What were the best and worst rooms at RMAF 2009?

Best Rooms!

1. Soundsmith, with Strain Gauge cartridge set-up, VPI table, Tere's arm, Soundsmith solid state amp, Soundsmith tube pre and Soundsmith speakers. Nothing short of spectacular.

2. Tron Electric SET monoblocks with the TW-Acustic turntable, Miyabi 45 cartridge and the Horning hybrid loudspeakers. Most natural, elegant sound in show.

3. Blue Circle, with new tube pre, Accuphase cartridge tweeked by BENT I believe, Hybrid BC amps all displaying an extremely deep, wide soundstage. Sounded detailed with excellent texture and bass control.

4. Audio Note, Integrated in small room. Sounded best in it's catagory for 2k. Large room just ok, synergy was off in big room.Obviously set up was lacking and no phono. No phono in a high end Audio Note room is simply shameful.

5.De Havilland, Kara Chaffee with new monoblock push pulls sounded excellent. Not a big fan of Wilson Benesch speakers but they did fine. Would rather hear amps through Harbeth's, Tannoy's, Altecs or Classic Audio speakers.

6. Quicksilver room sounded excellent this year. Some big breakthroughs for Mike Saunders. He never seems too amaze at cost versus quality. One of my favorites in show. Big, textured, wide and deep soundstage with excellent dynamics and bass drive. Competed with the best this year.

This is not my complete list just a partial.

Yeah, they were the Penny's. Perhaps that did play a role in the depth of field reproduction but quite honestly the sound was involving and balanced. I have a pair of BC 2's that have depth extraordinaire at a higher $ amount ( in it's day) than the system Gilbert was running, so needless to say I think BC has evolved in it's artistry to cost ratio.

Or, some vintage Accuphase, McIntosh, Western Electrics or Kondo's through Tannoy's, Altec's, JBl Paragons or exotic Klangfilm's. It would blow peoples minds how amazing vintage gear sounds to 90% of what is heard today.