Florida Audio Expo 2019

My first room, sponsored by House of Stereo, showcased Bob Carver's attractive Crimson 350 monoblock amplifiers ($9500/pair), a Bel Canto Black EX preamplifier/DAC ($18,000), Wolf Audio Systems' Alpha 3 music server with Flux Capacitor Clock ($6750), the striking KEF Blade Two speakers ($25,000/pair), new Audience Front Row cabling, and Stillpoints Aperture room-treatment panels.

The apotheosis—some would say the nadir—of country music suffering was reached in the Western Electric Sound System room put together by Déjà Vu Audio South. There, Vu Hoang (above) took the perilous step beyond Steely Dan's "Black Cow" (as in black sheep?) to Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Please Release Me" and The Carpenter's "This Masquerade." The superb sound got me through a succession of despair-laden tracks from Western Electric Sound's The Perfect Vocals CD that were titled—I kid you not—"These Days I Barely Get By" (Daryle Singletary), the aforementioned "This Masquerade," "The Man That Got Away" (Rosemary Clooney), "The Party's Over" (Nat King Cole), "Cry Me a River" (Jack McDuff), and the final track, "Only the Lonely" (Shirley Horn).

I spent the entire first day at the Florida Audio Expo trying to get a sense of the acoustics in the basic listening rooms of the Embassy Suites by Hilton at Tampa Airport. At times, just when I'd begun to think that the faults with one system had more to do with room acoustics than anything else, I'd walk into another, totally untreated suite and discover that the sound was superb.

Without question, some of the best sound at Florida Audio Expo came from the Danish trio of Aavik, Ansuz, and Børresen. This combination of electronics, speakers and cabling, expertly set up by industry pro Lars Kristensen, managed to overcome room-related problems and deliver some of the most spacious sound heard over my three days in Tampa.

It's noon and a sunny 76º, and already people are setting up for the inaugural Florida Audio Expo at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Tampa Airport Westshore. No sooner do I walk into the Dynamic Sound Associates room than someone asks me if I can please hold three long and hefty Luminous Audio power cables. With those monsters hanging over one shoulder, I snap my first photo.

Is this report's title referring to sound, substance, or more than a bit of both? As you ponder the not-exactly-hidden nuances of this decidedly less-than-metaphysical tease, you may also wish that you could have experienced both and more in the room sponsored by Audio Advisors of Palm Beach, FL, headlined by Wilson Audio's Sasha DAW loudspeaker ($37,900/pair) and Audio Research's Ref 160M monoblocks ($30,000/pair), Ref 6 stereo preamplifier ($15,000), Ref Phono 3 phono preamp ($15,000), and Ref CD9 CD player/DAC ($14,000).

It's always nice to encounter fine old friends in new contexts. In this case, it was an all-but-the-speakers system from Germany's AVM, whose MA8.2 monoblocks ($31,990/pair) were the first amplifiers I reviewed for Stereophile. AVM's PA8.2 modular preamp ($18,785) with phono, DAC, tone input card, and tubed output card is no stranger to Stereophile either—it was reviewed by Michael Fremer in our December 2018 issue.