2019 Axpona Review


Went to Axpona on Friday and Saturday. A really great show with a surprising number of TT being used for demonstration My favorite sound was the Avantgarde Acoustics Duo Mezzo XD speakers. $60k and 107dB/Watt efficient! The best (?) sounding demonstration at the show, certainly the most fun. I also liked the MBL setup. My personal favorite sound, at a reasonable cost, was the Gale Sanders Eikon active loudspeaker system, $25k including the pre-amp/processor. To my ears this system came close in SQ to some of the systems costing 10-20 times the price. Furthermore, the system size and appearance was such that it is not going to make you feel like a guest in your own living room. If I was starting all over again in HiFi, the Eikon system would be my first choice of equipment. Quite simply beautiful sounding and looking.

The ATC active and passive SCM50 speakers were very impressive. Both versions sounded excellent, the difference between the active and passive version was very apparent. Not necessarily better or worse, just different.

OK, the Paragon room demonstrating Dan D’Agostino electronics with Wilson Alexandria XLF speakers plus Thor’s Hammer SW with a very expensive Clear Audio SOTA TT and DCS digital front end was breath taking; as is the price and size of this system. To me, Mr D’Agostino is the Leonardo da Vinci of Hifi, an extraordinarily talented artist/engineer who designs and builds incredibly beautiful and sounding products. Dan is indeed the man.

In terms of music, the Lyn Stanley demonstration of Pink Cadillac (SACD and DD, to be released May 10) was hands down the best sounding and fun music, I liked this music so much I heard it maybe 10 times. Lyn also gave a really good/informative description of the recording. The other surprise recording was Illinois Jacquet Swing’s The Thing. Beautiful dynamic jazz, hard to believe this music was recorded in 1957. To my ears, sounded as good as anything modern used for demonstration purposes at the show. All the music used in the Avantgarde Acoustic room was superb; my personal favorite was from the movie Swing Kids, Swing Swing Swing. Certainly made me want to dance, an incredible dynamic and realistic sound on the Duo Mezzo XD speakers. The German gentlemen demonstrating this system was informative and fun to speak with. The other piece of music I really liked was You & I by Flur Pernille Rosendahl. great recording and sounding techno pop (Danish I believe).

Marcus
mgattmch
Post removed 
Mgattmch,

Heard the Eikons and they didn’t do it for me. Perhaps it was the music but not really that impressive in either the clarity or soundstaging, They were very slim and did sound bigger then their size.

The Legacy Aeris is also $25k and comes with the same room correction system that Eikon uses it is a Wavelet by Bohmer from Sweden.

The Aeris throws a bigger soundstage, looks beautiful, has way better bass, plays louder and all you need to do is add an amplifier and you are done.

So for $25k plus an amp a better overall package IMHO.

The ATC do active very well, however, the difference is less in their demo’s at they both are using ATC electronics, the major difference is the active crossover vs the passives, active crossover’s have huge advantages.

We have a different take on the Dagastino electronics, sure they are pretty but you are paying a fortune for that look, and yes the copper heatsinks look great and enable a small package but you could use conventional heatsinks and save a ton of money. For the same price as a pair of Mommentum mono blocks you could get a set of T+A PA 3000 with seperate power supplies, which are one magnificent setup.

So the question for the same, or similar amounts of money you can get better sounding electronics, the Gryphon gear we would take over the Dag gear same with the T+A gear although the presentation at this show did not impress us vs how the gear really sounds both T+A rooms were way too small.

T+A needs to step up how they do shows, the company is the largest electronics manufactuer in Germany but they are very cautious at spending marketing money in the US so even doing Axpona was a big first step for them. As more dealers come on for them in the US you should see more and larger rooms from them in the future.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ T+A dealers






Shocker, Audiotroll finds a way to spin a post to be about what he sells, and how it's better.  

While I do like Legacy, just amazing (not really) how you spun the OP's enjoyment of a speaker to talk about how what you sell does it better.

Here is an idea, spend some money and get your own room to display products at Axpona next year.  I'm sure you will have the best set-up and deal with the room acoustics better than anyone else.

keep trolling and shilling...
@trudat,I think most people are aware of that and discount what he says. His recent ad, er, discussion is about some digital product. If you don't have one, you need to get one from him :-)