AXPONA 2024

It was great to finally meet Joe Rodger, a member of the young Linn team with whom I coordinated my review of Linn Klimax Solo 800 monoblocks ($90,000/pair) that appears in the May 2024 issue

To say that I had good memories of the Luxman-Magico room at an earlier AXPONA would be an understatement.

Magico turns 20 this year, but founder and chief designer Alon Wolf isn’t the type for gauzy remembrances. In Magicoland, looking ahead beats looking back, so we’ll have to marvel some other time at how the Californian brand has shot to the top of the high-end heap.

Bruce Ball’s AV Luxury Group, with a little help from his other distribution company, Ball Audio Distribution and System Solution (which forms what may be the world's best acronym), and Dantax Radio set up two systems headlined by Margules electronics.

Balanced Audio Technology’s chief designer Victor Khomenko and BAT rep Steve Shade unveiled new products in conjunction with MoFi Electronics in 334.

I counted more than 40 audio products in the MoFi Distribution Schaumburg B ballroom. How to cover such a cornucopia? Making my job easier was that only eight of them were hooked up. The others were there to be oohed and ahed over, perhaps prodded and poked, but they’d (re)produce no music at the show.

In room 1126, I encountered one of many marriages of convenience between brands and distributors that prove to be matches made in audiophile heaven. In this case, it was the union of new Mon Acoustic PlatiMON VC One bookshelf speakers ($6000/pair) on top, joined by jumpers to the PlatiMON VC Two bass module ($11,000/pair), mated with components from AXISS Audio distributors and other companies.