What was your favorite gear at the Fest?

[Jailtime]

A few bits of gear really stood out from the crowd at the Fest for me.

dgwojo's Altec 604s with the Elite 80 amps and PunkerX's tuners.
cosmos big horns with the Lambda woofers and Kegger's amps.
The Tyler D1s.
cdfac's Infinity RS 4.5s
dnewman's "MDF monstrosity" with Squid's DIY amps.

But #1 for me may come as a bit of a surprise in a Fest full of amazing high end gear. RayW's "Big Bobs" driven with the NAD integrated. They are an absolute masterpiece, I just kept returning to his listening room to hear them again.

 

[musicom]

As far as vendor speaker rooms go, I was especially impressed with the Joseph Audio speakers, which I heard for the first time at AK Fest I also liked the McIntosh MX-200(?) loudspeakers, the Parker Audio and was wowwed by the Dali mini monitors. The MBL speakers in the Jolida room were also good. I've seen them at another shows in Denver but have yet to give them a full audition with familiar music. I also liked the Dynadio and Magnepan, but they will need another audition to see how they work with my "Never met a percussion ensemble concert I didn't like musical tastes").

Member rooms were also great and it was nice to hear the Infinity RS 4.5. Owning 3 stereo Infinity speakers systems and an Infinity 5.2 home theater setup it was great to hear one of the higher end systems that use the technology (EMIT) in my main listening room.

Two rooms had open reel (!) tapes and that provided a nice addition to the digital file, LP and CD sources (and FM in one member's room)

 

[Andyman]

I didn't see much but Cosmo's horns in Keg's room were sweet as were those Arte Forma speakers. The Bel Canto speakers sounded interesting, but when I was there they were playing some wacky recording of a poetry reading with what sounded like a musical box in the background. It sounded really nice, but it certainly was one of the stranger test recordings I've ever experienced...

 

[jsixis]

The wife thought Big Bobs were the best speakers.

I would say they were the most transparent speakers, even sitting right in front of one if I closed my eyes I would not be able to pinpoint it.

I liked the Tyler's D-4's, managed to walk in there when they were playing some really good jazz which while not my style did work the speakers across the whole range.
The 2's sounded nice but the 4's really jumped out at me.

Can't really be fair about all the speakers because I heard a lot of "strange" music to my ears and some rooms were just too crowded.

Spent a lot of time listening to Keggers system and Dnewman's. Both were really great sounding horn systems.

Mcintosh HT system was very nice.
Jolidia? Tube CD player was very smooth and that small el84 amp is on my list to buy soon.

Next year I will bring some music I am use to hearing.

 

[x_25]

My favorite speakers had to have been the Dali Mentor Minuets. What fantastic little speakers. My favorite room had to have been the room with the Bel Canto gear in it. That stuff just sounded amazing. :yes:

But #1 for me may come as a bit of a surprise in a Fest full of amazing high end gear. RayW's "Big Bobs" driven with the NAD integrated. They are an absolute masterpiece, I just kept returning to his listening room to hear them again.

This was a very, very close second for my favorite set up at the fest. The difference in price between it and number one tough is staggering. Those bobs were amazing. :yes:

 

[dnewma04]

The Menage-a-bobs may have been my favorite speakers at the fest. Although, on saturday, when someone threw in some classical track, the speakers we tossed together in our room sounded pretty darn good.

At 4:30 AM after a few pops, Cosmos' speakers playing some Mad Season was pretty amazing.

 

[cdfac]

i wish i could've gotten around a bit more to the dealer rooms, but i was pretty glued to my own setup with the new Infinities (thanks again Similost and Kmanusa for making that happen!).

it's hard for me in a setting like this, especially with my limited listening experience, to be very critical of the different systems i heard, especially when most of the music (primarily in dealer rooms) was chosen to showcase the good qualities of the gear and minimize the shortcomings. i'll just give the top 4 rooms that my ears simply enjoyed, from among the rooms that i did get to see:

-Kegger's and Cosmos' room
-Audio Note's room (i would've loved to have their CDP in my room)
-Marantz's room (with Paradigm Signatures)
-Bamberg's speakers (the first ones) with Modwright electronics (man that room smelled like tubes!)

 

[djnagle]

For me, it was Dan's (Cosmos) speakers first, then Sulk Audio's Signatures, then C.A.R.'s full blown T1s. I think when Newman gets the Unitys dialed in, they will be right up there as well.

To my surprise, there were a number of very small speakers that sounded very good too. I don't think they could fill a big room, but for there size, Fritzs speakers rock.

 

[Stephen J]

Hmmm..

Dnewman's project was soundin' goood !
Ray W's DIY speakers
Cosmos' speakers and keggers amp
Tyler acoustic,the big ones D-4's ?
Visually,ya can't beat the Mc stuff !and though it looked cool,there is something about tubes glowing green that just seemed....ummm..surreal ?
As a relative newbie to the Audio hobby,I pretty much walked around in awe :yes:

 

[dnewma04]

Dnewman's project was soundin' gooo

Sounding gooo? Is that you way of saying my bass was slow?

 

[dr*audio]

My 3 favorites in no particular order:
RayW's Big Bobs (we spent a good hour in there listening to them!)
Ray, you're a genius!
Magnapan 1.7's (wow....just...wow)
Joseph Audio speakers. Can't remember the model but they cost $4200.

 

[Stephen J]

sounding gooo? Is that you way of saying my bass was slow? :d

oooops !