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Axpona 2023 Impressions /Pictures

chorus

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Jul 7, 2020
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Axpona Show Recap Sunday April 16th 2023- O'Hare Airport


Clarisys Audio-Why these difficult names??
$35k. Easy on the ears at higher volumes.
"Apogee" is what they look like only prettier.

The new T+A $50k speaker model was also excellent. They make smaller models
I plan to look into.

The $43k Joseph Audio is a perennial winner.

The $200k+ Borresen Speakers may still be my all time favorite. Lars was there
but Michael B. was burned out from an Asian tour.

The Vimberg stand mount Speaker they demo'd is a magical speaker.
Last year they showed Lime Green speaker and sold it at the show.
Makers please note. Focal failed to bring even one "Hot" colored speaker.
And they must have had 25 speakers there. Poor merchandising.

Did anyone else partake in one of Wendel's 1/2 hour new subwoofer sessions? (Magnepan)
Wendel's contention is that 12 6.25" drivers mounted in a dipole configuration
beats anyone's subwoofer. Not sure about his science on that but he puts on an
impressive demo!

I am still waiting delivery of my LRS+ speakers ordered Dec 4th.
I did get to listen to the new LRS+ speakers finally. Interesting back story about
something Sandy Gross had to say in the Bacche room. He thinks the LRS+ are "special".

Mike Fremer debuted his new LP. I won't try to review it but will advise against over paying
for an early copy.

Met some fun people at Cambridge Audio Saturday night! Their business is good.

Dined with the Black Ice people at the Weber Grill. Jared has a very
interesting past if you ever meet him. They sold 40 units of one headphone amp
on Friday at the show!

I finally met Fredrik Lejonklou from Sweden. He does things in an all out assault mode.
Also has the best laid out website I've seen. Product history info is wonderful. Other makers note.

I spoke with the Chris Brunhaver, PS Audio Speaker designer, (son of one of the speakerlab founders)
and heard his mid sized $20k speakers. I like the look and the sound is pretty good
for a first effort. I decided against asking him if he missed Darren Meyers the PS audio designer
who was recently hired away by the new Parasound owner. Darren is a very talented guy who will
benefit greatly from his new association with John Curl. I have to think Parasound will be announcing
a new Class D amp soon enough.

Rumor has it that PS Audio is shopping for a new software man to fix some long standing glitches.
When the mute button turns on the TV it is time for a fix.

Andrew Jones was demoing his new Point 8 speaker. $3k. the Point 10 is $4k.
He had some great demo music I will be including in my next Track du Jour email.
The 8's sounded as good or better than the 10's in that setup.
I forgot to ask when his movie is due to be released!

A fun show overall!!

Also I have a trip arranged for up to 15 people to visit the Elma, Washington NWAA Headquarters. Otherwise known as Satsop 5 Nuclear Reactor. Jason Victor Serinus
wrote a story about his visit in Stereophile. He calls it a "Must See". Google it to learn more. Let me know if you care to go to this 2 hour visit May 19th.

Best,



Jeff Kalina
 

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FrankW

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Did you notice all the damn screws on speakers?? Just kidding, thanks for the report and pics. Appreciated by us non attendees.
Who is the lady on harp(?) in first pic?
 
OP
chorus

chorus

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The 40.3s were painted to match finally.
The Harpist-who actually performed on
a full elevator-kid you not- was a foreigner.
She was selling LPs and CDs so do some
looking.
 

Four Kneez

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I got to attend the first two days of the show before getting sick on Sunday, so I heard maybe 70% of the setups.

The Joseph speakers are definitely perennial winners. I've heard them at three different shows in three very different rooms, and they've always been incredible. Also, Jeff Joseph is a gem to talk to.

I'm very hot and cold on the Børresen speakers. Sometimes I think they sound great and others I'm very unimpressed. For example, in some rooms, male vocals sound very strange, and in others, the treble comes across very hot. But then there are times when you feel the bass shaking your entire body and when the speakers are creating an incredibly wide soundstage.

I loved the ATC SCM100ASLT speakers at last year's show but felt more lukewarm this time around. They seemed to roll off in the bass and treble, but they really nailed the midrange. The passive ATCs were not to my taste, though.

I got to hear the Vimberg Tonda speakers (not sure if these are what @chorus is referring to), and they seemed quite good, although the music choices in the room made it hard to evaluate bass. The treble was in a good "just right" spot in between being sibilant and/or bright and being dark.

The Harman speakers, especially the JBL 4329P and the Revel Salon2, were expectedly great. The 4329Ps had thunderous bass which didn't seem to bleed into the lower midrange at all, and the Salon2 nails just about everything.

The Perlisten S7t and Qln Prestige Three rooms were also winners, in my opinion. Perlisten (specifically with the S7t) and Qln (with all of their speakers I've heard) have had great rooms at every show I've attended.

The biggest surprise of the show for me was the Franco Serblin Ktêma room. Everything from string-heavy music to bass-heavy EDM sounded fantastic.

The SVS rooms were also noteworthy because of how powerful their tiny speakers and subwoofers were. Despite looking almost tiny desk speakers, they could absolutely shake the room. It was a very fun experience, for sure.

On the other side, some of my least favorite speakers included Wilson Alexx V, which was painfully v-shaped, and the MBL 101 E MKII, which had the strangest tonality—the bass was completely overbearing and the midrange made vocals sound horribly unnatural.
 
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Four Kneez

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Did you notice all the damn screws on speakers?? Just kidding, thanks for the report and pics. Appreciated by us non attendees.
Who is the lady on harp(?) in first pic?
The harpist is Isabeau Corriveau!
 

MattHooper

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The Joseph speakers are definitely perennial winners. I've heard them at three different shows in three very different rooms, and they've always been incredible. Also, Jeff Joseph is a gem to talk to.

I was so impressed by the Joseph Audio Pearls at an audio show I immediately sought out the brand to see if they did something more affordable with the same quality I heard at the show. I ended up with my Joseph Audio Perspective (2 graphene) speakers which I adore.

One thing I noticed in researching Joseph speakers is that they are almost universally praised. Whether it's coming from show reports, audition reports, reviews, owners, "subjectivist" or "objectivist" audiophiles, I'm not sure I've seen that level of conformity of opinion for any other speaker brand. Most people's show reports will contain all sorts of critical comments about various speakers, but very, very rarely for Joseph speakers.

Doesn't mean of course they are the best, but I found it interesting.
 
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