Rocky Mountain Audiofest 2010
October 2010
The Rocky Mountain Audiofest is always a fun show - the atmosphere is laid back, people are having fun and enjoying all the great music!
This year was better than ever. We debued our new Series 2 Monoblocks. People loved our new case design. But, they were also very impressed with the sound.
We had a surprising number of people coming back to our room with detailed listening notes from previous shows and their own demo music.
The biggest difference they seemed to notice was tighter bass. This comes from some improvements we have made to the power supply and an increase in the damping factor of the amplifier.
Though, introducing the Jones sound to someone for the first time is our favorite part of the show. It is always a joy to take an audiophile that has always disliked solid-state amplifiers, thinking of them as harsh sounding, and listen to them tell us that they did not believe that solid-state could sound so wonderful.
Visit to Transparent Audio
Spring 2010
This past week we were fortunate to be able to get out and visit the fine folks at Transparent Audio. It was an excellent trip!
The guys from Transparent were wonderful hosts. We spent quite a while in their critical listening room, which is one of the most well designed listening rooms we have seen.
They explained how their cables contribute to better sound and their process for critical listening and evaluation. Their entire approach is very disciplined and rigorous throughout - very impressive.
This is a great group - down to earth, knowledgeable and passionate. Thanks guys!
Read a review of our monoblocks
January 2010
Jerry Seigel, Editor of 10 Audio, has just posted his review of our PA-M300 monoblock amplfiers. (click)
CES January 2010
CES was great this year! At past shows our focus has really only been on the sound of the room - that is the point, right? But, this time we put more effort into the look of the room. It is somewhat difficult to tell from the picture, but our room looked almost as great as it sounded.
The response that we keep getting over and over is how smooth the highs are. Many are shocked that it is solid-state. One of the other continual comments is how clean and clear the sound is.
And to show off the bass we had some new demo music. Kevin Voecks one of the geniuses behind the Revel Ultima2 Salon speakers that we used at CES, pictured above, turned us on to a Kanye West CD. The title is "808s & Heartbreak".
We thought Kanye West was just a rapper, but this disc has some pretty catchy tracks. It is also reasonably well recorded and has some impressive bass.
We had a lot of fun and received great responses across the board. Too bad we have to wait another year to come back!
Rocky Mountain AudioFest 2009
RMAF was again a very well managed show. Although there were some complaint that the crowd smaller than previous years, we could not have been happier with our traffic. We began seeing show visitors 10-15 minutes before the show start time.
This year we set up a static display of a Jones amp with the top case taken off. During CES 2009 and RMAF 2008, there had been so many questions about whether or not these were tube amps, we decided to show off the inside. This really showed off the high quality parts that make up our amps and we may even have converted a few tubers to solid state (or at least broke down some of the barriers.) There were many responses from people that listened; all good, here are few:
Powerful, quiet, clear, clean layout, congratulations, very nice, phenomenal, great engineering, Wow - what kind of tubes, particularly dynamic.
Amongst the guests we had were many reviewers and magazine representatives of course. We had a lot of interest from these reps to review the Jones amps. Since then, one has been completed-Jerry Seigel from 10Audio.com- and several others are either in process or in the planning stages.
Jason and I had an opportunity to visit several rooms around the show. It was incredible to me that there were so many manufacturers attending, but that the show itself felt so homey. There are worse ways to make a living than to create and market the gift of music.
The one silent compliment we got was all of the repeat visitors to our room. Many, many people who visited us early, and then spent a few hours looking at everyone else would return to use us as a rest stop. One wife, after 20 minutes of listening, apologized for how long they had been seated. She said they couldn’t afford a pair right now but could she and her husband just spend a few more minutes enjoying the music? Of course we said YES!
Blogger Comments on Jones Audio
CES January 2009
CES is a big show...a really, really big show. Fortunately, they have a separate area for high-end audio and home theater.
We were given a very nice size room here. It was around 25'x20' or so. Unfortunately, not all of our acoustic treatments made it to the show and with a room that size with no soft furnishings, you really need it.
Even so, the show was a great success. We had several comment that our room sounded the best of all the rooms they had been in! Again we were told that the highs were incredibly smooth and the sound stage was lifelike and 3-dimensional.
Here we unveiled our new pre-amplifier. It is a dual-mono stereo preamp. Very much a purist product.
Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2008
One of the great things about this show in particular is that it is full of audiophiles and music lovers. It is fun to interact with people that are passionate about music and audio. We were introduced to some great new music - at least it was new to us. We were particularly impressed with the new Wynton Marsalis CD.
We also got lots of positive feedback on the PA-M300 which is also good. The most persistant comment we got was about how smooth the highs were. Quite a few even asked which tubes we were using! There was also a consensus of praise for the imaging and dynamics.
Besides the electronics we also debuted our acoustical diffuser, the Alpha-7. People really want these. We are very proud of how these turned out. The fit and finish is fantastic. More importantly, they really sound great. We were pleasantly surprised with how well they sounded in the small hotel room we had to display in. Usually you want to be about 6 feet or so from the diffuser. In this room we only had about 3 feet to spare. But, they really did sound fantastic in this compromised placement!