AXPONA 2017

The doors of the 2017 AXPONA—taking place this weekend at the Westin O'Hare in Rosemont, close to Chicago's O'Hare airport—had opened but 15 minutes when yours truly (far left) joined (L–R) Steve Guttenberg (The Audiophiliac blog for CNET.com/ Stereophile), panel moderator Chris Martens (Hi-Fi+), Conor Cawley (Tech.co), Steve Rochlin (Enjoythemusic.com), and an audience of at least 50–60 people to discuss "What does 2017 mean for audio?" I didn't know what to expect, or what to discuss besides the resurgence of vinyl and the promise of better sound through MQA. But thanks to excellent questions from Chris and attendees, and some truly stimulating contributions from my fellow panel members, I think some major ground was covered.

While ubiquity is not necessarily synonymous with high quality, the fact that Aurender's music servers/streamers appeared in at least 12 exhibit rooms at AXPONA 2017 certainly indicates that they're doing something right. In fact, in the third-floor room in which Aurender partnered with GamuT and Grand Prix Audio, their A10 caching music server and player with analog outputs ($5500) was the crucial source of excellent sound.

My second-day new-product coverage began with a visit to the Playback Designs room, manned by the company's president and designer, DSD champion Andreas Koch. There, I found two new Playback Designs products, the MPD-8 DAC ($22,000) and MPT-8 Digital Music Transport (target price $14,000-$20,000). Both are due out at year's end…

AXPONA is the show that breaks barriers and defies stereotypes.

The audiophile community is filled with kind, generous people who are fiercely passionate about good music and good sound. But it is no secret that there are a small number of audiophiles on the dark-side (and not of the moon) whose sole purpose in life is to sour it up for the rest of us. They are foul beings of the dark underground hi-fi network that globally infiltrates hi-fi shows, dealers, regional clubs, and even the occasional Can-Jam. I won't even begin to tell you about my findings on their black-ops missions with rogue assassins or just how many government conspiracies they're responsible for. . .

The first of two Auralic-sponsored systems I encountered featured an Auralic Polaris wireless streaming amplifier ($3800), Ryan R630 speakers ($5000/pair), and AudioQuest cables—the idea being to present a minimalist, all-in-one, hassle-free setup that still offers high value and high performance…

A couple of months ago, I listened to a prototype of the Sonoma Acoustics electrostatic Model One Headphone System ($5000) at CanJam NYC, so I was excited for the opportunity to have some more one-on-one time with a production model of the system at AXPONA.