I very much enjoyed AXPONA this year and opted for the 2 day pass. I was there both Friday and Saturday and am glad, not just because the amount of rooms to cover. @ihor mentioned the db levels at some of these rooms and I couldn’t agree more. There should be a max db level as one room with it set to high shot my ears on both days, to the point I couldn’t walk in another room and listen. Other thoughts in no particular order:
- The new location was fantastic and the atrium layout made it feel less crowded compared to rooms on both sides of the hallway at previous locations.
- ARC/Sonus Faber: one of the best systems at the show the past 3 years. It had it all, detail, soundstage, instrument timbre. If you heard analogue on it was even more of a treat.
- Wilson/D’Augustino: for the 3rd year in a row I did not like this combo. I didn’t think the sound was balanced and did not feel like I was sitting in a studio or concert hall. Disappointed again.
- Aesthetix: Great sound, both smooth and detailed and had a great under $10k TT.
- Joseph: He’s got it. The sense of realism and soundstage when paired with that tape deck is hard to beat.
- Martin Logan’s: every system I heard paired with MLs I thought performed extremely well. Detailed, great soundstage, sense of realism, and range were better than they’ve ever been. On one piece played the crescendo at the finale was just as lifelike and detailed as the single instrument in the middle of the score. Glad they didn’t try to pair with McIntosh this year again.
- Gobel Aeon - did anyone else get a chance to listen to these? I thought they were some of the best I’ve ever heard. The speaker was designed with an almost full range transducer combined with a woofer. Their engineer explained the transducer to me, and it doesnt work in the same way a dipole does that moves forward and back to reproduce sound. Therefore you don’t get sound bouncing off the back wall out of phase. When listening I felt as though we were sitting in the orchestra hall or in the studio. The sound reproduction was incredible in every way (IMO). I guess for $150k they should sound good :). In comparing them to a speaker of similar price range, I would take them over the Raidho $140k models all day long as their life like presence and transparency were far and away better.
- Lots of other good stuff too! Missed out on hearing the Odyssey stuff as my ears were too shot after the Maggie’s room nor did I get to hear Atma-sphere for same reason (though not the Maggie’s).