Just got back from Axpona, which, for the most part, was somewhat disappointing. The show was relatively small (probably < 35 listening rooms), with only a handful of major names, and very few rooms sounding spectacular (typical, given the poor room acoustics at these shows) . However, this was the inaugural show, and hopefully it will grow in subsequent years.
I did NOT take any (notable) system pictures, nor notes, so won't bother trying to recall and post system details here. I'm sure the audio blogs and high-end mags will have lots of pics and system details online shortly.
IMHO, the sonic standouts included the gorgeous Scaena line arrays with ribbon tweeters and dual outboard subs (?? source/amps), and a room featuring (new to me) Rosso Fiorentino compact floorstanders (sorry, don't recall the other gear), which offered a very well-balanced and dynamic soundstage. The Kings Sound electrostatics also sounded quite good for their <$9000 price point, but didn't quite have the bass dynamics of ML's hybrid designs.
Most interesting (at least for me), was the seminar by Jim Smith (author of Get Better Sound), who gave an enlightening presentation, mainly about debunking commonly held audio myths, followed by a lengthy Q&A period. He has a very unique perspective on room setup, starting with locating the seating position where the bass sounds best, and then tweaking speaker placement after that is done. He also gave us a very logical explanation of why that works! IMHO, every one of us should have a copy of his book in our audio library!
Fortunately, a bunch of MLOC members (and spouses/SO's) including Ray, Craig, and I, were able to get together for dinner Sat night at a great Thai restaurant, and had a great time reflecting on the past, present, and future, of high-end audio. I hadn't had much opportunity to talk to Ray during our previous ML visit to Lawrence, KS, but after dinner together, am very impressed with his audio knowledge. He will definitely be an asset to the audiophile community as a reviewer for dagago.com, and I look forward to reading, and learning more, from his future reviews.
Anybody else make it to the show?