AXPONA 2011 Atlanta reports/thoughts?

We were in the MBL room as well during the Gabriel song! I thought the heavy metal track they played a couple of songs later was a little overpowering, but hey, you couldn't argue with the dynamics, that's for sure. My wife and I both listened to the big Adams with our own music. I'm sure the room was probably too small for them to open up, but I didn't particularly like them, I thought they sounded a little harsh to my ears, especially when I found out they retailed for $31000.

Meadowman: Am I right in seeing that the ML speakers are $100G a pair? If so, I'll keep my Avalons thank you very much.

Anyone hear the little Napa Acoustics system (CDP, integrated, small bookshelf speakers)? I meant to check it out but ran out of time.

I guess that I missed the Carnegie room. What model were they showing? Agree about the Soundsmith stuff - pretty sweet sounding.

I'm with Audioguy on the attitude thing. Lots of good kit out there, and easy to avoid jerks. Last year at RMAF, someone high up -- very high up -- in Van Alstine abruptly and rudely took my music off in the middle of a song, after one of the people there had agreed to let me play a couple of tracks. (My selections were well recorded, and got complements all day.) Needless to say, I'd not buy anything from AVA, even for pennies on the dollar. Unfortunately, the behavior there also meant I could not properly audition Jim Salk's speakers, in which I was very interested.

In contrast, owner-designers at places like Zu, Fritzspeakers, Selah, Daedalus, and Spectron were courteous and nice, and I'll continue to consider and recommend them.

John

+2 for Soundsmith. Biggest sounding small speakers I've ever heard, real sweet sound too.