In the Venture room was recording meister Steve Hoffman who presented anecdotes from the mastering console and demonstrated how we usually listen to music that's castrated. After a dynamic Hoffman treatment in the booth, there is so much more available from the digital format. If only we could get more of that. With demonstrations like Steve's, we hope that his mission for better recording quality gains momentum. Venture's Didi Njoo and his wife made the trip to Denver from Belgium and had great fun.

Even though John Tabernacki of NSR Sonic Research cut his hair, his speakers were not cut short. Powered by Red Dragons, the D1 References depicted a very pleasant musical image even at low volumes.

We thought that Gilbert Yeung of Blue Circle put the most fun into audio with his amp-in-a-bag (or shoe). Now DC Gold Audio is here to compete. Their full range speaker comes with changing color illumination. No doubt there is a market for this novelty but whether the high end market is ready for it is another matter.

Omega speakers and Art Audio amplification performed wonders together and we don't say that because Louis Chochos found a legal use for hemp in this cones. Dual-concentric speakers just have a pleasant coherence. Louis, Torn Hills of Hudson Audio and Joe 'Art Audio' Fratus posed for our camera.

As is often the case, the Welborne Labs room had a surprise. Cogent True-to-Life horns produced the most effortless and spacious music of all normal sized rooms at the show. From intimate clavichord to rock, these speakers were a reference of their own. The bass horn handles 30 - 300Hz from where another field coil driver picks up to around 20KHz. Here the bass was driven by a Welborne 45-based amplifiers and the rest by a 300B-based pair of monos. Cogent managed to scale the speaker to take up as little floor space as is feasible with the required path lengths and horns mouths. In the annex, Ron Welborne took a well deserved break.

Great OTL sound was available with the Atmasphere S-30 amplifier and 208 Empire rebuilt by Atmasphere. The Stormbringer loudspeakers by Duke LeJeune of AudioKinesis do live up to their name. These driver can move some air.

Without their grills, the new Thiel Cs 3.7 looked as though they'd escaped from an episode of Dr. Who.

The miniature Tannoy Autographs are just like the Furgerson Hill speakers – shrunk versions of the really big stable mates. These sounded really good and are ideal for desktop use.