Winners:
Gotta agree the Grado DS1000is blew me away too, only heard the lower end models previously and hated them.
I really liked the new versions of the Leema stream and Pulse. Maybe it was the music they played when I was in there but didnt seem harsh to me at all. Look forward to demoing the Pulse III with its onboard DAC compared to the Cyrus 8XPd later in the year.
The higher end Naim room was making some lovely, smooth but involving sounds. Never really heard a Naim that I liked before, but I liked this one. I swear there was even a soundstage at one point!
I could have stayed in the Wilson Benesch room all weekend. Didnt matter what music was playing in there it all sounded amazing. I now know where my lottery money is going!
KEF concept blade demo was amazing I thought, really good sounding speakers. Shame about the looks but then its only a concept.
I spent a lovely 20 minutes in the Audionote room. Never realised 8 Watts of amp could sound so amazing. I will need to look into these systems in more detail, but it was a lovely sound.
Chord cables after letting me into the 'locked room' Chord cables demo, which made me realise my system is broken because I dont have Chord Solstice everything!
Losers:
The Cyrus room, I think it was the speakers but there was no life in there just dull. Really disappointing.
The Chord room, no chance to hear the QBD76 DAC, boo!
The lower end Naim room, nasty sound which the guy said was because of the CD but was the same every time I went past!
Hate to say it, but the What HIFI demo was very disappointing. I normally love Kef reference but the sound was very poor. The 3d effect was rubbish, double images very apparent for most of what I could see (I could only really see one of the two screens). The extra height channels also added very little in my opinion.
My system after the Chord cables demo, as it now sounds broken!