Michael Lacomba of Southern Cinema, with stores in Cumming, GA and St. Augustine, FL, was having a great time demming several joyful systems that combined tried and true with fresh and new. Almost as fresh and new as Michael, who at age 26 laments, "People my age don't know this stuff exists." Not that Steve Davis and the small and dedicated Axpona crew didn't do everything possible publicity-wise to bring in a fair amount of curious collegiates, some of whom were actually heard to mutter, "I'm going to have to rethink my whole iPod thing after hearing this."

The room shared by Oracle and Phase Technology featured the eye-catching Oracle CD2500 CD player ($12,500), Oracle Delphi Mk.6 turntable with Oracle SME 5 tonearm and Thalia cartridge ($16,500 total), Oracle phono stage ($9950), and Oracle SI 1000 175Wpc integrated amp ($9950) powering the black Phase Technology PC-9.5 loudspeakers ($3500/pair). I was given very different figures in the room than are printed on the literature. Does this 4 ohms nominal impedance speaker have 91dB sensitivity, as the literature says, or 87dB, which is what the spex said? Is its frequency response 32Hz—22kHz, or 35Hz—20kHz ±2dB. And is its price what I was told? Such are the mysteries of life.

Twin•Audio•Video teamed up with Acoustic Zen to pair the large and imposing Acoustic Zen Crescendo loudspeaker ($16,000/pair) with Triode Corporation Ltd. of Japan's Tri TRV-4SE tube preamp ($1,900), the power module of the Tri TRV-845SE 20W pure class-A integrated amp ($6000), and Tri TRV-CD4SE tube CD player with 192kHz upsampling ($2200). The Crescendo is a 3-way, 125 lb transmission-line design with 6 ohms nominal impedance, 89dB sensitivity, and a frequency range of 20Hz to 30kHz. Also in the room on the floor were two ORB power traps (aka power conditioners/distributors), the Kyoto ($6000) and Kamakura ($3900), and, of course, Acoustic Zen cabling. This system did a fine job of capturing music's beauty and warmth. Which is saying a lot.

When I was supping with John Atkinson and Michael Fremer, Mikey mentioned how impressed he was with Cary's true high-end surround processor, the Cinema 11. At Axpona I encountered the North Carolina company's more traditional line, assembled by Fort Lauderdale dealer Let There Be Sound: Cary CAD211 Founder's Edition monoblocks ($20,000), running 70Wpc pure triode; Cary SLP-05 linestage ($8000), Cary CD306 SACD Pro player ($8000), and Cary PH-302 Mk.II phono stage ($3500). Also called into play were the Acoustic Solid Royal turntable ($18,000) with Shelter Harmony cartridge ($5300), Isotek Sigmas A/C. conditioner ($2700), and a large assortment of Cable Research Labs (CRL) cables. Cary's signature sound demonstrated why the company is thought of so highly in the audiophile community.

Do you wish you could stroll through a field of poppies, and drift into oblivion while listening to your favorite music? You needn't fly to the land of Oz or pastoral Afghanistan. Instead, try the almost all-in-one i-Fi Home Theater in a Chair ($4000). Though it currently lacks a TV—I for one am not complaining—this Kimber Kable-wired, motorized, Italian leather recliner comes complete with two satellite speakers, a tactile transducer (I'll explain), and hidden-in-the-back class-D amplifier and subwoofer. The baby even has a Bryston iPod DAC, built-in demo library for the true wherever-you-lead-I-will-follow(s) amongst us, and a wireless transmitter.