Axpona 2019

I've not been to an audio show in almost 3 decades so was a bit overwhelmed and only had 3 hours to make sense of things. I decided that I was going to simply see which rooms automatically engaged me with the music played, I imagine the type of music and recording factored heavily.  I found myself most engaged in the parasound/buchardt room and the Wharfedale linton room, that was good news considering they are amongst the lowest priced speakers at the show. I also heard the Kii 3 (with the new lower section), maybe it was the recording, everything was solid and tight but I found the experience fatiguing. I feel sometimes I have a reverse placebo effect, the bigger and more elaborate looking the set up the higher the expectation is to be somehow floored, the tiny buchardts by contrast seemed to make a sound that belied what you were in front of. The lintons were playing a heavy electronic track which I enjoyed, they might be coloured and tubby sounding? but at that moment I was really enjoying myself.

as my second audio show in 30 years I did enjoy axpona but I'd probably not go again unless I was specifically wanting to hear a speaker that I was seriously interested in buying and was otherwise unable to audition (i live close so could consider it an audition of sorts). For me personally the unfamiliarity of most music meant I really could not decipher what I was hearing in relation to the systems average signature. Many rooms were playing midrange centered music with good recordings often just vocal and a couple of instruments so with eyes closed I'd have been hard pressed to know if I was listening to a 1.5K shoe box or a couple of 50K giants to be honest, I'm always amazed at how big some small speakers can sound if the music has limited bass.