Ken Micallef

I strolled into this room not knowing what to expect but seriously intrigued by the pair of large, folded-horn speakers that looked like something from a Grimm's fairy tale.

Jeff Coates of Harmonia Distribution presented several systems in its two-room suite in Rockville.

The preshow buzz was palpable. Is Altec Lansing really back? With a new planar loudspeaker?

Tom Vu brought a complete Triangle Art system to CAF, with his trademark gold-encrusted turntables at the center of the room—not one, not two, but three! Vu sold the most expensive turntable while I was away fetching coffee.

Linear Tube Audio occupied two rooms and demoed their LTA Century Monoblocks in a world-wide debut.

In addition to their showing in the Democracy room, Command Performance AV brought two US debut products to room 305: the J.Sikora Aspire turntable with the CF9 tonearm ($10,595) and the Innuos Stream3 music streamer with optional PhoenixDAC board ($12,600), which turns it into a fully fledged streaming music player.

Bella Sound's Michael Vice holds more than 50 patents as an electrical engineer. Like other large-brained thinkers I know, such as Stereophile Editor Jim Austin and Spin Doctor Michael Trei, when they talk, I just listen.