Capitol Audio Fest Speakers?

For my money, the rooms with the most natural sound were the Deja Vu rooms (both the vintage speaker described by LarryI and the room with Harbeth Monitor 30.1 speakers) and the room with Quad 57's driven by Miyajima electronics. (Not coincidentally, the music in these rooms sounded most similar to what I hear at home where I use a 2-way based on the Western Electric 753 and, less often, Spendor SP-100s.)

Too many of the other rooms (like the one with Tidal speakers) were of the hifi spectacular school.

I have really tried to like Daedalus speakers having listened to them now at a total of 4 different shows and in several rooms at most of the shows, but for whatever reason they just don't sound like music to me. Other people whose hearing I respect feel quite differently, but to me they sound too mechanical, too much like speakers.

I have also tried to hear what many people like so much in the High Water Sound room which features Horning speakers. Unfortunately, each time I have heard them they sound too thin in the midbass. Not my idea of a musical sound.

Enough negativity. The good news for me was that the very best sound I heard all day was when I returned home and turned on the stereo that I already own. That's what we all hope for, I guess, but it doesn't always work that way.

I apologize for stirring up the hornet's nest of Daedalus fans. They are a vocal group! As I said, there are a number of Daedalus owners whose judgment I respect; I just haven't been able (yet) to hear what it is they like so much. Maybe that's due to the show environment or poor setup or perhaps the solid state amplification. I don't know.

Someone once gave some good advice about auditioning speakers at hifi shows: If a speaker sounds good at a show, then you know it is good. But if a speaker sounds bad, you don't really know anything except that it didn't sound good in that particular room and with that particular equipment.

In any event, I am always struck by how different people reach different conclusions about the sound quality of rooms at the same show. That just shows that we have different tastes and different priorities, and there is nothing wrong with that. The world would be much less interesting if we all had the same aesthetic tastes.