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.

• Audiophile.ONE