I went yesterday (Friday) and really enjoyed it. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of exhibitors that had good sound. It was not very crowded and most exhibitors were more than willing to let me play a cut or two from the CD I brought. There were more than a dozen exhibitors with turntables.
Dress for hot weather. The room air conditioners are noisy so most exhibitors turn them off. It gets rather warm later in the day. Good listening!
P.S. I was impressed by the sound in the Grant Fidelity room.
I was also there Friday afternoon and Saturday afternoon. Sorry I missed you on Friday TC - I never got much beyond the 10th floor.
As I type, the show is 2 hours away from the end, so this is more like a postmortem.
I like these kind of shows so I hope this one becomes a regular. The turnout was pretty good with a lot of exotic stuff on show. The turnout might have been better with showing from a few more prominent companies like Sumiko or McIntosh.
The venue had some issues - impossible traffic to get there and a hassle to find parking. Maybe if there's another one of these, they could find a place with easier access.
The good news is they have a bar and I needed to stop in for a beer each day to calm the nerves from the traffic before heading to the displays.
I did enjoy the show a lot and hearing lots of different stuff was useful and instructive. It gave me some perspective on how my own systems compare to some of the best stuff out there.
If I had to pick favorites for best sound it would be either the Ypisilon Acapella High Violncello II ($80K):
or the more affordable-but-still-out-of-my-price-range ($20K) Legacy Audio Whisper XD:
I also liked the sound of the very small $1K and $2K complete systems from Napa Acoustic. I thought the sound was sweet, smooth and non-fatiguing. Voices sounded like voices and the organ that was playing sounded like an organ. Of course these were small, bass-shy systems that will not fill a large room with loud sound.
However, lots of really good stuff was available for audition. After the show it was off to the city for Calzone and Georgio's and then over to Amoeba Records in the Haight. A nice day in audio.
Here are some crappy cell-phone pix:
Looking East from the Hotel:
Looking West from left to right, Port of Oakland, The eastern section of the SF-Oakland Bay bridge rising up to Yurba Buena Island, Treasure Island (flat thing to the right of Yurba Buena) and above everything in the background and across the bay is the San Francisco Skyline:
Puget Sound Studios' Studer RtoR running master tapes at 15 ips (I want one!):
And a cool turntable - I don't remember what or where:
Maybe if they do this again (next year?) we can have an AK meeting in the bar at high-noon or something.