My Cliff Notes AXPONA report:
The show seemed to definitely less vendors, much less advertising and static displays when I wandered the halls the night before the show. Some vendors were probably still burned by last years cancelling of the show and then a lot money not refunded or whatever. Lots less people you could see in the common area's like the restaurant, bar etc...
Volti Audio wins for having the best bang for your speakers that were nearly full range, hybrid horn speakers, highs were nice, very engaging sound and the Rival SE has a 15" woofer. The Razz is $5,900 for the moment, they also played good music. Not that low dynamics stuff many rooms were playing, who listens to that crap it's like a new version of elevator music, makes you want to take a nice nap.
Now for worst sound of the show, Klipsch's Jubilee. Very loud HF were extremely irritating, music section had dynamics but not much I was familiar with. Plus those things were huge probably the size of a big SoundLab E
ESL.
Best sound of the show would go to two speaker companies close to each other in huge rooms, both used Accuton ceramic drivers, Von Schwiekart Audio used a split ribbon and a beryllium tweeter and a adjustable rear ribbon tweeter and midrange. The Vimbergs on display also had a diamond tweeter option, jacking the price $20k or close to it. Like at previous AXPONA shows I found the ceramic drivers to have a purity in the midrange and HF, unfortunately they are extremely expensive. Both really pressurized their rooms, I would have to do a side by side Comparison pick between the two speakers.
The tower Perlisten speaker had excellent imaging, but was in a tiny room and playing uninteresting music so I moved on.
I finally got to hear an old school version of a Tannoy speaker the Stirling I believe, I've heard some newer lines at other shows and found the HF to be rather harsh. These however had a nice engaging sound imaging was excellent, but I did think the soundstage extended beyond the speakers locations.
Linkwitz's speakers did nothing for me, did not sound bad just meh.YG Acoustics and Magico were both very good, but didn't have that purity in tone compared to ceramic drivers.
PSB speakers Synchrony seemed really small with it's three 6 1/2" woofers, they were cranking the volume. But I think they were struggling to do it, I didn't give a real critical listen as it was noisy in the room. At $8k though I would definitely take the Volti Razz hands down over it, not even close.
Dynaudio, Focal, Estelon all were in huge rooms. Dynaudio sounded good but nowhere near ceramic speakers like the Estelon's, Focal's room usually sound like crap because they have home theater room within a room, with GIK room acoustics, and the room is very small and open to the rest of the bigger room. Where they have a lot of the demo's going on the same time, it's not the speakers it's the setup.
Almost forgot Legacy Audio, there speakers never do anything for imaging/soundstage wise, I don't think the asymmetrical room placement helps in that dept.
