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JBL: (Still) Rocking in the Free World

A classic American brand, as flag-waving as the Fourth of the July, with an impressive history as a US industrial giant, all ears perk up when new JBL product is announced. Today's declaration brought to you by AXPONA: the new JBL 4329P Studio Monitor ($4500/pair, below).

With Harman International's Cory Robertson and Eldon Henry manning the room (below), I learned this wireless powered speaker, with Bluetooth, Chromecast built-in, and Apple AirPlay 2, is a bi-amped design with separate woofer and tweeter amplifiers. A modern transducer meant for home or the home studio, it…

VANA Shows European Audio Team (EAT), Grimm, Atlas Cables, Ferrum, and Marten

VANA CEO Roy Feldstein worked a room at AXPONA, no bells and whistles, no crazy demos or static displays. Roy simply plays the kind of solid gear that he excels in distributing, including European Audio Team (EAT), Kyomi Audio, Grimm Audio, Atlas Cables, Ferrum, Jorma and Marten loudspeakers, and Rekkord turntables.

The exquisite EAT Fortissimo S turntable and F Note Tonearm with EAT Jo No 8 MC Cartridge ($13,799 w/o cart) fed an EAT E-Glo phono stage ($8999). The brand spanking new Ferrum Wandla "The DAC" ($2795) and Ferrum Hypsos PS ($1195), plus a Grimm MU1 Streamer ($12,500,…

MBL: That says it all

There were no surprises in the two adjacent MBL rooms jointly presented with Kyomi Audio. Sitting in the sweet spot before the big system, spaciousness and transparency were superb on an older modern instrument recording of Bach's Concerto for Oboe and other instruments. Ditto for Dolly Parton's adorable "Love is Like a Butterfly," which sounded simply and utterly beautiful.

The equipment has been the same that MBL has presented at numerous shows: the MBL 1621 A CD transport ($33,400), 1611 F D/A converter ($34,200), 6010 D preamplifier ($32,400), 9011 mono amplifiers ($128,200/pair), and…

Nordost partners with VTL, VPI, dCS, and Stenheim for JVS's Best of Show

I'd encountered the pairing of room sponsor Nordost with VTL electronics and Stenheim loudspeakers in this very same room last year. But this time, with one more year to learn how to tame an extremely large, semi-intractable listening space, set-up wizard Stirling Trayle scored a bullseye. Both my husband David and I were floored by the sound in this room.

The system included one premiere: the Nordost QBase Mark III, aka QB8 Mk III ($2300). This eight-outlet passive distribution block uses star-ground topology to address, in Nordost's words, "the noise-inducing, conflicting flows of…

Krell with Magico: Grounded, Clear, Smooth, and Solid

Add the phrase, "with extended low bass" and you've got a sense of the sound in the Krell room. Paired with Magico A5 loudspeakers ($28,000/pair), Krell's Vanguard DAC ($7500), KSA-i400 stereo amplifier ($36,500), and Anti-Cables, the system produced deep bass drums with excellence. The impact added juice to an old and not particularly graceful Telarc recording of Cincinnati Pops Orchestra's rendition of Johann Strauss II's ridiculous Banditen Galopp.

Callas and SotM Surprise at AXPONA

As much as I was aware of the dizzying array of diminutive, Korean-made SOtM (Soul Of the Music) components, each identified by a different difficult-to-type assortment of upper and lower case letters plus numbers and dashes, I did not expect them to sound as good as they did. Allied to K Sound Lab's Callas Nostalgia Jr. loudspeakers ($26,990/pair), manufactured by a 25-year old company that is reportedly well known in Korea, the system displayed lovely colors, a rounded midrange, and enviable clarity on a file of "I am at Ease in the Arms of a Woman."

Switching to vinyl, and…

Ultra Fidelis impresses with Vandersteen, HRS, and more

Harmonic Resolution Systems (HRS) unveiled its new, significantly less expensive EXR-1921-4V audio stand ($7795) at AXPONA. (I'd originally seen this stand at Definitive Audio's private Music Matters event in Seattle.) Put to good use in the Ultra Fidelis Room, it joined HRS's SXR-1921-5V audio stand ($11,550/frame), M3X2-1921 isolation base ($3995), R3X-1921 isolation base ($1975), and Vortex V150 isolation feet ($1630/set) to support a system that included Vandersteen M5HPA High Pass Amplifiers ($16,800/pair) and Kento Carbon loudspeakers ($41,700/pair), an AMG Viella Forte turntable ($22,…

Impressive Sound from Benchmark and Laufer Teknik

William Duncan (right), who lives relatively close to me in Sammamish, WA, has been after me for a while to hear Laufer Teknik Product's new offerings. Finally, the opportunity arrived at AXPONA. Sharing the room with John Siau of Benchmark Audio (left), Duncan and Laufer Teknik Products showed The Note ($32,500/pair), a line array speaker designed by Mark Porzilli of Melos vacuum-tube electronics fame. The price includes a SB 3000 subwoofer ($1010 each).

Laufer Teknik claims that the speaker has 360° dispersion up to 10kHz and 180° dispersion above that—when I walked around the…

Antal Audio Group presents Electrocompaniet and Triangle

Electrocompaniet of Norway, too long absent from this writer's high-end radar, celebrated its 50th anniversary by showing the new AW 800M Nemo 2 800w monoblocks ($45,000/pair), EC 4.8 MKII reference preamp ($4900), EMC 1 MKV Reference CD player ($6800), ECM 1 MKII Media Center (a media player & streamer with DAC and preamp output, $5700), and ECP 2 MK II MM/MC phono amp ($2900). To celebrate the occasion, Lasse Danielsen, Sales and Marketing Director Electrocompaniet (left in photo) and Bjorn Kindingstad, company CEO (right), journeyed to AXPONA.

To quote an email I received from…

An ideal match: JMF Audio & Harbeth in the Fidelis/Blue Skies Room

When I first heard JMF Audio components from France at AXPONA 2022, I had no idea that, paired with the right speakers, they would produce heavenly sound. But in the room jointly sponsored by Fidelis Distribution, who handles Harbeth loudspeakers, and Audio Skies, which distributes JMF Audio and Ideon Audio, the mating of JMF with Harbeth delivered some of the finest-sounding music I heard at AXPONA 2023.

First up, "Fragile" from Nils Landgren & Rigmor Gustafsson sounded gorgeous, warm, and smooth. Midrange could not have been more pleasing on Bebe's "Animales hambrientos" and John…