I walked into the Margules room and was welcomed by Peter Frampton’s funny cover of Soundgarden’s late grunge-era hit, “Black Hole Sun,” with all the fuzzy, phasey, talk boxy effects you might expect from Frampton held perfectly in check, well-focused within the wide soundstage.

The attractive Fritz Speakers Carbon 7 ($1750/pair) were matched with ModWright KWA 100SE power amplifier ($3995), ModWright LS 100 tube preamplifier ($3495), Esoteric SA60 universal disc player ($4995), Zesto Audio Andros PS1 MM/MC phono stage ($3900), and Thorens TD 309 turntable ($1900). WyWires provided the speaker cables ($1299), interconnects ($849-$1299), and power cords ($329). Room treatment was by GIK Acoustics and ASC. Steve Blinn Designs contributed the equipment rack ($1899). Billie Holiday’s Songs for Distingu&#233 Lovers (priceless) provided the mood.

We listened to a track from Nat King Cole’s Love is the Thing, a beautiful 45rpm reissue from Chad Kassem’s Analogue Productions.

There was a jovial, festive vibe in Philip O’Hanlon’s On A Higher Note room, featuring Luxman amplification and source components, Vivid loudspeakers, and music courtesy show attendee, Raymond.

As I walked into the room, O’Hanlon explained that Raymond had been knocking everyone’s socks off with his vinyl selections.

“As much as I like the music I brought, I’m also kinda sick of it,” O’Hanlon chuckled. “What’s next, Raymond?”

Raymond dug through his bag of vinyl and handed O’Hanlon a record. The charming host took that record and placed it on Luxman’s PD-171 belt-drive turntable ($6200, including tonearm and dustcover), the first turntable to come from the Japanese company in 28 years.

This system offered a bold, vibrant sound when the music called for it, a gentle, subtle sound when the music called for it, and always exhibited a good sense of momentum and flow.

MSB’s Vince Galbo explained that the company’s Data CD IV transport ($3995) was “intensely designed to read CDs like they’ve never been read before.”

I noted deep silences, good spatial effects, good low-end impact, and a fine sense of scale in this room occupied by Salk Sound and Van Alstine: Salk Sound Soundscape loudspeakers ($12,000/pair) and 300Wpc Van Alstine hybrid amplifier ($3000).

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I noted generous scale, midrange detail, full body, and an overall effortlessness to the presentation of this system: Wilson Sophia loudspeakers, Pass Labs amplification, and the new Light Harmonic Da Vinci 384K USB DAC ($15,000 [NOTE: The actual retail price ended up at $20k-ed.]).

Brodmann Acoustics was demonstrating their pretty little Festival Series loudspeakers. The Austrian company has a background in piano manufacturing as well as sound engineering, and the FS speakers ($3990/pair) have an interesting design:

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Widea Lab is a young Korean company. The company says they’ve got some strong candidates for US distribution and will also be selling via Amazon. Their first product, the Aurender (short for Audio Renderer; $5700), is a digital music server utilizing a customized Linux OS, linear power supply, and storage for over 5000 lossless and uncompressed CDs.

Also in the Gini Systems/Audio Space room was the Gini iTube 2.1 Audio System ($199, show price). As you can see, it looks like a big iPod with a little tube and speakers.