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$5 Million Hi-Fi Speakers Show (2020) | AXPONA Lost Tapes

TitaniumTroy

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AXPONA – The Lost Tapes for 2020
Posted by Jay Luong | Jul 11, 2020 | Shows | 1 - AXPONA
All high-end hi-fi shows have been canceled for 2020…and perhaps for 2021. Hardcore audiophiles are starting to forget how it feels like to be at one of these shows. This motivated me to push out some footage I’ve kept in the archives. Aside from being the best footage from a show, I hope it’s enough speaker porn to get you through this pandemic.



"I have just watched the beginning so far, but it's fun remembering things like the KEF Muon's looked great but that room sucked for sound. The Golden Ear Triton One R were too bright in the high frequency, I thought the B&W's sounded the best I have ever heard them."
Troy
 

Dennis Murphy

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AXPONA – The Lost Tapes for 2020
Posted by Jay Luong | Jul 11, 2020 | Shows | 1 - AXPONA
All high-end hi-fi shows have been canceled for 2020…and perhaps for 2021. Hardcore audiophiles are starting to forget how it feels like to be at one of these shows. This motivated me to push out some footage I’ve kept in the archives. Aside from being the best footage from a show, I hope it’s enough speaker porn to get you through this pandemic.



"I have just watched the beginning so far, but it's fun remembering things like the KEF Muon's looked great but that room sucked for sound. The Golden Ear Triton One R were too bright in the high frequency, I thought the B&W's sounded the best I have ever heard them."
Troy
Some nice visuals, but the sound track reminded me of why I hate these shows. How can anybody judge speakers playing that kind of stuff? At least I could control the volume this time.
 

restorer-john

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Some nice visuals, but the sound track reminded me of why I hate these shows. How can anybody judge speakers playing that kind of stuff? At least I could control the volume this time.

All that garbage music is added by whoever did the video. I agree, what are people thinking who make a video about HiFi show with that crap soundtrack?

:facepalm:
 

amirm

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Some nice visuals, but the sound track reminded me of why I hate these shows.
They use free youtube music which is all that garbage. So many youtubers use them now. As you even if the content is good, I often can't stand it and will skip it. I don't know why Google with all their income doesn't create a decent library of music.

There are services that provide good music but they charge so these people don't use them.
 

Dennis Murphy

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They use free youtube music which is all that garbage. So many youtubers use them now. As you even if the content is good, I often can't stand it and will skip it. I don't know why Google with all their income doesn't create a decent library of music.

There are services that provide good music but they charge so these people don't use them.

I'm sure that's true. And I realize the sound track was added. But what struck me was how much it sounded like the stuff you hear at shows. I think one of the reasons my speakers generally got good reviews at the various Capital Audio Shows was that I spent hours putting together a wide range of well engineered tracks that didn't sound like exercises in compression and equalization.
 

nemanja_t

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Music at the beginning was non intrusive, background music, so I thought what are all talking about, but then it started...
 

tuga

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Some nice visuals, but the sound track reminded me of why I hate these shows. How can anybody judge speakers playing that kind of stuff? At least I could control the volume this time.

Same here. I gave up on shows because of the rubbish music and excessively loud demos.
 

Koeitje

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That thumbnail is a Wilson speaker right? Terrible speakers.
 

JohnBooty

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Same here. I gave up on shows because of the rubbish music and excessively loud demos.
...and even when the music is well-chosen, the rooms themselves often doom the experience.

At Capital Audiofest 2019 VAC and Von Schweikert had the latest iteration of their "million dollar setup."

At best, it sounded like an above-average PA system. The gear never had a chance. There was a large, flat, glass wall directly behind the seating area. So you were getting blasted by a ton of reflections from the wall right behind you. I definitely sympathize with the challenges, of course. You can't remodel a giant ballroom into an acoustically sound experience just for a three-day event. So I don't blame the vendors/organizers. I mean, what can you do? It was still impressive in ways (clearly, there was a massive amount of clean power on tap) but I can't really say it sounded great.

A lot of vendors also made the mistake of cramming large, bass-heavy speakers into cramped hotel rooms. In an effort to show off their bass it often just sounded like a mess, with a too-large speaker in a too-small room.

The best-sounding rooms featured modest-sized speakers in the "regular" hotel rooms - i.e. a proper match between room size and speaker.
 

Matias

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That thumbnail is a Wilson speaker right? Terrible speakers.
I read somewhere they are the top selling high end speaker brand in the US. Would love to see their big models on spinorama, but I doubt someone would send 50-150k usd speakers for Amir to measure, and Amir to move it around would need like 3 people.
 

Soundstage

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...and even when the music is well-chosen, the rooms themselves often doom the experience.

At Capital Audiofest 2019 VAC and Von Schweikert had the latest iteration of their "million dollar setup."

At best, it sounded like an above-average PA system. The gear never had a chance. There was a large, flat, glass wall directly behind the seating area. So you were getting blasted by a ton of reflections from the wall right behind you. I definitely sympathize with the challenges, of course. You can't remodel a giant ballroom into an acoustically sound experience just for a three-day event. So I don't blame the vendors/organizers. I mean, what can you do? It was still impressive in ways (clearly, there was a massive amount of clean power on tap) but I can't really say it sounded great.

A lot of vendors also made the mistake of cramming large, bass-heavy speakers into cramped hotel rooms. In an effort to show off their bass it often just sounded like a mess, with a too-large speaker in a too-small room.

The best-sounding rooms featured modest-sized speakers in the "regular" hotel rooms - i.e. a proper match between room size and speaker.
I did not know there was such a thing as too large speakers for a room.
 

thewas

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I read somewhere they are the top selling high end speaker brand in the US. Would love to see their big models on spinorama, but I doubt someone would send 50-150k usd speakers for Amir to measure, and Amir to move it around would need like 3 people.
Stereophile has measured already quite some of their models and you can already see there that a Spinorama is not really needed to show their FR and directivity problems, here just few:
https://www.stereophile.com/content/wilson-audio-specialties-yvette-loudspeaker-measurements
https://www.stereophile.com/content/wilson-audio-specialties-sabrina-loudspeaker-measurements
https://www.stereophile.com/content...ties-alexia-series-2-loudspeaker-measurements
 

Matthew J Poes

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I read somewhere they are the top selling high end speaker brand in the US. Would love to see their big models on spinorama, but I doubt someone would send 50-150k usd speakers for Amir to measure, and Amir to move it around would need like 3 people.
They may also be too big. As I understand it, the NFS system has a height limit and also requires a kind of crane like setup for weight. You have to suspect the speaker from the ceiling so only a fraction of its weight sits on the device. I don’t know if Amir has his setup in this way or if he has a weight limit with his setup.

you can obtain accurate Spin data on speakers like this using other methods. I do this for the groups I work with. The bigger issue is being able to move such large speakers around. They are so big and heavy and to work you need the speaker to be off the ground a significant amount. I need about 6-9ms of clean IR at a minimum to make this work.

C9929DF7-2644-4009-BA59-9BFCDA709602.jpeg
 

Matthew J Poes

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Either you're about eighteen inches tall, or that's a really big setup.

hah I am sure you know which is true!

the speaker stand is 6’ and the speakers are somewhere between 5 and 6 feet I believe.

I use a software now that is similar to the Klippel system in that it represents the far field through a set of modes captured based on windowed nearfield data. The resolution of the polar data is dictated by a Legendre series. However the model is more basic/simpler than that used by Klippel so I still need to capture the data at a sufficient distnace to see good crossover integration. Normally that’s just 1 meter or even a bit less. It requires some manual validation as well. What you see here was part of that process.
 

Duke

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the speaker stand is 6’ and the speakers are somewhere between 5 and 6 feet I believe.

You know what would REALLY be impressive? Video of you picking up that JTR speaker and placing it atop the stand.
 
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Matthew J Poes

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You know what would REALLY be impressive? Video of you picking up that JTR speaker and placing it atop the stand.
That would be impressive. I had to rely on the owner of JTR, Jeff, to heave those up. We did it together and I’m sure I wasn’t much help. That speaker and I weigh about the same.
 

Dave Zan

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I use a software now that is similar to the Klippel system in that it represents the far field...
However the model is more basic/simpler than that used by Klippel so I still need to capture the data at a sufficient distnace....

Hi Mathew.
Is this software that you wrote yourself or did it come from elsewhere?
There is a project underway to understand, and perhaps develop, Klippel style software at ASR, started and lead by @NTK
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ner-the-mathematics-and-everything-else.9970/
So I am sure any information would be very helpful.
There was a similar project at DIYaudio that I tried to help but it eventually lost its way, however I am still interested.
In what way is your model simpler than Klippel's?

Best wishes
David
 
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