Here's my summary

I was there with a pal auditioning speakers.

He has Ruark Tallisman II's that he is happy with sound wise but he would like something a bit smaller for his room. I have ProAC D25's that I am currently very happy with.

Oddly or thankfully we have similar ears and pretty much have consensus on the sound. Often one of would pop in and have a quick listen to some kit and say to the other "don't even bother going in there - terrible" sure enough it would be bad (to our ears, I hasten to add).

A lot of the gear sounded too aggressive in the mid and upper. Some didn't handle complex music very well. Why of why must they keep play us JAZZ Probably to mask the harshness, perhaps it is down to room acoustics and what's driving them.

Speakers we liked

Totum's - (small floorstanders that make a nice balanced sound) The bigger of the two they were demo'ing sounded the best.

Focal - (mid size stand mounts ~£1.75K). I auditioned their floorstanders of comparable price to my ProAcs and did not like them...

There sounded pretty good - my pal is pretty interested in these.

Neat - small to mid floorstanders. I believe we heard the Momentum 4i's. Metal sort of pushed in looking dome tweeters.

Quite nice sound. bit harsh on some vocals that were played but not as bad as many we heard at the show.

ProAc response D2 (£1.75K+ stands, again mid size stand mounts) - didn't like them that much - Primare tranny stuff driving them - perhaps it was that. Mids and highs were harsh to my ears.

Kef's Muon (big demo room, £70K -OMG, I thought they were £10K and worth about that  silver things) Liked them - more of an all body experience rather than a listening session

When I win the lottery perhaps

Dynaaudio Sapphire (£8.5K - not bad - too big for my lounge.

Speakers we didn't like

PMC - total waste of time to my ears.

Tannoy - agree with the comment above.

Eclipse - No bass - needed sub but eh guy was convinced they sounded good like that, thin sound - looked like eyes staring at you...

Wilson Beneech - Again the room layout was odd to hear the true sound - more a visual display really. Over priced?

In general the tube powered stuff sounded better but not across the board - speakers do make the interpretation of the sound you are hearing after all.

I was interested in Noise canceling phones purely for the train.

I was in luck - Sennheiser had their £240's on demo - not bad. Not as good as the HD-650's IMO but close.

- Audio Technica had their ATH-ANC7's rrp £130. They had two sweet cutie's out and about demo'ing them. We listened first on their MP3 players and then on our Nokia N81 / My N82 - good enough sound, good noise canceling and an offer price of £100 - could I resist?! NOPE!

Listened to them a fair bit on the train home - I like them. Shame the dark haired cutie didn't come with them

All in all a good day - It's a good way to confirm what you have is good and not spend money on upgrades...

Off to listen to my kit now to confirm it is v. good

Ooh and try the phones up against the 650's.