Thanks to information here as to the only booth to be playing reel-to-reel I had tremendous fun listening to the system at Paranafidelity:

The technics 1500 deck was unmodified and was playing using stock electronics:

I wish I could remember the principal designer/demo person’s name. This was a guy that really enjoyed music with great personality. In each iteration he would change the plugs in the loudspeaker and back dials to match the music playing. I could sit there for hours and have this guy play music for me.

I asked to hear the tape and boy did I hear the tape. It was a classical recording from 1960s with incredible dynamics and resolution. Sadly, and I mean really sadly when I asked him the name of the tape, he said it was a secret recording he had borrowed and was not for sale . Would pay $500 for that tape in a heartbeat. It was that good. Fortunately he played it for good while and we all had a grin you could not wipe from our faces afterward .

Next he played a CD which was yet another killer demo. I asked what track that was, and he almost give me reason to strangle him: “oh, it is a CD-R playlist I put together.” But before I could jump on him, he said, “oh wait, I have the CD box:”

As the label says it is Gary Karr on Bass and Harmon Lewis on Organ. The strings felt like they were connected to your heart at one end. Quite moving for this newbie classical listener.

Here is his system list and some of his LP collection:

Puts a smile on my face thinking about the fun time I had there. This is how you do demos guys even with modest systems.