Stephen Mejias

“Oh, man,” I heard someone say. “You’ve got the XX on vinyl?!”

Dynaudio's Mike Manousselis turned, smiled, and nodded to the small group of young attendees.

“You’re killing me!”

Dynaudio’s Mike Mannousselis always brings a ton of awesome music to hi-fi shows, and this time he played a track called “Suzanne” by Asobi Seksu, a band I once booked to play at Uncle Joe’s, a small but dearly loved dive bar in downtown Jersey City.

Despite their size, the Dynaudio Confidence C2 Signature loudspeakers ($15,000/pair) managed to disappear, leaving a clear view onto the music.

I hope this doesn’t gross you out or make you cancel your subscription or anything, but SEXY (in all caps) is the first word that came to my mind when I walked into the room hosted by Tone Imports, DeVore Fidelity, Well Tempered Labs, and the Box Furniture Co.

There was a lot of pretty stuff to look at and listen to in here.

In a third Audioarts room, the company’s Gideon Schwartz selected “Burning” from Wild Beasts’ Smother, one of my favorite albums of the year.

In my opinion, one of the coolest-looking systems of the show was pieced together by New York City’s Audioarts: Rethm Maarga loudspeakers ($8750/pair), Fi amplification, and a Lector CDP-6 CD player. The sound was just as good as the appearance: immediate and realistic, with a rich, detailed midrange.

It was a pleasure to finally meet Nick and Jennifer Atocha, makers of the most beautiful record cabinets I’ve ever seen. In the imaginary future of my mind, I will live in an old brownstone with extremely high ceilings, wide plank floors, cool chandeliers, a spiral staircase, a grand fireplace, a secret library, sky lighting, and at least three or five (I don’t like even numbers) of Atocha’s record cabinets.

Jennifer very slyly warned me of the possibility&#151no, inevitability&#151of my dear Ikea Expedit shelves collapsing beneath the weight of all my precious vinyl. I frowned.

“Do you have children?” she asked.