What were the best and worst rooms at RMAF 2009?

Vintage Sansui sp-5500 (made in Japan) "Some say speakers made in the late 60's to mid 70's were the best sounding speakers ever made... period!"..... "Speakers made (TODAY) are made mostly for Home Theater".......

Maybe we haven't come too far in speakers since the '70s, but such older speakers are not to be revered, except for Quad 57s.

The main difference between speakers back then and now is that well built speakers that are large and solid enough to deliver full or near full range sound clearly with muscle behind it in larger rooms in particular will cost a lot more new these days in general.

hifi, tbg and mapman, maybe there have not been a lot of changes to improve certain quantitative aspects of sound reproduction but there are many that have improved the qualitative aspects. to mention a few, internal wire technology, capacitors types, resistor types, solders, inductor and driver technology. so although the last few posts have a degree of merit, imho i cannot totally agree.

best, bobby at merlin

I'm with 76doublebass. The best room I heard - and by a stunningly wide margin - was the Win Analog room. Not sure if it's coincidence or not, but it was also the only room I entered with the speakers more than a quarter of the way in to the room.

I was pleasantly surprised by the small Esoteric room, which also featured the Esoteric speakers. I did not hear any leanness in that room, and it actually led me to more strongly consider an Esoteric CD player as a SS alternative to the Ayon CD-2 I enjoy so much.