The warm-up phenomenon—where a system sounds better after it's been on for some time, the time being much longer than would be accounted for by anything in the measured performance—is well-known to audiophiles, and it often manifests itself at shows. This was the case with the system in the Avantgarde room: Avantgarde Duo Mezzo loudspeakers ($47,250/pair), Avantgarde One preamp ($37,500) and One power amp ($45,000), with Brinkmann analog and Audio Aero digital front ends. I heard the system early on the first day of the show, and although it didn't sound bad, it didn't sound as great as I'd heard Avantgarde speakers sounding. Could it be the room or perhaps the setup? Avantgarde Acoustics designer Matthias Ruff was on hand; between him and Jody Hickson of Globe Marketing, Avantgarde's new North American distributor, they should have been able to sort out the setup, but the sound was definitely disappointing, being on the dry side, a characteristic I don't associate with Avantgarde speakers.

Red Wine Audio has been expanding their range of battery-powered audio electronics: they have the Isabella preamp, with optional built-in DAC; Signature 30.2 power amplifier, with optional volume control, and Signature 70.2 monoblock amplifiers. The system at FSI used Omega Super Hemp speakers, which use a driver that in the version demoed at the show was equipped with an Alnico magnet structure, and it sounded very nice indeed.

Attention Screen is the band that includes <I>Stereophile</I>'s own Bob Reina on piano, Chris Jones on bass, Don Fiorino on various string instruments, and Mark Flynn on drums. (Their recent CD, <I>Live at Merkin Hall</I>, recorded by John Atkinson, is available from <A HREF="http://ssl.blueearth.net/primedia/home.php"><I>Stereophile</I></A&gt;.) They gave a concert at FSI, and although the attendance could have been better&mdash;publicity for the music events at the show was rather sparse&mdash;it was clear that those in the audience were enraptured with Attention Screen's intense, almost entirely improvisational brand of jazz.

At the "Ask the Editors" session on Saturday afternoon, <I>Stereophile</I> editor John Atkinson asked each of us on the panel&mdash;John Marks, Wes Phillips, and myself&mdash;what systems featuring low-priced equipment particularly impressed us at the show. There were actually several such systems that I could have named&mdash;but the one that first came to mind was the system based on the Rogue Cronus tube-based integrated amp ($1750, 55Wpc, includes a phono stage and headphone amplifier, with PSB Alpha B1 speakers ($279/pair). A nice, well-balanced sound, very easy on the ears. Mind you, they had an Oracle turntable as the front end, which might be classified as cheating, but, hey, it's an audio show.

Both examples of the Verity Sarastro IIs ($40,000/pair) that I heard at FSI sounded <I>amazing</I>. I say this with some surprise, since I was never entirely comfortable with the original Sarastro. Go figure, new <I>and</I> improved.

Emanuel Lafleur had a pair of his $8000/pair (estimated final price) stand-mounted two-way X1 monitors set up <I>in</I> the press room. Great for reaching the press, not so great for good sound, since the press room was dominated by a huge roundtable right where the sweet spot would have been. Nevertheless, the X2s sounded impressive enough that both John Marks and I were captivated.