AXPONA 2019

In front of the room sponsored by GoldenEar Technology and PrimaLuna USA, I saw tube maven Kevin Deal (above)—the latter company's Primary Dude—displaying the insides of a PrimaLuna amplifier. PR man extraordinaire Anthony Chiarella was sitting next to him saying, "Its built like a Fabergé egg." Which indeed it was.

The tall guy standing next to me whined, "But it's built in China." I reminded him that most of the parts were manufactured in Europe and Japan, and challenged him to name a single American-made amp built to this level of craftsmanship.

In the room I saw the always-smiling and personable Sandy Gross: the golden ears behind GoldenEar—demonstrating his Triton One.R tower loudspeakers ($5999.98/pair). Using a vintage McIntosh CD player, he played organist Jean Guillou's recording of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, the Beach Boys' "In My Room," and a recording of Dean Martin being all Dino. The sound was liquid and lucid. And sweet and flowing.

The Triton One.Rs were powered by two (wired-for-mono) stereo PrimaLuna EVO 400 power amplifiers ($4699/each) and an EVO 400 preamplifier ($4499)— plus PrimaLuna's new $2899 tube DAC, which uses a tubed clock!