Great frikkin' show, I thought.
It's clear from the posts above that mileage varies considerably. In no particular order, there were some of my favorites (note: I tend to favor smaller systems, generally don't care for horns or single-driver speakers, and I missed some rooms):
Vienna Acoustics Beethoven Baby Grands driven by Primare. First time I've liked VA speakers and I liked these a lot.
Quads driven by new Moscode 402.
The Power Modules (Belles) room, where their amps were powering Usher 718 Be (the Tiny Dancers) and a pair of floorstanders from Sonics (which I much preferred to the Ushers).
Audio Note. We listened to everything including Clutch and the system delivered the musical goods unfailingly every time. I'm giving AN serious thought.
Scaena loudspeakers with the Memory Player. These are the follow-up effort to the Pipedreams and strike me as much more successful. I felt the bass modules were not integrating too well but the system was beguiling in many respects. Not sure how much the Memory Player was a factor in that, however.
(By the way, lots of computer audio at this show.)
Harbeths with Resolution Audio and DNM electronics.
JM Reynaud Offrande Signatures with Blue Circle electronics. I spent a long time in that room. Great sound and they were playing terrific music.
The new Von Schweikert Anniversaries, which are a redesigned, hot-rodded VR-4 Jr. Very nice. They were built to mark Albert's 50th year designing speakers (he started when he was 12 but he sure doesn't look 62!).
Wilson Sophia2 with ARC Reference gear. Man, I thought that ARC gear had a wonderful sound.
I liked the Pioneer speakers as some others have mentioned, but not sure I'd partner them with all Bel Canto electronics .
Cool turntables: Artemis Labs was showing a prototype turntable that has the very simple, wood plinth look I like. I want one. Also the Once TT from Australia (oh, that room -- Paragon -- showing ATC, was also nice). On the other hand, the Grand Prix turntable is not sufficiently impressive looking to justify its price, IMO.
Other cool: the Proclaim speakers, which are three independent spheres sitting on movable arms and attached to an external crossover on which you can set levels independently for each driver. On the one hand, it sounds like a recipe for terminal audiophilia nervosa. On the other hand, it makes a fair bit of sense. But you can achieve much of that through digital room correction. I have to wonder how easy it is to do a good job of setting these up manually. They sounded pretty good, though. Excellent bass.
Biggest disappointment for me: the Beveridges.
