I attended the show on Sunday for about 4 hours. I should mention, this is my first attendance at a show like this.
Here's my rundown.
*The star of the show IMO, was the new Elac Debut line!!!!! They gave these a prime spot on the 2nd floor and AJ was there himself on Sunday morning queuing up the music! That room had 6 or 7 people at all times. The towers were all that I heard, but they were incredible. When AJ said "MSRP = $279 each", I saw jaws drop open!!! After several hours of hearing "these cost $10K+++", it was awesome to see and hear what a no-nonsense engineer can do for so little $!!! Even without a sub, for a relatively small room, no sub was needed. I have no problem recommending these as the top of the list for a good budget speaker. I would love to hear these side by side with some EMP towers for king of the budget speakers crown. My only nit pick on these is that the grills attach to pegs in the cabinet, so when grills are off you gotta look at those ugly metal pegs. On the other hand, plastic pegs on plastic grills tend to snap off easily, so I understand the design decision on these.
*WOW, I was surprised by the high volume of snake oil vendors and stupid cable people!!!!
*I got to check out the Akitika amp and pre-amp kits with the hoods popped open! I'm impressed, and I got to talk to him about some design decisions. I'm not convinced that I would have made the same design decisions, but I do like his products regardless, and the pricing is tough to beat. In particular, this is the only pre-amp kit that I know of that comes with a remote!
*I was impressed with the latest and greatest MLs, I think they are the Neoliths?
*I was impressed by the Vandersteens, not even his flagship speakers, but they sounded great, incredible imaging.
*I was underwhelmed by some Joseph Audio Speakers at the ~$13K price point. I was also underwhelmed by some NOLA speakers.
*There was a 5.2 room with the AJ Pio BS and the subs....it was pretty dang impressive and the only thing I could think was "how would it sound with some big-boy subs!"
*I think the KEF Blade may have been my overall favorite of the show!
*The Wilsons that I heard actually sounded better than I expected.
*I have a new respect for Focal!!! Many of the electronics guys had Focal speakers, and I know why!
*I had never been able to hear any Monitor speakers, I was mostly impressed with the smaller BS from one of the upper lines.
*The new Technics towers were pretty good, but nowhere near the ~$17K price tag (if memory serves....regardless...over priced)!!!!! I requested to hear the BS version. I was mostly impressed, but way over-priced at ~$1700, and there was some noticeable sibilance! The rep did mention that the upcoming TTs will be more geared to audiophile rather than DJs.
