Axpona

[audio bill]

Originally Posted by lostinla

What's the Bricasti component on the top of the rack? A new component? Mmmm

It's their new M12 Dual Mono Source Controller ($15,995), and additional details on it can be found here.

[jwc]

Great photos

[Indytown]

Thanks for the pic's, appreciate it.

[lostinla]

Originally Posted by audio bill

It's their new M12 Dual Mono Source Controller ($15,995), and additional details on it can be found here.

Very cool. Possible upgradeitis coming on

[lostinla]

Originally Posted by Ritmo

That's a new line stage. I believe it's in the $15K range. The system sounded very good and musical. Played a lot of classical music. System showed tremendous musicality and was very dynamic. I visited the room several times.

thank you

[djwhog]

Mike thank you very much for all the nice pictures. Good coverage!

Sent from my iPad using A.Aficionado

[pete6737]

Thanks to all posting pictures! I haven't made Axpona since Atlanta. Great coverage. I really need to make the trip next year.

[Cohibaman]

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[markol]

You're more than welcome, JDandy. I'm glad you like it

[Venere]

Thanks for all the pics, but would also love to hear folks opinions/reviews of the products and the show in general. This was my first audio show and I think I picked a good one. All the brands I've read about for years but never heard were there. I met many legends of the industry in person (special mention to Frank VanAlstine who made the shuttle trip from airport to hotel a memorable experience). Great attendance, which is good for the industry but makes visiting 111 rooms on eight different floors a bit tricky. Used the stairs a LOT. Also, glad i got there thursday. Could see some of the exhibitors setting up thursday night and friday morning which was interesting. And Friday was by far the least crowded day. Favorite rooms in no particular order were MBL ( as it should be for roughly a half million dollars), Wilson Alexx (no surprise there I suppose), both large Sonus Faber rooms ( the Lillium is amazing in every possible way), Naim/Dynaudio, Raidho, Volti horns (incredible on orchestral music, now I fully understand how people get hooked on horns), Scaena line array (BIG system, HUGE sound), and KEF ( the LS50 is by a wide margin the best speaker for the money I've ever heard). The only room I heard that sounded truly bad to my ears was Gauder Akustik. There was treble, treble, and more treble and not much else. Sounded like a really extended ribbon tweeter connected to a clock radio for the bass. Anyway, after a while (like the third day) you sort of just lose your bearings on what sounds right and it all just blends into a sonic stew. My general conclusions were this: there is a huge diversity of different "flavors" of sound available, and the more of them you hear the more you realize its less about right and wrong and more about which flavor you prefer. The various live performances amply displayed the fact that even with all these megabuck systems available for comparison none of them could recreate the sheer sonic energy of a live band. They are all just a facsimile of the original. So you pick the flavor you enjoy the most and run with it. For me its clearly on the slightly warm side of neutral. Lastly, after one hundred rooms the other obvious conclusion was that you can't get big sound in a small room. The illusion of live music works best in a large room where the "image" is to scale. You can't trick your ears into believing there is an orchestra in your living room unless you have a REALLY large living room. Thats why the big systems in the big rooms like MBL, Wilson, and Sonus Faber sounded so amazing and likelike and different from what most of us are accustomed to (MasterLu and Apexorca nothwithstanding). None of the smaller room (including the amazing Raidhos, which were just begging for a larger room IMHO) could create that same magic. So get a speaker that fits your room both sonically and spatially. Too big or too small for the room is a fundamental mistake that no tweaking can overcome. These are all just my opinions as your humble show-reporter (Stereophile and Absolute Sound, I am available for next year at a very reasonable fee....) and would be happy to hear other opinions or views on the show. I had a great time and will use the experience as a guide for many future purchases. If you've never gone to one of these shows consider this a very strong recommendation for next yeat's AXPONA.