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.

I walked in and I couldn't help but sit right down. Lush, wide, deep and detailed - I could have stayed all afternoon.

The source of my beguilement was the Parker Audio Excalibur. This features a Heil tweeter and an unfiltered 10" driver that naturally begins to roll off at about 5khz. Their Catapult subwoofer was also present and performing. Upstream was a homemade SET amp and tube buffer, Camelot Uther DAC, Genesis Timelens and Parasound CD player as transport.

I'll be completely honest, I did find excuses to spend some more time back in this room a few more times during the show.

Parker Audio

Excalibur’s: To me, these came out of nowhere.  Never heard of Parker Audio, which advertises their speakers as being “High Efficiency Speakers”.  Anyway, I was very pleasantly surprised at how they sucked you into the sound.  Rich and lovely, detailed and a wide soundstage.  They did a terrific job on both classical and jazz.

We would like to thank all the fest goers who stopped in and shared their tunes and shared their thoughts on the speakers we offer.  We had a great time!

Dave