I may be a bit of an amatuer as mid afternoon my ears started to rebel, telling me "meh, just another headphone"
I definitely didn't do the Ethers justice for this reason.
But the following made an impression:
HE1000 - WOW. I hadn't been following the threads on this so I came to them without expectations. Fair to say I was blown away. The guy next to me had heard them before and told me they were the closest he had ever heard to actual speakers, and he was right. The headstage, sense of space around the instruments, imaging - best in show by a big margin. I heard them out of Hugo TT, the EF6 (is that right?) as well as my humble Hugo (which drove them ok but I'm sure not as well as the others) and I literally said "wow" to myself a number of times as i tried different tracks. WANT ONE
Hugo TT - as a confirmed Hugo lover I made a b-line for the TT and wasn't disappointed. A clear step up in terms of authority and body of sound. WANT ONE. Rob Watts told me if I liked that wait until I hear the DAVE - I told him at the price they will be selling them I don't want to hear the DAVE
Audioquest Nighthawk - an odd one, polarising on here and I can see why. Massive improvement on the the pre-production version, smooth and bass/mid focussed, but not without detail. But no "air". Went back twice but still not sure.
Noble - the Savant didn't set me on fire, but the K10 did, lovely open stage, nicely balanced. Plus the Noble guy was the hardest working dude at the show, kudos to him
Apologies to the Jerry Harvey guys for The Thing that came out of my ear after trying the Laylas
So good they dislodged a small piece of brain.
Oppo PM2 is underrated I think - I really like my PM3 and the bigger brother has just a really pleasurable, fatigue free presentation - you get the sense you could relax into them for days on end. Wonder what a DHC cable would bring to the party.
Didn't get near the Yggy all day
Next time - bring 2!
Thanks again everyone - I was on no sleep after a night up with my sick youngest son so not as chatty as I might have been - hope to do it again next year?