One thing that's obvious at each year's RMAF - the very expensive mainstream products get the lion's share of the media coverage, but the smaller direct-internet sellers offer some very good products for about half the price. I don't understand why a knowledgable audiophile who's buying within a set budget would buy a mainstream product when he can get far better sound from one of the little guys.

A few of the rooms that best exemplified this were Odyssey Audio, Salk Signature Sound/Van Alstine, GR Research/Dodd Audio/AV123, Tyler Acoustics, Grant Fidelity, and Selah Audio. The new Odyssey Kismet speakers and electronics were great, and one of the people who was on the same Southwest flight that I was on bought the entire system - speakers, monoblock amps, & preamp. Another bought the speakers, and yet another bought the Grant Fidelity Reference KT88 amp.

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Looking through your list of speakers that you enjoyed at RMAF.
I did not see a mention of Duke LeJuene's new Planetarium Beta's, and the newest version of the CAR T-1 with the down firing woofer.

Would you please share your thoughts about these speaker designs and sound quality, if you heard them?

Thanks

Norris

When I go to shows, the comment I hear most often at is how DIY/kit products can't be easily auditioned anywhere else. Providing a venue for people to see and hear these products is the biggest benefit of the shows, in my opinion.

We also used the Virtue Audio Audiophile One (the Audiophile Two is even better) and showed the Occam Audio speaker kits. Many people were impressed with the speakers (MTM4) and were astounded at the quality of this budget system.

Bob

I think the Occam Audio speakers are nice looking. Were there any other kit manufacturer's there that you know of besides Occam Audio?

I'm not up on amp technology but I thought Tripath meant digital.

Parts Express and Madisound were there though PE didn't have anything playing. There was also a Japanese company showing some stuff but while I met them in the Occam room I didn't have time to visit their room.

Bob

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