Jchip, agree with some of your points but disagree with the last.
You are rarely going to hear these products sounding exactly how good they can sound when optimally setup however you can get an idea overall of the flavor of the product.
For example all the Magico's sounded the same which to us is boring, clean, but boring in every room similar sound.
There were a few exceptions which lead us to rethink the sound that we have generally associated with some of these products.
Most rooms using Wilsons at this show sounded very good, still think that you can get better sound for the money with some of the other brands but overall some of the demos were very impressive.
The Golden Ear Triton 1R were in our mind one of the standouts for the money for $6k they sounded totally different then the sound we associated with Golden Ear which tends to be either too bright or too boomy. The soundstage was huge, the bass tight and the top end was balanced. Was it the room the gear the new model?
Have heard the Mura Electrostatics and these are always fantastic.
Another big surprise was the Grande Utopia EM this new version was amazing, especially on the big Naim Statements what a sound.
Vimbergs sounded superb.
New Dali Calistro active speakers were impressive for $5,700.00 speakers, streaming hub and Blue OS just plug in the speakers and you are good to go.
Heard the Elac $1,200.00 monitors they sounded bright did not impress us at all.
The Paradigm 3F with Anthem room correction sounded excellent.
The T+A gear in both room was very good as well.
So the take away was that some of the rooms really did showcase the products well or at least well enough to see if someone would want to take the next step and explore that product either at a dealers or in their home.
Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ, T+A, Paradigm, Anthem, Dali, Elac, dealers
