mep- I think I saw you taking snapshots in the Vandy room, but couldn't get over to introduce myself. Any favorite setups?
Yes, that was probably me. I wish you would have introduced yourself. Here is what I posted on AN:
OK. I'm writing my show report for PF, but I will spill some beans here. Magico had a huge advantage with regards to their room at the Hyatt. It was a big room with plenty of space for the system to breathe not to mention that the room was gorgeous. Magico M3 speakers, Solution electronics, and the Kronos table (never mind the digital gear). When I walked in they were playing a digital copy of Miles Davis Kind of Blue. The cut was "So What" and I heard the distortion from the horn that I'm always bitching about, but it wasn't as pronounced as I'm used to hearing it. Alon then switched over to a hi-rez version of "So What" and wanted to know if anyone could hear the difference. The first thing I noticed was that the distortion from the horn was now way more pronounced and more like what I hear from analog. I asked Alon if he would play some analog and he obliged. For some reason he had to go through some machinations which involved shutting down the amps in order to unplug a set of ICs and plug them in so he could go "direct" as he told us.
Alon put on Keith Jarrett Changes and I was unprepared for how good this LP sounded and I own it. Huge soundstage and dynamic as the day is long. The funny thing was I asked Alon to play a cut from my Neil Young Live at the Cellar Door (Don't Let it Bring You Down) and it didn't sound anything like it does at home in terms of SQ and dynamics and I have no explanation for why an LP I know so well didn't sound as good as I expected and the other sounded far better than I expected. I was going to ask Alon to play another LP, but there was a DCP (Digital Couch Potato) sitting behind me making smart ass remarks about analog and bitching that he wanted Alon to switch back to digital. And so I left because I don't enjoy being around know-it-all DCPs. It kills any good vibes, ruins Karma, changes the colors of your aura, and drops your credit score by 100 points.
The room that I spent the most time in and kept coming back to was the Skogrand room with the Endeavor E-5 speakers, VPI Classic 4 table, VAC pre and VAC 200IQ amps, and J-Corder Technics deck. I really like the sound of this room and that is why I kept coming back. Myles brought his brand-spanking new copies of Ben Webster and Janis Ian tapes to the room and they sounded so good I went and bought both tapes. The gear in the Skogrand room would have only sounded better if it had a bigger space to breathe in.
The other room that really caught my attention was the Vandy room playing with their new subs. The Vandy room with ARC gear and the Vandy amps was SRO which is why I didn't get to spend as much time as I would have liked. I did cop a front row center seat for awhile and had them play "Show Biz Kids" from Ricky Lee Jones It's Like This which sounded marvelous as it should.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Nagra room that Myles mentioned. It too sounded really good. That's another room that I wish I would have spent some more time in, but there are so many rooms and so little time. I cheated enough with the Endeavor room.
So, my rankings for the best sounding rooms at RMAF 2016 are a little bit different than Myles. If I didn't have an annoying DCP sitting behind me at the Magico room and could have spent more time there, I may well have placed Magico at the top of the list as others already have. However, given the inherent advantages of the room they had and the lingering questions I had even though I saw/heard tremendous potential with the system, I can't place it first in my book. That honor goes to the Skogrand room. I will give Magico second place, the Vandy room third, and a very honorable fourth place to Nagra. All of these rankings could easily be swapped around if I had more time to spend in all of the rooms. All you are hearing are snapshots in time which sometimes can be deceiving. Systems can go from good to great to crap depending on the source material and gremlins. Both the Skogrand room and the Vandy room sounded consistently excellent to my ears from cut to cut. The Magico room went from OK with digital to outstanding with the Keith Jarrett LP, and to a very surprising head-scratching so-so with the Neil Young LP.