Audio Note returned to AXPONA with nothing to new to spring on the hungry (really) crowds, only the same consistency of sound major domo Peter Qvortrup has offered for decades.
Room host, Adrian Ford-Crush, pointed out that the…
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I'm an unabashed Audio Note fanboy. You got a problem with that? Audio Note lives deep in not only my sonic soul (an Audio Note M2 Pre was my first serious hi-fi purchase), but those of colleagues Herbert Reichert and Michael Trei, Audio Note distributors back in the 1990s, when tubes were cheap and the only thing Upscale Audio's Kevin Deal sold!
At AXPONA 2023, Luxman America's Jeff Sigmund and John Pravel brought serious sonic finery from Luxman Japan with the same gracious, enthusiastic, generous manner they've extended for years.
Luxman Corporation has deep roots in the Japanese audio industry, beginning in 1925, the dawn of radio broadcasting. It's traversed decades of audio history, experiencing its trends and overseeing its innovations, a legacy brand whose name typically equals excellence.
Assured of their success and devotion to audio brilliance, the Luxman house look remains unchanged, its brushed…
On the Renaissance hotel's 16th floor, in the room occupied by PureAudioProject, folks were utterly baffled. Also, occasionally horny.
Apologies. The fact that I'm away from home for four, five days to cover AXPONA means I temporarily don't have my teenage offspring to mortify with dad humor, so now I'm inflicting it on you. PureAudioProject, you see, makes open-baffle speakers. Some have horns. There's a reason I write for Stereophile, not Saturday Night Live.
Israeli proprietor Ze'ev Schlik (above) had brought his Trio15 boxless speakers, plus a playlist full of fine tracks to…
Industry legend Paul Barton (above) has been designing speakers for more than half a century. He's also quite the speaker himself.
I'd sauntered into the Lenbrook room to check out Barton's new PSB Synchrony T800 floorstanders (PSB is a Lenbrook brand). My visit was serendipitously timed. Not only was the man himself present; he and I, along with the gregarious Joe Corona of Chicago retailer Saturday Audio Exchange, were the only ones left when the doors closed at 6pm. We settled in. Corona provided slices of coffee cake, and Barton supplied wisdom and bon mots.
For a very…
Børresen has sprung a welcome surprise on audiophiles. Long known for its expensive loudspeakers, Michael Børresen's Danish speaker company has launched the X3 loudspeaker ($11,000/pair). Exhibited by Next Level HiFi, which sells products from Audio Group Denmark, the speaker excelled in a snappy yet pleasing three-dimensional presentation, highlighted by the company's fabled huge soundstage.
The X3 includes a scaled-down version of Børreson's ribbon planar tweeter with a smaller motor system, and a new midrange and bass/midrange driver that include two layers of spread-toe carbon fiber…
With the assumption of audiophile Cliff Duffey (above) as President of AXISS Audio USA (aka AXISS Distribution Inc.), and the addition of T.J. Goldsby as Vice President of Sales and Dealer relations, the company has added more lines than can comfortably fit into a headline.
One of their large suites in the Schaumburg Hotel was brimming with some of those lines and several debuts: the North American debut of the new Accuphase A-300 class-A monoblock amplifier ($65,000/pair), created for the company's 50th anniversary, which delivers 125W into 8 ohms and up to 1000W into 1 ohm and…
While audiophiles kvetch over the future of this thing we love, rest assured, young audiophiles are growing in number, evidenced by AXPONA halls streaming with under-30 types. Upscale Audio's Kevin Deal, one of the savviest of distributors, introduced me to his young Analog Manager, Kat Ourlian, who discussed specs and brought two terrific-sounding LPs to play on a tricked-out PrimaLuna/Tannoy system.
While a US debut pair of Tannoy Sterling III LZ loudspeakers ($12,500/pair) sat statically in another Upscale Audio room, Kat spun vinyl on a system that included a Dr. Feickert…
If you wanted to hear an admirably smooth, solid, all-of-one-piece system with a huge soundstage and extremely fast and firm bass, Ed DeVito's Audio-Ultra exhibit was one of the best to visit. It was also the only room where you could hear CH Precision gear with the latest upgrades and the diminutive Magico A1 standmount loudspeakers ($9400/pair in silver finish).
The A1 includes a full braced 6061 T6 grade aluminum enclosure, a 1.1" beryllium-dome tweeter and a 6.5" mid-bass driver with a nanographene cone. Frequency range is specified as 35Hz–50kHz, sensitivity 84dB, and impedance 4…
In the Ocean Audio room in which Finley Audio, Les Davis Audio, Small Green Computer, Serhan Swift loudspeakers, and Boulder Audio joined forces, my attention was first drawn to Serhan Swift of Sydney, Australia. In 2013, after nearly four decades of producing loudspeakers, Brad Serhan teamed up with Morris Swift of Oneaudio. As a follow-up to their active DSP Active loudspeaker, the men have created the mu2 Mk II passive loudspeaker ($7950/pair). Serhan was responsible for the principal design, and Swift contributed some of the engineering.
The mu2 Mk II loudspeaker is a precision two-…
Last summer, when I went shopping for a pair of standmount speakers for a bedroom, I settled on Monitor Audio Bronze 100s. They ticked the boxes: musical to a T, natural-sounding, not too incisive or fatiguing, and a pretty damn good value at around $700/pair. I dug 'em, and still do.
At AXPONA, the British company demonstrated what happened when it gave its designers license to develop a top-of-the-line floorstander. Fifty years of both incremental improvements and great leaps forward have culminated in the $13,900/pair Monitor Audio 200 3G. I'd opt for the piano ebony finish: fetching.…