Can anyone accurately count the number of brands? Perhaps all the angels who can dance on the head of a pin can. But for us mere mortals, enjoying music outside the confines of our shuttered dwellings and saying hello to people long unseen…
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As early as 9AM on Friday, April 22, early registrants began wandering the halls of Chicago's Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel and Convention Center. By 9:30AM, the first semi-crazed rush for vinyl old and new had begun in The Record Fair. And by 10AM, music was resounding in all its glory in the 138 exhibit rooms and 10 floors that comprise AXPONA 2022.
Nothing beats starting a show on a high note. Thanks to Musical Surroundings' Garth Leerer and the Quintessence Audio dealership of Chicago, that's what happened when Charlie Byrd played magnificently on a white vinyl direct-to-disc platter from the late 1970s.
The absolute clarity and timbral truth of drums, as well as the air around them, presented ample testimony to the success of the DS Audio Grand Master Optical set ($60,000), which is comprised of the Grand Master 3rd generation optical phono cartridge ($15,000, above) and two-chassis Grand Master equalizer ($45,000).
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The night before AXPONA's official kickoff, Krell's director of product development, Dave Goodman, was still assembling the latest offering from Connecticut's solid-state powerhouse: the yet-to-be-released KSA i400. (With that model name, no prizes for guessing the number of watts per channel.) The Krell and its associated components were set up in a large, cube-like room—on paper, far from ideal acoustically. But what resulted on Friday morning sounded powerful and impressive. I don't mean to say that anything was excessively muscular. Effortless, poised, and relaxed though? You'd best…
Peter Mackay of Magico Loudspeakers (pictured above) and Jeffrey Sigmund and John Pravel of Luxman America brought a fantastic-sounding system to the Prosperity room. Exceptional scale, resolution, depth, dynamics, precision, and juicy tone could all be heard—audio prosperity of the highest order.
Luxman granted AXPONA multiple North American product debuts, including the class-AB M-10X stereo power amplifier ($19,995, specified as delivering 150Wpc into 8 ohms, 300Wpc into 4 ohms, and 600W into 8 ohms (mono); reviewed by JA in the May 2022 issue), D-10X SACD player ($16,995; backordered…
For huge sound in a huge room, you needed to look no further than the Schaumburg Renaissance Convention Center's Schaumburg F. Played at full volume, the momentous, quasi-apocalyptic opening of Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra, aka the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey, virtually knocked me back a row. Only the deep bass, which was eaten alive by the room's spongy air walls, suffered. Which means that the deepest organ pedals on the forthcoming superbly recorded 7-CD Strauss set from conductor Andris Nelsons (heard in 24/96) had about the same weight as on the hi-rez digital transfer…
Some audio equipment makes its presence felt simply by its elegance. With its Versailles-like appeal, the colossal Burmester rig in the Schaumberg A room was magnificent to behold, virtually an audio treatise in luxury. A legacy German brand that manufactures everything from nuts and bolts to speaker cabinets and drivers, Burmester, represented at AXPONA by its US distributor Rutherford Audio, brought some of their classiest, biggest, and boldest equipment—all the listener need do was indulge the senses.
A large-scale, relaxed sound was produced by the Burmester 217 belt-drive turntable…
"The road to the graveyard is littered with corpses of subwoofer companies that wanted to sell a range of regular speakers," Gary Yacoubian observes with a laugh. We're standing outside the SVS room at AXPONA while on yonder side of the door, a 7.2 SVS Dolby Atmos setup is testing the Renaissance hotel's structural soundness with an explosive fight scene from a Spiderman movie. Fittingly, Yacoubian is ready to, you know, rumble. His company has built a solid reputation by making and direct-selling excellent-value, powerful subwoofers and providing some of the friendliest pre- and post-sale…
It's showtime again! With a business and showroom in Toronto, Wynn Wong's Wynn Audio is a next-generation dealer and distributor for a number of luxe European high-design high-end brands, a few of which had new product introductions at AXPONA. Wynn's preferred equipment leans toward striking and colorful rather than gaudy or blingy.
Swiss analog manufacturer Thales has launched a new brand, X-Quisite. Here, the X-Quisite Fire MC cartridge ($11,400) with gold coils was introduced in the active setup. Its patented design uses a single piece of ceramic—they call it monobloc-ceramic…
Valve Amplification Company electronics also appeared in the Euphoria room, hosted by The Audio Company, where I believe Von Schweikert's Damon Von Schweikert and Leif Swanson were in attendance.
The setup included a VAC Statement Phono preamplifier ($80,000), a VAC Statement Linestage ($80,000), the show debut of the Von Schweikert Ultra 7 Loudspeakers ($180,000/pair), Von Schweikert Shockwave 12 subwoofers ($15,000 each), an Esoteric K1 Grandioso CD/SACD Player ($31,000), an Esoteric N-01XD streamer ($20,000), an Esoteric G-01 clock ($20,000), an Aurender W20SE music streamer/…
Presented in the Nirvana A Ballroom with Val Acora's Acora Acoustics granite SRC-2 loudspeakers ($37,000/pair), Valve Amplification Company (VAC) electronics sounded crisp, lively, and human.
Val Acora is one of the sweetest gentlemen in audio. Soft spoken, friendly, when Val realized I was suffering from a head-wrenching toothache (I recovered early Friday), he led me to a cushy chair, handed me a bottle of water, and asked, "Is there any music I can play to make you feel better"? In my weakened state, Val's generosity of spirit almost made me cry. But the music made me happy.
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