psalmanazar said:

Also how can the same guy who makes the BHSE (makes Stax sound good!) make the GS-X mk2?

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Maybe you should ask Kevin Gilmore. I'd be interested in his answer...

 I totally agree that too many jazz and old-fashioned tricks on speakers. Especially for Benchmark, they put all their best dacs and amps just for watching (I cannot believe it), I am not able to test it at all.  GS-x mk2 is not good, I spend 1hr seriously ab compare it with BHSE, both uses  Ayre Acoustics QB-9  and music from my surface pro2 which I listened to everyday. HE1000 is significantly less transparent, less detailed under  GS-x mk2 than the 009 under BHSE.  Ayre Acoustics QB-9 is also not a good dac, I can find the detail and the "3d" effect which I can find from my Pavane. Later, I found myself do not want to leave stax 009. For me even the dac is not good, 009 sounds great, transparency king! 

scottfw said:

 
Biggest take-home from the show for me is that I really need to spend some time optimizing my speaker placement...

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I'm not sure if you've heard of the following techniques but the first has worked well for me. My Vandersteen 3A Sig manual outlines two methods that you might want to try to minimize the room's effects on the speakers - 'odd dimensions' and 'third dimensions' placement. Here's a link (skip to page 7) - http://vandersteen.com//media/files/Manuals/3asigmanual.pdf

I am sorry we just had no place to provide for the meet.  The next CAF will be November 2017 and the hotel which is going through a major renovation will have much more space on line.
If we can get more Head vendors like we had in 2015 we will be able to provide free space for the meet. 

yage said:

   
I'm not sure if you've heard of the following techniques ...

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The odd dimensions intuitively makes sense in terms of reducing room modes and I'll probably try to incorporate that. I found another PDF of some placement tips from Wilson Audio and they're less specific on proportions/measurements from the walls (other than needing to be far enough away and asymmetric if possible) but more specific regarding the proportions of the setup triangle for best imaging. Basically, they say the distance from your ears to the speakers should be 1.1x to 1.25x the distance between the two tweeters, and speakers should be toed in so you just see a little of the inside edge from your seat. Don't know if that's generally applicable for all speakers or more specific based on their drivers.
 
It's going to be a while before I can get around to messing with this because I first have to move and/or sell a lot of other stuff from that area of the basement, some of which is audio gear. Can I interest any of you locals in a set of PSB Alpha A/Vs, or Energy C-2s w/ stands, or a M&K sub & crossover?  

I am about to embark on a smaller, bedroom system. But that's only because I have two set of bookshelf speakers and an amplifier that is dying to try drive them.
If it fails, the PSB Alpha A/V seem the most easy to drive. I may be back to this thread in a couple weeks.