What were the best and worst rooms at RMAF 2009?

Josephaud:

Those happen to be the speakers I use for home theater. I have 2 systems listed if you notice and I have been using different gear for Redbook and different gear for home theater.

I have been trying various speakers out for Redbook over the past year and haven't bothered to update my profile over on the asylum. This year I have owned a variety of speakers including Acoustic Zen Adagios and B&W's as well. I happen to like the sound of Focal as well and may end up buying a pair.

It's a shame you felt the need to go out of your way in an attempt to discredit what I heard at the show. Researching my id on another site to see what you could dig up in hopes to slander me based on system components seems lame and I am sure others will see it that way as well. And to be honest I went to that room to see the Bel Canto. I was fixating on the Bel Canto gear not your speakers. Perhaps the Bel Canto would have sounded better to me with different speakers. Hard to tell.

The track I played in the Bel Canto room was not recorded lean and in fact sounded quite warm on the Focals, Ushers, Legacys, and other speakers which I tried at the show. Of the speakers I tried with this track, the Bel Canto room was only bright and lean sound I heard when playing this track.

I liked many rooms at the show but not yours. Everyone has an opinion and mine was based upon what I heard using the same track on several systems.

In the same fashion people may wonder how I could have been so disappointed in the Bel Canto Room, I must admit that I am shocked someone could be disappointed with the "Audio Note" room.

When I was in the Audio Note room I heard Holographic images dancing about in the room that were absolutely spooky good. I couldn't believe all that was coming from those two smallish "Harbeth looking" speakers which sat in the corners of the room. To me, that was an extremely pleasurable (and fun) sounding room to visit and spend time in.

Tom,

My intent was not to slander anyone. My point was that you have a different perspective on how a system should sound than I and many of the other posters do, and that is fine. When I saw the components you had listed and the comments you stated there (prior to your most recent edit), it made sense to me that you have the reaction you did. I'm frankly puzzled as to why you changed your system profile.

In any case, given that you don't like my speakers, how can you draw any firm conclusions about the sound of the Bel Canto?

To your point about fun, I much enjoyed the combo of Thiel 3.7, McIntosh 2301 monos, ARC Ref preamp, and PS Audio Perfect Wave stack. The synergy of this combo was an excellent compromise between full-bodied dynamics and neutrality & detail. IMO, among dynamic speakers with similar visceral impact, the Wilson Sashas and Hansens in various rooms didn't fare as well.