Axpona

I like the Raidho/Scan Sonic room largely because Lars Kristensen's demonstrations, and his contradictions of some basic playback philosophies of other manufactures/presenters I just heard. Right or wrong, here or there, it was an engaging room.

Sad to say, but I never heard digital sound so smooth as Bricasti/Tidal room. YG Carmel 2 (aggravating price increase), Sanders Sound, and surprisingly the Harbeth HL5 plus/Rossi were the most enjoyable to me. Volti was as good as I have heard from horn speakers.

The 12th floor megabuck rooms were all boring, which is a little depressing. Sonus Faber and dynaudio based systems never did that much for me. First time hearing magico.

I agree with DMS1. Unless you just had a heavy meal and were looking to nod off, you made the right move.

The Ear Expo was great, but a little gross if one bothered to think about it, which I tried not to do. Lots of amps and top end headphones to try. I really like the Ether, more than LCD-X. I never heard of Mr. Speakers before that day. They are more comfortable and lighter than the Audeze, but I think the LCD-3s have me because of their fuller sound. Stax SR-009 was also great to finally try; still preferred the LCD-3. Dana Cable proved themselves in an A/B setup with their cable versus stock headphone cable on the same headphone model. The difference was such I would be compelled to buy theirs over using stock cords. Fun.

You all may be right, but strong conclusions were hard for me. A lot of rooms played too loudly (like MBL to get over the sound of the HVAC), so there was too much room interaction with sparse acoustic treatment. The antidote for the dry sound at Axpona, along with Volti, I think was Harbeth/Vinnie Rossi. They had that system really dialed in. Good sound is more careful execution and taste, and maybe not so much technical features, although those products have merit. And some like big Wilsons and YG I thought were outstanding.