And so we say goodbye to the Sheraton Gateway and the City of Angels. Home Entertainment 2006 was a good Show, with some great sounds. I echo Wes Phillips's sentiments below. In talking to people, I had a sense that we were all part of a community of individuals with much the same goals, if not always the same way of reaching them. The Show staff were unfailingly pleasant and efficient. The hotel’s facilities served the needs of both exhibitors and attendees well—and by the last day of the show I actually figured out how to go from my room to the escalators without making at least one wrong turn!

I joke sometimes at Home Entertainment Shows, as I regard the crowds jostling one another to enter rooms, paw through bins of records, or get the good seats at the musical events, that "these are my people." The thing is, it's true. I do the same things.

You could work up a Jeff Foxworthy routine: You know you're an audiophile if:
•You've ever carried Wet Wipes in your pocket just in case there's a box of records forgotten in some corner of the jumble sale.
•You've ever stayed awake until 4am because the powerlines were quieter.
•You've ever bought that fourth copy of Rhapsodie Espagnole because you aren't sure whether stamper numbers 1A/1A are better than 1A/2A.
•You carry around a card with the Bach Cantatas you already own on Telefunken because you keep buying Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme when what you need is Wachet! betet! betet! wachet!

The reason I know all of this, of course, is that I've done them too. And that's what I really love about the HE shows, I am among my people.

It doesn't matter where you're from, if you're a hi-fi nut, I have more in common with you than the guy who lives next door to me, the kids I went to school with, or any of my ex-girlfriends. At the HE shows, I get to talk with people who know what a shaded dog is—or how to set up a tonearm. I think those are important, but darned few of the folks I meet ever give 'em a thought.

One thing that gets lost in the chatter on the web is that audio manufacturers and importers fall into this camp, too. Spend time with Jim Thiel or Richard Vandersteen or Dusty Vawter, and I almost guarantee you won't end up talking about their gear, you'll be yakking about records, music, and all the other stuff you hold dear. They too are members of the tribe.

So ask me what was best about HE 2006 and I'll tell you it was meeting guys from the Stereophile Forum like Buddha, who drove from Las Vegas to be there, and Clifton, who brought me some jazz LPs by artists he'd seen me mention as favorites. It was meeting Pete Roth in the Ayre room and the guy whose name I didn't catch, but whose list of great sounding rooms perfectly matched mine (yes, I can still hear!).

The best part of HE 2006 was being among my tribe and realizing just how darn good it is.

I'm a guy who loves traditions: I attribute it to growing up in Virginia, a state that reveres tradition, my wife claims it's just OCD. Whatever—I have made it a tradition at every HE Show I can remember to visit Luke Manley's VTL room at the last minute on the last day because it always lets me leave on a high note. Manley did not disappoint this year in the room he shared with dealer Brooks Berdan, the "king of analog."

The room included Wilson Sophia 2 loudspeakers ($14,000/pair), a pair of VTL MB450 monoblocks ($13,500/pair), TL-7.5 Series II preamplifier ($15,000), the prototype of VTL's new TP 6.5 phono section ($7500), and the brand spanking new VPI Aries III (starting at $4700 with many options). Oh yeah, it also sported the Benz LP cartridge ($4500)—and is that not a cool name for a cartridge?

Okay, time to pay the rent: What's new about the MB450s is just about everything, from the slick "new VTL" cosmetics, which are far more polished than the older models, to a beefy new power supply, auto bias, and a fault-sensing circuit that's a direct descendent of the circuit in the Siegfrieds.

We began playing music on the Aries and I almost swooned in relief: Berdan and Manley weren't just getting great sound, they were getting relaxed, fully integrated, sound-like-you've-always-wanted sound. You know how no matter how much you love your hi-fi, when you go over to your buddy's house and his system is really cooking, you go, "I wish my system sounded this good?" Well, that's what Luke and Brooks were putting out. The Wilson WATT/Puppy 8s may have been getting all the attention at HE2006, but let me tell you the Sophia 2s are nobody's ugly sister! Gosh, I love that speaker.

One thing led to another and all of a sudden, we'd forgotten to be "business like" because we were having too much fun and I pulled out my copy of Hayseed Dixie playing "Big Bottom" and "Highway to Hell" on banjo, mandolin, and fiddle and Brooks pulled out his copy of the Buzzards playing "Pipeline" on accordion, acoustic guitar, and dobro, and then things got really strange.

Actually, it was pretty normal for an audiophile get-together — and it was a perfect ending to a great show.

I was fooled into believing that Ryan Adams was in the Mobile Fidelity room. He was telling me he wished I'd steal all of his records and screw all of his friends. This seemed strange, indeed.

But it wasn't Ryan Adams at all. It was just the illuminating Avid Acutus turntable ($13,000).

The Black Swan loudspeaker ($30,000/pair) from Canadian manufacturer Gershman Acoustics is unusual in that it uses a separate enclosure for its woofer section, flanked by extensions of the satellite's side-panels. The speaker's finish was excellent and the sound, with the speakers driven by McCormack universal player and electronics via Magnan cable, was equally excellent, even taking the the small size of the hotel room into consideration.

Wes Phillips already described his reaction to the new Nagra CDT CD transport and CDC CD player/control center. As can be seen from this photo, a hidden benefit of the player is that it has two sets of analog outputs: one pair on the side to go with Nagra own's PL-L and PL-P preamps and another on the rear panel, to be used with conventional preamps.

Other Stereophile writers, most specifically Jason Victor Serinus, have mentioned how good the Immedia room sounded and they are absolutely right: It sounded wonderful. I heard it twice and both times I was tremendously impressed with how relaxed and natural it sounded at moderate loudness levels. Many demonstrations rely on loudness to generate excitement, but Immedia's Allen Perkins let his system just bloom naturally.

When I returned to hear the Allegria ($15,000/pair) loudspeaker from Sonics By Joachim Gerhard, Perkins had replaced the Ayre power amplifier with the more powerful 300Wpc Audio Research 300.2 ($3995). It made a difference—not only in volume but in relaxed authority on Louis Armstrong's "St. James Infirmary" from Satchmo Plays King Oliver.

Careful there, Skippy—if you buy the accepted wisdom on the great Armstrong, SPKO is minor Satchmo. Anyone who can listen to Armstrong sing "St. James Infirmary" on a system like Immedia's and not have to brush back tears just doesn't have a soul. Being able to experience greatness in art is what makes being human worthwhile—and moments like my Sunday morning brush with Louis Armstrong's greatness are what the high-end is all about.

Jon Iverson already posted a picture of Channel Island's D•400 amp ($4000/pair) and PCC•1 remote control passive preamp ($895), but he didn't mention how freaking powerful the combo sounded driving the Von Schweikert VR-5 ($18,000/pair). CIA's Dusty Vawter switched over to his also powerful-sounding D•200s and handed me a D•400—holy moly! The thing weighs a ton! The 0.25" side panels are all heatsink, which made me wonder, has Vawter produced a class-AB amp to join his class-D designs?

"Oh no," Vawter hastened to assume me, "this is our version of class-D, which means it has a stinking humongous linear power supply running the amp circuit. That puts out some heat."

Well, all right. That's good to know.

Red Dragon's Leviathan Series monoblock amplifiers deliver 500W into 8 ohms for $5995/pair. Driving Acoustic Zen Adagio loudspeakers, they sure sounded sweet—and powerful! They're packed with cool stuff, such as Neutrik silver XLR inputs and Cardas solid-copper binding posts, not to mention ERS paper, which is "employed at key locations to absorb and diffuse unwanted EMI."

Maybe I'm just superficial, but I thought the Leviathan's wood cases and softly glowing logo lid just looked cooler than all get-out. Hey, sound is the crucial thing, but if you can look cool while performing well, I say go for it.

I wandered into the ModWright/Red Dragon/Acoustic Zen/Golden Sounds room expecting good sound because Dan Wright's stuff always delivers, but I was wowed by the system's synergy.

ModWright's SWLP 9.0SE preamp ($3995) was being driven by ModWright's upgrade on the Sony 9100ES CD/SACD/DVD player ($3500, including player). Red Dragon's Leviathan Signature monoblock amplifiers ($5995/pair) were feeding a pair of Acoustic Zen Adagio loudspeakers ($4300/pair) via Golden Sound cables.

Wowsers! I'd never heard the Acoustic Zen or Red Dragon products before and they did not disappoint. I heard deep bass and liquid midrange that just made me swoon. Which component was creating the magic? I don't know, but everything certainly was passing it on, so I suspect the credit goes to all of them. I asked Wright about the bright blue faceplate on his SWLP 9.0SE and he said he'd done it to stand out at the show, but response was so strong he reckoned he'd offer it as an option. Make mine blue!

Alberto Gonzalez flew from Costa Rica to be with us for the weekend. He introduced himself to me after the Ask the Editors session. Alberto keeps a blog called Audiolismo.

Audiolismo es un sitio dedicado a los aficionados del audio high-end de habla hispana y sus componentes, accesorios, tips y música.

Oh, sorry. I meant to say that Audiolismo is a blog dedicated to Spanish-speaking fans of high end audio.

Isn't that cool? I hope we gave Alberto much to talk about with friends back home.

...use a unique drive-unit concept that provides breathtakingly realistic, silky-smooth treble reproduction. I always try to visit the German manufacturer's room at the end of the Show, to savor the sound of their 101E speakers. Driven by MBL's own amps and digital front-end, with Tara Labs "Zero" vacuum-dielectric cables, these lived up to my expectation, though the Show room was not completely sympatico with the bandpass-loaded woofers, which need a relatively well-damped acoustic to work at their best.

You could smell the chocolate from just outside the door. Walking into the Moscode room, I was greeted by a bowl of silvery Hershey's Kisses.

I sat down and found Moscode's George Kaye, who has been such a great and generous help to me in my discovery of hi-end audio, at my side. George is always happy to answer any question, and does so in a very clear and articulate way. The ordinary is made fascinating, the obstinate is made malleable.

I had just experienced a live performance by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, and was still reeling. I offered George their latest SACD, and asked him to give it a spin.

The Moscode 401HR, driving the new Joseph Audio RM25XL loudspeakers, sweetly and gently brought me right back to the breathtaking LAGQ performance.

"Want a kiss?" George asked as I departed.

"Thank you very much," I replied.

Holding one up and removing its silver foil, "I get in trouble with these," he said.

The South African Vivid Audio K1 loudspeakers ($20,000/pair) in the Musical Surroundings room—seen here behind Musical Surroundings’ Garth Leerer (right) and Stereophile’s Michael Fremer at the Sunday afternoon raffle—produced an impressively large, sit-up-and-listen soundstage. A similar case of a soundstage that dwarfed the speakers that produced it awaited in the Gamut room. The L-7 flagship speakers ($14,900/pair), paired with the Di150 180Wpc integrated amp ($9800) and brand new CD3 ($6000), produced an amazing sense of space and depth, as well as some mighty low bass extension. Learning that the system lacked a power conditioner and was powered by stock power cords and $300 Siltech silver cables only increased my admiration. As the audiophile press has affirmed for several years now, Gamut is on to something very, very good.

My first visit on the Show's final day was to the Usher room. After listening to their large BE10 floorstander ($14,400/pair), paired with the 2500 amp, 2200 preamp, and CD player (combined cost $5600) and cables from Shunyata and Stereovox, I was treated to Usher’s new entry-level $400 bookshelf baby. Seen here at the left of their lineup, other Stereophile writers had been impressed. While Usher’s little babies understandably offered less low bass extension than the big floorstander, they delivered far higher sound quality than anyone in their right mind could either expect or hope for at this price point.

I heard some truly excellent-sounding systems at HE 2006, but if I had to pick one listening experience at the show that transcended all others, it would have to be Kimber’s IsoMike demonstration. The system itself is described by Wes Phillips in another blog entry, and I’m sure it would have sounded very good playing back normal CDs, but what made the sound more closely approach reality was that the source material consisted of four-channel recordings made by Ray Kimber using his IsoMike setup. (Ray is shown here holding a scale model of his IsoMike baffle.) I’ve been often disappointed with multichannel music playback, but this was completely convincing. The voices and instruments present in the room in a way that was at times spooky. Wes was right: Ray Kimber should be King of the Universe.

Loudspeakers based on the Lowther full-range driver have a considerable following—our own Art Dudley included—but most will admit that the driver has its limitations, including some midrange resonant peaks and less-than-impressive bass response. These have been addressed in The Second Rethm by a set of modifications to the driver and the availability of an extension to the cabinet that produces better bass response. I heard a couple of the Rethm speakers (I don’t remember which models) a few years ago at CES, and was not too impressed, but I quite liked the sound of The Second Rethm with the cabinet extension. The extension adds $2000 to the $7500/pair price, but I suspect it’s worth it.

I managed to catch Leland mid-dance. I showed him the picture and asked if it would be okay.

"Sure, go ahead and post it," Leland said. "Believe me: I don't embarrass easily."