Below are a few pictures and feedback of the 2006 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest
where Response Audio had the pleasure of debuting a few of our new products.
Over the next few days, I will post further comments as they come in. If you
were in attendance of the show and had the chance to stop in one of these rooms,
your comments would be very welcomed!! Please EMAIL
ME with your experience.
Room 1010: ModWright / Acoustic Zen
Response Audio debuted the new Bella EXtreme 100 mono
bloc tube amplifiers in the ModWright / Acoustic Zen room. We were honored to be associated
with such highly regarded companies this year.
Bella EXtreme 100 mono bloc amplifiers
ModWright SWL 9.0 tube linestage
ModWright Sony 9100ES w/Signature Truth mods
Acoustic Zen Adagio Loudspeakers
Acoustic Zen cabling throughout.
vinyl system to be based on a VPI setup.
The rack was courtesy of Stillpoints - thanks to them, great
looking rack and worked extremely well.
Both preamp in picture - SWLP 9.0SE 'Signature' and Sony 9100ES with Signature
Truth mods had tube rectified supplies.
Here is a picture also taken from the show. Anybody
recognize this genius?
Picture provided by Audio Circle Member 'Captain Humble"
These thumbnail pictures are from Dave and Carol Clark's coverage of the show.
Click on the link below to view full size!!
Show Report from SixMoons.
"Acoustic Zen Technologies showed these great looking
monitor speakers, powered by Response Audio Bella EXtreme 100 monoblock power
amplifiers. So, are you beginning to get the picture of how important the tube
electronics industry is to high end audio?"
RMAF - 2006 Hometheaterhifi
show report - <See
pictures and full report>
-----------------------------------
"A pair of Bella Extreme
monoblocks delivered enough musical power to get the party going. ModWright
was in charge of the linestage after his tube-modified Sony CDP......."
RMAF - 2006 6Moons
show report - <See
pictures and read full report!>
-----------------------------------
"The ModWright room
complete with gleaming Acoustic Zen cabling. Liked this room a lot... great
sound and reasonably priced too"
RMAF - 2006
by Dave and Carol Clark - Positive Feedback - <See
their full coverage>
-----------------------------------
".........................this
system could easily run with the big, more expensive boys..."
RMAF - 2006
by Roger Gordon - Positive Feedback <Read
More>
-----------------------------------
But the Modright room!!!! DAMNNNN!!!! I heard low level
detail out of one of my favorite Morphine CD's that no other system has been
able to reproduce....The sound expanded miles beyond the confines of the walls
both in width and depth....For most systems, you accounted for the rooms not
being a good environment...In that room, well, there was no room...It was a
big open space...And I'm not saying this to make you feel good man...It had
all the positive audio adjectives you can think of...I found it to be lacking
nothing, and it was a system I could listen to for hours and hours...I really
hope that you get some good press on this room, because it is well
deserved....For overall sound presentation I think it was the best I had
heard, regardless of price...No kiddin'... [Show Attendee]
-----------------------------------
I heard both the floorstander and the Jr. in that room.
I can't say that the Jr. sounded better, but it gave up very little to the
Adagio. The low-end performance of the Jr. was outstanding. In
fact, that room, in my opinion was one of the very best at the show. Dan
was a great host and played consistently great music. The sound was so
much better in that room than some others with much more expensive equipment.
This was my first time hearing your amps. All I can say is you know your
stuff. This weekend made it clear that these products work very well
together. I listened to three tunes without any sense of time
passing. I was completely drawn in. Great stuff and lots of
fun. That's how it's supposed to be. [Show Attendee]
----------------------------------
Dear Response Audio,
I attended RMAF and had a great time. Room 1010 was one of my two favorites. I
also liked the Analysis Audio/Joule Electra room but that was out of my
budget! Inside my budget, the system in 1010 was by far the best. I auditioned
the system with my own CD compilation of acoustic, live to stereo recordings
with minimal processing. I was looking for systems which could reproduce
acoustic instruments in the most accurate and musical way. I heard a lot of
systems that could rock the house or strike fear into my wife (giant yellow
horns?) but no other system sounded as accurate with tough instruments like
bassoon, symphonic bass drum, dark jazz ride cymbal, and brass like trumpets,
trombones and even tubas. I also played my giant killers, samples of
instruments extremely difficult to reproduce correctly that demand total
system synergy. Close miked accordion and percussion chimes, jazz bass solo.
The ribbon tweeter and the all tube electronics of your show system got them
perfect, inside a huge and satisfying soundstage. My system at home has much
larger speakers but less powerful tube amp, and sounds a bit more relaxed. But
the accuracy throughout the freq range, and natural sound of any acoustic
instrument and sheer enjoyment of hearing all that tube LOVE coming out of
very musical speakers was extremely enjoyable. When I played Beethoven 5th
symphony Robert (Adagio designer and audio genius) was standing right next to
me, and he and I had some big smiles for each other while listening to 6 bass
violins play the fast tremolo lines in the third movement. You could hear
every detail of the bowing, and still feel the power of the individual notes
and all the excitement that the composer intended. This music is mind blowing
when it is played back right. My mouth was open most of the time, I couldn't
believe the sound came from 2 little drivers! Robert explained that it took a
long time and a lot of work to get them to be able to do that. It is like an
optical illusion when you are listening to them, and this in itself is too fun
to not smile. These speakers, when combined with a powerful tube amp like
Bella EXtreme100 and a beautiful preamp like ModWright have a synergy and
musicality that was not equaled by any system at the show.
I hate when reviewers say, "This is the best speaker in it's price
class." It is useless information if you are looking for quality over
price. Quality and value imply GOOD price, not necessarily a low price. This
system, independent of price was obviously the best sound for the money of the
entire show, with Salk HT3/Van Alstine tubes electronics close second, but no
ribbons there, so failed chimes and accordion. Beyond that, I heard only one
system that had the unrealized potential of sounding better, and that was the
above mentioned Analysis Audio/Joule Electra system on the 11th floor of the
tower. The JE amps or cable synergy were not well matched to the big ribbon
speakers and could not show off their highs. They were dead above 12kHz But
the lows and mids were unlike anything I have ever heard. So in fact, the
Adagio, BellaEXtreme, ModWright was indeed the best sounding system to be
REALIZED in the flesh at the RMAF 2006 show, putting to shame the systems
shown by B&W/Classe, Wilson, Focal, Kimber, MBL, Escalante/Pass and anyone
else. You can play Pink Floyd and Eva Cassidy recordings all you want and they
sound "wonderful" on anything, but they are twisted and warped by
processing so badly that they cannot be used to evaluate a speaker's real
performance capability. Floyd and Madonna will sound best on an accurate
speaker. Its like an electric guitar, sounds good with 100 different kinds and
amounts of amp distortion, but it never sounds like an acoustic guitar
recorded straight to stereo with no effects. Any speaker can play the rock
guitar because what's .5% more distortion when the source is 15% distorted,
you can't hear the difference nor do you care. When you play processed rock,
it can sound like anything as long as it is enjoyable. Most high performance
systems have something that redeems them and validates their performance no
matter how inaccurate. But when you ask the system that sounds great playing
processed pop music to play a solo violin recorded in stereo with no acoustic
help other than the concert hall, then you hear the difference between the men
and the boys. I heard the Adagios in 2 other rooms, with amps that really
limited their potential, and they were not as impressive. But like the TAS
review said, they reveal everything upstream very accurately. That little
round ribbon tweeter reveals switching amp grit of the TacT digital amp's
highs as well as the highs of a triangle in all its glory. Tubes plus ribbons
equals audio bliss. Nothing can compare. There are varying degrees of bliss
proportional to the size and quality of the ribbons and tube power. But at
RMAF '06 I did not hear a better stereo. Thanks for a putting on a great show!
RH ..............[Show Attendee]
Room 1009: Bolder Cable Company
Shown below is the first of our Bella EXtreme 3205 amplifiers
that debuted in the Bolder Cable room at RMAF 2006. This is a custom power
amp able to run EL34, KT77, 6550 or KT88/KT90 output tubes. The amp provides 50 watts per
channel using EL34 tubes and 60 watts with 6550/KT88 tubes. The show amp
(shown below) is runniing Electro Harmonix KT88 tubes. The key features
of this custom built unit are SoniCap Platinum Teflon capacitors both in the
coupling positions as well as power supply bypass. There is also a pair of
Bybee Purifiers in the input signal path! Full details on production units are
available HERE.
The speakers being driven by this amp are the VMPS RM30. I
will post further pictures as they become available.
This photo courtesy of 'Captain Humble" - Audio Circle
member
These thumbnail pictures are from Dave and Carol Clark's
coverage of the show. Click on the link below to view full size!!
"BELLA EXtreme 3205 amp
$1650 with Bybee Purifiers in input and power supply $400. Herbies, tube
treatments do the job too!"
RMAF - 2006
by Dave and Carol Clark - Positive Feedback - <See
their full coverage>
-----------------------------------
Bryan, you are quite correct re: the power unit in the Bolder Cable room.
The sound in there was very, very good even before the Bybee conditioner was
used. With it in place, the sound was improved several notches.. especially in
the bass, as you mentioned. I commented at the show, that Bill Baker's amplifier
was really doing a great job in Wayne's room...and I stand by that. What a
terrific amplifier.....................WEEZ
