The Onkyo room
 

The sound in this room was disappointing. Having some amount of respect for their A/V receivers (bought one for my sister), I expected this room to sound better than it did. There were so many things wrong - I much prefer my $500/pair active pro-audio Yamaha speakers.

More Onkyo room pictures.

The Elusive Disc room 
 

I put pictures of the listening stations in the report because I thought it was great to have hi-fi listening stations and I wish all music outlets did the same. Did not get a chance to actually use on of these to see what it sounded like for some reason most likely to do with onrushing senility.

More Elusive Disc room pictures.

Shanling CD player picture number one. Couldn't decide which one of these photos was the best, so included them both.

Shanling CD player picture number two.

STAX headphones.

The ESP, Wavestream, Lector, Messenger, Brinkmann*, Shunyata, Bluenote room
 

Not sure what the system was going for here - but, although it was somewhat Enjoyable, it was not much more than that. Not sure about how these speakers are to be setup - but there was a lot of sound energy coming out of the speakers sideways and into this intrepid reporter's ears when he was between them photographing the Wavestream amplifiers.

More ESP, Wavestream, Lector, Messenger, Brinkmann*, Shunyata, Bluenote room pictures.

Uh oh.

Bluenote Stibbert tubed CD player.

Wavestream amplifier.

Wavestream amplifier.

ESP loudspeaker.

Lector CD player

Messenger preamplifier.

Lector Digicode tube DAC.

Shunyata Hydra Model-8

Brinkmann Balance turntable

Brinkmann Balance turntable

Brinkmann Balance turntable with Lyra Titan cartridge.

Brinkmann Balance turntable with Lyra Titan cartridge.

Brinkmann turntable tube power supply.

Brinkmann Balance turntable with Lyra Titan cartridge.

Manley Steelhead phoho preamplifier.

 The Usher, Esoteric room
 

Neither my notes nor my memory remember how this room sounded.

More Usher, Esoteric room pictures.

The Vivid Audio, Pathos, Clearaudio, Harmonic Research Systems (HRS)* room
 

This room was disappointing, these Vivid Audio speakers not sounding as good as they did at CES 2006 nor FSI 2006 - kind of closed in and confused. We like these speakers. I think they are capable of achieving many of the qualities of a balanced sonic diet. But they do have to be paired with the right equipment upstream.

More Vivid Audio, Pathos, Clearaudio, Harmonic Research Systems (HRS) room pictures.

A panoply of Clearaudio turntables.

Pathos CD player on HRS equipment rack with Clearaudio turntable in background.

Vivid Audio loudspeaker

Vivid Audio loudspeaker

Vivid Audio loudspeaker

Vivid Audio loudspeaker

Vivid Audio loudspeaker

Pathos CD player on a new HRS prototype equipment rack.

Pathos CD player

Aesthetix Calypso preamplifier.

Aesthetix Rhea phono stage.

Clearaudio turntable.

Clearaudio turntable.

Clearaudio turntable.

Clearaudio turntable.

Clearaudio turntable.

Clearaudio record cleaning machine

Clearaudio double matrix record cleaning machine

Aesthetix Atlas