Black Diamond Racing hosted another active listening room. Here the effects of their various cones, pucks and discs were made very clear. DJ Casser and Ron Meyer switched merely 4 pucks underneath the speakers and you could observe sonic effects changing from 'tube' to 'transistor' sound characteristics. Ron Meyer played some of his own very pure recordings. Everything in audio is vibration. The challenge is to learn how to account for it.

Then it was time for another encounter with the Escalante Fremont loudspeakers, now with designer Matthew Waldron present. His wife and Matthew deserve a ribbon for their room design -- bright and cheerful -- and for the two massage chairs in the annex. A further ribbon goes to the Fremonts as well. We liked them. Did you know that Matthew is fluent in Chinese?

Flying Mole used a pair of Roy Johnson's Green Mountain Continuum 3 loudspeakers. The tiny -- again digital -- amplifiers had no problem driving these large speakers. As we knew from Srajan's review of these speakers, they are not the easiest to set up with their 1st order time-coherent adjustable array. From the same review we learned that they are terribly revealing of any flaws in the preceding equipment. If there's something wrong, they'll reveal that rücksichtslos. That said, we listened with pleasure to the combination. Mr. Hideo "Charlie" Sugimori, the executive director of Flying Mole, can be proud.

Blue Circle used its new BmPH amplifier to kick some life into Selah Audio speakers. Various "prototype" labeled equipment gave away that there is more to come.

Sean Ta was into vinyl as well with a Galibier turntable, Artemis electronics and Verity Audio speakers. This was yet another room where you could stay for long periods just letting the music massage your body system.

For many people, the setup of Audio Note rooms at shows is surprising. When they see the AN/E Signature with their massive outboard crossovers smack in the corners, it raises eyebrows. If they could feel how resonant the box construction is to boot, they'd faint. All this aside, the result of the construction in combination with the corner loading makes a relative small enclosure able to provide a big sound. And it leaves room on the floor to dance.

Simple equipment combined well makes great music as we found in the Balanced Power Technologies room. Here a Northstar CDP and TacT integrated amplifier played into Acoustic Zen's Adagios. Of course power was supplied via BPT products. Winston Ma ran some rare music that was heart-lifting, a children's choir he had recorded.