So, I listened to a $1Million Dollar System

Maybe someone from @paragonss weighin on OP experience, room acoustics and setup? They carry all the brands featured in the demo. 

In years of visiting dealers and going to shows very rare to hear system that really moved me. Even ten, twenty years ago, when my system at much lower level, I judged my system as preferable to vast majority of these setups. Setups at dealers, shows have so many inherent liabilities, may be room, lack of synergy between components, AC quality, high ambient noise levels is major impediment, loss of transparency, resolution here. Things like expectation bias, distraction of senses due to other stimuli  may also impact impressions. Nothing like being alone in one's own dedicated listening room, with an entire system carefully assembled for max synergy. This is real comfort zone, relaxed state, easy to get away from analytical listening mode. For all these reasons and more I don't get excessively negative about less than satisfactory listening experiences of high end systems in these settings.

Hey Ozzy, 

  I was there Thursday too. I spent most of my time in studio 2 listening to the Alexia V driven by ARC and dCS and I was impressed with the sound in that room. The dCS rep was playing a good mix of things to show off various elements of the Ring DAC in the Rossini player and also taking our requests. I really enjoyed the hour or so I spent in there. I didn’t get into studio 1 to hear the big Wilson’s, but for one song (a cover of Brothers in Arms). I have to say I was more impressed with the smaller setup in studio 2. Living close by though, I’m lucky to be able to hear this stuff pretty regularly. Which I’m thankful for. I’ve learned a lot about what I like and what I don’t like just by being lucky enough to have a couple fairly large dealers close by. 
 

Best,

Neal

I learned a long time ago that people with a lot of money are often not very smart at spending it.  Very often folks with a lot of anything tend to waste it or not think very much about how to use it.

So, I don’t want to mention the dealer, for I am very grateful for the opportunity to be able to hear these components. And they put on quite a nice event.

I’m still thinking that the system was set up exactly the way they wanted it to be. Perhaps the Wilson’s have too much hi-frequency energy and they tried to tone it down? I dunno, but it was quite dead sounding.

Also, I know presenters want to use music that shows off the equipment’s ability but music I am familiar with helps me evaluate the equipment.

ozzy