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.
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.
One unusual thing in the large Legacy space at AXPONA was the placement of two pairs of beautiful-looking speakers: Legacy's V system and the Aeris. They stood in a straight line angled about 30° away from one of the long walls, albeit parallel to a curtain that the Legacy team had placed there. The grouping of equipment was also quite far over to the left of the room, instead of near the center of the wall.
I probably spent much of my time at AXPONA with a severe case of resting bitch face, as I'm usually concentrating hard. There's a lot to cover, and a thousand facts to get straight. But during system auditions, I occasionally smiled too, sometimes unintentionally making eye contact with exhibitors who were excited to see that I was excited.
That's what happened in the Linkwitz room, where CEO Frank Brenner and noted Linkwitz evangelist Charles Port were demoing the company's LX521.4 open-baffle speakers.
Colorado's Ayre Acoustics jammed a big system into a small room at APXONA, wall-to-wall attendees barely leaving space for Ayre's president, designer, and Chief Ayre-Head Ariel Brown to press the flesh and discuss the gear.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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).
Robert Schryer reviewed the KLH Model Three ($1799/pair) in December 2022; I reviewed the KLH Model Five ($1998/pair) in September 2021we each loved our respective pairs.
There's something honest and immediate about the revived KLH lineup; it feels right, looks right"mid-century modern!" says Don Draperand most importantly, sounds right. These are no-nonsense transducers that make exceptional music with most upstream components.
As I continue work on a follow-up review of the Next-Gen Power Supply Upgrade to the Innuos Statement music server and streamer ($21,700), Innuos has released its new Pulsar Network music player + USB reclocker ($6899). A stripped-down version of the flagship Statement, the Pulsar lacks both a ripper and internal storage. What it boasts instead is over 130,000µF of Mundorf capacitors, a large high-end inductor, and an audio-grade, 300VA toroidal transformer. The Pulsar favors its optimized USB output with reclocking over its non-dedicated USB, and lacks S/PDIF and AES/EBU outputs.
Several surprises awaited in the AXPONA room sponsored by Gary Leeds's Hear This, North American distributor of WestminsterLab, and Von Schweikert Audio in association with Lampizator, NA and Small Green Computer. (Bonus points if you can read that out loud on one breath.) First was the "hard launch" of equipment from WestminsterLab: the Rei monoblock ($32,900/pair), which despite the title is not recommended for summer hikes in Yosemite, and Quest balanced preamplifier with full carbon-fiber component shielding upgrade ($25,100, or $22,900 in basic configuration). Next were the speakersnot the usual behemoths usually transported to shows by Von Schweikert Audio, but rather their smaller Endeavor SE ($27,000/pair plus eight Critical Mass Systems footers that cost $650 each).
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).