OK. Short report...
AKFest was a good time. Much smaller than RMAF and the rooms were a bit challenging but overall, a nice show. It was about double the size of last year and is expected to grow even more next year.
The room we were in was from David Michal Audio in Royal Oak, Michigan. Exemplar tube CD player, Belles 2 chassis preamp, Belles 75W Class A monos and the newest Harbeth 40.1 speakers. While not the ultimate in detail ( and a bit too much speaker for that small room), the midrange was absolutely gorgeous. Very nice imaging under difficult conditions. On Sunday, David brought the baby Harbeths and just blew everybody away. A 4" sealed woofer 2 way that was doing high 40's pretty well in-room and absolutely disappearing into the room. Soundstage was exceptional.
The other treat for me at the show was listening to Jim Salk's new OB design driven by Frank VanAlstine's new differential amp/preamp. Got to listen to the same setup with the HT3's in the next room over. My personal opinion, the new OBs absolutely stole the show. Very big and bold sound, easy to listen to, good imaging, and just generally effortless to listen to. I didn't get to spend a bunch of time in there as I had room duty all day both days but this is something that very much fits my personal tastes.
I listened to the Ushers upstairs with the Audio Space 805 bases monos and preamp. Surprisingly good, tight controlled bass for a tube amp (or any amp for that matter) yet still all the nice attributes of tube amplification. From what I heard, if it was a solid state amp on them, they'd likely have been a bit bright on top for my taste but certainly one of the best rooms at the show.
Bryan