[stevenswall]

While running some errands in the Salt lake area I decided to see if there were any decent audio stores, particularly ones that had gear out to demo. After calling three, I found one that was open, and scheduled an appointment. Aris audio was the company, and Scott Haver runs it out of his home... Complete with six listening rooms, and all sorts of exotic paraphernalia to play, amplify, and generally make vinyl and CD's sound heavenly.
 
The first setup was a set of Vandersteen Treo speakers. (I didn't take any pictures unfortunately, but here is the speaker I'm talking about.)
 

Two of these and a powered (but not overpowering) woofer were in a room about 14x16', and had a piano between them. Mr Haver played a song by John Campbell called "Down in the Hole" to start out. He said "listen to the soundstage," and I did... I couldn't avoid it. Huge, and hall-like, while I was sitting in the sweet spot between the speakers I heard with incredible precision the placement of the voice centered between the two speakers, and the rest of the music playing, as it seemed, from beyond the confines of the room. The bass seemed to have an organ like quality, in that much of it was conducted through the air rather than pounding into the floor and being felt in the chest. 

 

[ssrock64]

Any headphone shops on hand there?

 

[stevenswall]

^None that I've discovered, though I haven't been to many of the audio stores around here. Mr. Haver does have the line of Grado headphones though... and by that I mean all of them.