[dburna]

I had a nice time at AXPONA, but I have to side with SwamisCat on this one.  I believe I went to every room on Friday.  This was possible because of 1) light crowds and 2) the fact that there were many systems that were only semi-listenable.  Big bucks poured into systems that had a predominance of two types of sounds -- either boomy/imprecise bass and/or shallow/thin-sounding midranges.  I didn't hear many ear-bleeding systems, thankfully, but so many systems had sound that I know can (and have) been beaten by more modest rigs in real-world/room environments.

To my ears, there were only three rooms that "got it right" -- High Water Sound (Hornings with Tron equipment + a great (TW-Raven?) TT), Volti Audio (Volti speakers with quite modest electronics) and the Merrill/Sadurni room (if I ever want to forego paying for my daughter's college tuition).  Many of the rest were distracting in their "wrongness".     A few (but not many) systems sounded "somewhat/close to right" in terms of dynamics, freq. balance, and precision -- among those were SoundLabs, Marten, Vapor, Kharma, DeVore -- that it would probably have been worth it to hear them later in the weekend to see if some tweaking/re-configuring would have improved things.  In general, most of the systems I heard were quite uninspiring and would not have merited a re-visit.....and that's before one looks at the price tags.  As I told the folks in the Volti Room, some vendors almost managed to do what I thought impossible: they almost made me HATE music!   

And while I know that the too-big-speakers-in-too-small-rooms factor played a big part in it, that can't be the whole story.  I made a point to listen to some speakers up close (to reduce the impact of room interaction) and found that A) many systems had significantly unflat or tipped frequency responses (differed by vendor) and B) apparently tight/precise bass response is beyond the realm of capability for many high-end speaker developers.  I know all this sounds harsh, but I heard more on Friday that seemed like "sound effects" and less like music. 

I do have a guess at one of the factors making the bass boomy/imprecise in rooms.  Some speakers are much harder to control than others, particularly in the bass.  That's just pure physics, a function of the characteristics of drivers employed.  I think some vendors made a mistake showing their systems with tube gear.  For many tube amps, low-end control is not their strong suit, and the combo of the weaknesses of both amps and speakers makes for a bad result.  Put plainly, some tube amps and certain speakers go together like drinking-&-driving or pills-&-alcohol -- just a bad idea.  It comes down to knowing your product and aligning with vendors that complement your gear....not shacking up with anyone just because they have a space for you.  And I have (and have loved) tube gear -- done right, there is no equal.  But you shouldn't ask gear to do what it isn't good at, nor should you slap equipment together and flaunt it in the face of the "Synergy Gods".  Bottom line for vendors: know your strengths and weaknesses, emphasize the former and minimize the latter.  If not, when the Synergy Gods are displeased, they will extract their revenge.    

On the plus side, I met some nice folks, including Big Red Music (Mr. Ruggedly Handsome himself) and his charming wife.  I didn't meet many ACers even though I had a ridiculously awful hand-made name tag so that folks could find me easily.  I'm guessing that most folks (like me) were focused on listening to systems/gear and were not as focused on meeting people.  Either that or my pre-announcement of publicizing Little Kids Rock turned people off, which I hope is not the case.  I tried not to (and don't think that I did) overwhelm anyone in that regard.

All the criticism of the traditional stereo systems aside, I did hear some promising products at AXPONA.  It's just that most of them were in the personal/headphone listening space.....and I'm not much of a headphone guy, either.  However, when the sound in a majority of rooms "drive you out" in 30 seconds, that gives one more time to listen to headphones.

1. Auralic: I knew the Vega DAC/Taurus headphone amp rig was going to sound great, and I was not disappointed.  I wish the Vega was within my price range, but it's not.  I wish I could find a DAC that sounds even semi-close to the Vega at a $1k (+ or -) price.  However, I thought the Gemini headphone amp/stand was no slouch either.  Not as good as the big-brother rig, but pretty nice along with.....

2. Audeze headphones: listened to (I think) all models that were there in multiple systems.  Liked them all.  Pretty comfortable, too, though perhaps a smidgen hot (temperature, not sound) on the head over time.

3. M*A Recordings.  Nice-to-superb sound out of all of their titles, which is no easy feat.  Performances varied from good-to-excellent, but that's always the way with virtually every label.  My favorite was Milcho Leviev/Dave Holland "Up And Down".

4. Woo Audio: liked (but didn't love) their new Cube, even though it is sooooo adorable and design/lifestyle-friendly.  But I really like some of their other tube amps a lot.  Lovely, grain-free sound.

5. Benchmark DAC2 sounded pretty good.  I'm not sure it's ultimately 'it' for me, but it was pretty respectable.  Much better than the DAC1 IMO.

All in all, I had a fine time at AXPONA, but I came home to a more modest system that I wouldn't have traded even-up for many of those that I heard on Friday.

-dB (who still loves music and stereos.....when they are done well)

[dminches]

To my ears, there were only three rooms that "got it right" -- High Water Sound (Hornings with Tron equipment + a great (TW-Raven?) TT), Volti Audio (Volti speakers with quite modest electronics) and the Merrill/Sadurni room (if I ever want to forego paying for my daughter's college tuition).  Many of the rest were distracting in their "wrongness".     A few (but not many) systems sounded "somewhat/close to right" in terms of dynamics, freq. balance, and precision -- among those were SoundLabs, Marten, Vapor, Kharma, DeVore -- that it would probably have been worth it to hear them later in the weekend to see if some tweaking/re-configuring would have improved things.  In general, most of the systems I heard were quite uninspiring and would not have merited a re-visit.....and that's before one looks at the price tags.  As I told the folks in the Volti Room, some vendors almost managed to do what I thought impossible: they almost made me HATE music!   

I agree with your comments, especially about the Voltis and the Sadurnis.  I found a lot of the rooms too hot in the high frequencies.  Maybe the speaker designers are going for too much detail or my hearing has changed, but there were some rooms that flat out hurt my ears.  And then there are the vendors who want to play jungle music.

The Voltis were powered by a Peachtree Audio integrated and had a Yamaha CD players as its source.  That was good sound.

[James Romeyn]

Would appreciate feedback on the Benchmark room if they employed their new little $3k power amp.  What speaker make/model? 

[MaxCast]

Thanks for the reports, guys.  I was planning on going with my boys as this show is close.  But, my oldest was confirmed today so this weekend was reserved for him.  Looking forward to next year.  Keep the pics and reports coming.

[dburna]

The Voltis were powered by a Peachtree Audio integrated and had a Yamaha CD players as its source.  That was good sound.

Voltis were powered by a Peachtree integrated used only as a preamp into Quicksilver EL34 mono amps.  Source was a Yamaha SACD player.  I just happened to remember this because I had a conversation with the Triode Wire rep (they shared the room with Volti) about the system configuration and the cache of SACDs they brought to the show.

-dB

[dminches]

Voltis were powered by a Peachtree integrated used only as a preamp into Quicksilver EL34 mono amps.  Source was a Yamaha SACD player.  I just happened to remember this because I had a conversation with the Triode Wire rep (they shared the room with Volti) about the system configuration.

-dB

Good memory. I said CD as opposed to SACD because we brought a CD to audition. I didn't realize the player also played SACDs. Either way, really good sound with modest electronics.

[fridays]

I don't know why, but this is one of the worst shows I've been to
I thought the Snake River room was decent, and a couple others,
I found the Logan muti channel room annoying, and the big  Logans ya  10 foot mouth thats real
I really can't stand the Demo rooms where they play 30 second sound bites Aka Kef, and a few others
The million dollar room wasn't that impressive, I do enjoy Mark W, Dr AIX however
I did enjoy running into a few guys I know Fred, Doug, Dwayne
Maybe next year will be better

[OzarkTom]

When you think about all of these audio companies are using the same power grid of the hotel all at the same time, it is a miracle that any of the rooms sounds good. Plus you also have many other hotel guests that are using the same grid. Back in the 80's when I went to the Chicago CES show, at least 2-3 floors would black-out because of the strain on the power grid. This would happen almost every year and the CES show was at the same hotel.

One of the reasons Danny Ritchie of GR Research gets high marks at these shows is because he uses an all battery system. In the 6moons report of last years Munich audio show, the reviewer gave an all battery system of the Living Voice the highest marks. Just take a look at the battery system that this company used.

http://www.6moons.com/industryfeatures/munich2013/1.html

[Vinnie R.]

When you think about all of these audio companies are using the same power grid of the hotel all at the same time, it is a miracle that any of the rooms sounds good. Plus you also have many other hotel guests that are using the same grid. Back in the 80's when I went to the Chicago CES show, at least 2-3 floors would black-out because of the strain on the power grid. This would happen almost every year and the CES show was at the same hotel.

One of the reasons Danny Ritchie of GR Research gets high marks at these shows is because he uses an all battery system. In the 6moons report of last years Munich audio show, the reviewer gave an all battery system of the Living Voice the highest marks. Just take a look at the battery system that this company used.

http://www.6moons.com/industryfeatures/munich2013/1.html

 

[TomS]

I enjoyed Axpona again this year, saw some old friends, and met a few new ones. Most of the notable rooms have already been covered, but I'll add my 2 cents.

- Volti and TWL was great again. I went back at least 3 times to relax and get over the bad sound in some of the other rooms. I liked their theme "Have Fun!", and that's what you get with these speakers (~$16k). They were by far the most enjoyable setup I listened to.

- Salk Sound's new Exotica 3's sounded great right off the bat on Friday, which is really hard to do with brand new speakers, especially at the opening bell. These are by far the best I've heard from Jim's team, at least for my tastes, and are going to be very competitive (~$12k). Terrific job!

- The big Venture's sounded good and very dominating, though at these crazy prices (~$180k??), as well as the Sonus Faber Aida's (~$120k) with a bevy of Audio Research's best gear, I suppose they should. Both were playing vinyl at the time, which may have had something to do with it.

- The little Aerial monitors with a small sub and Musical Design electronics really surprised me. A great sat/sub integration job on their part as they sounded plenty big and smooth.

- Clayton Shaw at Spatial had an unassuming little floor standing open baffle speaker ~24" tall, all passive xo, using pro drivers that was quite impressive for ~$2k.

- The Legacy Aeris's (~$18k) were in two rooms and showed again why they've received such great reviews in the mainstream magazines. In his seminar, Bill D also revealed a rather bold strategy with an 8 channel DSP preamp and apodizing filter dacs to drive multiple amps per speaker, measurement and eq capability, etc. This will start with the next generation Helix that looked like an Aeris on steroids, and will trickle down to others that currently use the Xilica processor. Pretty cool stuff from a master.

- I must have heard the tizzy tubes in the Vapor room as it was fairly harsh when I was there. It's good they figured it out, but it seems they always have some sort of drama with their gear. Great looking design for something under $8k.

- The TAD CR1's on the long wall setup, while still quite nice, weren't as good as I know they can sound. Andrew even switched rooms the first day as the 12th floor one just wasn't manageable. So much for moving to a new venue.

- Some were notable by their lack of presence this year, perhaps due to the flood of shows to cover now - Odyssey, VSA, Magnepan, Bryston, Ayre, and a few others I don't recall at the moment. You just can't do them all now.

Overall, it was fun, and nice to have a show close by in the Midwest again.

[James Romeyn]

It does seem likely that dirty power grid would diminish performance at hotel show venues.

KEF's LS50 always receives raves in professional reviews, and almost all users agree it's the bees knees.  Its forbear the Blade was one of my all time favorites.

Heard fairly well broken in LS50 on two different systems (in two rooms) at the San Francisco KEF dealer, and thought it was mediocre at best.  I can only imagine the fault is other than the speaker. 

[SwamisCat]

As soon as I got home I added about a dozen new artists to my Streaming favorites.

I had never heard Elvis performing Fever before. Another cool finding was Contextual by Petros Klampanis.

And of course I got some new music from the MA booth.  I love the way he records music.

[SwamisCat]

Would appreciate feedback on the Benchmark room if they employed their new little $3k power amp.  What speaker make/model?

Yes, Benchmark used their DAC2, their new amp and their own new speaker.  It was a small thing, in a small room, and sounded great without overwhelming everything like most smaller rooms.

Tasteful quality.

[jtwrace]

Computer Audiophile's View of Axpona

[Bob2]

I had a difficult time getting manufacturers or dealers to play music from my USB stick. This is computer audio people, not rocket science.

This is absolutely true. I had one tune on a usb stick and could not get anyone to play it. Many said they weren't setup for that...
I was ready to spend time listening and possibly buy but if I can't hear the music I usually listen to then I may not be so interested.
The DeVore Orangutan O/96 was a real surprise. A lot of sound coming out of that box! They were pretty busy by the time I got to their room so I didn't ask to play my music so I can't say if they were setup for that or not.

[avahifi]

Both the Salk Exotica speakers and the Janszen electrostatis were driven by Audio by Van Alstine Fet Valve hybrid power amplifiers at the show.  David Janszen even ordered a second Fet Valve 400R wired for 240V to use at the coming Munich, Germany show.

Interesting how our amplifier can get the best out of two wildly different speaker designs and loads and yet deserve not a mention in the comments above.

Frank Van Alstine

[roscoeiii]

Both the Salk Exotica speakers and the Janszen electrostatis were driven by Audio by Van Alstine Fet Valve hybrid power amplifiers at the show.  David Janszen even ordered a second Fet Valve 400R wired for 240V to use at the coming Munich, Germany show.

Interesting how our amplifier can get the best out of two wildly different speaker designs and loads and yet deserve not a mention in the comments above.

Frank Van Alstine

Frank, my guess would be that it is hard to gauge the contribution of associated gear on a speaker's sound. Harder to gauge a component with unfamiliar speakers.

That said, yes both those systems sounded great. And hard to sound great without system synergy. To put it lightly.

And great meeting you on Saturday. Good to see your room so crowded.

[diofan56]

There was a $1,000,000 stereo there?  What room was it in?

[James Romeyn]

There was a $1,000,000 stereo there?  What room was it in?

Fabio's? (Remember him?)

[charmerci]

Fabio's? (Remember him?)

You mean this dude now does high end stereos?