly and the last thing to go was probably the 30-foot Westone display (pics of it on Head-Fi, have my own to post later too).

Dinner included Tyler, JP, Peter, & Justin at a place called Sahara in a somewhat out of the way place down the highway. Middle-eastern, Lebanese, Moroccan type food. Oh and it was really good. The lamb shanks I got were so soft & tender they were practically falling off the bone already, no need for a knife.

All told it was another smashing RMAF with some killer company and plenty of alcohol for some really good times. Really enjoyed it, was a whirlwind 3 days and it was great to see everyone once again! The local turn-out was pretty good too.

[Aura]

Thanks for the recap Steve. Goddamn. I wanted to be there.

[Dusty Chalk]

Is that the same amp that was at the Virginia meet a while back? Sorry to be the lone voice of dissent, but I was fairly underwhelmed by it. Maybe there's something magical happening with the LCD-2's, but I just couldn't get it to sing. I think I tried it with my Shures.

[AmanGeorge]

Yep, exact same unit.

[jp11801]

Dusty which Shures?

[Dusty Chalk]

Would have been the 840's (as that is the only thing I remember bringing to the meet). Might also have used whatever was plugged into the machine (Senn HD650's?). Might also have been Colin's Thunderpantses. Don't remember.

[Voltron]

Did any of you guys hear the big new Sony speakers? I have seen one report that says they blew away the Magico Q5s and most everything else. Curious if they were good and what they were playing with.