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Steve Davis, AXPONA founder, caught on the fly between the "Grab 'N Go" snack area and various presentations. Steve had every reason to smile, given the impressive turnout on the first day of the show. But I'll bet he wasn't smiling in the middle of the second, absolutely packed and tremendously successful day when, somewhere after 2 pm, the fire alarm went off and people were ordered to evacuate the hotel. This, after all, was the second year in a row that an ear-piercing fire alarm went off on the busiest day of AXPONA. Thankfully, it was a false alarm. Within a half hour, everyone had…
Somehow I managed to snap a single shot of the large, lobby level show directory signage before another throng of eager attendees covered up my view. On Saturday April 26, when AXPONA was mobbed until the last hour of the show, it would have been impossible to take this photo.
Our own Michael Fremer of Stereophile and AnalogPlanet.com, in whom the serious and hilarious often vie for supremacy, was quite busy at AXPONA. In addition to covering all things analog for both publications, he also led two installments of "Michael Fremer's Internationally Renowned Turntable Set-up Seminar," moderated a "Vinyl Lives!" panel, and spoke on a "Meet the Editors" panel. One of Mikey's unforgettable lines: "I once did this smashed on Tequila, but I wouldn't recommend it."
Although I occasionally mention turntables and phono preamps in my coverage—there were a lot of them, and…
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…