Let me first post Enjoy The Music's coverage as this is by far better than anything I could put together:
Enjoy The Music Coverage - 2005 Rocky Mountain Audiofest
I just returned from 3 days of drooling at new toys in Denver at the show. There were a lot of reviewers at the show. The ones I ran into in the halls or rooms were from:
Enjoy the Music,
The Absolute Sound,
Positive Feedback, and
HiFi+
I am sure there were others that I didn't run into. With so many there I didn't take the time to take pictures as the equipment can easily be seen on the manufacturer's websites.
I got in by show opening on Friday, but only made it through 3 floors of rooms. Saturday, I covered the remaining 4 floors with Sunday reserved for going back and listening to the ones I liked.
I was amazed at the support of the show by the Denver and Boulder CO highend stereo stores. Not only the support, but the sheer number of stores in the area.
First there was an abundance of vinyl setups at the show with both Music Direct and Acoustic Sounds having tables in the main area. Some of the best music came from vinyl. The most used table seemed clearly VPI's Super Scoutmaster. However, the most stunning tables were from Teres. Not only did the tables look good but they also sounded fantastic. Too bad their price was out of reach for most.
I didn't see any headphone or headphone amplifier manufacturer's with the exception of Single Power Audio. They had the SDS XLR along with a PPX-SLAM and a MPX. Single Power was also utilizing their new silver interconnects. A 1-meter pair costs $300. This was the first time I had the chance to listen to the SDS-XLR and it lived up to its reputation both in size and sound.
Everything really was a blur with three days and around 100 rooms of toys. The one thing that did stand out to me was single ended tube amps. I ended up returning to the deHavilland room numerous times to listen to the their amps. In the room they had a pair of GM70's and a stereo Iso ST 845. They have now increase the power on these to point they can drive most speakers to deafening level's and retain the beauty of the single-ended sound. These are definitely something that is now on my radar screen.
The other interesting piece of equipment was music servers. VRS was in a couple of rooms. Unfortunately the VRS system is still around $10K. However, Cambridge Audio is releasing a music server, the azur 640H which retails for $1395. It has a 160Gb hard drive instead of the VRS 600Gb but it can be upgraded as well. This is very promising technology and something I will also be following as the price and sound quality improves.
The downside from what I heard is the attendance was down this year. For a first timer like myself, that was wonderful as I got to spend time listening and talking to the manufacturers.
