I visited most of the rooms at AXPONA this year and I would answer that there is no trend. There were line arrays, wide baffles, open baffles, side firing woofers with narrow baffles, you name it.
I agree that the "vintage thing" is making a comeback but I am biased as I own Devore O/93's and the Volti room sounded so good as did the Audio Note room.
I wonder about the aluminum cabinet Magico/YG Acoustic trend; first, two brands don't make for much of a trend and it seems to me that as many people find them dark/boring as find them satisfying. I spent a lot of time in front of a pair at Magico's while talking to Steve Dobbins and A.J. Van den Hul and for the price asked I don't hear the appeal. IMO there is a large segment of well-heeled audio enthusiasts who think high-tech equals better loudspeaker sound reproduction that is the audio equivalent of "looking for love in all the wrong places".
That said, I loved the sound of Vivid Audio Giya's so what do I know?
Another questionable trend (to me) is ribbon tweeters. They seem to be fashionable now but I lived with them for almost ten years in Acoustic Zen Adagios and they were "meh". Good but not great. They are a cheap trick imho. Give me a SEAS dome any day.
There is no arguing that like integrated amps, we will be seeing more and more active speakers with DSP. I see this as a niche product that will likely appeal to younger audio enthusiasts (which is a good thing). I may be proven wrong, but there is a mental and philosophical disconnect between an analogue front end and a digitally corrected loudspeaker. But then again, every time I see someone asking about a Sweet Vinyl Sugarcube or Mike Fremer sharing digital needle drops I scratch my head, so again, what do I know?
I agree that the "vintage thing" is making a comeback but I am biased as I own Devore O/93's and the Volti room sounded so good as did the Audio Note room.
I wonder about the aluminum cabinet Magico/YG Acoustic trend; first, two brands don't make for much of a trend and it seems to me that as many people find them dark/boring as find them satisfying. I spent a lot of time in front of a pair at Magico's while talking to Steve Dobbins and A.J. Van den Hul and for the price asked I don't hear the appeal. IMO there is a large segment of well-heeled audio enthusiasts who think high-tech equals better loudspeaker sound reproduction that is the audio equivalent of "looking for love in all the wrong places".
That said, I loved the sound of Vivid Audio Giya's so what do I know?
Another questionable trend (to me) is ribbon tweeters. They seem to be fashionable now but I lived with them for almost ten years in Acoustic Zen Adagios and they were "meh". Good but not great. They are a cheap trick imho. Give me a SEAS dome any day.
There is no arguing that like integrated amps, we will be seeing more and more active speakers with DSP. I see this as a niche product that will likely appeal to younger audio enthusiasts (which is a good thing). I may be proven wrong, but there is a mental and philosophical disconnect between an analogue front end and a digitally corrected loudspeaker. But then again, every time I see someone asking about a Sweet Vinyl Sugarcube or Mike Fremer sharing digital needle drops I scratch my head, so again, what do I know?