AXPONA 2011 Atlanta reports/thoughts?

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.

Rockadanny,

The Napa room was very good. I liked the approach which was " Turn any 100 sq foot space into an acoustic oasis ". The aesthetics were a bit on the over modern ( the lines and curves, not the tubes) for my taste but the sound was very open and coherent. A tough act for a 4 way speaker IMHO. I went back to inquire about a show deal on some of the sound treatment panels but they had already sold the whole rig. the 5K rig made real bass in the small end of the room and the overall presentation was very easy on the ears.

Audioguy3107- Not sure of the price tag but I must say the DH rig ala M. Levinson was very forward and seemed to add extra snap to leading edge transients. The rep. was very pleased with the "detail" and "speed" and kept mentioning that he was using a "$400 laptop" as the source. Into a 50K DAC perhaps? Dunno, just not my cup o' music.

I had worked two shows in my time, one for a dealer and another for a manufacturer/importer. It was always my pleasure to accept recordings from visitors of my room, not just as good customer service, but as a bond to the individual and the music he/she listens to. I am going back 15 or so years so maybe things are different now. But turning these potential customers away is not good business sense, and takes the "enjoyment" factor out of the equation, which is why we do what we do anyway. I have not been to a show in quite some time, but it is a shame that this is going on.