One unusual thing in the large Legacy space at AXPONA was the placement of two pairs of beautiful-looking speakers: Legacy's V system and the Aeris. They stood in a straight line angled about 30° away from one of the long walls, albeit parallel to a curtain that the Legacy team had placed there. The grouping of equipment was also quite far over to the left of the room, instead of near the center of the wall.

Longtime readers of Stereophile may recall my 2019 rave review of the diminutive low-cost Transparent One Encore active loudspeaker ($599). The reason I ended up reviewing a bargain component that retailed for well under four figures—one that measured quite well, I might add—was not because Stereophile's former editor, John Atkinson, assigned the product to me. Rather, after being blown away by Vanatoo's sound at an audio show, I asked to do the review.

Now, Seattle-based Gary Gesellchen (above) is preparing to release that speaker's successor, the Vanatoo Transparent One Encore Plus ($649.99).

When I first heard JMF Audio components from France at AXPONA 2022, I had no idea that, paired with the right speakers, they would produce heavenly sound. But in the room jointly sponsored by Fidelis Distribution, who handles Harbeth loudspeakers, and Audio Skies, which distributes JMF Audio and Ideon Audio, the mating of JMF with Harbeth delivered some of the finest-sounding music I heard at AXPONA 2023.

Electrocompaniet of Norway, too long absent from this writer's high-end radar, celebrated its 50th anniversary by showing the new AW 800M Nemo 2 800w monoblocks ($45,000/pair), EC 4.8 MKII reference preamp ($4900), EMC 1 MKV Reference CD player ($6800), ECM 1 MKII Media Center (a media player & streamer with DAC and preamp output, $5700), and ECP 2 MK II MM/MC phono amp ($2900). To celebrate the occasion, Lasse Danielsen, Sales and Marketing Director Electrocompaniet (left in photo) and Bjorn Kindingstad, company CEO (right), journeyed to AXPONA.

William Duncan (right), who lives relatively close to me in Sammamish, WA, has been after me for a while to hear Laufer Teknik Product's new offerings. Finally, the opportunity arrived at AXPONA. Sharing the room with John Siau of Benchmark Audio (left), Duncan and Laufer Teknik Products showed The Note ($32,500/pair), a line array speaker designed by Mark Porzilli of Melos vacuum-tube electronics fame. The price includes a SB 3000 subwoofer ($1010 each).

Harmonic Resolution Systems (HRS) unveiled its new, significantly less expensive EXR-1921-4V audio stand ($7795) at AXPONA. (I'd originally seen this stand at Definitive Audio's private Music Matters event in Seattle.) Put to good use in the Ultra Fidelis Room, it joined HRS's SXR-1921-5V audio stand ($11,550/frame), M3X2-1921 isolation base ($3995), R3X-1921 isolation base ($1975), and Vortex V150 isolation feet ($1630/set) to support a system that included Vandersteen M5HPA High Pass Amplifiers ($16,800/pair) and Kento Carbon loudspeakers ($41,700/pair)...

I'd encountered the pairing of room sponsor Nordost with VTL electronics and Stenheim loudspeakers in this very same room last year. But this time, with one more year to learn how to tame an extremely large, semi-intractable listening space, set-up wizard Stirling Trayle scored a bullseye.

As much as I was aware of the dizzying array of diminutive, Korean-made SOtM (Soul Of the Music) components, each identified by a different difficult-to-type assortment of upper and lower case letters plus numbers and dashes, I did not expect them to sound as good as they did. Allied to K Sound Lab's Callas Nostalgia Jr. loudspeakers ($26,990/pair), manufactured by a 25-year old company that is reportedly well known in Korea, the system displayed lovely colors, a rounded midrange, and enviable clarity on a file of "I am at Ease in the Arms of a Woman."

Add the phrase, "with extended low bass" and you've got a sense of the sound in the Krell room. Paired with Magico A5 loudspeakers ($28,000/pair), Krell's Vanguard DAC ($7500), KSA-i400 stereo amplifier ($36,500), and Anti-Cables, the system produced deep bass drums with excellence.

There were no surprises in the two adjacent MBL rooms jointly presented with Kyomi Audio. Sitting in the sweet spot before the big system, spaciousness and transparency were superb on an older modern instrument recording of Bach's Concerto for Oboe and other instruments. Ditto for Dolly Parton's adorable "Love is Like a Butterfly," which sounded simply and utterly beautiful.