2026 Florida International Audio Expo Feb 20-22

[amirm]

Who's AJ

Think of an extreme objectivist who left humanity long time ago when it comes to manners and personal interactions. Anything that ever so slightly deviated from "everything sound the same" would get him to call your mother names! I have never, ever, met a person online with such nasty attitude. Now, if he provided some technical value, that would be one thing. But his responses were always about going after the person, and repeating the same few arguments. No sharing of research, technical data, measurements, etc. Just belittling fellow audiophiles. When I would push back on his generalizations, he would just get nastier and nastier. His alias on AVS Forum was "AJinFLA."

He was a civil engineer and abusing members on audio forum, was his hobby. Then, he decided to get into speaker business. He sort of, kind of follows Harman research. In my last interaction with him elsewhere, he refused to provide any measurements of his speakers. His site is just like any other speaker company, with marketing claims, not backed by anything. Ironically, he now has to hide his past personality and views, with gear at shows with fancy audio cables and such.

Net, net, I don't care if he has the answer to world peace. I would never interact with him. If you hate your fellow human beings as much as he does, and then mellow out a bit to take their money, I want to have nothing to do with you (AJ).

 

[AudioJester]

Ouch.

Well hopefully you get to go and enjoy the rest of the show.

 

[Jimster480]

Think of an extreme objectivist who left humanity long time ago when it comes to manners and personal interactions. Anything that ever so slightly deviated from "everything sound the same" would get him to call your mother names! I have never, ever, met a person online with such nasty attitude. Now, if he provided some technical value, that would be one thing. But his responses were always about going after the person, and repeating the same few arguments. No sharing of research, technical data, measurements, etc. Just belittling fellow audiophiles. When I would push back on his generalizations, he would just get nastier and nastier. His alias on AVS Forum was "AJinFLA."

He was a civil engineer and abusing members on audio forum, was his hobby. Then, he decided to get into speaker business. He sort of, kind of follows Harman research. In my last interaction with him elsewhere, he refused to provide any measurements of his speakers. His site is just like any other speaker company, with marketing claims, not backed by anything. Ironically, he now has to hide his past personality and views, with gear at shows with fancy audio cables and such.

Net, net, I don't care if he has the answer to world peace. I would never interact with him. If you hate your fellow human beings as much as he does, and then mellow out a bit to take their money, I want to have nothing to do with you (AJ).

Ouch, I'm glad to have not come across this guy. I assume he doesn't have an account here.

You can always go to the show and not visit his room!

 

[MKR]

First, I certainly do not condone or defend any prior activity here on ASR, and yes, I have read much of it (was before my time on ASR). It is definitely not how I would (or do) communicate with folks. I only became aware of it AFTER engaging with AJ, and in fact he is the one that first made me aware of it. In the end I still decided to give Soundfield/AJ a chance to do right by me as I really liked their theories and ideas on loudspeaker design (especially the cardioid and variable directivity aspects) and how humans perceive sound (AJ is a serious student of JJs work) and he has absolutely delivered, far exceeding my expectations (which were very high I might add).

So, all I can do is describe my personal journey with AJ … which is I have not at all had the same experience, not in the least, as described in prior post. He has been nothing but a consummate professional and gentleman in all my dealings with him past few years, truly going above and beyond to make sure I was a happy customer. No other loudspeaker has gotten me “closer to the music” than Soundfield designs, period. And I happily gave them my money, as have a handful of others here on ASR.

Moving on now, I will speak no further on this topic, and (hopefully) we can get back to discussing the show

 

[AudioJester]

Never engaged with AJ, but looking at his posts on here and AVS forums - I get what Amir was saying.

People always act differently when there is the possibilty of money being exchanged.

Anyway, looking forward to hearing about the show!

 

[Alexanderc]

I decided that I'm going to go on Saturday. I went to the first two FL Audio Expos (back when it was free) and had a really nice time. I hope I run into some of you there!

 

[Alexanderc]

I decided that I'm going to go on Saturday. I went to the first two FL Audio Expos (back when it was free) and had a really nice time. I hope I run into some of you there!

Disappointed that KEF was not represented at the show. I had a good time there though!

 

[mcochris]

I went on Saturday, enjoyed the great weather. The show was well attended, but most of the rooms were small and packed with people. The Scott Walker Audio rooms had the best sounds. A surprising amount of tube equipment. I was hoping to hear a few electrostatic speakers, but only saw one or two. Missed Quad speakers, KEF, Yamaha, miniDSP. My friends missed McIntosh, Shiit, and a greater showing of reasonably priced gear. Did get to see some beautiful little T+A electronics and two gorgeous Accuphase amps, but I could'nt fit them in my backpack (grins). Didn't hear much good showoff demo music.

Looked for our fearless leader, but could'nt see past his bodyguards.

 

[amirm]

Looked for our fearless leader, but could'nt see past his bodyguards.

I was wearing a disguise....

 

[mcochris]

 

[Duke]

This year, Orchard Audio is in Room 427.

Bookshelf System:
Soundfield Audio MiniMon (bookshelf speakers) – $1,400/pair
2 x Starkrimson 25 Mono Premium – $2,500/pair
PecanPi+ Streamer Premium – $1,500 – Used as a Roon Ready Endpoint
Total System cost w/o cables – $5,400 (this is the most affordable system at the show, and one of the best sounding, I am bringing it back from last year due to all the positive feedback)

Floor Standing System:
Soundfield Audio Obelisk T7 passive – $12,000/pair
Starkrimson Stereo Ultra DMC 2.5 – $4,250
PecanPi+ Streamer Premium – $1,500
Total System cost w/o cables – $17,750

Also in the room 435 Soundfield Audio will have fully active Titan loudspeakers which will use Orchard Audio’s new 4-channel plate amplifers with built-in DSP.
View attachment 511103

Here is a picture of the loudspeakers that will be in Room 427.
View attachment 511102

I was VERY impressed by the Soundfield/Orchard Audio combinations in both rooms. (Subjectivist disclaimer: I'm in my mid-sixties and so are my ears. My preference is not and has never been an objectively "flat" frequency response. What "sounds flat" - i.e. "sounds neutral" - to me, actually turns out to be a gently downward-sloping frequency response, both in the direct sound and in the reflection field. Apparently I am unusually likely to perceive brightness and/or harshness in situations where other people do not. Perhaps that is just what I have become long-term acclimated to.)

I think the big twenty-four grand Titans (with built-in DSP/amplification by Orchard) were the only ones whose rear-firing drivers were turned on. AJ toggled the rear-firing sections off and on for us, and they didn't change the tonality so much as the sense or feeling of space, without any downside. More than once I was quiety in conversation with someone and startled by how realistic something in the music sounded. But it wasn't just a matter of doing something startlingly well on occasion; they were entirely consistent in not calling attention to themselves as the sound source. Floyd Toole has said (paraphrasing from memory) that the preferred speaker is not the "most virtuous" one; it is the least flawed one. Imo the Soundfield/Orchard Titans score exceptionally high whether the metric is "most virtuous" or "least flawed". To my ears, these speakers in this room (a medium-sized but not supersized room) were in the very top few at the show, and highly competitive with speakers eight times their price. And this is not counting amplification cost because the others were passive and driven by same-price-stratosphere amplification!

All three Soundfield/Orchard combinations were imo outstanding in their price ranges. On Friday my partner in a joint speaker venture and I were hitting all the rooms, these were among the last rooms on the last floor, and as we left the smaller room after hearing the Obelisks he said to me, "How in the world do they do that for twelve thousand dollars a pair?" He then started rattling off how much this and this and this would have to cost, plus a modest mark-up, all in the context of how natural and relaxing they sounded to both of us. He repeated his question.

I had to tell him, I don't know.

Two days later we went back and they were playing the $1400/pair MiniMons and I had not realized what their price was. THAT is the speaker that really makes me say ,"How in the world...", because (imo) it is FAR more challenging to build a no-distractions-just-enjoyable $1.4k speaker than to do so at many-times-higher the price.

 

[truckers_atlas]

I ended up going on a Sunday this year. Decent crowd for a Sunday, and I heard the crowd was hot on Friday and Saturday. Not sure if the food situation was any better on those days for attendees and vendors. The hotel is right next to an office park; it's the sort of place business travelers expect to have a rental car for. I suspect the food wasn't any better because of the complaints I overheard about the hotel restaurant food. I made sure to pack a sandwich and snacks based on my experience last year.

Broadly speaking, vendors were happy to take my song requests. If I'm sick of Patricia Barber and Diana Krall, I can't imagine to think how sick they are of audiophile show jazz. Some even had USB-C cables hooked up to their streamers for direct playback from phones to beat the hotel wi-fi issues.

The car audio section in the parking lot did look like it drew a younger crowd than the typical hi-fi show. Unfortunately this year I wasn't really able to spend serious time out there to talk to some of the sound quality competitors who brought their cars, and demo their systems.

While it doesn't help that FLAX is always next to CanJam New York every year, the show has bled headphone vendors to where this year Geshelli were the only vendor with a significant headphone presence. The Geshelli headphone balcony was by-and-large populated by people under 40 when I was there.

Let's see if I can remember to post my complete notes this year.

I will give my show MVP award to the DreamScapes AV room featuring the Grimm Audio LS1c, which are a pair of active speakers. Damn, those were good. My favorite room since the home theater room with Perlisten components a few years back. Very clean and consistent response both in and out of the main listening position, proper and tight bass extension from the integrated subwoofer.

The other DreamScapes AV room with Aretai + Benchmark sounded pretty solid from the Blade Runner 2049 soundtrack snippet I heard.

 

[orchardaudio]

I was VERY impressed by the Soundfield/Orchard Audio combinations in both rooms. (Subjectivist disclaimer: I'm in my mid-sixties and so are my ears. My preference is not and has never been an objectively "flat" frequency response. What "sounds flat" - i.e. "sounds neutral" - to me, actually turns out to be a gently downward-sloping frequency response, both in the direct sound and in the reflection field. Apparently I am unusually likely to perceive brightness and/or harshness in situations where other people do not. Perhaps that is just what I have become long-term acclimated to.)

I think the big twenty-four grand Titans (with built-in DSP/amplification by Orchard) were the only ones whose rear-firing drivers were turned on. AJ toggled the rear-firing sections off and on for us, and they didn't change the tonality so much as the sense or feeling of space, without any downside. More than once I was quiety in conversation with someone and startled by how realistic something in the music sounded. But it wasn't just a matter of doing something startlingly well on occasion; they were entirely consistent in not calling attention to themselves as the sound source. Floyd Toole has said (paraphrasing from memory) that the preferred speaker is not the "most virtuous" one; it is the least flawed one. Imo the Soundfield/Orchard Titans score exceptionally high whether the metric is "most virtuous" or "least flawed". To my ears, these speakers in this room (a medium-sized but not supersized room) were in the very top few at the show, and highly competitive with speakers eight times their price. And this is not counting amplification cost because the others were passive and driven by same-price-stratosphere amplification!

All three Soundfield/Orchard combinations were imo outstanding in their price ranges. On Friday my partner in a joint speaker venture and I were hitting all the rooms, these were among the last rooms on the last floor, and as we left the smaller room after hearing the Obelisks he said to me, "How in the world do they do that for twelve thousand dollars a pair?" He then started rattling off how much this and this and this would have to cost, plus a modest mark-up, all in the context of how natural and relaxing they sounded to both of us. He repeated his question.

I had to tell him, I don't know.

Two days later we went back and they were playing the $1400/pair MiniMons and I had not realized what their price was. THAT is the speaker that really makes me say ,"How in the world...", because (imo) it is FAR more challenging to build a no-distractions-just-enjoyable $1.4k speaker than to do so at many-times-higher the price.

Thank you for stopping by.

 

[orchardaudio]

If anybody stopped by room 427 and/or 435, I would like to hear your feedback.

Thanks.

Here is what they looked like.

 

[truckers_atlas]

I wasn't terribly impressed with the Borresen room. Bass wasn't nearly as tight as you'd expect from a dual-sub setup. I suspect the sub placement was a major issue. What might be good for showing off the product might not be so good for the sound.

I did overhear someone with press credentials say something along the lines of 'I want to like Borresen but whoever's running Borresen doesn't know how to set up their room' with an added expletive in there, so it wasn't just me.

On my way back from the restrooms, I popped into the Scott Walker Audio Von Schweikert + VAC room because I overheard Michael Jackson's Thriller, which was playing on the reel-to-reel tape that day. Pretty solid inside the main listening position with a bit of glare outside of it.

 

[truckers_atlas]

If anybody stopped by room 427 and/or 435, I would like to hear your feedback.

Thanks.

Here is what they looked like.

Pretty good tonal balance overall on the towers in your room with a nice sense of attack. The Sunfield room with the big towers were also good. They had to shut down for the day when I stopped by so I couldn't stick around for longer than the Bowie track that drew me into the room in the first place.

Geshelli have a new DAC called the Torc where the trick is interchangeable DAC modules. An ingenious idea for the traditional audiophile market.

The two new headphones I demoed this year on the Geshelli balcony were the Modhouse Tungsten V2, and the Abyss Joal. The Tungsten V2 gets an incomplete from me, as the unit had audible channel imbalance. Tuning was mild V-shape, which was not how I had the Tungsten V1 down in my notes as. No idea how this Tungsten V2 unit was configured wrt driver configuration and pads; speaking to others and looking at measurements, pads do have a large influence on sound for Tungsten V2. The Abyss didn't do anything obviously wrong sonically. Unfortunately I don't think the Abyss engineers had humans try this headphone on before they shipped it. I found the Joal deeply uncomfortable with the total lack of cup swivel. Inexcusable ergonomics for a nearly $2,000 headphone.

Geshelli's big stereo room had the same Acoustic Energy AE520 towers as last year, with 2 new G-Blok monoblocks, their DAC from the headphone room, and an SVS subwoofer. Good room as it was last year though I don't think the subwoofer was really necessary for this system for music. They tried using MoFi SourcePoint 10s but didn't really love them in this room, so they decided to drive in the Acoustic Energy towers at the last minute from their home base on other side of the state.

Geshelli used their conference room space for a small 2-channel system instead of the partnership they had with Audio-Technica headphones last year, though I didn't have the time to take a closer look.