[I am putting the Finale 1st here in the Gallery\'s report].

I hope people can see that:

1) There just were not a lot of contenders for best of show

2) Of those, many were using laptops as sources, which almost always severely compromises the sound quality of a system at this show

3) Of the remaining, many were just trying to attract attention and did not focus on the creating the best sound that they could.

So.... better than RMAF, sound wise, as usual, but not as good as previous CES's...

I think I detected a more relaxed attitude about the defacto train-wreck that is high-end audio and the doom and gloom dire predictions of the future are now almost as quaint and boring as playing Diana Krall all day long.

All the people using laptops to demonstrate the sound of their equipment (as opposed to just demonstrating that it, in fact, works) are like car dealerships sending a sales associate with bad breath and B.O. along with every person taking a test drive. It ain't helping your case, people.