What were the best and worst rooms at RMAF 2009?

one of these days (at one of these shows), someone is going to set up a pair of old (pick any old classic speaker for under 500 bucks), a marantz receiver, and a dual turntable, and blow the house down. yes, i'm serious.

spica tc50( or 60),Celestion 100, Large Advent, Dahlquist 905, Dynac A25, JBL 4312, Ohm E (or E2), Cabasse Sloop(or Clipper), Pink Triangle Ventrical, AR 302, altec Lansing 305, Allison 4,5(or cd7)...i can keep going, but I'll need time.... All of these sound great in an avg sized room and all can be had cheap...add your favorite lp (wine or pot are recommended options) and have a downright religious experience.

Did anyone hear the Intuitive Design room?

Jaybo,

OHM E's (vintage entry model OHM box speakers, $200/pair 30 years ago) might be an interesting dirt cheap choice with a SET tube amp perhaps, at low to moderate SPLs, in the right room if low end extension is not a concern. I've never heard that combo though.

I don't know if I ever considered Es competitive with the likes of large Advents however, at least with most SS amps I have heard both with. Marantz would be a good choice for them however. the next step up the old OHM line, the Ls, were very hard to distinguish from the large Advents however and I personally always preferred the Ls (Es were "thinner" sounding in general).

I never thought of OHM Es as speakers that could "blow the house down" in general, but they are certainly good performers within their limits and might still be had for next to nothing.

I'd agree that it is not that hard to get very good sound out of many smaller quality vintage speakers at least in smaller rooms. Larger rooms are certainly a bigger challenge. I'd like to enter enter my vintage Dual 1264 table with Goldring cartridge running on a vintage Yamaha receiver in a blind sound test against much pricier modern rigs in a typical room and see what happens. It is surprisingly sounding way better than ever and highly competitive these days. I bought it back in 1981.