I found it was not that easy to point to a a truly "best sound of the show" this year. To be honest, there were few memorable "best sounds", whereas there were far more "worst sounds". However, unquestionably, one of the most extraordinary demos was the Sanders electrostatic speaker system. I'll tell you this, it may be a "one seat" system, but it has to be the hands down hi-end bargain of the century. 13K buys it all- and that includes speakers, crossover, the incredibly well-reviewed Magtech 500w amp (REG in TAS loves this thing), preamp and cables. It may even include a bow for all I know. As far as speaker cables, I swear Roger must have gone to Radio Shack and asked for something inexpensive to use. When they showed him 18-2 lamp cord, he must have said, "got anything thinner?". I'm telling you, if I didn't hear it I would never have believed it. He played some powerful drum material that knocked me on my ass, in addition to the usual sonic bon bons we typically hear at shows. Extraordinary resolution, transparency, and most importantly, musicality. All at price that can't be touched by anything else, anywhere at anytime. A total and complete mindfk.
Moving up into the upper echelon, the Aesthetix demo on the mezzanine (can't remember the Denver dealer who sponsored the room) was extraordinary. However, that only became clear when they stopped using the zillion dollar Clearaudio turntable and played CD or computer. That's right, you heard it here first. In fact, the most disappointing thing globally at the show was the often pitiful performance of turntables, in the same booth as a modest CD. Why take a zillion dollar table to a show if it isn't set up well is the question I kept asking myself? But once Jim switched to CD computer material, his modest 8K CD player, and 8K 300w hybrid monoblock amps through the Focal Maestro (50K) speakers were magnificent playing Steely Dan and other assorted material. In fact, that room sounded far superior to the more expensive top of the line Focal Grand Utopias running on Solution gear just down the hall. (Does anyone really thing the Solution gear sounds good on anything except Jon Valin?). No need to spend that kind of money folks. The modest (for high end) Aesthetix/Focal stuff was superb.
I also agree that the FM Acoustics, Venture speaker demo was outstanding, and would probably get my vote for the best "price no object" class of gear at the show, although overall I'm not sure that is was truly better than the Aesthetix/Focal demo described above.
Lastly, I am obliged to nominate the Cardas room for "best sound at the show". What, you say? The Cardas room was a dry demo, and there was no sound. Exactly.
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