Awesome time !

[Stephen J]

Yep it was a blast !
Dave,Ernie and there crew put in a lot of work and hours and did a great job to make it so!
If ya weren't there .....you definitely missed a hell of a bash !
Ak'ers in person are even better than Ak'ers on line.:yes:
I met....
Dnewman
mopic 5
Craig from NOS valves
Olson Jr.
Drybasement
Dmax 99
Grumpy and Mrs Grumpy and family
Squid ward
Ernie ( luvinvinyl) and the Mrs.
Goodwill hi-fi
Similost and Marcia
Jsixs
Jaymanaa
Mark the Fixer
Homer J Simpson
Ty from Tyler acoustics
DjNagel
Ray W
The Fragger
Ballylongford
Markus111?
EVguy
JHS2RT
Kamakiri
krikor
hpsenicka
and a buncha people who's name's my alcohol brain will not remit.
Oh yeah....Jailtime was my roommate !

Here are a few more pics...

 

[thefragger]

it was great to meet ya steve!

 

[Stephen J]

it was great to meet ya steve!

Same here..........

 

[olson_jr]

Yep it was a blast !

Dave,Ernie and there crew put in a lot of work and hours and did a great job to make it so!

If ya weren't there .....you definitely missed a hell of a bash !

Ak'ers in person are even better than Ak'ers on line.:yes:

and a buncha people who's name's my alcohol brain will not remit.
.

I second that, all of it!

 

[grumpy]

Was glad to meet you along with tons of other new folks this year. Hope everyone enjoyed themselves.

 

[313guy]

+1
It was great to have a face to put to the name/avatar. My first fest, but definitely not my last!! My only regret was not being able to attend Saturday, too.

 

[jsixis]

Nice meeting you Steve and numerous other people.
Lots of fantastic stereo systems, saw plenty of good buys.

Vendors were extremely nice and friendly, the hotel was great too.

I bought a few drivers, a mmf Phono pre amp and grumpy's heathkit pa speakers.
The wife bought a Jenson cabinent.

We each bought a AK fest T shirt and I got a hat and lucky me I won a free T shirt as a door prize.

Did my share of drinking too and still recovering from a 4:30 am saturday night fest with Pete lol

 

[thefragger]

One other thing I have to add; the vendors were great. I got to talking with the Marantz guys (who had only 11 grand worth of gear on show) between tracks and I brought up how I'm a full-time student and cant afford anything that these vendors have. I told 'em that I snagged a 300DC and a 3600 for $200-- one guy looked shocked and congratulated me on the find and after I told them of my plans to restore the gear then both smiled and nodded in approval.

I was also in the McIntosh room telling the guy about how I don't own any Mac gear yet (emphasis on yet) and how I plan on finding some busted old McIntosh stuff to fix up. Without hesitation he handed be his card and a booklet of used units (with the comment 'you never know what you'll find in here') and told me that if I ever needed any parts or advice to call him and ask. That left me speechless.

The gent with the Dali speakers was from Ontario and we had a great about gear and just about audio stuff in general (he had toasted an amp fuse that morning and had to throw the show system together in a rush!). A very candid and enveloping personality--quite the gentleman.

Those experiences from such well renowned companies really left an impression on me that I don't think I would get in a tech-show-type atmosphere.