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"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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After a few hours of listening to speakers that cost well into the five and six figures, how much enthusiasm could I muster for a pair that retails for just $995? As it turns out, a lot.
I'd heard the $750/pair Magnepan LRS a few years ago and marveled at how low the admission price to true high-end sonics can be. They sounded fast, surefooted, and transparent. Magnepan's new LRS+ speakers offer more of the same but at an elevated level and a slightly elevated price. Wendell Diller, a.k.a. Mr. Magnepan, calls them "higher-resolution" speakers.
Following the 30-minute, appointment-only…
Upscale Distribution's Kevin Deal brought his posse to AXPONA (left–right: Randy Bingham, Kevin Deal, Craig Hoffman, Alex Brinkman). Though Deal's room was static, he also sponsored legacy French brand, Cabasse, in an adjacent room, where Cabasse representative Jean-Michel Polit demoed the thrilling flagship Pearl Pelegrina loudspeakers ($20,999/pair).
First up, Deal spoke about the new, Italian-made, class-A, Pathos Acoustics Inpol2 Hybrid integrated amplifier ($10,595), saying "It's beyond Italian; they have their own woodshop and paint shop, machine their own remotes, and the…
The AXPONA experience is head-spinning in more ways than one. So many rooms, so many people to meet, so much gear to listen to. And so much regret when you realize that you can't fit it all into two or three days, unless each day were to last as long as it does it on Mercury. (Maybe one day we'll have audio shows there—sign me up!)
Another head-spinner occurred Saturday morning when I had to almost forcibly drag myself off the listening couch in the 16th-floor Avantgarde Acoustic room, where dCS front-end gear and a pair of gargantuan Trio G3 horn speakers ($180,000) had bowled me over…
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…
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…
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,…