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The ever-kinetic bassist Dean Peer was but one of several musicians providing live music at AXPONA. As you can tell, my camera's indoor, flash-less "Night Scene" setting could not keep up with the movements of Dean and his drummer Bret Mann, who were sponsored by Audio Power Labs and Cardas Audio.
As I literally flew through the Marketplace, I wanted to say hello to cable manufacturer Greg Hovsepian of DH Labs. As you can see, however, Greg was but one of many vendors occupied with making a sale.
There were so many people clogging the tables that I completely missed Stereophile's display, personed by our own Rosemarie Torcivia. There are reliable rumors that Rosemarie, whose lovely presence at a show always brightens my day, will be tying the knot this summer.
A lucky 13 exhibitors held forth in the Audiophile Marketplace in the Westin O'Hare's LaSalle Ballroom, with another eight, including Stereophile, positioned in the foyer. Even on Friday, the areas were packed. Unfortunately, LP purveyors such as Analogue Productions, Acoustic Sounds, Music Direct, and Elusive Disc dispensed their goodies in the world's crinkliest plastic bags. Given how popular vinyl was at AXPONA, you can imagine the racket each time a new person walked into an exhibit room.
The midrange on Christian McBride's "Hallelujah Time" was excellent, and the deep bass pretty damn fabulous. Ditto for the depth on a recording by Amber Rubarth, and the air on Reference Recordings' hi-resolution version of dance from Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa (you know, the one everyone plays at audio shows). Instrumental timbres were also spot on. Even though Alan Eichelbaum and Sunny Umrao had not been able to successfully tame all the problems in their very slap-happy room—Alan called it "echo chamber"—their set-up persistence allowed the music to come through loud and clear.
Speaker-wise…
When I entered, music was already in progress in the huge darkened Madison ballroom in which AIX Records' 96/24 Blu-rays, which utilize Dolby TrueHD in both stereo and 5.1 mode, were sounding very warm and inviting. Even though German Physiks' Robert Kelly told me afterwards that his imposing German Physiks Emperor Mk.II omnidirectional loudspeakers ($400,000/pair) and Borderland speakers (center, left and right surrounds) suffered serious damage at the hands of FedEx, and although I was told the Bryston's SP-3 preamplifier/DAC ($8000) refused to transmit the bottom octave of sound [see Mark…
ProMusica Audio Specialists of Chicago demmed a Naim/Dynaudio system that was initially hard to hear over all the shouting. When things settled down, I enjoyed the lovely warmth and excellent midrange on a bit of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra's recording of Schubert's Symphony 5. I also took note of the splashy top that was common to many rooms on the 12' high ceilinged 12th floor of the Westin.
Heard were Naim's NAP 500 amplifier with the 500 PS, NAL 252 preamplifier with 252 PS, NDS streamer with 555 PS, and UnitiServe-SSD. Speakers were the justly praised Dynaudio Confidence C4s.…
I spent a lot of time trying to get a handle on the sound in the "Ambassador System" room, one of four rooms sponsored by distributor Musical Surroundings and Chicago retailer Quintessence Audio. My very brief taste of vinyl was warm and inviting when sourced from Clearaudio's Innovation Wood turntable and Stradivari V2 MC cartridge ($18,750 total). Sharing the analog honors were Simaudio's Moon 810LP phono stage ($12,000), whose performance was upgraded by the new Moon 820S external power supply ($8000, pictured below) that can simultaneously power two Simaudio components. The units that can…
The truly superior sound in the room co-sponsored by Paragon Sight and Sound of Ann Arbor gave me my first listen to Wilson Audio's Sasha 2 loudspeakers ($30,900/pair) and Doshi Audio electronics. First up was an LP of Ray Brown on bass, performing three days after Thelonious Monk died. Played on a Brinkmann Audio Balanced turntable package with Koetsu Azule Platinum cartridge ($46,500 total), the sound through Doshi Audio 3.0 phono stage and line stage preamplifiers ($31,990 combined) and Doshi Audio 3.0 Jhor 160W monoblocks ($26,995/pair) was warm and inviting, as in "I must hear more" (…
The US consumer-show debut of the Magico S3 loudspeaker ($22,600/pair), provided by Hanson Audio Video of Dayton, OH and one other exhibitor on the 12th floor, was a major success. Heard through Octave monoblocks, preamps, and phono preamp and Nordost Odin cabling, the sound of Alison Kraus on vinyl was extremely warm. "Just wonderful, exceptionally neutral sound," I wrote in my notes.
The relaxing, downright gorgeous silky strings on an orchestral version of Debussy's Clair de Lune reinforced positive feelings. True, the strings got brittle at higher volumes, but that, I had already…
I expected this system to wow, and wow it did. As if to up to ante after presenting the US consumer show debut of Wilson Audio's supremely musical Sasha Series-2 loudspeaker, Paragon Sight and Sound's next room paired Dan D'Agostino Master Audio Systems' new Momentum integrated amplifier ($45,000) and, on other occasions, D'Agostino's Momentum monoblock amplifiers ($55,000/pair) and Momentum stereo preamplifier ($32,000) with the four-piece dCS Vivaldi stack ($108,496 total), Wilson Audio Alexia loudspeakers ($48,500/pair), a costly amount of Transparent Reference cabling, and HRS equipment…