LATEST ADDITIONS

VTL S-400 Series II Reference Amp, Stenheim Alumine Five Speakers, dCS Rossini Player, Nordost Odin 2 Cables
AXPONA 2019
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Apr 13, 2019  |  1 comments
"OMG, it's music" is the first thing I wrote down in this room. "So much of what I've missed at this show is here." On master recordist Peter McGrath's live 24/88.2 MQA recording of pianist Benjamin Grosvenor playing the Sarabande from Bach's French Suite No.5, I heard the natural ring of his piano's top notes resounding and decaying in an uncannily realistic depiction of a large, open venue. Given that plans to attend Grosvenor's performance at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on Saturday night were scrapped due to the musician's strike, this was certainly the next best thing.
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Wynn Audio & Crystal Cable Under the Hood
AXPONA 2019
John Atkinson  |  Apr 13, 2019  |  0 comments
"What the heck?" Behind the Master Class Area was a giant tan-colored hooded construction, looking like a giant Zamboni machine and labeled "Wynn Audio," with a viewing window at the front.
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Preparing for the Big Day
AXPONA 2019
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Apr 13, 2019  |  1 comments
Saturday is always the most crowded and intense day of any show . . .
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Vimberg Tonda Speakers, Karan M 2000 Amps, Thales Statement Tonearm, Crystal Cable Future Dream Cables
AXPONA 2019
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Apr 13, 2019  |  0 comments
Canada's Wynn Audio sure mixed it up, to good effect, in a system that included two premieres: Crystal Cable's Future Dream 15th Anniversary limited-edition series, which combines proprietary monocrystal silver and silver-gold alloy in a four-coaxial-conductor construction insulated by Dupont Kapton and Teflon, and the Entreq Silver Tellus Infinity ground box ($2400 each), a passive device that, using a different technology to Nordost's QKore grounding units, claims to remove ground noise from components.
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Vandersteen System 9 Speakers and Amplification, Channel D Lino C Phono Stage, AudioQuest Niagara 7000 Power Conditioner, HRS SXR Silver Rack
AXPONA 2019
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Apr 13, 2019  |  0 comments
Vandersteen lovers, of which there are many, may stare in disbelief at these words, but AXPONA 2019 marks the first time that I truly got why so many people rave about Vandersteen's sound. At least I think I did. Even if I didn't fully get what other people get, I got enough to say, "Oh yeah, uh huh, that Vandersteen midrange is surely something worth writing home about." In fact, based on what I heard, I see why some people would prefer to cart up the whole thing and let it do the speaking.
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Ayre Acoustics QX-8, QX-5, & Codex
AXPONA 2019
John Atkinson  |  Apr 13, 2019  |  0 comments
Getting ready for the first day's visitors in AXPONA's Ear Gear Expo, Ayre's vice president and CTO, Ariel Brown, was busy setting up the Colorado's company's QX-5 Twenty D/A processor ($8950, right) Codex D/A headphone amplifier ($1795, hidden in center, and the new QX-8 D/A processor ($4450 with S/PDIF inputs, $4950 with asynchronous USB input, $5450 with USB and Roon Ready Ethernet, left).
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PrimaLuna EVO 400 Preamp and Amp, GoldenEar Triton One.R Speakers
AXPONA 2019
Herb Reichert  |  Apr 13, 2019  |  1 comments
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.
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Music Hall In the Marketplace
AXPONA 2019
John Atkinson  |  Apr 13, 2019  |  0 comments
Celebrating 21 years of affordable Music Hall turntables, the irascible Roy Hall (right) was in fine form on AXPONA's opening day, offering show specials.
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Woo Audio WA11 Topaz Headphone Amp-DAC, WA33 Headphone Amp, and Mysphere 3.1 Headphones
AXPONA 2019
Herb Reichert  |  Apr 13, 2019  |  5 comments
I'm a little old to be a fan (but I am), and some say singer-songwriter Billie Eilish is a little young (just turned 17) to be as famous and successful as she is. But hey, what's-his-name from the Jackson Five was only five years old when he was that famous . . .
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Janszen Lotus Electrostatic Headphones
AXPONA 2019
John Atkinson  |  Apr 13, 2019  |  0 comments
On my way to AXPONA's Master Class Theater to catch Rob Robinson's seminar on current-mode phono preamplifiers, I was buttonholed by David Janszen. The Janszen name is synonymous with electrostatic drive-units—the midrange unit in the legendary Wilson WAMM was based on Janszen technology—and at AXPONA David was demonstrating prototype electrostatic headphones, the Lotus.
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