Thom Mackris of Galibier Design showcased his stunning Quattro turntables is more than one room. Starting at $2,600 and peaking at $5,050 depending on trim, features common to all Quattros is the articulated arm board which supports 12-inch arms and allows easy access to tonearm fixing nuts, Rega VTA adjustments and supports mounting of twin arms. SE and Signature versions reinforce aluminum skins with stiffening bars, load MDF chambers with 20 lbs of lead and offer either a painted or wood-veneer sub base. The Alu iteration uses a solid one-piece 16-sided aluminum base while the Extreme adds a complex matrix of lead and oil-filled damping chambers. Graham and Kuzma arms are favorites of the designer.

Danny Richie's GR Research had come to my attention well pre-VSAC as a design house offering a poor man's Pipedream line source kit called the Alpha LS. It uses eight stacked Bohlender-Graebner Neo ribbons flanking a vertical array of nine 6-inch CSS woofers. For VSAC, Danny brought his Diluceo (Latin for "clear") monitor that uses the CSS ARG-2 ribbon tweeter flanked by Eton's 5-880/25 HEX-b woofers to reach a specified -3dB down point of 55Hz. The crossover network uses Alpha Core foil inductors, Sonicap capacitors and Mills resistors, sensitivity is 91dB and dimensions are 18.875" x 8" x 12.375" HxWxD. Though a kit, this design is a no-compromise effort and won't benefit from any upgrade options, hence none are offered. Available as a kit, kit with enclosures or fully assembled, GR's approach offers something for different levels of DIY.

The A/V-3 is a d'Appolito 2-way floorstander using the firm's 16-ohm 5.25-inch M-130-16 woofers in a transmission line. The tweeter is the firm's GR-T2 soft dome. With bass to 40Hz and 91dB sensitivity, the impedance remains between 6 and 8 ohms while the cabinet measures 41.875" x 8" x 11.5" HxWxD. Amps driving these alternate pairs were the mysterious Dodd monos highlighted earlier.
Hagerman Technology from sunny Honolulu/Hawaii showed their famous Trumpet tubed phono stage with fully balanced differential circuitry (XLR input & output options), zero NFB Class A operation, choke-regulated power supplies, DC heater, passive split RIAA equalization, polarity/mute switches, extra-low capacitance and included inverse-RIAA burn-in filter. The Trumpet runs on four 12AX7/ECC83 and 12AU7/ECC82 each. The Cornet half-kit phono stage was also shown in a fancy wooden chassis.
John Rutter of Harmonic Design Works is a custom woodworker from Bellingham/WA whose skills with the saw and sander might just make him those DIYers' best friend who are far more keen on sweating circuit architectures, late-night soldering sessions or enigmatic crossover puzzles than worrying about pretty packaging and cabinetry. If that describes you, John's your buddy, with flawless joinery and mirror finishes that'll be yours to pawn off on your friends - unless you told 'em the truth, about this and that private meatball recipe you secretly swiped from some early morning TV show.

Tom Hills of Hudson Audio Technologies brought his PS-1 Powermax Power Strip, a four-outlet affair inside a heavy steel-gauge Raco box, wired internally with 10-AWG solid core. Receptacles are hospital-grade 20-amp isolated ground units. The PS-1 comes with a 6-foot twisted cord terminated in a Marinco plug. Available colors are black, light blue or silver. Hudson Audio also handles Morch and Schroder tone arms; Consonance, Sennheiser and Earmax headphone accessories; Amazon, Eurolab, Orca and SOTA turntables; F.J., NTH and Omega speakers; Lehman phono stages; and Opera Audio electronics. The Omega speakers in particular were champagne on a beer budget sparklers and Jeff Day's forthcoming mini report will have more to report on them. The puppies on demo were the Super 3s right below which, despite their puny 4.5" shielded Fostex driver, pumped out 50Hz-band bass. At 93dB sensitivity and compact dimensions of 15" x 12" x 7.5" HxWxD, these $529/$729pr standard/deluxe minis kicked harder than anyone not present would believe.
Meanwhile, KR Audio's US distributor Sean from Aydn showed off his KR 300B in Tom's Consonance M500 amps one evening while the Omega Super 3s were playing. This audition apparently even impressed Charlie Kittleson from Vacuum Tube Valley Magazine as noteworthy.