AXPONA 2013

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AXPONA 2013
Giving Voice to Music
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Mar 15, 2013  |  3 comments
You can always count on Doug White, owner of The Voice That Is in Newtown, PA, to provide excellent sound and an attractive display. At AXPONA, he came through in spades, rendering John Atkinson's recording of male ensemble Cantus singing Eric Whitacre's Lux Aurumque with extreme beauty. The system did equally well on Rimsky-Korsakov's well-worn Dance of the Tumblers, producing superb sound and nice depth. Lacking only were the ultimate transparency and room-filling soundstage that I encountered in far too few rooms at AXPONA.
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AXPONA 2013
Hands Full
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Mar 12, 2013  |  1 comments
At the opening reception, AXPONA organizer Steve A Davis occasionally played double duty, retrieving drinks for folks as his wife Carmen dispensed drink tickets along with press and exhibitor badges. At one point, he even managed to hush the well-lubricated crowd long enough to pay homage to his late business partner, Andrew Spaulding, to whom he dedicated Chicago's first consumer audio show in 14 years.
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AXPONA 2013
Happy Desperation
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Mar 14, 2013  |  0 comments
The folks from Happy Sounds of Japan were doing everything in their power to tame reflections in their room. Here's the left side of the room; the right was just as interesting. I can't recall if they also requested some of the room treatment from ATS Acoustics that AXPONA made available to anyone who requested it.
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AXPONA 2013
Happy Sounds
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Mar 14, 2013  |  3 comments
Happy Sounds? Jacintha didn't seem to be laughing her way through "Light My Fire," but the sound was definitely pleasingly smooth and solid, if a bit dry and with a grayish background. The intriguing-looking speakers were Newform Research's No Holds Barred Coaxial Ribbon LineSource ($11,400/pair). Claimed to be "the first in the world to implement a coaxial ribbon linesource configuration," they contain high-impedance, wide-dispersion, monopole ribbons.
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AXPONA 2013
Headphone Awe from Audeze
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Mar 12, 2013  |  0 comments
Sankar Thiagasmudram, President and co-founder of Audeze, was happy to show the company's LCD-2 ($995) and LCD-3 ($1995) planar-magnetic headphones. I was wowed by these headphones when I encountered them at Audio High last year.
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AXPONA 2013
HiFi Imports' Big System
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Mar 13, 2013  |  0 comments
For every reason under the sun, the big system from HiFi Imports of Colorado Springs should have sounded spectacular. Alas, given the 10' air space above the ceilings of most of the big conference rooms on the Doubletree's mezzanine, the law of the day was, the bigger they are, the farther they fall.
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AXPONA 2013
HiFiMan
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Mar 12, 2013  |  0 comments
A rep from Chinese-based HiFiMan arrived at AXPONA with a host of new products. At the top of their list were the new RE-400 earbuds ($99). Also on display, the HM-901 digital audio player ($999), which handles multiple file formats, HE-300 dynamic driver headphones ($299), and HE-6 planar magnetic headphones ($1299).
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AXPONA 2013
High Water Sound at Axpona
John Atkinson  |  Mar 14, 2013  |  2 comments
Jeffrey Catalano of Manhattan retailer High Water Sound missed his vocation—he should have been a DJ, as listening to his choice of music is always a Show highlight for me. As I entered Jeffrey was playing the old Stones song "Wild Horses" but it didn't sound like the version I knew from the band's Sticky Fingers album. Yes it was Mick Jagger singing, but the backing was more like a demo. Jeffrey showed me the LP cover: The Rolling Stones—Stripped. It went on my must-buy list.
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AXPONA 2013
Icon from the UK
John Atkinson  |  Mar 14, 2013  |  0 comments
UK company Icon Audio was a new name to me, but as Adrian Fearey explained to me, they manufacture a wide range of tube gear. Adrian was demming the FRm2 floorstanding speaker, which uses a single 8" driver and has a claimed sensitivity of 96dB/W/m! US distribution is apparently by Music Direct.
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AXPONA 2013
International Phonograph Inc.
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Mar 15, 2013  |  2 comments
I wish I could say something of import about International Phonograph Inc.'s room, which was showcasing the Artisan Fidelity turntable. The marvelous TAD Reference One loudspeakers were mated with Lamm electronics to play master tapes of jazz and other genres. Alas, there was far more talking than music going on when I stopped by, and the promised equipment list never made it to my inbox. Hopefully, others can fill in the blanks in the comments section below.
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AXPONA 2013
JPauls Design: Clean and Elegant
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Mar 15, 2013  |  0 comments
JPauls Design of Cary, IL offered a handsome, visually sophisticated set-up that paired Wisdom Audio's L75 loudspeakers ($18,700/pair), SCS subwoofer ($4000), and SC-1 System Controller ($6500) with Krell's Phantom III preamp ($5500), Connect media server ($2500), and Evolution 2250e amplifier ($8000). There was a lot of rapping going on, with music interrupted for explication, but what I heard of Johnny Cash displayed a very warm and inviting midrange. A recording of drums favored slam over transparency and natural timbre.
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AXPONA 2013
Krolo Design
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Mar 13, 2013  |  0 comments
Sandwiched between rooms, apart from the other tables on the mezzanine, Miko Krolo of Canada displayed his new line of attractive equipment racks and supports. By heart an audiophile, and by trade a designer of residential interiors, Krolo began his company just one year ago. On view were the Krolo Design Tomo Audio Rack ($3300–4300, depending upon number of shelves) and Krolo Enhancers equipment supports ($260/set of three). The racks include solid aluminum rods and stainless steel supports—I hope I have that right—and shelves float on cones.
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AXPONA 2013
Kyomi–CAT–Verity–Stealth
John Atkinson  |  Mar 15, 2013  |  2 comments
Verity's US distributor John Quick (right) shows the Amadis speakers, with Brian Wasserman

Back in 2009 I recorded classical pianist George Vatchnadze for a live-vs-recorded dem. As well as being a superb classical pianist and teacher—he teaches piano at Chicago's DePaul University—George has a parallel life as an audio retailer. His company, Kyomi Audio, had two 8th-floor rooms at AXPONA, featuring Verity Amadis speakers ($30,000/pair) driven by CAT amplification and hooked up with the huge and expensive helium-filled Stealth cables. Sources were either an Acoustic Signature turntable fitted with a Funk Firm arm and Colibri cartridge, or an Esoteric transport feeding data to a prototype non-oversampling D/A processor from Stealth, this featuring the AD1865 DAC chip.

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AXPONA 2013
Laufer Teknik Wows
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Mar 15, 2013  |  1 comments
Both at and post-show, Buffer (aka L. Langdon Ergmann, Jr.) was charmingly apologetic. Having read my "As We See It," "There's No Business without Show Business," in the April issue of Stereophile just hours before I walked into his Laufer Teknik room, he knew that his inability to supply a list of components and prices, add a track to his Memory Player from one of my six USB sticks, or even tell me what music was playing on his own music server (as in "We don't have an internet connection, so we can't identify the track") had left him a prime candidate for the Duncecap Dealer of the Day award.
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AXPONA 2013
Legacy
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Mar 12, 2013  |  0 comments
Bill Dudleston didn't haul Legacy's mightiest marvels to AXPONA, but what he did bring had great potential. Unfortunately, the huge 10' high airshaft above his room basically did in what I heard. His first system, which alternated between the Legacy Aeris in Sapele Pommele finish (outer speakers, starting at $17,750/pair), which I auditioned, and Legacy Signature SE in Rosewood finish (starting at $6450/pair), also included Coda's CSX amplifier ($6000) and CP preamplifier ($3500), Ayon's CD 2S ($6350), and Morrow Audio SP7 Grand Reference speaker cables ($1499/pair) and MA6 Grand Reference interconnects ($899/pair).
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