Ken Micallef

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1215: The Axiss Room
Florida Audio Expo 2024
Ken Micallef  |  Feb 24, 2024  |  6 comments

As Stereophile managing editor Mark Henninger and I scurried up and down the Hilton halls, fulfilling our tasks as intrepid reporters, we had little time to compare notes. But we agreed on one room, Axiss Audio. In a room filled with exceptional gear, Axiss's Cliff Duffey and TJ Goldsby had set up a fantastic rig, well beyond the norm, which overachieved and set my ears afire. (Not literally.)

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Acora Acoustics, Transrotor, Audio Research, and Cardas [UPDATED]
Capital AudioFest 2021
Ken Micallef  |  Nov 05, 2021  |  2 comments

In the third floor Eisenhower room, Valerio Cora brought his Acora Acoustics SRC-2 Loudspeakers ($37,000/pair) joined to the Transrotor Massimo turntable ($16,800) equipped with the Transrotor SME tonearm ($4300), the Dynavector DRT XV-1t cartridge ($9450). The Massimo was also equipped with a secondary arm, the Charisma Musiko ($2500) armed (as it were) with the Charisma Signature One cartridge ($3800).

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Acora Acoustics, Valve Amplification Company, Aurender, Cardas, TW-Acustic
AXPONA 2022
Ken Micallef  |  Apr 23, 2022  |  0 comments
Presented in the Nirvana A Ballroom with Val Acora's Acora Acoustics granite SRC-2 loudspeakers ($37,000/pair), Valve Amplification Company (VAC) electronics sounded crisp, lively, and human.
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Acora Acoustics/Hegel/JMF Audio/Ideon Audio/Cardas
Capital AudioFest 2022
Ken Micallef  |  Nov 15, 2022  |  0 comments
Val Acora returned to CAF with his new quartz QRC-1 and QRC-2 two-way Scanspeak driver-equipped loudspeakers, the quartz cabinet material a variation on his former granite-enclosure models. Why quartz? Acora said quartz is more forgiving, easier to work with, provides a more rigid material that holds drivers more securely, and has better sound.
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Adrian Sherwood's Dub Trip
Music and Recording Features
Ken Micallef  |  Nov 26, 2019  |  4 comments
Following in the lineage of such iconic dub music masters as Osbourne "King Tubby" Ruddock and Lee "Scratch" Perry, producer Adrian Sherwood is the UK's contemporary pioneer of dub: the reverb-filled, beats-rattling, bass-thick music that erupted from "sound system" parties in Kingston, Jamaica in the 1960s.
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Alex Sound Technology Shows Japanese SET (Takatsuki) and Digital (Sforzato), & German loudspeakers (Blumenhofer Acoustics)
AXPONA 2023
Ken Micallef  |  Apr 15, 2023  |  1 comments
As an enterprising Stereophile reporter, I do my homework. When I saw that Alex Sound Technology, of Windermere, Florida, was bringing the gorgeous Japanese Takatsuki 300B TA-S01 SET amplifier ($32,000, 8Wpc, new to the USA), along with new Japanese brand Sforzato (below), including their DST-050EX network transport ($4600), DSC-030EX Zero Link DAC ($9900), DSP-030EX Network Player ($9900), and PMC-015EX Master Clock ($4990), plus the Blumenhofer Acoustics Genuin FS 2 Mk2 horn-loaded loudspeakers ($22,850/pair), a bee flew into my Southern man's bonnet and I requested room coverage to major domo Jim Austin.
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Alma Music/On a Higher Note/Bergman/Graham Audio/Moonriver/Kubala-Sosna/Artesania
Capital AudioFest 2022
Ken Micallef  |  Nov 13, 2022  |  0 comments
Alma Music's Fabio Storelli and On A Higher Note's Philip O'Hanlon tempted me with promises of serious sound, female entertainment, and triple-distilled whiskey. I fell into their room and almost spent the night.

O'Hanlon had the brand spanking new Graham Audio LS8/1 Limited Edition standmount loudspeakers ($9700/pair, with stands).

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Alta Audio, Mojo Audio, Rogers High Fidelity, Infigo Audio
AXPONA 2022
Ken Micallef  |  Apr 28, 2022  |  0 comments
Upstate New York manufacturer Alta Audio debuted its new The Adam floorstanding speaker ($17,000/pair in piano black, $18,000/pair in rosewood or beech) at Axpona, in two separate rooms.

The Adam features a 5.75" neodymium magnet ribbon tweeter, 6" midrange driver, and an 8.75" woofer "whose tuning parameters are coupled to the unique cabinet design for its infrasonic (floor-moving) bass and for refined cohesion between The Adam's XTL (Extended Line Transmission) and its pure aluminum ribbon tweeter," stated the company's website. That's potentially copious bass created from a transmission-line approach.

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Alta Audio/Infigo Audio
Capital AudioFest 2022
Ken Micallef  |  Nov 12, 2022  |  0 comments
I scrambled into the room shared by Infigo Audio and Alta Audio where Alta Audio's Michael Levy was introducing his new Titanium Hestia II floorstanders ($37,500/pair). I always dig Hans Looman's Infigo amplifiers; Hans always plays cool and unusual music, and his amps are small beasts of potent power, snap-crackling dynamics, and surprisingly large, super-scaled soundstages.
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American Sound / American Audio & Video
Florida Audio Expo 2024
Ken Micallef  |  Feb 24, 2024  |  2 comments

Angie Lisi and Matthew Legere of American Sound of Richmond Hill, Ontario, played vinyl records, after my heart.

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