[Hydro]

Dennis, I will have Terry Pate on my name tag. Would like to meet you. I have so many speakers that you have had a hand in the making of:)

[DMurphy]

I hope we can meet up Terry.   I'll be checking in on the Salk rooms pretty frequently. 

[Hydro]

I will try and be at the Salk rooms around 2:30 on Saturday.

[IndyLions]

The first day at the show went great. Those new Song 3 Beat speakers looked and sounded terrific. I probably spent the most time in the Salk – Schiit room, because they are demo-ing the speakers/preamp/amp combination I have ordered but not received yet.

The comments in the rooms were extremely positive.  People couldn’t believe the sound and the value proposition.   For me, it verified that I made a wise choice  in my purchase decision.

Hopefully Jim and his lovely wife can survive supporting 3 rooms on 2 different floors.  Tough duty!

[DEP14]

I went on Friday also.  The Koa finish is way cool. 

I definitely heard a difference between the AudioTechnology and Eton midranges.  (I think the Eton and Accuton are more alike than different, the Audio Technology is definitely more laid back).

I thought both the main room Jim was on and the room up on 7 with the BeAT sounded good given the rooms. Really, two of the best rooms I was in all day.  The room on 7 with the BeAT, had a guy pushing some small squares of crystals that "really opened up the room, couldn't I tell how much better it sounded?".... I smiled and chatted him up (though held back on saying... well I have a suspicion that it's the speakers but hey, who knows if you can sell cards with crystals more power to you).

I was really bummed out in the Jolida/Black Ice room as Jim's speakers looked great, but in my opinion the room was a disaster all day.  I tried going 3 times.  The first hour of the show they had that ridiculous black-ice eq 4 channel thing running so hot it was distracting.  The second time I went back it was turned down a bit, but between way too many chairs in the room, with 4 big speakers it was just insane.  The guys working the room were constantly fidgeting with equipment and it was just difficult to even get a listen.  The Encores looked awesome though, and the third time I was in I did get about 30 seconds of listening before a person stood in front of one of the speakers for a good 2 minutes before I got up and left.  In those 30 seconds... I was impressed! (though still found that 4 channel thing distracting).

[Paret]

Salk rooms were a definite highlight of Axpona this weekend.

We had a great time and the sound was outstanding.






My son taking a snapshot of the Salk’s with the Song 3 Beat

Great to be here.

Luis D. Paret
Keller, TX

[hawkeyejw]

Wish I’d been able to go. I’ve been wanting a pair of Salk speakers for many years, starting to think I may have to pull the trigger on a set of the WOW1s...

[DMurphy]

I went on Friday also.  The Koa finish is way cool. 

I definitely heard a difference between the AudioTechnology and Eton midranges.  (I think the Eton and Accuton are more alike than different, the Audio Technology is definitely more laid back).

I thought both the main room Jim was on and the room up on 7 with the BeAT sounded good given the rooms. Really, two of the best rooms I was in all day.  The room on 7 with the BeAT, had a guy pushing some small squares of crystals that "really opened up the room, couldn't I tell how much better it sounded?".... I smiled and chatted him up (though held back on saying... well I have a suspicion that it's the speakers but hey, who knows if you can sell cards with crystals more power to you).

I was really bummed out in the Jolida/Black Ice room as Jim's speakers looked great, but in my opinion the room was a disaster all day.  I tried going 3 times.  The first hour of the show they had that ridiculous black-ice eq 4 channel thing running so hot it was distracting.  The second time I went back it was turned down a bit, but between way too many chairs in the room, with 4 big speakers it was just insane.  The guys working the room were constantly fidgeting with equipment and it was just difficult to even get a listen.  The Encores looked awesome though, and the third time I was in I did get about 30 seconds of listening before a person stood in front of one of the speakers for a good 2 minutes before I got up and left.  In those 30 seconds... I was impressed! (though still found that 4 channel thing distracting).

I joined the ranks of the bummed when I checked out the Jolida room.   All I could think of was that I had completely lost any voicing skills I may have had.  The highs were tizzy and the sound was diffuse and totally unnatural.   I didn't realize at the time that there was another pair of Encores (with the previous Transducer Lab Be tweeter) playing behind me pumping out phasey stuff.     And I found out later that the Jolida had a tone control cranked to the right.  Jim, of course, had no control of the electronics--he just supplied the speakers.  All-in-all, I was disappointed in the show in general.  I much preferred the previous venue, and not just because I would have saved $80 in cab fare from the airport.  The small rooms were too small, with lots of hard reflective surfaces that made voices hard and sibilant, and the large rooms were too large.  And, as usual, there was way too much vinyl going on, most poorly recorded classic rock from back then.  I'm sure a lot of the uber-expensive speakers I heard were fine products, but it was hard to tell them apart from the "cheap" stuff (under $15,000) given the problematic source material. 

[sfox7076]

Always enjoy the commentary on the show.  I have never done the show. 

[johzel]

The highs were tizzy and the sound was diffuse and totally unnatural.   I didn't realize at the time that there was another pair of Encores (with the previous Transducer Lab Be tweeter) playing behind me pumping out phasey stuff.

Dennis, as the owner of the original "BeAT" pair I'd be interested in a comparison between the "new" Satori beryllium tweeter and the Transducer Lab tweeter.  My BeATs have been boxed and stored since August waiting for our new house to be ready (I miss them) . . . maybe I should sell and upgrade    .  Just kidding (I think) but would be interested in the comparison.  Thanks.

[DMurphy]

They're both great tweeters.  We didn't switch to the Satori because it had any sonic advantages.  The previous TL Lab tweeter was discontinued, and so we checked out the Satori.  I don't think I could pass a blind test as to which was which. 

[UCrazyKid]

AXPONA was a lot of fun this year. I arrived late in the day on Sunday to the Salk/Jolida (Black Ice Audio) room and was treated to some less common audiophile tracks, Metallica's "The Unforgiven" and Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell" from vinyl at high volume through the Song3 Encores. It was awesome. Sizzle and punch without being fatiguing, truly wonderful. 

I also heard the Song3-A in the Schiit room and they were great as well but harder to characterize (for me) by the music they were playing at the time. I had only read great things about Salk and never heard them before yesterday. I am completely enamored.

[Art_Chicago]

here are some positive notes about Salk/Shiit room !

http://www.avsforum.com/axpona-2018-audio-expo-blog-and-recap-part-3/

[DMurphy]

Thanks.   The opening of the review ("More Salk") makes it sound like he reviewed one of the other rooms, but I couldn't find anything under Wells or Jolida. 

[Bones13]

I got to spend a bit of time up front of the Schiit / Song 3a room, the chosen target for my small listening room. Beautiful in appearance, and sound. I was in the back of the Song 3 Encore room, which was pretty good for where I was standing. Did not fight for a front seat. Your rooms were popular!

Congratulations on a great show at Axpona.