AXPONA Chicago April 12-14, 2019

The cost doesn't bother me, it is so far from relevance in my world.
Shows like this let you get up close with lottery grade gear, and IMO that's good fun.

agreed and well put. once the cost of a piece gets above say, $10k who cares how many more zeros are tacked on to the price!
 
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Salk Sound (Jim Salk is a true gentleman) is always interesting. These 9.5s have a new Beryllium tweeter that is actually beginning to convince me that I could learn to not continue to hate metal-dome tweeters. Crisp and clean, with sparkle, but musical and not upper-middle-aged-target-market treble tilt-up. Gorgeous finishes, too.

View attachment 12504

Those would be the Satori tweeters. I'll tell you all about them in a few weeks.
 
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Yeah, it's all relative. :D His "best system" was the big EMM Labs room, so the Audio Note "room" was affordable by comparison.
I should have gone there and given EMM heck for being so bad at customer service. They don't respond to emails and are rude as hell on the phone to the point I hung up on them.
 
Thanks again @Don C for the reports. That VAC/Von Schweikert system must have been something if you spent an hour with it. The cost doesn't bother me, it is so far from relevance in my world.

Shows like this let you get up close with lottery grade gear, and IMO that's good fun.

Speaking of lottery gear...

Had an interesting conversation with a host in a room that sounded fantastic and featured a speaker with ceramic tweeters and aluminum coned mid/bass. (not something I usually enjoy) He was the only person I saw that had set his system up at maybe a 30-degree angle to the room and he was not using treatments.

Anyways, I complimented him on the room and I mentioned that there were many rooms with $$$$$ components that sounded like ass. He said something that really hit home.

"Giving the worlds best camera to someone does not mean you are going to get a good photograph from them. But give a great photographer a mediocre camera and see what develops."
 
I texted a friend “Wow” and meant it.
"Wow" received, and glad you could hear it. 👍👍 So many visitors walk into a room with preconceptions regarding the price tag, but that all needs to be left at the front door of the convention center IMHO. This system was presented by The Audio Company. I enjoyed their system last year, and it was every bit as good this year.

I'd heard a complaint about a "seven foot tall" cellist from last year's show, but I attribute that to the recording--nothing I heard in my many visits to the room suggested the size of the speakers exaggerated the presentation. I heard the Poulenc Organ Concerto (from vinyl) last year and it was perhaps the only system I'd heard at the show that could properly convey that palpable bass presence that only a large speaker can put out, in a properly sized room. Yet when playing Sinatra ("set 'em up, Joe"), Frankie was pinpointed dead center. These Von Schweikerts covered everything so effortlessly, without calling attention to themselves (other than their looks...I severely doubt I could sneak these past the lady of the house 😁).

Got a few versions of my own show reports to write up elsewhere, so, back to it!
 
Anyways, I complimented him on the room and I mentioned that there were many rooms with $$$$$ components that sounded like ass.
I did not like the really large Legacy speakers (with the large woofers on top)--the higher frequencies had a strange metallic "tizzyness" to them that was annoying at times. I attended David Solomon's Qobuz "flash DJ" session and his wide variety of music choices (from the "Qobuz Wow!" playlist) did not help matters. Good to catch up with you again, though! TTYS!
 
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Those Wharfedale Lintons are really intriguing. I'd read they were paired with some smaller-sized Luxman components?
 
So... FWIW, and realizing that this might not be the best idea I've had all day*, there's a thread not unlike this one over at
https://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/184653/axpona-2019-schaumburg-il/
the show action starts ca. p. 14

Offered strictly as-is and FWIW, for entertainment purposes only :)

I will likewise post a link to this thread there. 🧐

_______
* And considering one of my other ideas involved relocating a starling that had become trapped in our fireplace and resulted in the dispersal of a not insignificant amount of fine ash in and around said fireplace -- that's saying something :smoke
 
Haha.
Expensive joint, if Audionote becomes economy gear. :)

I think at shows - given the quality of the rooms - there is probably not much point to bringing really expensive gear.

As an Audio Note owner - I usually think it makes sense to bring the $5,500 AN E speakers than a $25K, $50k, or $75k or $200k version of the same speakers. I suspect people who buy the expensive versions already know and are well versed with the entry level versions. But at a show the pricey ones just can't shine enough and then you get the folks who will say "people paid $30k for a 2 way - are they nuts?"

On the other hand some people buy based on weight/size and price and looks. Though I have to laugh when the AN room is sort of the cost conscious value priced room. :panic It may indeed be the Twilight Zone.

Anyway - I may soon do something truly bonkers and order an Audio Note Jinro. Gasp.
 
I think at shows - given the quality of the rooms - there is probably not much point to bringing really expensive gear.

this brings up a great point. who is the real audience that the exhibitors are trying to impress? dealers? distros? retail customers?

there certainly was little exhibited at axpona that was "affordable" at all, so it did not seem to be aimed at the "average consumer." or is the point to impress with the ToTL gear and hope you end up buying a lower model based on that impression?

thoughts?
 
I think at shows - given the quality of the rooms - there is probably not much point to bringing really expensive gear.

Speaking of room quality.

I would estimate that about 60-70% of the rooms at Axpona were the same sized small hotel room. Wall of windows on the side opposite the door, a wall mounted headboard on one side wall and the other side wall had a cabinet or open low shelves.

I would estimate that 80% of those small rooms did nothing to tame the first reflection points. I am guessing 30% of those rooms also had the curtains open and that entire glass window reflecting back into the room. Those were the rooms that really sounded bad.

The 20% that used some treatments and had the heavy curtains closed had a much better chance of having decent sound, whether it was hi $$$$ or mid-$ systems.

Which raises the questions, do the folks setting up and hosting these rooms have any idea of what they sound like or what sounds good?

I was joking that next year I was going to bring my own sound panels with.
 
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Speaking of room quality.

I would estimate that about 60-70% of the rooms at Axpona were the same sized small hotel room. Wall of windows on the side opposite the door, a wall mounted headboard on one side wall and the other side wall had a cabinet or open low shelves.

I would estimate that 80% of those small rooms did nothing to tame the first reflection points. I am guessing 30% of those rooms also had the curtains open and that entire glass window reflecting back into the room. Those were the rooms that really sounded bad.

The 20% that used some treatments and had the heavy curtains closed had a much better chance of having decent sound, whether it was hi $$$$ or mid-$ systems.

Which raises the questions, do the folks setting up and hosting these rooms have any idea of what they sound like or what sounds good?

I was joking that next year I was going to bring my own sound panels with.

I've thought this the past few shows, and it was true again. Any room that gave even a modicum of effort to room treatments, even if they just improvised with what they had on hand to try to lessen the obvious/usual problems, a listener was more easily able to hear the music and the gear and had to fight hearing the room issues less. My case in point above was the Bryston room (though there were many others) - I really like their stuff and I like what they're doing, but their room has sounded like ass (sorry) the past few times I've heard it. It's a tidy setup in an empty room that ends up sounding all boomy and reflecty and you can't hear a darn thing.
 
@Don C At least you heard music in the Bryston Room.

We sat in there 5 minutes and only got gibberish about their products and why the room host decided to bring an SP4 preamp/processor to build a complex 3-way active speaker network for the mini T speakers, blah blah blah eh.

Too bad because I have always wanted to hear that speaker.

After a while, Dave and I would poke our heads in for a minute and if the room that had zero treatments we would skip it. We also started skipping rooms if they had anything chromed in their set up.
 
Yes. They had a pair of amps playing in a huge long hall along with what I believe were magicos and some subs that were the size of real subs. No treatments except for a plywood baffle between the area and the wall of glass. Sounded much better than expected for the area but not my cup-o-tea. Olson has fonder opinions I believe.
 
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