For me, one of the better sounds of the day was the RPM room, with oracle digital sources, Perreaux amps and Merlin speakers. The AR/Wilson system was impressive also, but that might be because they were winding it up a bit. Also, the PMC DB1+ put in a phenominal performance for a pint-size pot.
Disappointments were many. I'll not mention one of the disappointments by name, but it wasn't worth getting out of bed early for...
Another, unfortunately, was the Avid room with the Meadowlark Blue Herons. A lack of volume, and poor system synergy left very little worthwhile impression.
Image quality out of naim's DVD5 was somewhat suspect. I much preferred the many examples of the Denon 2900 that were scattered around the show.
Very interesting to see the uptake of "digital" amplification. Tact and Bel Canto on display of course, but also 3d-labs had a range, Max Townshend and Van Den Hul were showing prototypes and sony had their S-master on display (but not playing). Some people are convinced that switching amplifiers are the future, some think they have a place, and some think they sound ****.
Bumped into a few acquiantances, both from ZG and professional ones, including the extreme chance, random ones (bumping into someone from a small mechanical parts supplier I dealt with in a previous life, and into someone I spoke to on the phone a week ago about a piece of faulty test equipment and ran into by complete chance, recognising him only by the name on the badge).
My feet hurt.