Colorado's wonderful landscapes and mountainous horizons might be home to respected high-end audio luminaries such as YG Acoustics, Jeff Rowland, PS Audio, Avalon, Ayre and Boulder electronics to name but a few, but it is also home to the annual Rocky Mountain Audio Fest - this industry's hippest high-end  audio show. Located in Denver's Tech Center complex which is about a 20-minute drive from downtown, its easy access, wonderful staff and hotel accommodations (on the premises), not to mention respectable sounding rooms makes this event especially easy to navigate through. I cannot forget the many people that make up the RMAF. The international feel I get witnessing the growth of American manufacturers boasting their wares each year at the High End show in Munich is remarkably occurring here at the RMAF as well.

Compared to previous events attended, I would have to say this year felt like the biggest RMAF I've seen in terms of brands represented. The amount of show-goers seemed reduced however. We're still in a horrible financial recession and I think no matter how much the industry behaves as though it is not - in this instance with more rooms and pricier products - audiophiles and music lovers are hurting (and the appearance of smaller crowds on both Friday and Saturday spoke volumes). The immediate ramifications of this won't rear its ugly head for many months perhaps. But it will be interesting to see how much longer the high-end industry will last before it crumbles under its own pompous attitude and wafer-thin facade.

There were a number of bright spots. Of course, the people I ran into were a breath of fresh air. James Collard who knew a thing or two about affordable computer-based playback systems proved a great wealth of knowledge and a good hangout partner during much of this three-day weekend. Ditto Mark Hawkins and Edgar, two bonafide jazz aficionados from Houston (Tx), who came for the sole passion of their love the MUSIC. Man, those guys really enjoyed themselves and made my time that much more pleasant just talking about music. Yeah, the music is what this is all supposed to be about.  

There's light at the end of the tunnel however and no... it's not an oncoming locomotive. The amount of digital-driven, computer-based music servers at this year's event was dizzying. High-rez music down-loads are becoming the standard and MacBook laptops and Ipods have replaced state-of-art transports. So, in that respect things are sort of leveling themselves out because a good PC-based music server is actually quite affordable these days. It probably won't quite match the quality of something like a Nova Physics Memory Player (above $13k - $18k depending on options), but it will sound a lot better than a comparatively priced CD player.