Sony's flagship loudspeaker, the SS-AR1 was sounding excellent at the show.  It's a full-range speaker with everything - power, resolution, ease soundstage, imaging. 

The SS-AR1 was driven by the Pass 40th Anniversary Sony VFET monoblock amps.  This amp was designed by Nelson Pass for Sony to celebrate their 40th anniversary.  He used discontinued Sony VFETs that he discovered at Sony.   Unfortunately the excellent amp is a strictly limited edition and is not available for purchase.

The front end of the demo system comprised a Clearaudio vinyl system and a Sony HAP-Z1ES hi-res audio player.  The sound was truly outstanding with both vinyl and digital.  This was one of the best sounding rooms at the show

Hegel provided its new HD12 DAC with its USA debut at NYAS2014.  In a demo Hegel national sales manager Eileen Gosvig played audio tracks using Hegel's fine HD11 32bit DAC.  Switching over the the HD12 it was amazing to hear the increased resolution and greater musicality and sense of ease of the new DAC.  The sound was excellent with RedBook, hi-res PCM and DSD sources.

The rest of the system consisted of GamuT's M'inent M7 speakers driven by Hegel's flagship P30 preamp and H30 poweramp.  They revealed the subtlety and detail of the HD12, producing extremely fine sound and showing what reference-class amplification can do for a systems.

An impressive DAC and an impressive system.