[Mr Peabody]

First off sorry to Don who I was hoping to see but never found his room.

I will begin with the room I most wanted to bring home with me,  Stenheim speakers, Model 3, driven by Nagra.  There were certainly many other larger more expensive rooms but this system did it for me.

MBL, never disappoints.

VAC driving Acora knocked my socks off.  Those Acora speakers ar incredible and by comparison a bargain at $37k.  The JW Acoustics analog rig so impressive.  The new Lampizator Horizon DAC was in this room, it sounded great but I found myself preferring the JWA set up more than any other source in the room.  Someone told me the VAC monoblocks were $150k, the Acora were right at home with that.

I love the ARC/Wilson combo, that was another high ranking room for me.

One of my surprises,  Marten speakers had one of there small sets there, Parker, something.  Driven by Ayre this was a very pleasing system.  I had heard a large set of Marten before and came away with a not so good impression.  Shows if hearing something once at a show and it doesn't sound right, don't just write them off.

As another example, a excellent room was YG driven by AudioNet, the Humboldt I believe.  My first time hearing anything AudioNet and I thought it was very good and further boasted my opinion of YG, great synergy with this pairing.  While talking YG their powered speaker called Live I liked a lot, excellent bass response with good detail and control.

I heard the new Confidence 60's which are now the Dyn Flagship at $50k according to the rep there.  Driven by Octave Audio made a good sounding system.

I had an interesting encounter with Modwright who I have never heard before.  A room had Modwright's hybrid integrated amp driving a set of Revel 328b.  I have heard this speaker a few times with some good electronics but they have never sounded as impressive as driven by that Modwright.  So then I wander into another room later and the same Modwright integrated is driving a set of the new KEFRef 3 Meta, that Meta version is certainly an improvement over the former version that already sounded good.

I also finally got to hear Luxman who was driving the Magico M6.  You guys know I'm a Magico fan, this just didn't sound like a good combo to me, not bad just maybe not so good of a match.

Another Magico room was A5's driven by Constellation who I have been also really wanting to hear.  Constellation was the Taurus power amp.  The sound of this system was good but I found I didn't enjoy the sound as much as I was hoping.

Boulder was paired with Sonus Faber, I'm not a big SF fan but the Boulder had them sounding better than I've previously heard them sound.

Krell was showing a new amp, a KSA something but still using the XD technology, nothing like the Prior KSA amps although they are trying to remind people who the company was .  One of those moments where you are listening to the sound wile someone describe's it and you ask yourself, is he talking about the same thing I'm hearing.  Don't get me wrong, the amp is good, doubles down to 2 ohms and fully stable into 1 ohm is what we are told.  The sound is Krell, just not like former KSA, which some may feel a good thing.

Most rooms were spinning vinyl, analog was out in force.  Of course, most had some form of streaming as an alternative for anyone asking.

Bending Wave had the Wadax streaming system and Gobel speakers and I'm pretty sure CHP electronics.  This is an incredible system, I did feel it suffered some gymnasium effects from the large room.  Like being at a live concert.

Saturdayaround 6 an the show was closing, I began to hear Volbeat playing at a loud volume, so naturally I gravitate that way, listen to the rest of the song and most of a song by Ghost.  This room was rocking out using Paradigm Founder128 speakers driven by Anthem separates.  It did play loud, thunderous bass, I do think the amp may have been straining or it may have just been way to loud for that size room.  I think the latter though as most of the higher end systemskept better composure at high volumes but I don't remember any at quite that high of SPL.

Overall another fun trip to AXPONA for me.

[Mitsuman]

So you were in the SOTA room listening to the KEF's? They are impressive I heard them before they got packed up for the show.

[FireGuy]

"I began to hear Volbeat playing at a loud volume, so naturally I gravitate that way, listen to the rest of the song and most of a song by Ghost.  This room was rocking out using Paradigm Founder128 speakers driven by Anthem separates."

I gotta add, it's refreshing to hear vendor(s) demonstrating with music other than violas, organs, jazz and Diana Krall.  Volbeat and Ghost are exceptional bands.   Sadly there are no shows near me.   Closest is Montreal...and that's too far.

[dcbingaman]

VPE Electrodynamics was there in the EXPO Hall.  Right across from Wally Tools.  We had a great show.  We were told three interesting things: 1) Show Attendance was up from 2019 - which was a record year, 2) VPE Electrodynamics was, by far, the most popular booth in the EXPO Hall, and 3) if we turned it up one more time we'd be booted out, drawn and quartered.  We will get a room next year.

Magnepan really likes our product.  We talking about future collaboration in some form.  Stay tuned !

[Mr Peabody]

Mitsuman, not sure who was the main sponsor of the room.  It was KEF Ref 3 Meta driven by Modwright's hybrid integrated.  I'm visually impaired so I sometimes don't get the full information of what's going on in a room.

Glad things went well Don.  If you were cranking it up it should have got my attention, LOL  I'm not sure if you were able to get around but in one room a guy had the Pass XP32 but had a rare Pass amp that had 1,024 MOSFET's pe channel.  He says Nelson never got around t building it for him and finally sent him the kit.  He says there ar only two of these amps in existence so far.

[Mitsuman]

Mitsuman, not sure who was the main sponsor of the room.  It was KEF Ref 3 Meta driven by Modwright's hybrid integrated.  I'm visually impaired so I sometimes don't get the full information of what's going on in a room.

Glad things went well Don.  If you were cranking it up it should have got my attention, LOL  I'm not sure if you were able to get around but in one room a guy had the Pass XP32 but had a rare Pass amp that had 1,024 MOSFET's pe channel.  He says Nelson never got around t building it for him and finally sent him the kit.  He says there ar only two of these amps in existence so far.

Yes, it was SOTA's room. I'm good friends with Christian Griego the now owner of SOTA. I got to listen to the KEF's with the Modwright at his shop before he packed them up and took them to the show. I was very impressed by how they image and the natural bass extension. I cannot budget $15k for speakers, but I'm lucky that I get to hear them without having to shell out the cash.

[dcbingaman]

Hi, Mr. Peabody - I thought I saw you there, but was so freaking busy I just didn't have time to look up anybody.  Being a guest is a lot more fun than being an Exhibitor.  (Kinda like beingbthe host at a pool party with beer - lots of fun for the guest, but the host is busy keeping the ice coming and making sure no one drowns, LOL !!) 

Steve Dear (Refined Audio) is a friend and he told about the second "1000 JFET" amp.  Toshiba stopped making those JFETs so buildng another one gets expensive fast.  Steve also told me that Pass is working another version using Fairchild F113's JFETS which are plentiful and cost about a nickle a piece.  You may see something on First Watt about this soon.

Cheers, Binger !

[ptman]

One of my favorite things about shows like AXPONA is the chance to meet the designers/owners/principals/dealers who are in the rooms with their products. Folks like Jeff Joseph of Joseph Audio, the Margules family, Bruce Jacobs, the designer of the Bayz speakers and many others. To me, the people behind the products influence my buying decisions as much as the products themselves, and its good to get to meet and know them.

The overall attitude in all of the rooms was positive and everyone was putting out a great effort.

Some of the rooms (not yet mentioned) that impressed me, and of course YEMV (Your Ears May Vary):

- Scaena speakers fed by DCS electronics and custom amps
- TAD Evolution 2 speakers fed by T+A HV amp and digital pre-amp with Wolf server
- Valorem speakers fed by Jadis electronics. A small standmount speaker handmade to order in Addison, Illinois. $8500. The owner/designer was great to talk with.
- Vimberg Mino speakers fed by Karan electronics, Taiko Extreme and Crystal Connect cables
- Muraudio speakers fed by a Hegel receiver
- The Borreson rooms (with the 02 floorstanders and the 01 standmounts)
- Cube Audio speakers driven by a custom, one-off Nelson Pass amp
- Bayz Courant speakers driven by Pilium and Esoteric
- Heretic speakers driven by Lab12 electronics. These unique speakers (they look like the monitors a band has at the front of the stage) had a sound that grew on you. Designer from Montreal was a nice guy.
- From a budget perspective, a lot has been said about the Polk/Denon combo. From my standpoint, the orange-grilled JBL bookshelf speakers provided big sound for reasonable dollars.

...and, Atohm speakers driven by Atoll electronics with Siltech cabling from our own Music for Pleasure. They had good music, great sound and a lot of activity in the room!

So, it's your final day, last couple hours. You've seen all the rooms. What to do? I revisited those rooms where I just wanted to sit back, relax and dig the music. I guess those are my Top 3:
- Marten Parker speakers powered by Ayre Electronics. I sat behind Ken Micallef, who writes for Absolute Sound, earlier in the day and listened to Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" and was transported (a word I don't use easily). He wrote about it in his online post of the room on their website. I had to go back and listen to more.
- Joseph Audio Pearl Graphene speakers powered by Doshi Electronics with J. Sikori turntable. Jeff Joseph was in the room to discuss his speakers. A record producer was in the room to discuss the music from his record label that he produced and which was playing. A great experience, and the sound was solid and engaging.
- Vivid Audio Giya speakers powered by JMF and Ideon electronics. I only left this room because I knew I wanted to see my other top 3 before the show ended. Probably my top pick.

All told, a fun show. A good crowd, but not too crowded. Looking forward to next year.