Any feedback on the NY Audio Show NYH?

If great (expensive)gear can sound bad can cheap(er) gear sound great? I think yes...! This is was I got out of this year's show. But as past shows, expensive stuff was dissapointing and inexpensive stuff was impressive. Just blame it on the rooms at the Hilton. I was great to hear (& see)more vinyl in demos than in past shows!

Too lazy for a thorough rundown, but here goes. Rooms I liked:
- Gamut/Pipedreams (better than the Tenor/Pipe room IMHO)
- Rethm/EAR/Resolution Audio
- Tact MH-1 speakers + Tact electronics (their reference speaker, the LS-1, which resembles the pipes, projected images that were larger than life......not a good thing)
- Classic Audio Reproductions/Atma-Sphere
- Ensemble/Art Audio
- Joseph Audio/Manley

Rooms I didnt care for:
- Kharma/Lamm
- Wilson Watt Puppy 7
- Tenor/Pipedreams room
- Rockport (really wanted to like this room too)

I agree with Dolphin.I did not think the Karma/Lamn room was all that bad.The VSA 6 cahnnel room probably had the largest waiting line throughout the whole show.Great sound,but WAY too loud.The Merlin/Joule room was very good.The Roman/Plinius room also good.Bottom line is most of the rooms are way too small to really make a fair evaluation of most of the gear.The oodest setup was Dunlavy/Yamaha.Don't get that one.The Pipedream,Rockport room was suprisingly bad and considering the cost of the equipment,was a real dissapointment as they had a great room to demo in.

My overall impression of the show is more good sounding rooms that I can ever remember. Few that are great, but many that are worthwhile.

In the super value area, the Kikrsaeter/Blue Circle room is great.

I also like the Totem Forest driven by a new Totem integrated amp.

The Viola system, which is megabucks, is quite good and has the best bass drum reproduction I've ever heard, for what that's worth.

The JM Labs + Lamm + dCS system (Sound by Singer) is wonderful, IMO.

Tons of $3K CD players: Ayre, Gamut, Sim Audio.

-dan

I agree with Dolphin. The GamuT/Pipedream was among the best sounding rooms. I just can't believe the size of this amp, it's looked like a small vehicle. The Merlins/Joule sounded a bit thin for some reason - could be tracks they had on. Overall the show was good. The Shanglin (chinese) CD-Player wasn't as impressive as it looks on the web.

I rushed through show in 3.5 hours. I was with a friend who kept running out every 50-minutes to feed a metered parking at broadway & 53rd. We spent a lot of time coordinating stuff and less time on the show. Next time I'm going alone.