I would question the purpose of putting them in the showroom in the first place. Perhaps that just showed us that the manufacturer didn't really care about how they sounded because look was more important? The excuse that they're too big and heavy is not a good one, they are selling thousands of dollars worth of speakers, surely they could afford a crane or anything that helped to move them around?
A crane, lol, be serious now. Do you know how long they had to set everything up? Seriously, do you? SGR had more gear at the show than anyone else, they didn't have the required time to set them all up optimally. Personally I was dissapointed that they didn't sound their best. The MT3FSL's sounded much better at the show than the Illuminators, but again that could just be my bias showing, I'm happy to admit that. My dad (definitely not an audiophile) turned to me at the show and said, none of these systems sound as good as yours at home. Now, I'm not trumpet blowing like a lot of audiophiles do (do a search, you will find many examples of it) I'm just pointing out how poor most of the systems at the show sounded. Sure, I had my favourites at the show, but they were only comparatively good compared to the rest of the rabble.
The point of the show was to increase brand recognition and the show delivered on that front. Most people (not all) are smart enough to realise that you are never going to get the best audio quality at an audio show. It is a given.
Oh yeah, they definitely looked fabulous alright but I thought it was a hifi show where people came to listen and see if there's anything worth to warrant further listening at home. Say for example the Audio Note's system, the system was sounding a bit average however most of us here could tell that there's a big potential there and this for sure warranted further listening at home (for those who can afford it). Plus the AN was HEAVY too to move around!
The Audio Notes sounded very ordinary (like everything else at the show). They were the most expensive system there ($500k +) and I thought they were very disappointing. They only played safe audiophile music too. Point being, how did you know they had potential if they sounded average? I would suggest it was your bias suggesting they had potential.