What an odd concept. Rent an entire hotel, convince hotel management to empty the rooms of furniture, replace the contents with stereo systems, and throngs of Audiophiles.
Even stranger is what it takes for manufacturers to make it work. Aside from the logistics of the many pallets of equipment, setting up a reference quality stereo system in one day is not for the faint of heart.
RMAF is this weekend in Denver's tech center. We're at the same hotel, the Marriott, but new is the remodel undertaken this past year—a remodel that's not yet complete. 1/2 the hotel is still under construction, the exhibitors are all crammed into the other half.
We are fortunate to have gotten our 11th floor room back again. And, surprisingly, it is now the largest of all available rooms. You have to smile when every once in a while luck is on your side.
We arrive early this morning and unload a truck's worth of kit, which chews through a good portion of the setup day, ending in a room packed with boxes by lunch time. If the speakers arrive on time (fingers crossed), we should be making music by 2PM—when the real fun begins. As most of our crew is busy setting up displays and chairs, I am doing my best to setup the speakers amidst all the chaos. Early evening we usually have things dialed in, if: the creek don't rise, the circuit breakers don't blow, the odd shape of the new rooms lends itself to stereo imaging, we made the right guess which way to point the speakers, and we didn't forget anything.
Early tomorrow morning we shine our shoes, dust the equipment, open the doors, and hope it all works.
See you there.
