What were the best and worst rooms at RMAF 2009?

To your point about fun, I much enjoyed the combo of Thiel 3.7, McIntosh 2301 monos, ARC Ref preamp, and PS Audio Perfect Wave stack. The synergy of this combo was an excellent compromise between full-bodied dynamics and neutrality & detail. IMO, among dynamic speakers with similar visceral impact, the Wilson Sashas and Hansens in various rooms didn't fare as well.

I changed my profile (today) to reflect that I am using B&W speakers which is true. At present I am using B&Ws since they work reasonably well for both home theater and Redbook playback.

I heard many many great sounding rooms which excelled for different reasons. I did not like the Bel Canto Room. It's that simple. I didn't even try to assess whether it was the speakers, the amplification, or the source which didn't agree with me.

I admit I was overly strong in my first post. It was my gut reaction to complete disbelief that several people really liked the sound of this room when in my mind I heard the contrary. I should have been more tactful and simply stated that the system sounded bright and lean when I heard it and left it at that. In this regard I was quite the animal and should have restrained myself. I am guilty on this account and admit it.

I also really wanted to hear NAIM at it's best. I have heard NAIM sound spectacular in the past and think NAIM is excellent gear for playing rock music. I was disappointed to hear it sound less than spectacular because I have heard it sound so much better.

Tom,

Thanks for your explanation.

Best of luck to you in your pursuit of listening pleasure, wherever it takes you.

Jeff

I was surprised how much I didn't like the Shelter Harmony. I've always thought that if one came up on Audiogon for half price I would jump on it. Glad now that it didn't come up.
On the other hand, I got to hear the new Shelter 901 mkII. The original 901 is my go-to right now, and wow! What nice improvements! Something I can afford is something I want. Go figure...
The Ascendo System F's, as usual, sounded magnificent. I'd never heard the Lotus Group's Granadas before. Open-baffled masterpieces, IMHO.
You Bel Canto guys didn't mention the CD player. I was pretty impressed with that little thing.
Jeff, your improvements to the Pearl are wonderful (I'm the guy who asked about upgrading the originals).
A couple of my favorite rooms were the Tri and Wavelength rooms. I also loved listening in the TW Acustic (sic) room. I tend to want to not be impressed at first. I want a system that I have to drag myself away from after hours of listening. I had to drag myself away from these rooms; whereas in a lot of other rooms that I was bowled over by (the sound) when I first walked in, I found myself saying to my audio cohort "OK, what's next?" after ten minutes.
The Wavelength room didn't have a component (not to mention cable!) that was $10,000.00, and yet it was one of the best listens I had. I made it a point to go back on Sunday and enjoy the feed from that great server system one last time. Still, that's maybe my biggest complaint about the show. The servers bar me from injecting my reference tracks into the process of evaluating the different systems/components. The thing that I like about these shows is that I get to hear what Joni Mitchell's "Court and Spark" sounds like in dozens of guys' (and gals'... Won't under appreciate you, Kara!) systems. Basically, I get to hear what different folks feel a hundred K should sound like.
Without reference tracks, I feel that's lost.