Parker Audio:  The surprise of the show for me was the Parker Audio room.  I had heard of them online but knew nothing about the sound of their speakers.
I really enjoyed what I heard in their room.  I asked a bunch of questions and made several trips back to their room throughout the show.
The first photo shows their entire system which was mostly tube equipment.  They were using a handmade 7 watt 300b tube amplifier to power both of their speakers.

The larger model called Excalibur uses a 10" driver paired with the AMT tweeter and retails for $3,500.  This is the model that I spent the most time listening to.  I heard a great variety of music including some recordings that I brought with me on Sunday.  This was one of the most musical, non-fatiguing, open, incredibly natural sounding systems I have heard in a long time.  I personally thought it was one of the best sounds at all of AK fest.  I did take the time to hear hard rock as well as girl with a guitar type tunes and everything in between.  I think I was in their room for close to two hours total on Sunday. 

The smaller monitor called the Troll uses a 5 inch driver paired with a custom ribbon tweeter and retails for $600.  This was a complete surprise when I heard it at the end of the show on Sunday afternoon.  They use one sub that has an 8" driver for augmenting the lowest frequencies.  I would have guessed I was listening to an expensive much larger speaker design.  They were also extremely musical and revealing.  It was amazing to me that they can sell these speakers for $600.  I have never heard any speakers close to that price sound the way they did on Sunday afternoon.  They get my budget speaker award.  I would quickly recommend them to someone looking for monitors under $1,000.  The two gentleman from Parker Audio were some of the nicest I met at the show.  I hope they come back to AK Fest in future years.

Again, we extend our thanks to Nick for taking the time to listen to our products over the weekend.  It was a great time.