Jim Hagerman of Hagerman Technology LLC [below] showed his tube electronics with Bolder Cable interconnects and Horn Shoppe speakers while turning to Galibier for their turntable.

Based out of Honolulu, the only thing this room was lacking was a monster tan on Jim. I take it that even living in paradise while running a business means just the same amount of time behind the desk as elsewhere?

Jim sells his Clarinet linestage for $95 as a kit. The 8w Cymbal monos go for $190/pr. Those aren't misprints. If you've got the time and just a smidge of aptitude, how much cheaper could it be to get hands-on involved in a little kit project and bask in the satisfaction that comes from having built your own components?

HighWaterSound of NYC, featured in our recent Forbidden Fruit Tour, collaborated with Wyetech Labs and VRS to demonstrate the Horning Agathon Ultimates which Jules Coleman reviewed enthusiastically for our site and whose smaller Perikles siblings have since found a permanent home with our resident chef, John Potis.
While there are many ways to skin the Lowther cat -- and RMAF showed quite a few of those -- the Horning Hybrid recipe limits the Lowther's bandwidth to midrange duties and does away with the infamous whizzer cone in favor of a horn-loaded tweeter. Two horn-loaded rear-firing 10" woofers from the professional arena vent through a floor-facing mouth and both this and Ron Welborne's room showed how that's done. Remember my running sub thread on high-resolution digital married to 'antique' technologies'? This room was one of the 'em and observing John Hughes of VRS upload one of my tracks in a matter of seconds onto his hard-drive proved that futuristic concept, user friendliness and advanced sonics can coexist. Watch for Jules' feature VRS review in the new year - his loaner is scheduled to arrive in November.

Major kudos to Linn for participating in Denver. When a fully established mainstream player signs on for support, it signals to fence-sitters that an event isn't just a deep-triode mosh fest or far-field horn spectacle but the real deal. And while horns and triodes are very much the real deal, switch-mode power supplies and surface-mount technologies are, too. Ron Welborne had to turn down at least 10 exhibitor inquiries which came in far too late and would have required opening up another floor which was no longer possible. Thank you, Linn, for spearheading the mainstream contingent and thereby sending out an important message.

Justin Grant's Ocean Acoustics of Long Beach teamed with Jeffrey Jackson's Experience Music from Memphis, TBI and Lowther America to skin the aforementioned cat in a rear-hornloaded way which showed real promise. (The right image below shows the slanted down-firing mouth and decoupled brace of this Lowther-based speaker design.)


This room also deserves some type of creativity award for their whimsical turbo-charged sculpture contraption which greeted more than one visitor expecting it to produce sound.