My show report is slowly being uploaded - I have sent 10 sections in so far with at least 2 more to be made.

I am no photographer and you really realize how an external flash can help in rooms where lights are coming from all over the place.

Lot of good sound at CES from polar opposite designs. At the end of the report I intend to post my 5 favorite budget systems (speakers under $10k) and 5 favorite system (speakers over $10k). Basing it on the speakers makes some sense because generally speaking a $5k speaker is connected with more modest front end gear and expensive speakers usually had expensive front end gear. Plenty of exceptions but I needed to draw the line in the sand and speakers made the most sense.

What I found really interesting is that some of the people I auditioned gear with tended to agree with me on "most" rooms but then we would discuss a room and have completely opposite opinions. I liked the Magico room for example but another audiophile who had heard it disliked them quite a lot. So I can glean that there was a difference in source music. I think my report starts weak and gets stronger because I was in a hurry to get the pages in and didn't write a lot of commentary.

What was most interesting is that the systems in my top 5 consist of two ways, three ways+, panels, horns, ribbon/woofers, systems with SS and tube, etc.

I also tried to be as blunt as I could without being too negative.

page 1 http://www.dagogo.com/View-Article.asp?hArticle=650
page 2 http://www.dagogo.com/View-Article.asp?hArticle=683

My fellow writers - very nice guys and we shared the same views on most rooms - though we were way off on some.

http://www.dagogo.com/View-Event.asp?hEvent=25

cheers,
Richard G Austen