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Florida Audio Expo - February 8,9,10 2019

RayDunzl

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This was my first show. I'm glad they came to town, so I didn't have to waste a trip to a more distant location.

https://floridaaudioexpo.com/exhibitors/

Friday, visited for an hour or so late in afternoon. It was a recon mission for Sunday, where I went with a friend all day. I'd say it was well-attended, people moving through the halls on all the floors, and multiple listeners in most rooms all day.

I was first on an elevator Friday afternoon, pushed buttons for others, turned around and found myself face-to-face with Michael Fremer. That was my only celebrity sighting.

The second floor was a lobby and three large conference-type rooms.

Von Schweikert had the biggest room, speakers at each end, long cables running to equipment in the center of the sidewall. Masterbuilt cables. Lots of $$$ there. I don't remember hearing anything, just saw a lot of chairs, and a lot of suits standing around waiting to make their videos or other deals.

Martin Logan had a smaller big room with a pair of red Neoliths on one end and a smaller pair on the other. Met Dennis Chern, told him his speakers have become to rich for my blood.

MBL had a large room, and lots of interest. Visited three times, there was always a seated full house. My first visit I thought blur (omni speakers), second visit I thought good, third visit some orchestral tape, too loud, sounded compressed, so, no good.

A fourth large room, across the patio from the second floor of the hotel itself, had a big boxy horn-topped things, Classic Audio Loudspeakers.

There was a Mytek table in the hall, with a few headphones, and people checking things out each time I passed, Didn't see any other other headphone area, no headphone rooms.

The rest of the show inhabited floors 3 through 8, with maybe 4 to six rooms in use per floor.

A majority of the rooms were playing vinyl or had turntables prominently displayed, and, maybe, a majority of rooms had tubes in play, and a few tape decks were present. We really didn't take much notice of the electronics, not detecting any obvious deficiencies nor exceptional performance in that area, whatever was jiggling the electrons.

We basically just went room to room after room after room and listened to speakers.

You can look at the gear listing to see what was available to see, we pretty much hit every room.

Harbeth stood out for interesting clarity/image. They caught our attention. Best in Show for a small three-way?

Legacy had a really smooth and rich sound.

TAD sounded good.

Joseph Audio impressed with bass on some organ piece, then we found the subwoofer, don't remember if they were as impressive after that.

The Paradigm room was too full to enter, but was creating copious amounts of bass.

The JBL Retro Speaker room was crowded and loud, we just peeked in.

I had wanted to hear the Avant Garde horns, but the two rooms that had them didn't leave much of an impression.

I don't remember seeing any "active" speakers, maybe there were a couple, Some speakers were multi-amped. Oh, the MBL were at least bi-amped, four amplifiers for the two speakers. As I said, we weren't paying a lot of attention to electronics. I presume most of the boxes were passive.

No specialty electronics, that I remember, no BACCH or visible DSP or anything fancy like that.

No multichannel, all stereo. There was a room promoting vinyl mono, but they had two speakers, so ??? Don't even remember if anything was playing there.

Some rooms were not well attended. Many did not provide anything particularly memorable for us. Most were just playing tunes to a rotating set of guests, with few rooms wasting your time explaining what you were listening to.

Some rooms were set with speakers on the long wall, most on the short wall. I think the rooms that fired in the long direction were generally better sounding.

All the listening was pretty quick, sometimes in the sweet spot, sometimes not, depending on the traffic, and whether or not what we did hear piqued interest. We didn't request tunes, just allowed them to play whatever they were going to play.

It interesting how some systems really stood out, and others didn't. I suppose the material being played had some bearing on the impressions, but impressions were all we had time for, a few minutes for each room.

Very few rooms sounded bad (some sort of did), many sounded rather average - at least, they didn't make much of an impression, but a few really made us take notice.

I'm measurably deaf, my audio buddy is not, but we have the same impressions and come to the same conclusions on sound quality, so, being deaf isn't such a handicap.

I enjoyed the visit, will go again if there's a repeat performance, and it was well worth the nothing it cost except to be there.

Hopefully the promoters won't read my review and cancel plans for another.

I said "Hello, Mr Fremer" (in my best Agent Smith voice). He looked surprised, looked for my name tag (none), and declared the show to be a lot of work but looking successful, so, maybe it'll be ok.

@Sal1950 went to the show on Saturday, then came by my house afterwards. It took nearly an hour to drive him away with my musical selections.
 
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RayDunzl

RayDunzl

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A few pictures...

As soon as I figure out how to extract them from my smartassphone.

---

Not having used the camera in my Smartasstablet before, I may not have set the zoom to minimal. I got tired of taking 1/2 system pictures and quit taking pictures.

The Sign-In and Elder Care Desk in the second floor Lobby:

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Mytek's hallway headphone setup

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The Pavillion Room - Classic Audio Loudspeakers

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And the sources

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MBL

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My Audio Buddy trying to figure out how to use his camera. The Neolith demos were being offered for only $50k at the show. I didn't bite.

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And some smaller setup on the other end of the room

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Von Schweikert's Big Room and Too Expensive to Even Contemplate MasterBuilt cables

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Their wall of source

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And the other end of the room

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Some guys meditating at the Wilson shrine

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A too-enthusiastic presenter in the Harman room

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A different take on Electrostatics

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Avant Garde, which didn't excite us as was anticipated

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Little Magico speakers

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Big Avant Garde - no memory of them, if they were even playing. I wonder where the flash option on the camera is?

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And half of a Harbeth system, which perked up our ears.

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At this point I quit taking pictures and just continued running from room to room.
 
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Blumlein 88

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A few pictures...

As soon as I figure out how to extract them from my smartassphone.
In case you aren't aware of such things, there are a few apps (on Android side) that make it easy to transfer files from smartphone to PC over your wifi network which is pretty swift and simple. I prefer one called Superbeam, but there are others. I think I did pay the $4 or whatever for the full access version.

You open Superbeam, and it gives an address you put into the web browser. Your PC browser then finds it on the network and gives gui access to get different files. Photos is one of the obvious choices. You then find, select and transfer swiftly from the phone to the PC using the PC for control of it all. This also works over the internet, so if you have good internet it might not matter either way. In my case I can transfer a photo in 3 minutes (internet) or 3 seconds (wifi).

Thanks for the show report.
 

Soniclife

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Harbeth stood out for interesting clarity/image. They caught our attention. Best in Show for a small three-way?
Harbeth often use DSP at shows, at least in the UK, so that might explain their good showing, or it could be their decent measurements.
 

amirm

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A few pictures...

As soon as I figure out how to extract them from my smartassphone.
Mail them to yourself on the phone. Then pick the up on the PC using mail program. That is what I do. Less hassle than connecting the two together.
 

MZKM

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I made a post on Reddit of pics of most rooms (and very shallow listening impressions of some):
https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/aoywac
I don't remember seeing any "active" speakers, maybe there were a couple, Some speakers were multi-amped. Oh, the MBL were at least bi-amped, four amplifiers for the two speakers. As I said, we weren't paying a lot of attention to electronics. I presume most of the boxes were passive.

No specialty electronics, that I remember, no BACCH or visible DSP or anything fancy like that.

As I mention in my Reddit post, one room had active speakers and one room was using a MiniDSP for active crossovers (the speakers demoed were horribly overpriced for no internal crossover, most likely <$2000 in parts and labor but a $12K sticker price).
 

jhaider

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I don't remember seeing any "active" speakers, maybe there were a couple, Some speakers were multi-amped. Oh, the MBL were at least bi-amped, four amplifiers for the two speakers. As I said, we weren't paying a lot of attention to electronics. I presume most of the boxes were passive.

Was AJ (Soundfield Audio) showing? He has good ears and makes really interesting speakers. I still love my Soundfield Audio Monitor 1's, which were his first commercial effort.

Mail them to yourself on the phone. Then pick the up on the PC using mail program. That is what I do. Less hassle than connecting the two together.

Or just expect iCloud to seamlessly sync photos more-or-less instantly between your iPhone and Mac like a normal person. :)
 

blindjim

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I made a post on Reddit of pics of most rooms (and very shallow listening impressions of some):
https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/aoywac


As I mention in my Reddit post, one room had active speakers and one room was using a MiniDSP for active crossovers (the speakers demoed were horribly overpriced for no internal crossover, most likely <$2000 in parts and labor but a $12K sticker price).
Nice place you have here folks! as this is my initial post I'd like to weigh in on the Fla Expo from another perspective perhaps. maybe this will fill in some blanks for others not in attendance, and hopefully wet their ear buds so they make the effort to attend next year. yes. there will be a next year!



i paid more attention to the power amp or amps, and speakers than anything else. however some additional bits of note had to be mentioned. so i did. upomn further review, some notes needed changeing so I did that too.



Saturday, Feb. 9th



In the Pavilion

Classic Audio Loudspeakers Atmos-Sphere Music Systems Tri-Planar Tonearms Purist Audio Design



An analog front end fed a pair of Atmasphere 60wpc monos along with an Atmas phono preamp which pushed along the looming Classic Audio T1s in an expansive room but did not fail to significantly impress. Refering to the bottom end reproduction as thunderous would be short sighted.



Given the entry fees for this outfit with the Classic Audio T1’s on board, it was ‘the stuff dreams are made of’, so long as the dream included an immense ball room with which to set up the merchandise. and of course the funds to acquire it all!



As for the auditory impact of the Classic T1 speakers using but 60wpc it has been said by any number of other listeners, ‘electorstatic speed and nuance with horn dynamics. Irresistible. Eerily thrilling. It was time to get out the ‘virtual autograph pad’ and ask for a likewise signature. Truly astounding.



This take on the sound comes from an off axis perspective as I never ended up in the sweet spot to get the full effect! Can’t really say if that was a good or a bad thing. Maybe bad as I would likely have wanted to extend my stay in the Pavillion and then exclude some other rooms from being investigated.



Speaking with ‘Classic Audio’ was a real treat too. I’m hard pressed to think I’ve met anyone more open or friendly and instructive. The entire affair there was almost breathtaking.



On the ‘more affordable’ side of the table,

Harbeth was showing in once particular instance with one of several Luxman 509X INT’’s with120 wpc @ 8, at $9,995, with I believe Wireworld cabling. A recently introduced Luxman phono $3850 includ tone arm and pointed by a $1200 cartridge (not from Luxman) made for a fascinating listening episode. The latest and special itteration of the Harbeth SSL 5s in base config ran $6500, in the full fledged ‘all in’ , they slipped in just a tick under $8K. Some frugality with wiring and stands and one could have a well heeled virtually organic outfit for less than $25K asking price for table, cart, INT and the no holds barred outfitted speakers. I actually had to ask about what was supplying the bass reinforcement. The anser was ‘Nada.’ Its just the monitors. Really!? Sure.



As the room to room stumbling forward and onward expedition rambled along once more the Luxman 509X was the heartbeat for a pair of Magico A 3s. In this room the wiring loom was all Audio Quest. All media was played back via Digital CDs, you remember CDs, right? Well lets give it up for the Luxman CDP and 509x once and for all. With the entry level Magico A3s the presentation was powerful and vast.



As scintillating as was the Luxman and Harbethe one off no holds barred monitors had been, the Magicos flatly surpassed the previous arrangement. Do keep in mind the wirings were different and the Magico A3s speakers as well required an additional $7K donation.



Staying in losely the same speaker cost ball park, as the resounding Magico a3s, TAD had its say so as well. The TAD Micro Evolution Ones sitting around $12K and driven by an all Ayre drive train and DAC and being fed by kubus thru a wolf audio streamer and storage box was a realy tuff rig to walk away from. They presented a crystal clear tonally adeppt and intelligent presentation. Once more the lower octaves simply could not be taken to task. Given the truly modest enclosures the bass impact and tones were astonishingly accurate.



It looks like it is finally time to forget the notions mini monitors are just unable to suport the registry below 50 or 60Hz, and being forever forced to live with 40 or 45HZ at -6db.

its a Brave bnew World for monitors. unquestionably.



Sliding into the Bob Carver demo things got exciting. Maybe intriguing or phenomonol would be more explicit in relaying the sonic demonstration. A pair of KEF Blade IIs were being compelled by a Carver KT120 PP 75 wpc amp and the outcome was intense. The intensity rose when Bob Carver’s partner Frank disclosed the power plant was $2,500.00! this expo reversed the thinking of placing the majority of dough in front of the speakers and with a set of $20K plus units in tow vividly showed that there is more than one way to compile audio satisfaction. The source for tunes was all digital and quite up to the task as they used a Bel Canto black box DAC preamp at $18K to feed the mighty 75w Push pull tube amp



Frank’s take on sound quality was an earthy real world approach as he played cut after cut of popular and rock music without cherry picking purely audiophiliac favs. Of the exhibits this one was truly fun. The sound was competent and covered all the aspects of the it should have, or it must have, factors to be considered above average. Certainly this arrangement could easily satisfy many for many hours at a time, and or for a very long time before one could see a need to begin upgrading this or that in the signal path. Very good Frank.



As for the Blade Iis performance using 75 wpc of glass amp, it never came to my mind that the KEFs needed much if any more juice to function better. It has to be said though, this was not a large room and the Blades sat on the short wall. Sorry, didn’t notice if the bass drivers were facing inboard or out board. Regardless, the bass was responsive, taut, and deep. Punchy when asked for and supportive in all other concerns. Impressive.



With the exceedingly impressive Classic Audio and Atmashpere connection still haunting me, another well qualified opponent for blistering and prodigious bass was to be revealed in the Wilson and AR room. A pair of Wilson Sasha 3 D.A.W. commemorative special edition speakers ($36K sans grills), were fueled by a pair of Acoustic Research 150 monos simply got the jaw much closer to the floor when tones across the bottom end were being ordered up.



indeed, across the bandwidth there was simply a rightness to the presentation which was being readied digitally from tracks on a hard drive by Peter McGraff.



I formally take back everything I’ve ever said which could be in the least way shown as negative or derogatory almost, regarding Wilson speakers. Namely the WP series. I must as well testify each time I heard WPs, they were driven by all Ayre or similar SS power. While I’m biting the bullet here I might as well add the wiring was by T… I just can’t say it… OK… it was all Transparent audio. there! I said it. yes, this particular setup showed no evidence of bleaching, stridency, sterility, or dryness. My goodness even in a smallish sized room the presentation was fascinating, quick, tactile, and involving. apparently, Wilson’s adore AR power, and don’t need enormous gobs of it either. That room was a treat and an eye opener for me.



If I’m supposed to add any caveat it would be that perhaps the room size overall could well have been a fair amount larger, or as the bass seemed to lope on with less than precise braking when the music got really busy, it could be said, too, that assemblege could do mo’ betterer with more watts and more acoustic treatments, bass traps, etc., if there final resting place will be in a medium or less sized room.



The Sasha 3 DAW commemorative transducers would really shine in a quite large venue, easily. Very easily. If grills are a necessity, add $800 more.



About the quboz or Kubus or whatever the new upcoming streaming service from France is called…

A rep was demoing and informing folks in the TAD room as to what, when, and where the service could be used, installed, and or streamed. The release date is Valentines day no less. Registered Attendees to the 2019 Florida Audio Expo will be offered a free trial to check out the newcomer unfettered and unhendered. The info in that dicertation was it could be used in conjunction with many if not all present media players, Nirvanna, J River, or as a stand alone app. On Macs or Windows. The demo was accomplished using an iPad, and a dragonfly red feeding the ayre Q DaC and Ayre 5 pre, and Ayre 100 WpC stereo amp and pushing the new (post Andrew Jones) MicroEvolution Ones. natually having on hand a better streaming arrangement and DAC will be of considerable help. The Wy Fy at the Hotel was near non existant so the digital came via HDD or CD playback in most of the rooms. wolf and Lumence were is good supply for streaming out of their servers in various rooms.



Never the less, this latest French based streaming affair if all ends up as proposed could turn out to be a slam dunk for quality music streaming recreation.





SUNDAY feb. 10th day two….



Hegel was the first line on the list so we begin there.



Hegel showed with a pair of Dyn Audio Contour C60s. The power plant was their recently introduced 590 INT shoving out 300wpc per side all inclusive I NT with multi faceted and wildly capable DAC on board. Truly a one box solution. No phono section as Hegel figures vinyl handlers will opt for a dedicated phono pre or already have one on station if they are already spinning those larger black CDs.



I got to spend some time in the Hegel Dyn Audio presentation and felt coming away that it was one of the more balanced top to bottom demos in the Expo. Nothing stood out which drew attention to itself in a poor light. Staging was resembelant of the recording and the articulation was even handed and distinctive with good seperation between the instruments and or vocals. The bottom end was spry and resounding all the while being quite supportive of the rest of its upper bandwidth. A place for everything and everything in its place.



By comparison Luxman 509x vs. Hegel 590 the 590 came across more articulate and defined, more affixed to neutral though this is not to say the Luxman INT was soft, decidedly warmer or clouded, and of course, the differing speaker sets and cabling certainly played a part. The Hegel room was using Nordost. The Luxman plus Magico A3 room being enlisted here used AQ cabling through out. Still I feel the diffs noticeable yet the results were essentially similar as both presentations were markedly enjoyable and involving with the A3s producing more pressureized bass into the room than did theDyn Audio C60s.



In fact, the two Integrated amps’ rooms layouts were using the same floor plan. Between these two setups, one could see them as a coin toss perhaps and be happy regardless the side facing up. It was pretty close on all the audio nervosa accounts with the A3s leading the bottom end race wire to wire. The $3K disparity from the Magico to the Dyn C60s could be the decider though.



Folks in room 513 were showing Vienna Acoustics with a pair of ‘listz’ being pushed by DSA (Dynamic Sound Associates power which runs 125 Class A wpc bias into 8. The $20K + DSA amps were in A/B config and the source was purely analog style with a table and phono pre. This was an higher dollar arrangement which noted how vastly important what is in front of your speakers really means to the audio reproduction, room not with standing as its import can not be slighted or ignored.



As with the hegel & Dyn exhibit the DSA & Vienna Listz dotted all the audio eyes and crossed all the sonic T’s. Perhaps the single noteworthy and subjective account was the Listz demo had a tick or two more roundness towards the leading edges, while keeping spot on accuracy with imaging. Likely such a result from the Listz’ derived from its analog source being the only source used in its demo.



Paradigm and Anthem teamed up exhibiting the 9Fs driven by Anthem’s 400 wpc SS amp which used room correction supplied by Anthems preamp and proprietary room correction tech. There is something to be said for powered bass in floor standing speakers to be sure. It seems impossible someone could cry ‘not enough bottom end’ after hearing the 9Fs. Exceedingly speedy, flat, and eelctronically corrected via the anthem pre/pro on board proprietary room correction technology. It sounded real either inside the room or out in the hallway. A highly resolute outfit. No question about it.



the caveat here is the 9F price. using retail pricing, for another grand, the Wilson Sashsa 3s DAW edition well, just seemed to blow the doors off of the 9Fs and I’ve not been a Wilson advocate for ever. I was indeed stunned by the AR + Wilson demo.



One of the bright spots on Sunday’s stumble and sit marathon was the Joseph Audio and Doshi Audio demo using Cardas Clear cabling. The $7400 JA Pulsars were being excited by the Doshi Audio $20K 75wpc tube amp and the results were fascinating. Near tangible imaging with lustrous sonics. albeit, nothing was euphonic or overtly saturated. Every note was rendered harmonically. clean, clear. Naturalness was the word that kept coming to mind while I sat listening. Sweet also works here. Memorable.



IMO the pulsar’s lower registry did not draw attention to itself yet somehow I felt it could have been a touch more promenate. This last notion comes merrely from preffs, and possibly the content being played during my visit. In all, I felt this demo/setup one of the best sounding on the two day stumble, fumble and sit around listening tour.



I did ask Jeff if a sub was in play and was told flatly no.



For those whose audio driven virtual reality needs are seldom satisfied, the Mur audio and Merrill Audio combo would have definitely and strikingly absconded with your attention and possibly your breath! A 16K pair of ‘stats and a pair of $18K per mono 300 wpc amp caused the hair on my arms to stand up. Vocals were deliniated outlined, filled in and portrayed as organically as one might wish. This was a room where I whished I had waited to sit in the sweet spot. I did not though but did talked to the man whose power amp was conveying an enormity of honesty and emotional engagement for a few minutes to get the lay of the land there, so to speak. remarkable. Although once Moore IMHO subs would be required for me to find audio nirvanna, were I to lay down $53k at retail, the audio recreation was simply outstanding. The illusion of reality therein was just plain spooky good. Only the most difficult to please audio nuts could ever hoep to be remorseful after pouncing on that setup. indeed, acquiring subs would not needs be a swift process either!



Another room which posted up some hair raising and markedly stirring audio was the Ferrari consulting demo. AVM MP 8.2 1200 wpc monos were guiding the Raedo 2.1s. also in the chain was the aVM modular pre (recently reviewed in Stereophile by M Fremer) with reportedly built in non obsolescence due to its own ‘modular’ OEM upgrade paths.



The bottom end was simply concussive. Kicking you in the belly bass. Imaging was spot on with each cut being played back.



An adjacent room saw the Raedo bookshelf models being urged along with the AVM INT., whose out put was a modest 500 wpc. yikes! Apparently my meanderings had dropped me smack dab into the Land of Lots O watts yet the sonic reproduction was sheer transparency in the larger of the two rooms and most compentent in the ante room with the Raedo two ways.



Only time ushered me onward and outward or I’d have had no issue at all hanging out with Mr. Ferrari a good while longer. Stunning bass reproduction. swift. sure. dynamic. impactful. No bloat or overhang. It took nothing from the rest of the music being portrayed. This would be an outfit I would have to spend a good deal more time with were I sincerely interested in returning to the world of SS delights, I’d be looking for more ease with the presentation. I sat in the SP or right near it and felt that possibly in time, the leading edge definition might be a skosh to defined. This may well be readily addressed with cabling or a good PLC. It was a ‘show’ afterall and not too large a room.



One recalls those instances that got their complete attention though, and the AVM and Raedo combo did exactly that for me. In a word? startling. And in a good way!



top of the heap IMHO was the Atmasphere plus Classic Audio demo. I wished I had returned to hear the lesser T3s though, and not just their larger sibling.



perhaps the best part of this inaugural epic was the people attending, and especially those responsible for it all. the promoters, presenters, dealers and manufacturers representing their own goods.



it seemed as though everyone there was there to help out anyone at all find whatever it was they were interested in.



the Hotel staff was exceptionally open and available in getting the needs of folks attending the event and they did it in the most pleasant way possible if or when such situations arose.



wandering into the Legacy Audio room I first met Bill Doodelson’s daughter and later Bill’s wife. both were immensely forthcoming and helpful with Mr. Doodleson’s wife escorting me to an entirely different room on another floor so I could investigate the goods therein. these are some very special people indeed.



dashing into the Suncoast Audio MSB and Avante Gard display sat Grant Samuels playing track after track thru the MSB stack into a pair of AG Uno Fino’s which boasted their own 500w amps for the bass driver. . Grant could not have been more personable, and gracious.



with but two days at the inaugural Fla Audio Expo a goodly number of demos had to be missed. Some of them most regrettably. Many were memorable and all were interesting or as much as fascinating. There were several demos which led the sound quality pack and even the one room I last visited which showed Project Audio and Sumiko had an out the door price tag of just $9K for the whole setup!! Its sound? Mature and honest.



For a first time ever event, this one was stunningly smashing. Hopefully it becomes a trend and ‘THE’ winter audio show for a very long time.
 

Sal1950

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Was AJ (Soundfield Audio) showing? He has good ears and makes really interesting speakers. I still love my Soundfield Audio Monitor 1's, which were his first commercial effort.

Yes, AJ was there. He was one of the main organizers along with the guys from Suncoast Audiophile Society and Suncoast Audio. See picture of Stereophiles ribbon cutting ceremony. Rumor was the show was being viewed as a success and might happen again next year, I hope so.
https://www.stereophile.com/category/florida-audio-expo-2019
He had 2 room setup with a small 2 way and larger 3+. Always an chore to describe his speaker-builds as he uses multiple drivers in a full active configuration. Both rooms did sound excellent.

I have to apologize, got to the show on Sat only to find out my camera's batteries were dead with no where inside the hotel to purchase any. :(

Those who know me know I'm a sucker for big horn sound. I did enjoy the Classic Audio room, huge speakers designed for a millionaires budget and home. LOL
Deja Vu South had a pair of custom made horns using classic drivers I found very engaging.

Personally I hate trying to evaluate gear at big shows, after about 3 or 4 rooms they all begin to blur on me. Not to mention each room contributing it's own special sound.
I'll give my personal Best Of Show award to Paradigm with the top of the line 9H and using Anthem electronics with ARC room correction. I asked one of the presenters who told me they had spent quite a bit of time with the correction software to get the room sounding to their liking. I was most impressed with the lack of sibilance and bite with voices, maybe a result of the tuning?
Also enjoyed the Carver room, while there I listened to his 75wpc tube amp driving the KEF Blade's. Haven't had a opportunity to hear a KEF LS50 but if it's coaxial driver resembles the Blades, I can understand it's popularity. I was hoping to get a chance to listen to a pair.

The reissued JBL L100 Classic sounded nothing like the boom box of the 70s and at $4k the pair might be a contender in full range passive speakers. Worth a serious listen it that's your budget.

@Sal1950 went to the show on Saturday, then came by my house afterwards. It took nearly an hour to drive him away with my musical selections.

Ray definitely has a eclectic taste in music, most of it quite good, some of it hummmmm.
But thru it all I was able to enjoy one of the best Hi Fi's I've ever experienced. The time and effort put into matching his Martin-Logans and 4 Dayton 15" woofers to his room was readily apparent. This was actually my first opportunity to hear a rig with a modern, well executed DRC system. I was impressed with the top to bottom integration and evenness of sound.
Congrats Ray.
Maybe someday I'll be able to get you to play something recorded on Earth? LOL
 

amirm

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I'll give my personal Best Of Show award to Paradigm with the top of the line 9H and using Anthem electronics with ARC room correction.
Those are really good sounding speakers.
 

Sal1950

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Was AJ (Soundfield Audio) showing?

Yes, AJ was there. He was one of the main organizers along with the guys from Suncoast Audiophile Society and Suncoast Audio. See picture of Stereophiles ribbon cutting ceremony. Rumor was the show was being viewed as a success and might happen again next year, I hope so.
https://www.stereophile.com/category/florida-audio-expo-2019
What is really a hoot if you know AJ is seeing him standing next to Mikey Fremer, helping him cut the ribbon.
ROTFLMAO
Those are really good sounding speakers.
I was really disappointed that I didn't get to hear any of the bigger Revel or JBL Synthesis lines with the exception of the L100 being played in the AudioAdvisors/Levinson room. Maybe next year.
 
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RayDunzl

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Sal1950

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Von Schweikert's Big Room and Too Expensive to Even Contemplate MasterBuilt cables
And check out the uber-kool cable lifters they're using. :cool:
 

agtp

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The reissued JBL L100 Classic sounded nothing like the boom box of the 70s and at $4k the pair might be a contender in full range passive speakers. Worth a serious listen it that's your budget.

The good sound was all due to the Transparent Audio cables, of course. Did you not notice the cables used?

"Cables and power filtering duties were from Transparent Audio and was their Reference series."

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/Florida_Audio_Expo_2019/Harman_JBL_Mark_Levinson_Transparent_Audio.htm
 

Sal1950

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The good sound was all due to the Transparent Audio cables, of course. Did you not notice the cables used?
I did but avoided saying anything. The cables looked awful skinny compared to many I witnessed that day. Sure enough I heard a somewhat constricted sound that had a pinched quality to it also. But like I said I avoided mentioning it since I didn't want those negative qualities to immediately be laid at the foot of the speakers. I'm pretty sure that with larger, heavier cables that let the music flow easier. the speakers would display a much improved SQ. Maybe at the upcoming Axpona Fair in Chicago the speaker will be displayed with wire and accessories more appropriate to it's capability
.
 

agtp

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I did but avoided saying anything. The cables looked awful skinny compared to many I witnessed that day. Sure enough I heard a somewhat constricted sound that had a pinched quality to it also. But like I said I avoided mentioning it since I didn't want those negative qualities to immediately be laid at the foot of the speakers. I'm pretty sure that with larger, heavier cables that let the music flow easier. the speakers would display a much improved SQ. Maybe at the upcoming Axpona Fair in Chicago the speaker will be displayed with wire and accessories more appropriate to it's capability.

Sal, the audio cable convert! For a second there you had me going. I wasn’t expecting sarcasm in response to my sarcasm.

Anyway, I guess my point was that you had an opportunity to poke fun at a company for using over-priced cables, but said nothing. Do some individuals, companies, or ideas get a free pass for some reason? Why not pick on Harman? Why on earth was Harman using fancy, overpriced cables in their demo? And why is it that no one here said anything about it? I think I know the answer.:)

As you know, I have a thing for consistency.
 
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RayDunzl

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And why is it that no one here said anything about it?

Because all the setups had some flavor of fancy cables?

May as well discuss each room's carpet and drapes.

I only mentioned the MasterBuilt cables in the Von Schweikert room because they are soooo pricey and there were soooo many and a lot of them were soooo long.
 

amirm

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Do some individuals, companies, or ideas get a free pass for some reason? Why not pick on Harman?
More likely they throw out any exhibitor that doesn't dress their system with fancy cables. :) High-end customers as a rule won't take a system seriously if it doesn't have such cabling. They will take one look at the cable and either walk out, or assume it is making the system sound bad.
 
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