AXPONA 2011 Atlanta reports/thoughts?

Another thumbs up for the Carnegie room. The rep. was very kind and I thought the 6k floor standers were a huge bargain. Supervox also stood out as a great value at 2K. I thought the MBL guys were very open to musical suggestions. I heard them offer Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, Soundgarden and more to a "rocker" who laughed and asked for some hippie rock instead. The low spark of high heeled boys way very very expansive even from the far right position in the front row. I thought the Sound smith room was sounding very nice on all 3 occasions I went in. On $1500 monitors no less. Loved the 833-T amps and thought they had great sound from the Vandersteen 3A sigs. Voxativ were pretty much my favorite speakers but 30k for full ranges in nice cabinets seems a tad expensive especially when compared to what Supravox was getting out of 2K. I was only ignored in 2 rooms and both times a certain "Mikey" was there and it seems he demands silence and 100% attention at all times when listening.
Any body else find the latest Mark Levinson mash up to be errrrrrrrr... FORWARD and OVERLY STRESSFUL OF LEADING EDGES?
Overall I liked the show. Good location if a bit spread out. Decent numbers in attendance it seemed. Good seminars, music etc. Even some nice show deals on cheap and high dollar stuff.

Rockadanny,

The Napa room was very good. I liked the approach which was " Turn any 100 sq foot space into an acoustic oasis ". The aesthetics were a bit on the over modern ( the lines and curves, not the tubes) for my taste but the sound was very open and coherent. A tough act for a 4 way speaker IMHO. I went back to inquire about a show deal on some of the sound treatment panels but they had already sold the whole rig. the 5K rig made real bass in the small end of the room and the overall presentation was very easy on the ears.

Audioguy3107- Not sure of the price tag but I must say the DH rig ala M. Levinson was very forward and seemed to add extra snap to leading edge transients. The rep. was very pleased with the "detail" and "speed" and kept mentioning that he was using a "$400 laptop" as the source. Into a 50K DAC perhaps? Dunno, just not my cup o' music.

Tom,

No problem. Sorry I had to re-schedule the day of listening. Look forward to hearing the Carmels sing.

Purk,

I did like their slogan "Our Tube is bigger than yours". They were getting some very nice staging and presence from the venerable Vandy 3A sigs. Some people commented they thought the display should have used "better" speakers but I agreed with the designer who I spoke with while in the roon. He said since the Vandy speakers were a known performer and well on the reasonable side of price and value, the amps were showcased in the rig. I agree. 180K is a tough price point but man those tubes were sexy.