Myself and another audiophile buddy went to the LA show as well. It was the first show of it's kind for me, and such fun. We spent a full three days there and I think we took in every single room on the four floors. I echo many of Brainwater's comments, especially on the Hyperion, ESP and MBL rooms.
The Hyperion room also showcased some tube amps sporting the 845 tube - they looked a little DIY, but for the money ($4k new for the pair I think it was), the looked like bargains. The MBL room did give me goosebumps - the sound was really vivid and fleshy although I would have liked to have listened to their big speakers with some tube gear upstream, rather than their solid state ensemble.
In particular I echo Brainwater's thoughts on the ESP room. The speakers were driven by scary looking $30k Wavestream monoblocks, and sources included the Brinkman TT and a lush Lector digital front-end. It was possibly the best sound in show for me. Like Brainwater hints at, it was the type of room I wanted to put my feet up in and hang out for an hour or two - the music was just dreamy, effortless and non-fatiguing. Part of what made this room great was that it was managed very well - the guy just kept playing music. This was in sharp contrast with a few other rooms including the Usher room and the Wilson room, where I found myself getting a lecture on how their speakers are so great, rather than listening to music. The Usher bookshlef did sound great though, and the Wilson's also sounded great - I'm just wasn't a fan of the 'experience' where they make you feel like you're about to witness a solar eclipse or some live music event. I found the sound great, but found so many other rooms more pleasantly humble and respectful of my time (you had to line up at the Wilson room for a 'demo', followed by a few intros to the music about to be heard).
One other stand out room for me was the room by Rives Audio. Actually, they had two rooms there -identical rooms but one with room treatments and one without. That experience was such fun, because you could compare the two identical systems both with and without the room treatments. The Rives hardware was there in the treated room, but was not in the signal chain as they found that the room didn't need it. Even with the 'passive' treatments, the room was so clearly better than the untreated one next door. It was such an eye-opener for me. Even then, I should emphasise that the untreated room sounded superb (just not as creepy good as the treated room). Gear in the room was Rockport Mira speakers (I think it was Mira?), Gryphon CD player and Gryphon integrated amp.
Gosh, I could keep talking but I'll try and end this spiel soon. Another room worth mentioning was the ZU Audio room - I really liked the speakers there, all the moreso because the front-ends they were using were quite humble. I find their speakers unique and fresh and would consider a pair at their pricepoints.
There were rooms I was very disappointed with, but I should hold my tongue lest it was simply that the rooms offered poor acoustics or had some other kink in the signal chain.
At the end of the day though, back at home base, I still like my system and find it unwanting of any immediate upgrades, although I'm sure I'll upgrade something soon just for the hell of it - you know how it goes.
