By and far, this was the most spectacular impact by iFi at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. Over the weekend of 10th -12th October, the iFi booth exhibited:
– Micro iDSD
– nano iDSD
– nano iCAN
– Retro Stereo 50 System
– AMR DP-777 Special Edition
Awesome Audeze
An absolute cracking endorsement was one on the fly by Alex Rosson, CEO of Audeze who when interviewed by Michael Mercer of Enjoy the Music.com, instead of talking about the LCD-X and the upcoming LCD-Z, Alex went and gave super huge kudos to the micro iDSD!
At the 02.00.00 mark, you will see Alex Rossen go literally gaga over the micro iDSD calling it the “most advanced product on the floor” and being “blown away by it”.
Thank you Alex – we really appreciate those stupendous comments! And to the whole Audeze team of Tony and Taz and Sankar.
The Abyss, JH Audio and HiFi Man people were also super nice and they used the micro iDSD too. AlClair also deserve a mention too as Marc, Amy and Tyler were wonderful people and made great neighbours. Check out their CIEMS!
Pez of Audio Circle gave the iFi Big Rig the top-spot!
The Audio Circle review team of Pez and Tyson are well-known on Audio Circle and they really spend all three days studiously listening to just about every room and every setup.
This year, the iFi Big Rig (iUSB/iDAC/iTUBE/iCAN) and the “hot new” HiFi Man 560 made the top-spot for Pez. Tyson was struck down by a bug and missed most of the whole (get well soon).
As Pez wrote:
“iFi has always had some of the best sounding setups at the show. Made my list several times, but this year was something special. The iFi stack combined with a server and Hifiman HF-560s are, far and away, the best headphone rig I have ever heard. I spent the better part of 2 hours throughout the show coming back and listening to just this setup. I walked around can jam and listened to a lot (not everything) and nothing was even close to the beauty and finesse of this system. I think the whole setup cost less than $2000. Best bass I have ever heard from headphones, really comfortable to wear and incredible smoothness. This is the first time I have ever thought ‘ok, I NEED to buy these.’ when it comes to headphones. Someday….. Someday.”
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=129460.0
Wowzers, we are chuffed to bits – thank you Pez!
Even venerable industry participants such as Ray Kimber came by and waxed lyrical over the Retro Stereo 50 system.
The first of many iCLUB gatherings
Putting aside these wonderful comments and accolades, on Saturday evening, we also had the iCLUB dinner.
As you may know, ths was held at the Cool River Café which is a 10 minute walk from the Denver Mariott Tech Center.
The turnout was superb as we had a total of 15 people. The food was great and the company even better.
All we can say is that The Jim Bean Rib Eye and the Denver Venison are mouth-watering good. All washed down with a very nice 1998 red!
While we did not talk all about audio, we shared ideas and discussed the future trends in the industry and explained why we developed the micro iDSD and how we came about developing the upcoming Stereo 50.
The whole evening was fabulous and all we can say is more of the same next year!
A special mention to John E who could not attend yet he was still kind enough to bring over to the iFi booth a “12 Percent” micro brewery bottle. It lasted less than 10 minutes as once the top was off, it “eva-pourat-ed” very quickly…
It’s a Wrap!
So far in 2014, the nano iDSD has won an EISA and the micro iDSD has been selected as the DAC/Headamp of choice by Audeze, Abyss, JH Audio, AlClair and other industry participants for their personal use!
We are as enamoured with our friendship with these major headphone industry people as much as the fact that they are using iFi gear at RMAF and in their future setups.
Roll on RMAF 2015 – we just cannot wait!
