Thanks to Yujean of Tangram Audio imports, ART of Scotland loudspeakers in combination with 47Labs almost begged for a single malt.

BC Acoustique showed in the Big Sky room

When you like small footprints, Cyrus is one brand to look at.

This room had two different models of the AH! Horns on display. Downstairs in a huge room, a working set was playing the tunes.

Maxxhorn proved that there is bass from a single driver.

Joe Cohen's rooms -- there were two this year -- focused on the Feastrex drivers. Both a larger and smaller system were playing and these unique Japanese drivers have a very special aura about them. It took some adjusting after hearing and listening to the previous rooms to connect with their sound and tonal qualities. Once you click however, it is very possible that you may never want to turn your back on these drivers with their monstrous Alnico magnets and special Japanese paper cones again. [We're preparing a separate introductory report on one of the first commercial speaker projects to mate the "monster Alnico" D5 Feastrex to dual 10" woofers in an active two-way - Ed.]

MIT was doing active demonstrations at the show with their electronics-in-the-cable technology, first a length of lamp wire, then lamp wire with a termination box and then the top-line MIT cable with a network for clear audible differences.

We have always associated Dodd Audio with battery power and beautiful wooden enclosures. Here they showed blue 'n' chrome amplifiers and a pair of GR Research LS6 speakers. These really big amps with a truckload of KT-88 on deck sounded remarkably sweet and big in combination with the tall line-source speakers.

Over at Serious Stereo nothing had changed since RMAF 2006 - same transmission line, same tube gear with passive preamp and plenty of music from the laptop. Never change a winning team is a saying that was proven right once again.

Show organizer Alan Stiefel has to make a living too. Organizing an event like RMAF costs plenty of money and lots of time. In the Red Rock Audio room, Alan's Renaissance monoblocks powered the towering GR LS9 line arrays. Visions of Epiphany? These line sources do recall that brand from years past.

More towering line sources came from Scaena. This US manufacturer calls his array isolinear and must be inspired by fast 1950's car design.

Jumping Cactus is a new make on the block that constructs their loudspeaker enclosures from aluminum. Then they are Velcro-mounted on a frame to enable phase adjustment. At the show, the speakers were tri-amped via a Marchand active crossover.

What it is with Wilson we don't know. The fact that they can play loud does not meaning they should. Here the Sophia fell victim to the attenuator - or lack thereof.

At the neighboring room, the attenuator was used properly as its name implies. The Focal setup with Pathos Endorphin player sounded like a system which you can listen to for hours.

The same could be said about the room that combined simaudio Moon electronics and Thiel CS-3.7 loudspeakers.

Nordost can be found in the same room each year. And the same Lars was demoing and the sound was once again good. The speakers were Raidho's Eben C3. Consistency is a true virtue. On display was the Nordost Vidar burn-in device.

Vivid was present but the room was pestered by a hardware problem in the source.

It appears that Luxman is back for Yankee business. For too long this brand had focused solely on the Asian market but now the previous US Halcro importer has become the American liaison and we've previously spotted the Return of Luxman in Europe too. Welcome back, pardner.

Okay, it is possible. Wilson can sound very nice as long as a person with ears has control over the rig. The Maxx is huge and can set up a giant orchestra with ease but will also portray a single musician with the same ease and verisimilitude.