Omega Speaker Systems' Louis Chochos from Norwalk/CT has found favor with Stephaen and Jim Bosha, both of whom own one of his models. I currently have an Omega Fostex-based twin-driver design in-house for the FirstSound F-1 review while Paul Candy will use an Omega model for his Audio Zone system review. We love finding entry-level-priced products that perform well beyond their price tags and especially love to support smaller manufacturers who, for various reasons, can't get coverage elsewhere. Look for plenty of omegacious vibes on the moons soon.
While Coloradorites Ayre Acoustics and Innersound were nowhere to be found, Jeff Rowland Design Group teamed with Cabasse to run their ICEpower monos into the full-range French 'cyclops' speakers whose non-woofer'd tri-concentric monitors plus subs were giving off good vibes in the Art Audio exhibit. I'm not sure what was the matter during by visit in this space but the music selection was poor, the sound even poorer and the exhibitors chatted amongst themselves and seemingly took little note of any attendees milling about. I'm not special and just another Joe waltzing in. But as any showgoer would or should, I do expect the courtesy of some type of greeting or acknowledgement and perhaps even an invitation to listen to something from my own bag. Let's assume this was just a temporary lapse and isolated to my brief stop-over.

SP Technology and their Millennia Reference Series were both unknown to me but conducted themselves as though they'd been around forever. Using acoustic waveguide technology reminiscent in execution of the stellar Finnish Amphion brand, the lineup shown included the flagship Revelation MR-1 which incorporates what is dubbed a 'hybrid transmission line' with twin 8" aluminum woofers and accordingly weighs in at a backbreaking 170 lbs. The far smaller 2 x 8" d'Appolito Continuum A.D. still cracks the scales at 85 lbs. and the 2-driver Timepiece 2.0 isn't far behind at 65 lbs. I arrived here late and hectic and can't report more safe to suggest to hit their website and study up on the specifics.

Sonus Faber and Musical Fidelity tangoed together in the time-honored tradition of it taking two for real pleasure. A drum solo compliments of the very attentive exhibitor demonstrated truly scary dynamics and rise times to make a strong argument for high current and large damping factors when feeding speakers designed around those requirements. This is another 'smart' room that Richard Bird will profile in his Tradeshow Room Acoustics expose.

The house of Usher underscored my opening remarks about the Threat from the East and demonstrated that Italian-style curvaceous woodworking and Threshold-reminiscent amplifiers are no longer the domain of the Italians and Americans. To top off this impression of high-grade professionalism, they even handed out their own -- and very well done, I might add --compilation CD. What can I say? If the Chinese beat us at our own game, who is to blame? Vincent Sanders [below] of VRS Audio Systems might just have found a niche that's reasonably safe from Ghengis Khan - for now.

Hard-drive based music servers could be the future. With silver-wired transformers and sound cards exclusively licensed from professional recording companies, Sander's virtual reality system is at the forefront of this new frontier.