I realize this thread is old, but I am guessing there aren't many of us on here from the area. We definitely should do a meet. Honestly I feel like we should put on a convention like RMOF and CanJam. I know we aren't an audiophile city by any standard, and almost everyone at the event would be out of towners, but New Orleans is a big convention city for a reason. We have so many hotels and who does not want to opportunity to come hear. There could be organized trips at night to Jazz clubs. Honestly I would be willing to pitch in some free time to organize it.
I suppose if nothing else we should just get together a local meet, but that just doesn't sound like as much fun. I am going to call it CanJam at the First Annual Jazz City Audio Fest. Maybe I should message Jude about the idea, not that I am sure plenty of people haven't said. "You should have a national meet in my city". Our city is just better.
As for the stores, my friend mentioned the one in the airport, he bought a pair of 535's from there. I don't know if it has always been, but he said it was a lot of Bose and Beats, with a few Shures and the like.