AXPONA 2016
AXPONA 2016: End of Line and Best In Show
My first AXPONA was five years ago in Atlanta. It was about as far from 2016 as you can get. Then, there was something like 20 rooms. Five years later, and the difference is almost […]
Month: May 2016
AXPONA 2016
AXPONA 2016: Best Sound, Best Products, and Audiophile tribes in Beat City
Tribes. We all belong to, or identify with one whether we know it or not. Some of us are very cognizant of our tribe, and let our freak flag fly. Others are more guarded about […]
AXPONA 2016
AXPONA 2016: John Stancavage’s Best of Show
Best Sound Cost-no-object system: Wilson Alexx, driven by Doshi tube amps (Paragon/Wilson Audio room). Neutral, effortless and jaw-dropping sound, combined with realistic weight, solidity and image height. $150,000 to $200,000 system: Sonus Faber Lilium speakers […]
AXPONA 2016
AXPONA 2016: Ear Gear eXpo (Plus) Roundup
The Ear Gear eXpo at AXPONA followed quickly on the heels of the all-headphone extravaganza of Head-Fi’s CanJam SoCal, which made double-coverage tricky and somewhat problematic — an issue I “solved” by giving some admittedly […]
AXPONA 2016
AXPONA 2016: “This stuff costs how much? No f@!#ing way!”
When I attend audio shows these days, I spend a lot of time riding elevators. This year at AXPONA in the Westin O’Hare in Chicago, where more than 400 exhibitors were scattered across eight floors, […]
AXPONA 2016
AXPONA 2016: Sonist sings with Triode
It may be an odd thing to say, but Jonny Wilson knows how to decorate a demo room. No, seriously. There are a lot of folks that can set up a great-sounding room. But the […]
AXPONA 2016
AXPONA 2016: Seduced by Vapor Audio and LampizatOr
Fan favorite Vapor Audio has not necessarily had the best track-record when it comes to audio shows. Maybe we’ve been unlucky with our timing, or they’ve been unlucky with their timing, but whatever the reason, PTA and […]
AXPONA 2016
AXPONA 2016: Noble Audio, down the line
Lets talk about Steve Bug. If you’ve never heard of Steve Bug, I’m not sure what to tell you. He makes music that would generally fall under the “electronic” header (Dance/House), but beyond that, I’m translating […]
Munich 2016
High End 2016: Sound Galleries DSD 512
At BMW World, far away from the hustle and bustle of Munich High-End, the Sound Galleries team presented their own developed SGM-2015 music server. The quietness of the event venue, with its large size, allowed […]
Munich 2016
High End 2016: Brinkmann and Vandersteen and MQA
MQA is becoming a reality; the company has a new partner under Brinkmann Audio who despite being a world-class leader in turntable design has a history on digital audio as well with the “Zenith”, a […]
Munich 2016
High End 2016: A speaker for a Grammy? Meet the Bauta.
Jacek Gawlovsky might not ring a bell for you, or me for the matter, as I do not follow-up closely the pro audio scene, but he is a much respected sound engineer, with a Grammy […]
Munich 2016
High End 2016: The Acoustical Systems Apolyt, a vinyl-spinning Leviathan
High-end audio is a run for who makes the biggest speakers, amplifiers, and of course turntables. As of 2016, the trophy for the biggest, meanest, spinner goes to the Acoustical Systems Apolyt, which sets new […]
Munich 2016
High End 2016: Air Tight makes Blumenhofer sing
This was a great show for Blumenhofer Acoustics, and the matching with Air Tight was the best I’ve heard in recent times. Not that other years they offered bad sound, but this time around the pair […]
Munich 2016
High End 2016: Have @@ says Mo Sound
Here is for something different — a new company called Mo Sound coming from Austria and making speaker cabinets from porcelain. The motto of the company is catchy, show some cojones: buy our little extravagant, […]
Munich 2016
High End 2016: Estelon introduces gorgeous YB
Many designers reserve the same room year in year out in Munich’s High End show and this helps a bit, It lets me move as a heat seeking missile on day one, pointing straight to […]
Munich 2016
High End 2016: AVID loudspeakers?
British turntable specialist AVID is pushing hard to become one of those companies with a complete line up, after last year when they introduced reference pre and power amplifiers it was the turn of speakers. […]
Munich 2016
High End 2016: Tim De Paravicini strikes gold with Lyn Stanley
Visited the room on day one, and it was already sounding good. Very good. My initial thought was that this was the best I’ve heard EAR Yoshino electronics sound in shows for a while now. […]
Munich 2016
High End 2016: Ypsilon and the Hyperion
Ypsilon Electronics introduced the Hyperion mono power amps — and they sound gorgeous. Paired with a pair of Wilson Alexia, the new Hyperion monos were authoritative on low registers, yet still remained delicate and tactile on […]
AXPONA 2016
AXPONA 2016: Essential Audio goes AudioKinesis, with Resonessence Labs
I’m a fan of Duke LeJeune and his AudioKinesis brand. Brought to AXPONA by Brian Walsh’s Chicago-area based dealership, Essential Audio, I got to see Duke’s latest work — the Bienville Suite. $12k nets you […]
AXPONA 2016
AXPONA 2016: Endeavor indulges in Audio Alchemy
Audio Alchemy, Peter Madnick’s newest project, showcased here a slightly different flavor of gear than I found (and talked about) in the ELAC room. Here, I found the DMP-1 digital media player ($1795), the DDP-1 DAC/preamp ($1995) […]