Grimace,
The Deja Vu room was running "new" electronics that are built around vintage parts, and in the case of the amplifier, based on vintage cicuits (the DAC was obviously NOT vintage Western Electric). The gear is based primarily on Western Electric design and parts. The 300b amp used vintage Western Electric input and output transformers. There was another room that had monobloc amps that appeared to be old Altec amps (they were green in color). I also agree that most exhibitors played gear at way too high a volume. Some do that because many modern speakers actually sound lifeless unless they play loudly. I tend to like higher efficiency speakers because of their ability to sound lively at lower volume levels; as I've made improvements in my system, I've tended to play it at lower and lower volume levels. An example of a very nice system at the show that is extremely dynamic and did not need to be played at high volume, which, unfortunately, is where it was played most of the time, was the Horning speakers in the Highwater room.
Larrybou,
I also liked both of the big Zu systems at the show--one in the big conference room and the other in one of the tiny upstairs room. That top-of-the-line speaker delivers full range sound and great dynamics. My only big issue with that speaker is the over emphasis of the midrange that tends to make both female and male vocals stand out prominently--it sounds impressive at first, but, it is a bit unnatural. Still, I agree that this is a very good sounding speaker that appears to be suited to both large and small rooms.
Rawhit,
At almost every show, I am impressed by Oddyssey systems for what they deliver at reasonable prices. I was not quite as impressed with their higher priced speaker as I was with last year's showing of the Lorelei, but, that was because the Lorelei really set a high bar.
