FLORIDA AUDIO EXPO FEB 7-9th 2020

[Newk Yuler]

My first audio show. Spectacular display of expensive but not especially impressive sounding speakers that made me happier with what I have. (That cost A LOT less than what most of these guys were displaying.) With a few exceptions. Many didn't bring their big dogs and most didn't bother with room treatments or even a seemingly well considered setup. Again, I was surprised there was so much that really didn't impress me as better than decent and many that were downright meh. The space alien MBL were there again and looked weird and cool enough. I suppose. Looked like something NFL and NBA players would have for the extraordinary bling value.

I imagined Amir having an ASR room with the AP and a banner offering free proof of the wares. I honestly believe it could be hit and maybe the talk of the show. It would be a fun place to park in a corner and watch the circus. That said there is a Canadian guy there with his headphone amp in a very modest display that Amir tested and he used an FFT graph as proof of worth. I congratulated him and wished him well for success.

There are a couple of rooms using a very pretty power conditioner using a transparent illuminated display VU style meter in its face. I commented that they use a toothpick for the needle in the display and got a nasty look from a rep. That was fun. I think of it as a little payback for putting up with all the cable glorification. It really looks like a toothpick until you get very close.

It was completely enjoyable, though. For my first time to a nice audio show. Finally one that's LOCAL. Definitely worth the effort. As some have said this hotel is a good place for an audio expo seemed right. We anticipated going Friday when the doors opened would be the best opportunity with most of Tampa still at their day jobs. It gave us a few hours with freedom of movement that disappeared by mid afternoon. If you don't want to try dealing with the limited parking at the hotel you can park across the street at the Westshore mall. That's what we did.

Watched for RayDunzl but never saw the wig, so either he wasn't there or he was incognito. Fremer was there somewhere, never saw him either.

 

[anmpr1]

Do these manufacturers at the show sell direct, or are customers supposed to go through a dealer? Are there that many high-end audio stores in Tampa? The reason I ask is that I used to live in Orlando (smaller metro area, to be sure) during the heyday of hi-fi. Back then, there was a stereo shop just about on every corner. When I left I think all of them had closed up, even the longest running McIntosh dealer. The scene had morphed in to home automation installers, and I don't think most of them even had a storefront to speak of. They came to your house, met with your builder, etc.

 

[Sal1950]

Do these manufacturers at the show sell direct, or are customers supposed to go through a dealer?

The usual circumstance is they're not doing direct sales at the show but will put you together with a dealer, whatever. But that's no hard and fast rule.

Are there that many high-end audio stores in Tampa?

No, AFAIK there's one or two. Times have changed everywhere.

 

[MattHooper]

Guys, can you please include any listening impressions about some rooms? Pictures are nice, but they can be had anywhere. The fun is in reading what members think of what they heard: what stood out and impressed and why, or why not, etc.

Thanks!

 

[RayDunzl]

Visited the show yesterday afternoon.

Didn't try to see "everything" this year.

High points:

RHB speakers - big tower (90" tall) with lots of drivers and a real clean punchy sound.

Magico, the big ones, M6 (?), in the big room, but not so much for the smaller ones in a little room Twin subs in the back with opposing 15" (?) 18" (?) drivers, that weren't contributing to what was being played when I felt them.

Magnepan surprised me. I hadn't heard any before. I think they were the LRS - $650/pair (?). (edit) Wrong. They were the MG .7 model, maybe $1450/pr. Big room filling sound. Unfortunately that room was pushing an optical phono (light modulation instead of coil/magnet) cartridge and nobody in the know knew anything about the speakers, not even which model they were. Everyone that walked in, the first question was "Where's the sub?" and there wasn't one. The vendor kept exhorting the "massless" mature of the stylus. Uh-huh.



Tried a couple of high-end headphones, but I may not have the high-end ears to appreciate them.

Then there was AGD, who has a gallium FET and some more electronics stuffed inside a medium large glass tube with some LEDs to provide some fake thermionic glow. Nothing wrong with the sound, but, well, duh.

That's about it for me.

Once again, I leave the show happy enough with what I have already. Tough business.

I might stay home and take a nap next year. I couldn't stop yawning at one point, the vendor says "I'm not keeping you awake, am I?" I don't remember my reply, maybe something like "That's your job".

We didn't even do enough room hopping to feel the need to use the stairs over the elevators.

Disappointment: No Harbeth to try again (at least, they weren't listed and we didn't see any).

 

[MZKM]

Visited the show yesterday afternoon.

Didn't try to see "everything" this year.

High points:

RHB speakers - big tower (90" tall) with lots of drivers and a real clean punchy sound.

Magico, the big ones, M6 (?), in the big room, but not so much for the smaller ones in a little room Twin subs in the back with opposing 15" (?) 18" (?) drivers, that weren't contributing to what was being played when I felt them.

Magnepan surprised me. I hadn't heard any before. I think they were the LRS - $650/pair (?). Big room filling sound. Unfortunately that room was pushing an optical phono (light modulation instead of coil/magnet) cartridge and nobody in the know knew anything about the speakers, not even which model they were. Everyone that walked in, the first question was "Where's the sub?" and there wasn't one. The vendor kept exhorting the "massless" mature of the stylus. Uh-huh.

Tried a couple of high-end headphones, but I may not have the high-end ears to appreciate them.

Then there was AGD, who has a gallium FET and some more electronics stuffed inside a medium large glass tube with some LEDs to provide some fake thermionic glow. Nothing wrong with the sound, but, well, duh.

That's about it for me.

Once again, I leave the show happy enough with what I have already. Tough business.

I might stay home and take a nap next year. I couldn't stop yawning at one point, the vendor says "I'm not keeping you awake, am I?" I don't remember my reply, maybe something like "That's your job".

We didn't even do enough room hopping to feel the need to use the stairs over the elevators.

Disappointment: No Harbeth to try again (at least, they weren't listed and we didn't see any).

The Benchmark room was cool. While I was there, there were also people from
Geshelli Labs, introducing themselves to the Benchmark workers.

There were only two standouts to me:

1: Muraudio, they had their SP1 and another attendee asked if a subwoofer would be suggested, the worker smirked and put on Differently by Marian Hill, and almost blew us out of the room with bass; really surprising, the $15K price tag wasn’t as insane as I thought. Measurements, it’s a dipole so I really only suggest looking at the listening window measurement, which isn’t half bad. I was sitting off-axis and the center image was decently maintained (unlike other dipoles).

2: Eikon, an active tower using their own “room” correction, you use the supplied microphone and measure the speaker at specific positioning (something like 3ft high and 4ft back), the control module then sends the data to their servers which then computers the correction file, which deals with both FR and phase, they showed a wavelet measurement of their HQ listening room before and after the correction (and they did of course do the correction for this show demo). $25K for the package, nothing to sneeze at, but at least it was interesting.

There was also Endow Audio, showing off their “point array technology”, thing looked like an alien.

 

[snapsc]

@Matt Hooper

I also went on Friday...visited my first room at 9:40am...before official opening...and my last room at 4:15 pm...It seemed to me that the Friday attendance was somewhat lighter than last year as I rarely had to wait at all to get to a prime listening position.

In these kinds of rooms and this kind of environment...you aren't going to get the most optimal sound...but in almost every room there was good sound, which to my way of thinking is that in your own home listening room, there is a pretty good chance you will get even better sound in most cases...but in a lot of cases it was hard to judge fairly because the volume was too loud...probably to drown out the people talking in the back of each room.

As for products on display...I'd say that with $10k being the typical speaker price...the goal was NOT to attract young people into the hobby but to give those that could afford $10k or more, something to wet their appetites.

suite 1109 was the Magnepan room...they brought the Magnepan .7 loudspeakers. I asked them why, they said that the LRS was pretty much sold out a ways into the future and that the .7 would give most people more low end. They did. Not deep bass, but in the approximately 200 square foot room they were in...they had a lot more mid bass punch than most people in the room expected.

the amp being used was a Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum integrated tube amp...fed by a DS Audio E1 Optical Phono Cartridge System ($2750)...you can read about it here....all I can say is that this room sounded really good...and except for the AMG Giro turntable...this was a budget room.

What else?

The Vaughn Loudspeakers with their 4" array of midrange drivers produced an unbelievably good low end...which when combined with their plasma tweeter....detailed, spacious and no top end bite.

The little Acora bookshelves with the 65lbs granite cabinets...shockingly good, huge soundstage....good midbass consider a 4"? driver...but $15k.

MC Audiotech...ok, this is a vintage looking speaker for $35k played with LTA equipment that sounded...well it sounded like music...the band was in the room.

That same sort of effortless musicality was also true with the Classic Audio Speakers, the Volti Speakers, the Pure Audio Project speakers, the Daedalus Apollos...I could easily live with any of them...not harsh, great low end, big sound stage and all very alive.

A La Carte Productions...also good sound in their two rooms....Spendor and Vienna Acoustics Baby Grand...thank you David for making these crowded rooms listenable.

The Sonus Fabers sounded really good again this year driven by $1k Project amplifiers

The SVS Prime Pinnacles at $1600 for the pair also sounded darn good.

One of the stranger looking but pretty good sounding, especially from the sweet spot was the endow audio fs301. I think the price was around $15-20k....I'd have to hear it in my house....there is a lot of technology and R&D invested which may explain the price?

The Spatial Audios sounded good...but for the tracks I got to hear, I expected more low end....could have been my seating position.

The Carver Amazing Line Source sounded really good and threw a massive soundstage.

As for electronics...very hard to judge given the circumstances...lots of tube amps on display and lots of vinyl as well.

Like Newk Yuler...I also left feeling good about my own system which is based around Salk Veracity ST loudspeakers...But at the same time, there were lots of things I would like to try in my own system...but much of it was just too expensive...

 

[MZKM]

One of the stranger looking but pretty good sounding, especially from the sweet spot was the endow audio fs301. I think the price was around $15-20k....I'd have to hear it in my house....there is a lot of technology and R&D invested which may explain the price?

They had the T35, the FS301 is $40-$50K depending on the internal components (better inductors and whatnot).

 

[RayDunzl]

suite 1109 was the Magnepan room...they brought the Magnepan .7 loudspeakers.

They didn't look like .7 to me... But I was fooled, I guess, looking at the Magnepan site later, where the .7 shown had a different base.

Ok, not the LRS, but .7, and corrected above.

 

[snapsc]

I went to room 916 hoping to hear the Revel...but alas, a last minute substitution was made with the Emma EVO loudspeakers.... but I have to agree with Marc Phillips...they sounded really good.

 

[Martin]

I've attended two Rocky Mountain Audio Fests in 2009 and 2010 and last year's Florida Audio Expo. I like the rooms in the Embassy Suites where the Expo is held. The building was initially condominiums and the walls are considerably more substantial than in your typical hotel and insulated so the sound can be better here than at RMAF. Additionally, the big rooms are actually big rooms and not portions of a big ballroom separated by those sliding dividers. In my opinion attendance on Saturday this year seemed down compared to Saturday last year. My 16 year old son and I started on the top floor and worked our way down. The highlights...

1216: Benchmark Media; HIFIMAN and Focal.

There were 5 identical set-ups of an HPA4 and DAC3 B being fed from iPads running Qobuz. Qobuz was omnipresent at the show. I sat and listened to two full songs and snippets of half a dozen others on a pair of Focal Clears. Excellent headphones and, as we know, excellent DAC and amplifier.

1213: Suncoast Audio; Fyne Audio; Shunyata Research; VPI Industries; Pass Labs; Aqua-Acoustic Quality and Aurender.

Spinning vinyl - sounded very good but nothing stood out.

1212: Stenheim.

Spinning vinyl - sounded good but nothing stood out.

1209: High Fidelity Cables; Bafflex Loudspeakers and Luminance Audio.

Shilling "magnetic inductance" cables. Interesting speakers, sounded polite for how huge they were.

1116: AGD Productions and Ocean Way Audio.

Hawking "The Magic of GaNTube™ Sound." Really just a class D amplifier packed into a glass tube. Weird. Sounded good but nothing stood out.

1109: Musical Surroundings; Clearaudio; AMG; Hana-Lab; DS Audio; Magnepan; Rogue Audio and Sweet Home Audio.

My first encounter with the new Magnepan LRS. I've loved big Maggies in the past and these had all the magic I like in Maggies but lacked a little on the bottom end. I wanted to hear a Hana cartridge but they we spinning vinyl with a DS Audio optical cartridge. The room sounded very good. Have I said I like Maggies? I bought my Von Schweikert VR-4 Gen III HSE speakers on consignment from Brian at Sweet Home Audio about 5 years ago.

1105: Audeze.

The second headphone room I spent time in. They had 4 setups all with iPads using Apple's Music app and files on the iPad. They had Benchmark, Chord, Nagra and Burson Conductor 3 setups. I listened to 2 songs and half a dozen partials on Audeze LCD-X. I had never listened to planar headphones and I think I would give them a very slight edge over the Focal Clears. Excellent sound.

After the second headphone demo room I felt very happy with my current choice of Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (with Dakoni Elite Velour Pads and Frans' passive filter) and Topping DX7s. I think they get me 95% of what I heard in the two demo rooms where I spent some time. IIRC there were 5 or 6 headphone rooms in total; in the interest of time I skipped the remainder.

1004: Pure Audio Project; Pass Labs; VPI Industries and Luminous Audio.

BIG speakers, OK sound; nothing to write home about.

1005: Upstream Audio; Aesthetix Audio; Sonore Audio; Sustem Optique and Focal.

OK sound; nothing to write home about.

1008: Gershman Acoustics; VAC and exaSound DAC.

Grand Studio II speakers look like two bookshelf speakers, one upside down stacked on the other. Sounded good but nothing stood out.

1009: MC Audiotech; Linear Tube Audio and Anticables.

Weird speakers sounded very bright with zero low end. Odd because they mentioned the bottom half housed a pair of 18" subwoofers.

1012: MSB Technology.

OK sound; nothing to write home about. I don't like Magico speakers.

1013: Gated HiFi; Aavik Acoustics; Ansuz Acoustics and Borresen Audio.

I really looked forward to hearing this room; the Borresen 01 speakers really caught my attention last year. These speakers are absolutely amazing, they produce a sound that belies their small size - spacious, full range and enveloping. Unfortunately the idiots running the demo were shilling kilobuck power conditioners, power cables and ethernet switches. They played 15-20 seconds of one song, swapped equipment and supposedly played it again. Then they talked, and talked, and talked, and talked... FRUSTRATING! Not only that, I strongly believe they were committing fraud in their demo. I went back to the room to be sure and they did the same thing. The second clip they played of the same song sounded significantly better than the first. I watched the streamer closely: they played the first clip (artwork visible on the streamer screen), swapped one level PowerSwitch ethernet switch for another, moved some cables and then picked up the controller to play the clip again. Here is where it gets interesting. He "mistakenly" started another clip (artwork changed), stopped it and supposedly played the first clip again (artwork matched first clip). They made this same "mistake" both times I watched the demo several hours apart. I believe they had two versions of the first clip, one modified to sound compressed and closed-in and one unmodified. I think they were switching between the two. They should have been strung up by their nads - not just for fraud but for not playing music at an audio show. The speakers sounded great for the several seconds I heard them, otherwise the room was neck deep in a soup of BS and snake oil.

1015: Raven Audio.

I liked the sound in this room. I liked the tube amps.

916: ModWright Instruments. Inc., Wolf Audio Systems and WyWires.

OK sound; nothing to write home about.

Salon Audio; VTL; Wilson Audio; Transparent Audio; Pro-Ject Audio Systems; Aurender and Pass Labs.

OK sound; nothing to write home about. I don't like Wilson speakers.

912: Acora Acoustics; VAC; Cardas and The Audio Company.

Granite speakers sounded good but nothing stood out.

908: Acora Acoustics; VAC; Cardas and The Audio Company.

Smaller granite speakers; I did not listen to this room.

907: Margules; Magenta and Marvox.

I did not listen to this room.

904: Janzsen Audio.

Terribly bright, horrid sounding active speakers.

805: Muraudio and Simaudio.

Good sounding electrostatics with a seemingly weak bottom end.

808: House of Stereo; Wireworld Cable Technology; Bob Carver Corpration and Wolf Audio Systems.

I was interested in hearing Bob Carver's Crimson tube amps but they were let down by thin sounding line source tower speakers and a subwoofer that wasn’t helping. Poor sound.

812: HighEnd by Oz; Vitus Audio; United Home Audio; Synergistic Research and Aurender.

Didn't get to hear this system; they were messing with swapping a tape. I've heard Vitus electronics in the past and they're just very expensive solid state amplifiers so I had no desire to wait to hear them again.

813: Cardas Audio; Joseph Audio and Doshi Audio.

Another talker...

816: Rick's Electronics Boutique; Kaleidescape Strato S; Sony XBR Z Series TV; SVS Speakers; Parasound; AudioQuest and Salamander.

A local shop showing music videos. My son said to distract you from the average sound of the audio system.

I'll be back tonight to finish with floors 7 - 3 and the mezzanine where the big rooms were.

Martin
Photos from my iPhone.

 

[MattHooper]

@Matt Hooper

I also went on Friday...visited my first room at 9:40am...before official opening...and my last room at 4:15 pm...It seemed to me that the Friday attendance was somewhat lighter than last year as I rarely had to wait at all to get to a prime listening position.

Thanks snapsc...and others!

It seems the most common experience for people attending audio shows is to have some fun checking out all sorts of wild or interesting audio gear and end up coming home happy with what they own. That's usually how it goes with me and others I know. Which makes sense, as we have put together systems that specifically satisfy our own criteria and taste.

Still, there can be some "wow, cool" and "aha" moments. I'd been led towards investigating, and sometimes later purchasing, speaker brands based on hearing something promising at an audio show. (My current Joseph speakers came from investigating that speaker line after a "holy sh*t" moment with one of their bigger models at an audio show).

 

[MattHooper]

813: Cardas Audio; Joseph Audio and Doshi Audio.

Another talker...

That's sad to hear. Joseph rooms are known for their particularly good demos and sound. (I'd have a hard time imaging Jeff Joseph being the one to talk over the demo, perhaps someone else?)

 

[MZKM]

805: Muraudio and Simaudio.

Good sounding electrostatics with a weak bottom end.

1: Muraudio, they had their SP1 and another attendee asked if a subwoofer would be suggested, the worker smirked and put on Differently by Marian Hill, and almost blew us out of the room with bass

Granted, it was likely 40Hz-60Hz and not pipe organ deep, but there was for sure a lot of bass depending on the song.

 

[Martin]

Granted, it was likely 40Hz-60Hz and not pipe organ deep, but there was for sure a lot of bass depending on the song.

I added the word seemingly to my description. I wonder how many perceived weaknesses in these demos are solely due to the music they choose to play... conversely how many good sounding rooms sound good because of the chosen music.

Martin

 

[MZKM]

I wonder how many perceived weaknesses in these demos are solely due to the music they choose to play... conversely how many good sounding rooms sound good because of the chosen music.

I stayed for a very little time in rooms that were just playing jazz, it’s not a taxing genre (good for demo use for the company, bad for demo use for the listener) and it’s so prevalent I had had enough.

 

[Martin]

716: Paradigm; Anthem and Maximum AV.

Typical Paradigm and Anthem setup. It sounds good - just not moving. That and they talked too much.

713: Martin Logan; McIntosh and Integrity Sound.

I liked this setup; the Martin Logan's sounded good but were too close together and limited by the room. Didn't catch the Masterpiece series model in use.

712: Antal Audio Group; Triangle Audio; Tsakiridis Devices and soulines.

Spinning vinyl - sounded good but nothing stood out.

709: Sweet Vinyl and Sugarcube.

Demoing a vinyl declicker that works in the digital domain. Analog -> AD -> declick algorithm -> DA. Interesting.

708: Pro-Ject Audio; Sumiko and Sonus Faber.

Spinning vinyl through a Pro-Ject Phono Box RS phono preamp. (I own one.) Sounded very good. I like the sound of the system and the Sonus Faber speakers.

605: Linear Tube Audio; Spatial Audio; Lampizator and Anticables.

OK sound; nothing to write home about.

609: RBH Sound

BIG speakers sounded quite good.

608: Wynn Audio; Metronome; Kalista; Kiso Acoustics; Crystal Cable; Thales Audio; Critical Mass Systems and EMT.

Small speakers with nice, big sound.

612: Andover Audio.

Spinbase turntable speaker system sounded very good for what it was. Would be perfect for a vinyl head going off to college. Maybe 50 years too late.

613: Soundfield Audio.

I did not listen to this room.

516: a la carte productions; Aesthetix; Chord Electronics; Luminous Audio; Ortofon; SME Audio; Tweek Audio; Vienna Acoustics and VPI Industries.

Spinning vinyl - OK sound; nothing to write home about.

513: a la carte productions; ADD-Power; Chord Electronics; Dynamic Sound Associates; Luminous Audio; Ortofon; SME Audio and Spendor Audio.

The rooms are beginning to run together... Spinning vinyl - OK sound; nothing to write home about.

512: Zesto Audio; Merrill Williams; Tri-Planar Tonearms; Benz Micro Gullwing; Zortofon Cadenza Micro; Cardas Audio; Stillpoints and Vimberg.

Spinning vinyl - Sounded good; nothing stood out.

508: Haniwa Audio.

3-1/2" speakers trying to go full range and sounded like the description. No highs, no lows, but it wasn't Bose. A little honky, too.

507: Cardas Audio and Mobile Fidelity.

I did not go into this room.

503: Cardas Audio and Mobile Fidelity.

Spinning vinyl - Sounded OK. Wharfdale speakers reminded me of 1970's box speakers.

403: Triode Wire Labs; Volti Audio; BorderPatrol Audio Electronics and Innous.

Sounded good, nothing stood out.

404: Syner Sound; Vaughn Loudspeakers; Linear Tube Audio; Wavelength Audio; Aurrender; MJ Acoustic and Anticables.

Line source box speaker with some kind of horn tweeter and a subwoofer than was way too hot for the room and kept drawing attention to itself. Poor sound.

409: Jolida.

Sounded good, nothing stood out.

408: Lampizator; Destination Sound; VAC; WyWires and Daedalus Audio.

The $150,000 VAC tower stood out and the speakers sounded good.

412: RJS Acoustics.

Demoing the RD6 B.A.S.S. (Bass Augmentation Speaker System) with Magnepan LRS speakers. This room sounded great. The subwoofer running off a Dayton amplifier added the bottom end the Maggies lacked. Very nice!

413: Legacy Audio.

Legacy is still building big box speakers which sound good, for big box speakers.

416: TriangleArt and Usher Audio.

The turntables are works of art and the Ushers sounded quite good.

308: Ginko Audio and Danacable.

I did not listen to this room.

309: Endow Audio.

Very interesting "point array" speaker sounded good anywhere in the room.These pulled me in for some extended listening.

Big rooms to come...

Martin
Photos from my iPhone.

 

[MattHooper]

Martin, thanks for posting all those pictures!

 

[Sal1950]

I just got in from the show a little bit ago. I'm pooped from walking for 6 hours.
I'll put together my thoughts-impressions in a new thread tomorrow.

 

[RickSanchez]

Was anyone who attended the show able to spend time listening to the new MC-1000 speakers? I'm curious what the impressions are because someone on ASR claimed they might be the best speakers in the world ...

/sarcasm