The DeqX/Maggie demo was excellent I agree, BUT, even though I am a panel freak and box hater, the De Vore speakers were better.... (I went back to their room a couple of times...) - this was unexpected as I have always been a maggie fan - but then I usually have heard the 3.x's and this was a model from further down the range...
Three standout speakers I heard (it may be the rooms/setup too) - The Kyron Kronos, Osborn Grand Majestic, and the German Physiks
The room showing the German Physiks had several different speakers that they were demoing through the day, each time I passed through a different set was playing, but the only set that made me stop, sit down and listen was the German Physiks. The room was often totally packed.
The Osborne room also frequently had quite a crowd, but unlike the others, pricing was prominently displayed - and I believe as a result many people looked in and moved on immediately (speaker pricing ranged from AU$1700 to AU$20,000 - with the top model being the usual demo playing).... in the Kyron and German Physiks rooms the pricing was "on request" and given that they were 4 to 6 times the price of the top Osborne speaker, that was probably a smart move, and provided them with a much wider audience.
I also listened to the Osborne bottom of the line bookshelf, which acquitted itself far better than it had any right to after switching from the TOTL majestic model - they seem like absolutely fantastic value to me! (on my shortlist for the next time I get a speaker upgrade itch...)
At various times of day the venue was packed, between 5pm and 6pm this afternoon, it was almost empty - which gave me more of an opportunity to talk to people, request a few tracks, etc...
The Fremer session on Friday night (I think the same program as the Saturday morning session) - was excellent and good fun - he is a good presenter, and Mark is a good Foil to Michael...
The Q&A session in the afternoon was great too. (I was the guy in the front row corner seat asking several questions...)
I also got to see the Epson Laser projector demo, great picture, but as a demo it was pretty flat, Benq on the other hand, have set up what is a much more basic projector and speakers, but with much better demo material (top image & sound clips from a wide range of movies) - making the whole demo a real blast.... Not to mention that the Benq team were much friendlier....
There is also an interesting demo of the "involve" surround processing system... the surround system is interesting, but what I found even more interesting were their bookshelf sized electrostatic speakers.
As a concept they are selling speakers with an integrated amp/surround processor as a package - there is no way of running the speakers alone as all the ESL electronics is in the integrated box.
They had a prototype of their 2.1 integrated version there, with the 4.1 surround setup on show demo.
I do love stats!
Good show and worth the trip if you are in Melbourne at the moment
I will be going back again tomorrow...
bye for now
David