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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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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. […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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) […]
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