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About a dozen years ago, I found myself sitting across from a disheveled gentleman in a near-empty lounge at LAX Airport as we both waited for a delayed flight. A well-loved leather suitcase stood at his feet. To my amazement, he wore a pair of Stax SR-L700s—full-on electrostatics he powered with an unwieldy amplifier he held on his lap, a power cord snaking to the outlet near his seat. It was absurd. And magnificent. He caught me smiling, smirked, lifted one earcup, and said, "If I'm going to spend another three hours in this godforsaken place, I might as well do it with Coltrane in my skull…
The T+A team decided to leave spatial audio to the likes of Apple (AirPods Pro II, AirPods Max) and Bose (QuietComfort Ultra). I won't pout, but except for critical-listening situations, spatial audio can be a plus. It gets the sound out of your head and seemingly in front of you, like in the real world (footnote 3). T+A currently has no plans to incorporate this digital trickery even in a next-generation product. "We don't think that spatialized audio is really high end," Amft noted with a shrug. "It's nice and useful for gaming but changes the original recording too much, and that isn't our…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Circumaural closed-back wired and wireless headphones. Bluetooth 5.1 class 2 with SBS, aptX, aptX HD, and AAC codecs. Integrated DAC and amplification for each channel. 42mm edge-dampened cellulose-diaphragm drivers. Three levels of active noise cancellation. Transparency mode. 70 hours of playback in non-HQ Bluetooth on the 1200mAh lithium-ion battery, 35 hours with HQ on. Capable of sample rates up to 96kHz via USB. Frequency range: Active mode 4Hz–22kHz; passive mode 4Hz–45kHz. THD: <0.05% (1kHz/94dB). Impedance: 64 ohms. Weight 11.5oz (326gm…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Bluetooth sources: iPhone 14 Pro Max, LG V30, Samsung Galaxy S10e, iPad Pro (2016), 16" MacBook Pro M1.
Digital sources: Musical Fidelity V90 DAC, Auralic Vega DAC, Bluesound Node 2i streamer.
Headphones: HiFiMan HE1000se, Audeze LCD-4, Focal Bathys, Oppo PM-3.
Headphone amplifiers: LSA Hyperdrive 2, RME ADI-2 DAC FS, McIntosh MHA100.—Rogier van Bakel
I’ve commented on this combination so often—five of these eight brands occupy my music room—that I didn’t linger long in Quintessence Audio’s excellently assembled “Knowledge” room. That didn’t stop me from admiring the contrast between the riveting yellow finish of Wilson Audio’s Chronosonic XVX loudspeakers ($387,000/pair) and the bold black-and-copper livery of Dan D’Agostino Master Audio Systems’ Relentless M800 monoblocks ($195,500/pair). I began to wonder if the lovely blue of my Wilson Alexia Vs is a bit too sedate. When I chose my speakers’ finish I almost opted for the perfect…
Mike Stephens of Farmersville, Texas’s Western HiFi presented one of the show’s top five systems at AXPONA. Built from modestly priced gear, it stopped people in their tracks and kept them planted in their seats—including me.
The system’s vinyl front end featured a Well Tempered Lab Amadeus Jr. turntable ($3350) with the matching Ctrl motor controller ($450) and a Dynavector XX-2A cartridge ($2250). A Lejonklou Entity 1.2 MC phono stage ($2795) amplified the signal.
Western HiFi, which recently reintroduced Consonance by Opera Audio to the US market, also…
What I thought would be a quick hello to distributor Wynn Wong of Wynn Audio—accompanied by his wife, Candy, and their adorable 15-month-old daughter, Victoria—turned into a tour of premieres from three companies. Technically four, if you count Victoria’s AXPONA debut.
On passive display were Métronome of France’s just-released DST transport ($5800), DSS 2 streamer ($5500), and DSC Mini DAC ($5700)—three compact components that look tailor-made to work together, though they can be used independently.
Wong then introduced me to Felix Avalos, who presented…
The Palm Ballroom and adjacent rooms hosted systems from Acora Acoustics, Scott Walker Audio, and VAC—an ambitious collaboration by Valerio Cora, Scott Walker, and Kevin Hayes. The trio presented a range of well-curated systems.
Four systems were up and running. Let’s take a closer look.
System One featured a VPI Avenger Direct Statement turntable ($36,000)—including a VPI Fatboy Gimbal 12" 3D tonearm—and a Hana Umami Red MC cartridge ($3,950). The signal flowed through a VAC Statement phono stage ($82,000) and VAC Statement line stage ($82,000) into the world-…
At AXPONA, Nagaoka’s Miyuki Nishii and Jie Ma joined Technics’s Bill Voss to present the full line of Nagaoka cartridges. The Japanese manufacturer is currently seeking US distribution, after years of limited availability in the American market due to a less-than-responsive distributor.
Nagaoka’s full cartridge lineup was on display, each model supplied with an included headshell: MP-700H ($1499), MP-500H ($999), MP-300H ($859), MP-200H ($549), MP-150H ($439), MP-110H ($209), MP-100H ($173), and the Jeweltone JT-80BK ($699) and JT-80LB ($279)(80BK and 80LB, cartridge only).…
Room 1230 featured a collaboration led by Rhythm Distribution and joined by Qobuz, Silent Angel, AudioQuest, Focal Naim America, Vicoustic, and HRS—an all-star cast giving a confident performance.
The analog front-end included a Goldenberg Maestro MC phono cartridge ($6000) fitted on a Garrard 301 Advanced turntable via an SME V tonearm ($54,900), feeding a Goldmund Mimesis PH3.8 NEXTGEN phono preamplifier ($48,000). For digital playback, a Goldmund Eidos Streamer ($27,000) was paired with a Silent Angel Bonn NX network switch ($3999).
Amplification came from Goldmund’s…