Chicago retailer Pro Musica, led by recording engineer Ken Christianson, had two rooms at AXPONA. The first featured a system built around Dynaudio's Confidence C2 Signature loudspeakers ($13,500/pair in standard Mk.II finishes; $15,000/pair in Signature finish). The electronics were a Naim NAP 300 amplifier with 300PS power supply ($11,495), Naim 282 preamp with NAPSC2 ($6795), Naim SuperCap2 DR preamp power supply ($6595), Naim UnityServe SSD server ($3045), Naim NDS streaming player ($10,995) with Naim 555PS DR power supply ($9645). Speaker cable was Naim NACA5 ($15/foot) and the equipment rack was the Quadraspire EVO (6 shelf, $1200).

Ken Christianson played me many of his "True Stereo" recordings in this room, including a superb Bill Frisell concert from 1992, some Charlie Haden jazz performances, and a wonderful country-ish song called "Two Black Guitars" from singer Bonnie Koloc's album Visual Voice, recorded by Ken in 2000. On all the recordings, the system got out of the way of the music, allowing voices and instruments to be projected with a purity of pitch and tonal colors, coupled with authority, that I had not been expecting. One of my three best-sounding rooms at the Show. (And my thanks to Jason Victor Serinus for the use of his photograph.)