Got to visit the show for about 5 hours on Friday. Ran around and tried to hear all the rooms I thought would be worth my time but did not spend enough time in several rooms.
For where I was coming from, just background: I was looking for 20k and under speakers, splitting the budget between two rooms to splurge on either maximum accuracy and performance where amp output is unlimited, to go in our movie room and double as the fronts in a surround setup, or funnel the budget into a pair of high-efficiency speakers I can enjoy with a couple different tube amps, ranging from a Scott 296 with 50 wpc down to a 300B SET amp with the typical 8 watts/channel.
Van Schweikert Endeavor References (the "small" room upstairs, $20k/pair) - In a word, wow. I think reviewers of the show are going to be saying some really positive things about these. It was one of the best pairs of speakers I heard. Super-clean beryllium tweeters, great soundstage, plenty of speed, muscle, and excellent voicing. Coming from having some Snell E/III's with the rear "atmosphere" tweeters I was really enjoying the (defeatable) rear AMT-type tweeters on these and the extra-deep soundstage it gave them. It also probably didn't hurt that they were driving them with a $65k 8x 845 tube 200 w/ch VAC amp. What a beast. These are near the top of my list right now.
Perlisten S7T (also $20k/pair) - these were excellent sounding speakers, big, fast, accurate, clean, gave the VS's a run for it, will be listening to them more. Industrial design was a bit intense and may fail the WAF.
Scansonic MB6 B ($15k/pair) - clean, fast, tight, clean highs, good imaging, maybe a little anemic in the bass, and just generally less "wow" factor than the VS's and the Perlisten's. I might listen to them more.
Salk Bepure 3 ($20k/pair) - I probably should have listened to these more since I don't think I'll get a chance to hear them again soon. Big wow factor. The beryllium tweeters were crisp and clear and sounded great, very exciting speaker to listen to, great big clean atmospheric sound, really need to spend more time with these and other Salk's.
Fyne F1-8 (9k/pair?) very briefly listened to these, seemed dull, really looking forward to hearing their 702/3/4 speakers because I was favorably impressed with certain aspects of their 502SP previously. Not sure I understand the point of a stand mounter at this price point and where was the dynamicism?
Philharmonic HT (price TBD) -very excited about these but Dennis said he's still tweaking them. I listened but will reserve judgement until Dennis says they're ready. So far very encouraging, and the BMR monitors and towers continued to wow everyone that hears them, myself included. Hi-gloss finishes are a non-starter in our home though
Mofi Sourcepoint 10 ($3700/pair) -already wrote a little about these in the thread on them. So far very promising, but room and crowds were holding back a proper judgement. I really like the design and what I heard so far, need to listen to them more. Might be a winner.
Paradigm Persona 3F ($12k/pair) - Paradigm's were a great price point speaker back in the 90's, I think they used Scanspeak and Vifa drivers back then (?). These seemed competent, probably measure well, but didn't pull at my heart or make me want to plop down 12k for them.
Volti Rival (price?) - a 3-way super-high efficiency speaker with a 15" woofer and horn-loaded mid and tweeter, so a little like a big Klipsch. Played plenty loud driven with a 16 wpc SET tube amp, but of course the tubes just couldn't keep those 15" woofers reined in and the bass was sadly tubby.
Dolce Vita Sogna's ($12k/pair) a very strange Italian speaker, kind of a 1.5-way with most of the sound coming from a single ~10" full-range driver with a separate sort of super-tweeter that comes in above 12k. Wooden baffles on the front supposedly disperse the sound and prevent beaming from the single drivers. Sound was surprisingly flat (even) and even decently good although I shudder to think how they measure. I assume the efficiency is high enough for the SET tube scenario but there's no way in hell I would buy these without access to serious listening time.
Audio Note AN-E LX ($10k/pair) - Basically updated and improved versions of my E/III's. They lack the rear tweeters (or at least this model did) but benefit from 94+ dB efficiency, better components and beautiful cabinets. At moderate volumes they were liquid smooth with great immediacy and avoided the softness in the bass that the old Snells suffer from.
Devore Gibbon Super Nine's ($10k/pair?) - I wasn't at all surprised to hear how good these sounded given everything I had read about them. They definitely had the immediacy, accuracy, and soundstage I hoped for, really great sounding speakers, but they are too inefficient for the weaker tube amps and too small for the movie room. I really need to listen to the Orangutans.
I did not listen to the Linkwitz but open back drivers above sub enclosures so I assume all the advantages and disadvantages of those designs. Room was busy when I went by and they were delivering the sales pitch so I skipped it. I briefly stood in a bunch of other rooms but there were plenty of 50k+ speakers that made no sense to hear.
