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Fine Sounds America, Rotel Michi, Sonus faber, Pro-Ject, and Cardas

My only regret about visiting the Fine Sounds America room was that I went there at 10 in the morning. Considering how excellent the system sounded, this set the bar for the rest of the day almost impossibly high, and I like to ease into things. Despite the fact that I hadn’t had my morning coffee yet, I was instantly awake.

Minnesota-based Fine, a leading importer and distributor, brought speakers by Sonus faber and amplification by Japan’s Rotel Michi. A pair of Sonus faber Olympica Nova Vs (that’s the Roman numeral five, not the letter vee) were set up along the side wall…

Mon Acoustic speakers, Accuphase, Metronome, TAOC, and more

In room 1126, I encountered one of many marriages of convenience between brands and distributors that prove to be matches made in audiophile heaven. In this case, it was the union of new Mon Acoustic PlatiMON VC One bookshelf speakers ($6000/pair) on top, joined by jumpers to the PlatiMON VC Two bass module ($11,000/pair), mated with components from AXISS Audio distributors and other companies.

Given how dynamic the system sounded on “Rey’s Theme” from Star Wars, the Force Awakens, performed by violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and conducted by John Williams on Across the Stars, and the…

Bayz Audio, Chord Electronics, Aurender, Shunyata Research

Going to an audio show is a bit like being a finalist in that old Monty Hall show where your prize is behind one of three identical doors. At AXPONA, there are more than 200 identical doors. You don’t know what you’ll get until you walk through, though I’ve found that the prevalence of pleasant surprises easily exceeds one in three. That’s better than the game show!

The treasure behind the door to room 732 was a pair of $160,000 Bayz Counterpoint 2.0 speakers. I’d heard them two years earlier but in a room with too many talkers. All I could really do at the time was admire the…

Linn, Linn, and did I say Linn?

It was great to finally meet Joe Rodger, a member of the young Linn team with whom I coordinated my review of Linn Klimax Solo 800 monoblocks ($90,000/pair) that appears in the May 2024 issue.

It was equally great to hear how warm and inviting the Solo 800s sounded in the company of an all-Linn system that also included the Linn Klimax DSM streaming preamp/DAC ($42,000) and Linn 360 (PWAB = passive with active bass) speakers ($66,000/pair). Vinyl was played on a limited production run Linn Sondek LP12-50 turntable with Ekstatik cartridge ($60,000) and Radikal Power Supply Akurate.…

Porzilli Audio, Laufer Teknik, and darTZeel America with Liquid Cables

It was good to see Sam Laufer again after all these years. It was equally good to hear how fine Mark Porzilli’s Porzilli Audio speakers plus subwoofers ($35,000/pair) sounded in the company of the fabulous darTZeel LHC-208 Mk II integrated amplifier with DAC/streamer ($27,585), a Laufer Teknik Mini Memory Player 64 ($7500), an SVS 3000 Micro subwoofer ($899), and Liquid Cables.

I swore that the next time I heard Rimsky-Korsakov’s infernal Dance of the Tumblers, I’d tumble out of the room. But since this was my penultimate room, I grudgingly remained and noted how well the subs mated with…

JMF Audio, Ideon Audio, Stenheim, and ictra design

Audio Skies and Fidelis AV teamed up to present some of my favorite emerging stars of the Audio Highlands. It was a joy to re-experience some of the special sound I heard in my music room when I reviewed JMF Audio monoblocks. On Trentemøller’s driving “Chameleon” and Jacques Loussier’s maximally different take on Satie, I heard color and rightness for days. I think I’d prefer to listen to Trentemøller in a club or altered state, but it certainly helped the system make its point in the bass department.

Michael Vamos, who pays attention to my playlist, switched to Grant Green’s “…

Zellaton and LTA with anything but grim Grimm Audio and Great Music

What a perfect way to say goodbye AXPONA 2024. In a pretty simple system consisting of Zellaton Emotion Evo speakers ($44,750/pair), LTA Ultralinear amplification ($7000), and a Grimm Audio MU2 ($17,500) serving as preamp and streaming DAC with a Roon core and analog volume control, we began with a 16/44.1 mastering of Janis Ian’s “Guess You Had to Be There.” Given my age, I expect I was.

The sound was so good that I asked to scroll through the iPad-controlled playlist. Given the opportunity to make up for what I missed, I cued up Elisabeth Schwarzkopf’s great recording of Richard Strauss…

Fidelity Imports, the Listening Room, Diptyque, Audia Flight, Titan, and QED

High-flying Fidelity Imports occupied seven rooms at AXPONA 2024—probably a show record. Since starting the company in 2018, industry veteran Steve Jain has signed up a bevy of brands from Italy, France, England, Japan, and beyond.

Jain evidently has ears that match his business acumen; so far, every Fidelity product I’ve encountered has sounded somewhere between really good and masterful, with Perlisten and Diptyque impressing the most in the speaker department. As for amplifiers and players, I give a tip of the trilby to Soul Note, Audia Flight, and Unison Research.

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JBL Classic

JBL's AXPONA presentation began with a nod to the iconic "Blown Away Guy" tape ad for Maxell featuring the original JBL L100 speakers. This nostalgic touch set the stage for a compelling demonstration of JBL's latest equipment.

The setup included the JBL Classic SA550 ($1999) and SA750 ($3000) integrated amplifiers, and three sources: the MP350 Classic music player/streamer ($799), CD350 Classic CD player ($699), and TT350 Classic turntable ($999).

Starting with the compact L82 Classic MKII speakers ($2900/pair) powered by the SA550, Lake Street Dive's "I Want You Back"…

Analog Corner #245: SME Model 15 turntable, SME 309 SPD tonearm

In the April 2000 issue of Stereophile, I reviewed SME's Model 10, which was an attempt by that storied company to produce an "affordable" turntable. I described the Model 10's $5500 turntable-only price—about $7600 in today's dollars—as "stiff." (At the time, the Model 10 cost $5995 with SME's M10 arm, or $8250 with their IV.Vi arm.) But 16 years later, the same Model 10 costs only $5000 ($7000 with the more recent Model 10 arm, which is superior to the M10) (footnote 1).

Today, a turntable price of $7000, while not exactly cheap, can't be called stiff. What happened between then and now…