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Legacy Audio Loudspeakers at AXPONA

Bill Duddleston brought not one, but four of his Legacy Audio systems to Axpona, where he mixed and matched components, but each system was largely unique, especially in the loudspeaker complement.

In System D, the new Legacy Wavelet II DAC/preamp/processor/correction unit ($7950), Legacy PowerBloc2 monoblocks ($2145 apiece) rated at 325Wpc into 8 ohms, 650Wpc into 4 ohms, and Legacy Studio HD standmount monitors in Cabernet High Gloss ($2695/pair).

System C consisted of the Legacy Wavelet II all-in-one, Legacy Amp I*V 2 (610Wpc into 8 ohms, 1kWpc at 4 ohms) with ICEdge…

Focal and Naim at AXPONA

Elton John fans, forgive me. I've nothing against the man, but most of his songs do less for me than a nude painting does for a blind man (that is, we literally can't see the attraction). So it was fairly remarkable that, in the Focal demo room, the Dolby Atmos version of Elton John's "Rocket Man" made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. If a high-end rig can put you in touch with music you normally don't even care about, it's time to investigate.

I surveyed the speakers in the room: six Focal floorstanders (four with tops that incorporate an upfiring midrange driver), a center…

The Audio Archon & Audio Note (UK) System

Trends come and go. Manufacturers lose their shirts and pull up stake. This year's hot design trend becomes tomorrow's price knockdown. Amid the hype and ballyhoo often found in high end audio, Audio Note (UK) remains an oasis of beauty, purity, and simplicity, and at affordable prices. A legacy brand that doesn't feel the need to change designs, when, after all they make music, Audio Note (UK) offered lucidity and great music at AXPONA.

The Audio Note (UK) system assembled by Mike Kay of Libertyville, Illinois' Audio Archon and Audio Note's Adrian Ford-Crush costs a total of $28,133,…

The MartinLogan Rooms at AXPONA

When a brand that's rightly famous for world-class electrostatic panels wants to design a line of in-wall speakers, things can get pretty daunting. After all, electrostats are dipoles—sound flows from both the front and back. Installing a dipole in a wall is as useless as hanging a stained-glass window in a dark closet.

All the same, MartinLogan says it used its floorstanding hybrid electrostatic loudspeakers as the performance benchmark for its in-walls. That ultimately yielded the 7'-tall Statement 40XWs ($45,000/pair, above). The speakers are mounted in a sealed, acoustically…

Linear Tube Audio, DeVore Fidelity, Spatial Audio, LampizatOr, HoloAudio/KitsunéHiFi, Cardas, Anticables

A consistent player both at shows and in the hi-fi world, Linear Tube Audio's Nicholas Tolson brought smart, sparse rigs to two AXPONA rooms that played great music.

One rig (Room 606) consisted of a Linear Tube Audio MicroZOTL preamplifier (Level 2) ($5750) and ZOTL Ultralinear+ power amplifier ($6800), a LampizaOr Baltic 3 DAC ($6600), and DeVore Fidelity Super Nine loudspeakers ($9990/pair), with cabling by Cardas. Tolson streamed tracks from Roon on an Intel NUC via a Sonore UltraRendu.

As a former owner of The Nines, this system hit all my pleasure points. I was never an…

Harman/Revel & Mark Levinson at AXPONA

In search of beauty and excitement, I struck a lode on the fifth floor, where a pair of just-introduced, double-ported, full-range Revel 328Be speakers ($17,600) played in tandem with a spiffy Mark Levinson front end: the No 5101 streaming SACD player/DAC ($5500), the 5206 preamp ($9000), and the 5302 power amp (also $9000).

The speakers' six 8" woofers, three on each side, performed with great tautness and speed, no overhang. On the other end of the frequency range, the beryllium-dome tweeters (hence the Be in the Revels' model name) carried musical overtones and harmonics with airy, no-…

Harman/JBL at AXPONA

The Germans have a great word to describe things that are insipid and inoffensive: salonfähig ("fit for the parlor"). On that note: How many Patricia Barber tracks can a man take? After two days at AXPONA, I craved some kickass rock 'n' roll. Green Day, Rammstein, Rage Against the Machine; the Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin would do in a pinch. And fortunately, that's the scene I found in the JBL room. Unapologetic raucous rock emanated from the new 13"-tall JBL L52 bookshelf speakers ($995/pair), powered by a JBL SA750 Class-G streaming integrated amplifier ($3000).

The monitors…

More Magico/Luxman

For two years now, pandemic-related supply-chain issues have racked (but not wrecked) the high-end industry. Things still aren't back to normal, and sometimes planned product launches have to be pushed back. Today, when I visited the room featuring Magico loudpeakers and Luxman electronics—see KM's report here—I found out we'll have to wait just a little longer for the next Magico speaker, but I can't imagine that anyone was disappointed when the company's Peter Mackay brought the M6s ($185,000/pair) to AXPONA. A known quantity they may be—the product was introduced five years ago—but I was…

The Bowers & Wilkins 801 D4 Loudspeakers

When you're a critic, you get paid to quibble, so here's mine: Bowers & Wilkins' iconic 801 D4 speaker ($35,000/pair) is pretty enough in gloss black, but gorgeous in satin walnut. In the company's AXPONA room, I encountered only the black version.

This is the extent of my admittedly not-so-terrible trauma. Get-well cards optional.

The 801 D4s, introduced in late fall 2021, were driven by a couple of Classé Delta monoblocks ($10,995 each) connected to a Classé Delta Pre ($9995). Because it was the final day of the show, mid-afternoon, the atmosphere was maybe a little looser…

Paradigm's Founder 120H loudspeaker & Anthem Electronics

My first surprise of the day came when I squeezed what I thought was Colgate from a red-and-white tube onto my toothbrush. It turned out to be hydrocortisone cream, also from a red-and-white tube.

Mistakes were made. F-bombs were used. Obsessive rinsing and spitting ensued.

After that, I ventured out and got my second surprise, this one considerably more pleasant.

In one of the third-floor Saturday Audio Exchange rooms (SAE is one of Chicagoland's oldest audio stores), I encountered a new flagship Paradigm loudspeaker, the floorstanding Founder 120H ($8499/pair). Driving…