At $6K I know what small footprint speaker I'd get. Audio Physic Scorpio 25+. No question.

I think they needed more midrange, and yes, more bass. The room was not that small if I remember correctly. They were playing it pretty loud which makes tone issues fairly apparent. It could also be a bad recording, but doubt it.

EDIT: Just saw the measurements at Stereophile. The measurements there don't look too bad at all. Dunno. Don't think that's what I heard. Maybe something was weird with their setup or their music. One thing that may be happening is that these are omnis and the high frequencies may be adding up from reflected sound differently than with classic speakers. I remember reading about this when they measured the Mirage stuff. Possible anechoic chamber measurements don't apply here. Who knows. (I do have the Mirage nanosats and may one day measure them in all sorts of crazy fashions).

As far as hearing them before, I think I got confused. These were not it, it was the Muraudio PX1 (impressions from the 2014 show: http://www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,1615.msg42939.html#msg42939). If blenders are one's thing, I felt the PX1s were moar bettar.

EDIT2: LOL! The Muraudio dudes had curtains all over the place (reduce reflections) if I remember correctly and from the pics I took. These guys did not. Maybe that was one of the differentiators. Maybe this type of speakers require you treat all your walls?

I'll post some pics later today. But there were also some pretty bassy setups such as the Rockport's Avior. The dude at JBL with the S4700 was just ridiculous. Not sure WTF he was doing but I was hearing more the walls of the room pleading for mercy. Even the other reps were outside saying the JBL dude lost his mind. It was at the end of the show so maybe he was just monkeying around.

The Sonus Faber Extrema didn't seem to bad to me BTW. These an the ELACs where decent. The Sonys were OK. But as Marv said, the room was proly too large. Quad 57s were also decent with the stuff they were playing.

The ZX1 is on the leaderboard??? I didn't do it. Who did that?

If I recall, I think it made it because it has a polished build and UI with passable SQ at a not so passable price. I'd advocate the AK Jr. in it's place. Though it's possible the ZX2 sounds better than both IME, but it's again more $$.

I think Jr can be qualified  to replace zx1.

On a side note, I've heard Cypher Labs Piccolo at the HF Calgary meet, and I think it's good, but should be priced ~300 USD. I'm also surprised that I liked Yulong D200. AT R70x and MSR7 sounded shit to me.

Well I always insert things as deep as possible for max isolation. And that's how they sound.

Maybe with whatever tips you used....

This is why I always use wide bore silicone tips that are as open as possible first to let me hear what the driver can do. Then use other tips to adjust the FR via acoustics. You really missed out. I'll hook you up on the 27th.

Maybe with whatever tips you used....

This is why I always use wide bore silicone tips that are as open as possible first to let me hear what the driver can do. Then use other tips to adjust the FR via acoustics. You really missed out. I'll hook you up on the 27th

This post could be so misconstrued.