Hearing is believing, and I finally understood the reason for the frequent online recommendations when I visited room 456 at AXPONA. There, Philharmonic had…
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An old Dutch saying holds that "good wine needs no wreath," meaning that real quality sells itself. That probably applies to Philharmonic Audio, too. The Maryland-based speaker manufacturer, led by veteran designer and viola maestro Dennis Murphy, has never put much stock in advertising and marketing. It grew mainly thanks to word of mouth from people who value great sound, superior measurements, and reasonable prices (footnote 1).
A $20,000 system is probably no one’s idea of cheap, but it’s affordable-ish by AXPONA standards. And if the sound quality of such a setup is as good as it was in room 394, where Chicago dealer Saturday Audio Exchange had again partnered with Canadian marques Paradigm and Anthem, we’re getting into bargain territory.
I have a weakness for these brands, which is why I purchased an Anthem STR integrated a few years back. Five grand for a Stereophile-recommended, class-A-rated "watershed product" (in the words of TJN), with room-correction built in? Sounds good to me, literally and…
In the quiet inner sanctum of Ultra Fidelis’ two-room suite with Vandersteen, AudioQuest, AMG, Audio Research and more, I sat enthralled before one of the most musical systems I encountered at AXPONA.
I gave little thought to the sweet spot or other audiophile considerations. The music, on LP, of Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s DG recording of Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste was mesmerizing—the colors so rich and saturated, the flow so liquid and transparent, the strings so smooth, the presentation so open and balanced (after the volume was…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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 “…
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…