Joe Cohen of The Lotus Group had some very unusual and interesting products on display. The hand-built, single-full-range Feastrex D9x driver retails for $40k per pair JUST FOR THE RAW DRIVER!!! The cabinet shown above adds an additional $19k to the asking price. Unfortunately I did not stay to listen long enough to offer an impression. That didn't keep me from leaving this setup screaming "Wow!!!!" 

Mark Schifter of AV123 once again had me circling his setup like pit-bull on an old oak tree. First, at last year's RMAF, Schifter announced his reference 74" tall (L)ine (S)ource 9 would retail somewhere between $6 - $8k. Well, they were officially confirmed at a retail price of $6k!!"Well, I retorted, I also would like my loudspeaker to include the drivers, crossover and screws sir. I don't simply want the cabinet" Schifter insures everything you see here minus the beautiful Dodd Audio tube electronics and front-end will come with your $6k purchase. A not-as-tall LS6 version also plans to retail for around $5k or thereabouts. Shucks, for that price gimme both of sets. Schifter contends all the drivers are built in-house and were sourced for this specific application while the nine ribbon-planar tweeters were singularly voiced for the LS9 also. The sound was quite impressive though a little "raw" as one might expect when hearing a product not thoroughly broken-in. All in all, this may be the biggest bang for the buck I've seen in audio.

The best from down under? Acoustic Zen Maestro loudspeakers ($36k) driven by a slew of Australian built Halcro amplifiers manipulated by DEQX speaker/room correction electronics. The sound, at best, was merely ok because personally I didn't think the room was anything close to ideal - even with the DEQX fully engaged. Knowing Robert Lee and his unusual excellence in both music and system setup, and given ample time, I am pretty sure he could have tweaked this room to sound far more musically inviting. The dilemma in room and speaker correction is they offer tons of sonic flexibility that ultimately can help as well as harm.