"We had more traffic on Friday than we had all of HE2006," said Dynaudio's Mike Manoussellis.

"Really?" Ayre's Steve Silberman yelped when I told him Mike had said that, "I probably should have been there!"

Yes, Steve, you probably should have. I was stopped time and time again by audiophiles wanting to hear the MX-Rs I wrote about. They'd come to HE2007 to hear the gear they'd read about in Stereophile and almost nothing I've written in the last few years generated more buzz than that review.

Besides, almost everybody who asked that followed up with, "And how's Charlie Hansen? If you talk to him, tell him he's in our thoughts and prayers." The HE Shows and the magazine are about creating a community—and that's what I love about them.

I'm not picking on Steve or Ayre—I realize that every manufacturer has to carefully consider every marketing expense and the shows aren't inexpensive. But audiophiles do see themselves as part of the family and they want to meet the guys they read about and hear the equipment they aspire toward.

I was standing in the Hyatt corridor Sunday afternoon talking to Richard Vandersteen, when a reader named Bob walked up and said, "I don't mean to interrupt, but I've owned 2Cs, 3As, and I'm saving for a pair of Quatros. I have a question, but I know you're talking to Wes . . . ."

"To heck with him," Vandersteen growled. "He never bought anything of mine." And they were off.

And that's the other thing I love about the HE shows—we writers are out there talking to the people we write about and the people we write for. I was waiting to get in to Robert Silverman's Mozart recital on Friday, when reader David Delbaum introduced himself to me. "I bought a preamplifier based on a review you wrote," he said.

I cringed. "I love it." Whew—close one. At shows I get to see folks face-to-face, even if I've criticized their electronic babies or if they think I'm deaf and blind. That's keeping it real.

So do the musical events. I didn't get to hear everything I wanted to hear this year. I missed Attention Screen's gig—Dan Knight, too—but I heard Bob Silverman play some lovely Mozart and some profound Chopin, while the John Atkinson Trio's gig on Sunday was a musical high that I'm still riding.

My gosh, what an amazing group of people Stereophile readers are! I leave every HE show humbled that such smart, accomplished, fascinating folks read us each month and join us each year. People like Thomas Carlson, an English professor at The University of the South, who has begun establishing The William Ralston Listening Library and Archive, which not only will house Mr. Ralston's 25,000 sound and video musical recordings, but world-class listening rooms as well.

"I keep encountering students who have never experienced real high-fidelity listening—in some cases, they've never heard anything other than PAs or headphones" Mr. Carlson said. "I have small groups into my home to listen to my system, and they get it—but we need a place where young people can discover the experience of listening to great music in a great setting."

How can you walk away from meeting a guy like that without feeling better about the human condition?

And how about the gear? Isn't that what it's all about? Obviously, it's the huge draw—and this year left me high about the state of two-channel. UAV's Tom Norton, Shane Buettner, and Fred Manteghian were looking sort of lost, there was so little HT stuff, but for us audiophiles, there was a bumper crop. New speakers from Escalante, Krell, Sjöfn, , Scaena, Hyperion, and Proclaim Audio prove that even that venerable warhorse, the loudspeaker, is still inspiring designers to think different. The world (and it has become a world) of quality amplification has become immense. Cayin, Concert Fidelity and Silicon Arts Design, Chord, Pathos, Bel Canto, Hyperion, and Omaha—to name just a few—all had electronics I coveted deeply. Some of it I could even afford, which is a welcome trend. It was hard to walk down a Hyatt hall without spotting one, two, or even 10 must-haves.

As recently as last year, I would have said that two-channel audio wasn't looking too good—and that I wasn't feeling all that well myself. HE2007 recharged me with its energy, upbeat vibe, and the plethora of products aimed smack dab at my sweet spot—and judging from the crowds at the Hyatt, I wasn't alone.

Yeah, that was the best part—I'm not alone—and at HE2007, I was surrounded by thousands just like me.

You really should have been there.

The smiling faces of the Stereophile scribes captured in Jonathan Scull's final photo from the Show sum it up nicely (l–r): Kal Rubinson, Bob Deutsch, Art Dudley, Larry Greenhill, yours truly, Sam Tellig, and John Atkinson.

At CES, the Vandersteen/Audio Research room always strikes me as being like an oasis—and not just because of the potted plants they have in the room. And so it was in the room sponsored by New Jersey dealer Audio Connection at HE 2007: music presented without hype or bombast, and simply relaxing to listen to. The speakers were the Vandersteen 5As ($16,900/pair +$5000 for carbon fiber cabinets), with Audio Research PH7 phono stage ($5995), CD7 CD player ($8995), Reference 3 line-stage preamp ($9995), and Reference 110 amplifier ($9995). The analog front end was the Clearaudio Anniversary TT and Stradivari cartridge, with a Graham Phantom tonearm. Cables were Audioquest William E. Low Signature interconnect and Everest speaker cable.

Stereophile columnist John Marks brought an encyclopedic knowledge of music and musicians to the magazine when he started his "Fifth Element" column in March 2001. At HE2007, he played some of his favorite recordings in as many rooms as he could, including his own recording of the Herbert Howells organ piece Larry Greenhill mentioned in another posting (Master Tallis's Lament, a personal favorite of mine) and an extraordinary choral recording, When David Heard, from the young composer Eric Whitacre. As you can see from this photo taken in the Egglestonworks, Rogue, and Echobusters room, Showgoers very much appreciated John's efforts.

As Robert Deutsch mentioned in his report from the 2007 Montreal Show, Ofra (left) and Eli (right) Gershman of Gershman Acoustics have been exhibitors at just about every audio/home theater show the past few years. As in Montreal, the Gershmans were demming their new Sonogram speaker at HE2007. More conventional in appearance than their flagship Black Swan, the Sonogram, photographed here by Larry Greenhill, is priced at a very competitive $2500/pair.

An enduring aspect of Audio Shows is the meeting up of old friends, colleagues, and acquaintances, who all share a sense of belonging to a single community. Shown here in a chance meeting at the Grand Hyatt's entrance are (l–r): veteran speaker designer Richard Vandersteen, tube amp manufacturer Mark O'Brien of Rogue Audio, and Stereophile's associate publisher Keith Pray.

The official closing time of HE 2007 was 5pm on Sunday. I was surprised to see, then, that there were some people registering even as late as three o'clock Sunday afternoon. Now, that's real devotion to the hobby!

Performing music in a group is all about collaboration and communication. Look closely at this picture of the John Atkinson Trio, in performance on the last day of HE2007. JA is playing a solo, and both pianist Bob Reina and drummer Allen Perkins are listening and watching intently. In his comments after the number, Bob said that they had some differences of opinion about how to end the number, and resolving these differences required some give-and-take in the actual playing. Now that's jazz!

...and 3.6kW into 2 ohms! All in a day's work for Krell's $40,000/pair, Krell Evolution 900 monoblock amplifier. On passive display with its top off, you can see that the amplifier has three output modules, each containing a pair of driver stages, 28 bipolar output devices, and a massive heatsink that vents heat in chimney fashion through vents in the top and bottom of the chassis. The power supply features two 3kVA toroidal transformers, 52 electrolytic capacitors, each rated at 1800µF, 900watt, and 105°F. Weight? Again I didn't want to know, but was told it was a mere 175 lbs!

Balanced Audio Technology's Steve Bednarski is a big guy, but he's not a giant, and BAT's Geoff Poor is not nearly as diminutive as he looks in this picture. It's just a matter of perspective with a wide-angle lens. The rack between Steve and Geoff houses the new top-of-the-line Rex preamp, described by Wes Phillips in another posting.

HE 2007 had, as expected, some very expensive equipment being demonstrated, but there were also some modest-priced and still very–good-sounding systems. One of these was the system in the DCM room, based on the DCM TFE 200, a substantial floor-standing speaker priced at just $1000/pair. With a Jolida CD player and integrated amp, the total price for the system was under $3000—and that was including $200's worth of cables from Esoteric Audio. The Man in Black is Al Congdon of DCM.

Music Hall's Roy Hall can usually be relied on to introduce some high-value components at each CES or HE show, and he didn't disappoint this time, either. The Music Hall Trio is a combination CD player, integrated amplifier (50Wpc), and AM/FM tuner (80 assignable presets, remote controllable). Not bad for $999—and, given Roy's track record, it's pretty certain to sound good, too.

As far as I can tell, Omaha Audio has no connection with the city in Nebraska: its headquarters are in California, and the products are made in China—but "created, designed and checked in the USA." The system they were playing used their own speaker (named, fittingly enough, the Omaha Speaker), a fairly large two-way with some resemblance to Sonus Faber products ($2000/pair), the Omaha Tube CD player ($1600), and the OD-300B single-ended-triode integrated amplifier ($1400, photographed here by Larry Greenhill). At the Stereophile Ask the Editors session, Sam Tellig was raving about this amplifier and the value it represented. Based on the sound of the system (smooth, highly musical) I have to agree with him.

Remember the name: Salagar Sonics. It's the name of a new American speaker company, whose first product, the Salagar S210 ($7500/pair), still in prototype form, made a strong impression at HE 2007. It's an active two-way—digital crossover; the amp uses the latest B&O ICE module—with a Scanspeak AirCirc tweeter and a 10" Peerless VIFA mid-bass driver, in an unusually-shaped (and highly inert) enclosure. I thought these speakers sounded terrific: lively, low in coloration, and with excellent imaging.

I never know what to expect at the "Ask the Editors" sessions, traditionally moderated by Stereophile editor John Atkinson (above). Sometimes we get a lot of people looking for advice on potential purchases of equipment, questions about arcane aspects of amplifier design, questions about cables, about double-blind testing, where the future of audio lies, and, of course, questions about what we thought of the sound in specific rooms at the Show. This time, many of the questions dealt with, of all things, music! There were opinions expressed about the major symphony orchestras of today vs those of the past, and great performances available on LPs. Don't these people know that we're all supposed to be a bunch of equipment-loving geeks?

Stereophile's traditional "Ask the Editors" session took place Saturday afternoon. A room packed with audiophiles hurled questions at the panel, who included (from left to right in Jonathan Scull’s photo): Ken Kessler, Michael Fremer, Bob Deutsch, Larry Greenhill, Wes Phillips (at rear), and Sam Tellig. (Not shown in photo but still very vocal were Bob Reina, Kal Rubinson, John Marks, and Art Dudley.) I dodged the bullet by moderating but I was well pleased by the insightful nature of the questions asked.

They were a hit at last year's Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, so I asked Bob Cordell (resting his dogs in the photo), Peter "PJay" Smith, and Darren Kuzma to give a repeat performance of their seminars on amplifier and loudspeaker performance at HE2007. These ran throughout the Show, and I kept being stopped in the corridor by audiophiles who would say something like "Now I know what tube amplifier clipping sounds like" or "Now I know what is meant by 'dynamic range.'" I was reminded by something I had been told years ago, perhaps by Jon Iverson: that the only difference between an audiophile and an ordinary person is that the audiophile had a mentor who showed them how to listen. Bob's, PJay's, and Darren's efforts will create many, many audiophiles.

Stereophile sponsored the seminars and provided the room and furniture, as well as my personal Ayre C-5xe for use as a source, but Ray Kimber is owed a large "thank you" for supplying cables and for helping with expenses.

Stereophile hired good friend (and talented artist) Jeff Wong to cover HE2007 in his inimitable style. Jeff's three-page hand-drawn impression of the show will appear in the August issue.

Watching Jeff sketch the proceedings was a humbling experience—he's fast and he's good. Here, he's capturing JA attacking the bass solo of "So What." Yes, Fearless Leader does glower at his hands while he's playing.

When I finally made it through the crowd and into the Music Hall room, I took one look at pasty party animal, Leland Leard, and cried, "Good god, man! How are you feeling?"

He looked at me, a bit of the previous night still trembling in his glassy eyes, and, holding onto a styrofoam cup of matzah ball soup, he responded, "Better now."

"That's good," I said.

"Want a whisky?" he asked.