Worst In Show

...because although the entree' was delicious, the grittiness of the mouse'  was what lingers as well.  Same thing, different venue...;)

The YG's in the GTT room sounded superb, but the clear winner to me (as in best) was Audio Note and their open reel source of Ella Fitzgerald. Not their most expensive system but the most natural and delightful tone I heard - a stunning testament to well-thought through design. Wilson Benesch (Aaudio Imports) were also terrific and TIDAL (The Voice That Is) made me feel very optimistic about the future of the "hobby" (addiction?).

"Best In Show" is positive and always fun to read, but the opposite must also hold true. So when something stands out as bad as I heard (and remained with me several weeks afterwards) one should not be fearful to speak up.

Yes, agreed, Border Patrol had a seriously nice set-up. All told, almost everything I heard was good to great and the bang-for-the-buck barometer is clearly going in favor of the consumer. It was a really fun show, so why is it that one (possibly two) duff experience is the one that lingers?

I was at Axpona 2 out of the 3 days.  There were several overpriced speakers that were not to my liking.  Why bash them?  Someone must like them or they would be out of business.  Let's concentrate on what you thought was good or good for the money. Lots of good ones out there. Jim Salk always comes up with something new and good.  The Song 3 Encore (6k) were excellent.  The new Volti speakers(lower price)
with always excellent Border Patrol electronics hit it out of the park.  Sanders electrostats are always unbelievable and not talked about enough.  The combo of Auralic Polaris integrated and Ryan speakers for under $9k might be all you need.
Someone else chime in what they thought was good.