Live music is very much a part of RMAF, as shown by these images of a piano/violin duet and of an R&B-oriented blues band. No matter how good hi-fi gets, there’s no substitute for experiencing the real thing—a point that RMAF founders never forget.
We’re audiophiles and proud of it: This year marks the 10th anniversary of RMAF, as commemorative event T-shirts proudly proclaim.
LOUDSPEAKERS
ASTELL & KERN
Most people associate the name Astell & Kern with terrific, high-res, pocket-size digital music players, but here we see something completely different from the firm: namely, the exotic and costly Castor monitors ($25,000/pr.), which feature ceramic mid-bass drivers, diamond tweeters, and enclosures made of billet-carved aluminium and composite materials.
BRODMANN ACOUSTICS
Brodmann was a piano maker of note, who joined forces with Bösendorfer in the early 19th Century. The speakers that carry his name are equally noteworthy, with their genuinely piano-finished undamped, unbraced designs with resonant side panels owing more to musical instrument than loudspeaker design. They sound wonderful on the end of some good Electrocompaniet electronics
DALI
In the US, the British firm Naim Audio and the Scandinavian loudspeaker manufacturer DALI share a common distributor: The Sound Organisation, headed by British expat Steve Daniels. Thus, the firms teamed in a demo room highlighting Naim’s evolving family of NAIT-series integrated amplifiers and the DALI’s new Epicon loudspeakers.