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Check this out, Herb Reichert. Oklahoma City-based Great Plains Audio grew from what was left of the Altec Lansing corporation in 1998. It focuses on manufacturing the classic high-sensitivity drive-units and speaker systems from the legendary company. Located next to the AXPONA Master Class Theater, the Great Plains booth featured their version of the classic coaxial drive-unit that was introduced in 1944 and powered recording studio monitors in the 1950s and '60s.
On my way to AXPONA's Master Class Theater to catch Rob Robinson's seminar on current-mode phono preamplifiers, I was buttonholed by David Janszen. The Janszen name is synonymous with electrostatic drive-units—the midrange unit in the legendary Wilson WAMM was based on Janszen technology—and at AXPONA David was demonstrating prototype electrostatic headphones, the Lotus. The 1150V polarizing voltage for the electrostatic diaphragm is supplied by a battery and voltage multipliers—David says that the battery will last for a week and an half before needing to be recharged. To avoid having to use…
I'm a little old to be a fan (but I am), and some say singer-songwriter Billie Eilish is a little young (just turned 17) to be as famous and successful as she is. But hey, what's-his-name from the Jackson Five was only five years old when he was that famous . . .
It doesn't matter. If you could have heard Eilish singing "Bad Guy" and "Bury a Friend," from her album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, as I just did, you would understand: Billie Eilish is on her way to being the 21st Century's first great chanteuse.
Billie Eilish's moody, exotic vocals were perfectly matched…
Celebrating 21 years of affordable Music Hall turntables, the irascible Roy Hall (right) was in fine form on AXPONA's opening day, offering show specials.
In front of the room sponsored by GoldenEar Technology and PrimaLuna USA, I saw tube maven Kevin Deal (above)—the latter company's Primary Dude—displaying the insides of a PrimaLuna amplifier. PR man extraordinaire Anthony Chiarella was sitting next to him saying, "Its built like a Fabergé egg." Which indeed it was.
The tall guy standing next to me whined, "But it's built in China." I reminded him that most of the parts were manufactured in Europe and Japan, and challenged him to name a single American-made amp built to this level of craftsmanship.
In the room I…
Getting ready for the first day's visitors in AXPONA's Ear Gear Expo, Ayre's vice president and CTO, Ariel Brown, was busy setting up the Colorado's company's QX-5 Twenty D/A processor ($8950, right) Codex D/A headphone amplifier ($1795, hidden in center, and the new QX-8 D/A processor ($4450 with S/PDIF inputs, $4950 with asynchronous USB input, $5450 with USB and Roon Ready Ethernet, left). Similar in its form factor to the EX-8 "Digital Hub" integrated amplifier that I reviewed in February 2019, the QX-8, like its siblings, offers both balanced and unbalanced headphone outputs and use Ayre…
Vandersteen lovers, of which there are many, may stare in disbelief at these words, but AXPONA 2019 marks the first time that I truly got why so many people rave about Vandersteen's sound. At least I think I did. Even if I didn't fully get what other people get, I got enough to say, "Oh yeah, uh huh, that Vandersteen midrange is surely something worth writing home about." In fact, based on what I heard, I see why some people would prefer to cart up the whole thing and let it do the speaking.
Another first: AXPONA marked the show premiere of the full Vandersteen System 9 ($152,898/system—…
Canada's Wynn Audio sure mixed it up, to good effect, in a system that included two premieres: Crystal Cable's Future Dream 15th Anniversary limited-edition series, which combines proprietary monocrystal silver and silver-gold alloy in a four-coaxial-conductor construction insulated by Dupont Kapton and Teflon, and the Entreq Silver Tellus Infinity ground box ($2400 each), a passive device that, using a different technology to Nordost's QKore grounding units, claims to remove ground noise from components.
Amidst umpteen systems that ran aground in the bass department, this setup excelled…
Saturday is always the most crowded and intense day of any show. Ensuring that we were fully up to its demands (pictured L to R), PS Audio's Paul McGowan, Stereophile and AnalogPlanet's Michael Fremer, Stereophile's Jason Victor Serinus, Joseph Audio's Jeff Joseph, and PS Audio's Terri McGowan discovered themselves in a common sweat, occupying every elliptical trainer in the Renaissance Schaumberg's spacious gym.
"What the heck?" Behind the Master Class Area was a giant tan-colored hooded construction, looking like a giant Zamboni machine and labeled "Wynn Audio," with a viewing window at the front.
Sticking my head under the enclosure, all was revealed. A pair of the Crystal Cable Arabesque Minissimo Diamond minimonitors ($19,995/pair with stands) that I reviewed in October 2016 was being driven by Crystal's 180Wpc CCi integrated amplifier, with source a Kalista DreamPlay One CD player ($43,000), all connected with Crystal's 15th anniversary Future Dream cables, which combine…