Thread: My Axpona 2022 Impressions

I did make it, rode with a friend and a friend of his, I realize this morning I have been hanging out with Al Rainbow, who is acool guy but don't tell him I said that. I saw a lot of good rooms and heard some surprises, I'm sure I will forget something.

I just can't pick a single best of show but I will start wih the system I most wish I could bring home. It was Nagra with Stenheim speakers. I found it totally effortless, open and transparent, quick with nice frequency balance. My friends liked other stuff better, there were certainly larger mor expensive but I found I really enjoyed what that system was doing.

MBL, never disappoints.

VAC driving Acora knocked my socks off. Those Acora speakers ar incredible and by comparison a bargain at $37k. The JW Acoustics analog rig so impressive. The new Lampi DAC was in this room, it sounded great but I found myself preferring the JWA set up more than any other source in the room. Someone told me the VAC monoblocks were $150k, the Acora were right at home with that.

I love the ARC/Wilson combo, that was another high ranking room for me.

One of my surprises, Marten speakers had one of there small sets there, Parker, something. Driven by Ayre this was a very pleasing system. I had heard a large set of Marten before and came away with a not so good impression. Shows if hearing something once at a show and it doesn't sound right, don't just write them off.

As another example, a excellent room was YG driven by AudioNet, the Humboldt I believe. My first time hearing anything AudioNet and I thought it was very good and further boasted my opinion of YG, great synergy with this pairing. While talking YG their powered speaker called Live I liked a lot, excellent bass response with good detail and control.

I heard the new Confidence 60's which are now the Dyn Flagship at $50k according to the rep there. Driven by Octave Audio made a good sounding system.

I had an interesting encounter with Modwright who I have never heard before. A room had Modwright's hybrid integrated amp driving a set of Revel 328b. I have heard this speaker a few times with some good electronics but they have never sounded as impressive as driven by that Modwright. So then I wander into another room later and the same Modwright integrated is driving a set of the new KEFRef 3 Meta, that Meta version is certainly an improvement over the former version that already sounded good.

I also finally got to hear Luxman who was driving the Magico M6. You guys know I'm a Magico fan, this just didn't sound like a good combo to me, not bad just maybe not so good of a match.

Another Magico room was A5's driven by Constellation who I have been also really wanting to hear. Constellation was the Taurus power amp. The sound of this system was good but I found I didn't enjoy the sound as much as I was hoping.

Boulder was paired with Sonus Faber, I'm not a big SF fan but the Boulder had them sounding better than I've previously heard them sound.

Krell was showing a new amp, a KSA something but still using the XD technology, nothing like the Prior KSA amps although they are trying to remind people who the company was . One of those moments where you are listening to the sound wile someone describe's it and you ask yourself, is he talking about the same thing I'm hearing. Don't get me wrong, the amp is good, doubles down to 2 ohms and fully stable into 1 ohm is what we are told. The sound is Krell, just not like former KSA, which some may feel a good thing.

Most rooms were spinning vinyl, analog was out in force. Of course, most had some form of streaming as an alternative for anyone asking.

Bending Wave had the Wadax streaming system and Gobel speakers and I'm pretty sure CHP electronics. This is an incredible system, I did feel it suffered some gymnasium effects from the large room. Like being at a live concert.

Saturdayaround 6 an the show was closing, I began to hear Volbeat playing at a loud volume, so naturally I gravitate that way, listen to the rest of the song and most of a song by Ghost. This room was rocking out using Paradigm Founder128 speakers driven by Anthem separates. It did play loud, thunderous bass, I do think the amp may have been straining or it may have just been way to loud for that size room. I think the latter though as most of the higher end systemskept better composure at high volumes but I don't remember any others reaching quite that high of SPL.

Great post...

I like that Axpona provides evening concerts. I wanted to see both but it wasn't in the cards for Friday. I did see Lori Leberman Saturday, hope I spelled her name correctly. I wasn't familiar with her but it was a nice show.

Thanks for the write-up. Did you get a chance to listen to the Burmester system? Wondering how their speakers sound.

Which Stenheim and Nagra components were playing together? Thanks for your post.

Brian, I heard the Burmister briefly, as a system it struck me as very neutral, along the lines of Krell and the like. Didn't get a feel of just the speakers.

RDS, the Stenheim were 3's and the Nagra power amp was the Classic, not sure what else. Not being able to see the system I rely on who I'm with or ask questions from the person running the rooms, some are helpful and some just give a short answer. That system was my taste in sound though.

Originally Posted by Mr Peabody

...Most rooms were spinning vinyl, analog was out in force. Of course, most had some form of streaming as an alternative for anyone asking...

An interesting observation. Here are excerpts from a couple of posts on another forum (the poster is also a member here)

"I did notice that the number of turntables decreased from 2019 by a good amount. Rooms are much more dependent on digital streaming than ever before."

"On the other hand, rooms which used even modest turntables had a much better chance of producing pleasing sound. Others may disagree but a $1000 turntable is likely going to sound better than a laptop-based digital music server with a $2000 DAC. That’s been my experience at shows and has also been my experience in my own personal journey."

Maybe others who went can give their opinion but the majority of rooms I visited were playing vinyl. Most had the option of doing both but I got no impression analog was less prominent. Qobuz was around promoting their service. As I stated a couple rooms even played R2R while I was present, this has never happened for me before. Maybe that person is selling an agenda but I disagree, not my experience.

Originally Posted by rbbert

An interesting observation. Here are excerpts from a couple of posts on another forum (the poster is also a member here)

"I did notice that the number of turntables decreased from 2019 by a good amount. Rooms are much more dependent on digital streaming than ever before."

"On the other hand, rooms which used even modest turntables had a much better chance of producing pleasing sound. Others may disagree but a $1000 turntable is likely going to sound better than a laptop-based digital music server with a $2000 DAC. That’s been my experience

at shows and has also been my experience in my own personal journey."

Originally Posted by Mr Peabody

Maybe others who went can give their opinion but the majority of rooms I visited were playing vinyl. Most had the option of doing both but I got no impression analog was less prominent. Qobuz was around promoting their service. As I stated a couple rooms even played R2R while I was present, this has never happened for me before. Maybe that person is selling an agenda but I disagree, not my experience.

That was my quote on another board and I can assure you that I am not selling any agenda.

I have attended that the last 6 Axponas with the same person and we both commented to each other that the number of rooms playing LPs was way down. We didn’t do a tally but that was our impression. Most of the big rooms on 1 and 2 had turntables but they always do. The smaller rooms on floor 3 and above seemed to be much more dependent on streaming digital.

Regarding reel to reel, I have brought a mix tape for the past 4 Axponas and was able to play it (again) in 2 different rooms.

Not trying to argue here; just providing my experience.

Originally Posted by Mr Peabody

Maybe others who went can give their opinion but the majority of rooms I visited were playing vinyl. Most had the option of doing both but I got no impression analog was less prominent. Qobuz was around promoting their service. As I stated a couple rooms even played R2R while I was present, this has never happened for me before. Maybe that person is selling an agenda but I disagree, not my experience.

I said out loud as I was wrapping up the show that my observation was that digital (mostly Qobuz I believe) totally dominated. The friend I was attending with agreed. We certainly did hear vinyl and tape during the course of our two days, but I would estimate that 80% of what we heard was digital.

nice review / summation, thanks for the write up !

Originally Posted by MPW

I said out loud as I was wrapping up the show that my observation was that digital (mostly Qobuz I believe) totally dominated. The friend I was attending with agreed. We certainly did hear vinyl and tape during the course of our two days, but I would estimate that 80% of what we heard was digital.

I’d say this was true at Florida Expo also.

One of my favorite things about shows like AXPONA is the chance to meet the designers/owners/principals/dealers who are in the rooms with their products. Folks like Jeff Joseph of Joseph Audio, the Margules family, Bruce Jacobs, the designer of the Bayz speakers and many others. To me, the people behind the products influence my buying decisions as much as the products themselves, and its good to get to meet and know them.

The overall attitude in all of the rooms was positive and everyone was putting out a great effort.

Some of the rooms (not yet mentioned) that impressed me, and of course YEMV (Your Ears May Vary):

- Scaena speakers fed by DCS electronics and custom amps
- TAD Evolution 2 speakers fed by T+A HV amp and digital pre-amp with Wolf server
- Valorem speakers fed by Jadis electronics. A small standmount speaker handmade to order in Addison, Illinois. $8500. The owner/designer was great to talk with.
- Vimberg Mino speakers fed by Karan electronics, Taiko Extreme and Crystal Connect cables
- Muraudio speakers fed by a Hegel receiver
- The Borreson rooms (with the 02 floorstanders and the 01 standmounts)
- Cube Audio speakers driven by a custom, one-off Nelson Pass amp
- Bayz Courant speakers driven by Pilium and Esoteric
- Heretic speakers driven by Lab12 electronics. These unique speakers (they look like the monitors a band has at the front of the stage) had a sound that grew on you. Designer from Montreal was a nice guy.
- Atohm speakers driven by Atoll electronics
- From a budget perspective, a lot has been said about the Polk/Denon combo. From my standpoint, the orange-grilled JBL bookshelf speakers provided big sound for reasonable dollars

So, it's your final day, last couple hours. You've seen all the rooms. What to do? I revisited those rooms where I just wanted to sit back, relax and dig the music. I guess those are my Top 3:
- Marten Parker speakers powered by Ayre Electronics. I sat behind Ken Micallef, who writes for Absolute Sound, earlier in the day and listened to Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" and was transported (a word I don't use easily). He wrote about it in his online post of the room on their website. I had to go back and listen to more.
- Joseph Audio Pearl Graphene speakers powered by Doshi Electronics with J. Sikori turntable. Jeff Joseph was in the room to discuss his speakers. A record producer was in the room to discuss the music from his record label that he produced and which was playing. A great experience, and the sound was solid and engaging.
- Vivid Audio Giya speakers powered by JMF and Ideon electronics. I only left this room because I knew I wanted to see my other top 3 before the show ended. Probably my top pick.

All told, a fun show. A good crowd, but not too crowded. Looking forward to next year.

Originally Posted by ptman

One of my favorite things about shows like AXPONA is the chance to meet the designers/owners/principals/dealers who are in the rooms with their products. Folks like Jeff Joseph of Joseph Audio, the Margules family, Bruce Jacobs, the designer of the Bayz speakers and many others. To me, the people behind the products influence my buying decisions as much as the products themselves, and its good to get to meet and know them.

> I agree, I've met several there I wouldn't have other wise, Beno from Gamuet who was interesting to visit with, Richard Schram, Sutherland, Jeff Rowland, to drop a few names, LOL

The overall attitude in all of the rooms was positive and everyone was putting out a great effort.

Some of the rooms (not yet mentioned) that impressed me, and of course YEMV (Your Ears May Vary):

- Scaena speakers fed by DCS electronics and custom amps

> I did hear this room. They ar usually there. I liked them best with thePS Audio gear, BHK, I think that's the initials. Prior show.
- TAD Evolution 2 speakers fed by T+A HV amp and digital pre-amp with Wolf server
- Valorem speakers fed by Jadis electronics. A small standmount speaker handmade to order in Addison, Illinois. $8500. The owner/designer was great to talk with.

> I wish I caught this, I'm a Jadis fan.
- Vimberg Mino speakers fed by Karan electronics, Taiko Extreme and Crystal Connect cables

> caught this one, good sound
- Muraudio speakers fed by a Hegel receiver
- The Borreson rooms (with the 02 floorstanders and the 01 standmounts)
- Cube Audio speakers driven by a custom, one-off Nelson Pass amp
> this amp had 1,024 JFET's per channel
- Bayz Courant speakers driven by Pilium and Esoteric
- Heretic speakers driven by Lab12 electronics. These unique speakers (they look like the monitors a band has at the front of the stage) had a sound that grew on you. Designer from Montreal was a nice guy.
- Atohm speakers driven by Atoll electronics
- From a budget perspective, a lot has been said about the Polk/Denon combo. From my standpoint, the orange-grilled JBL bookshelf speakers provided big sound for reasonable dollars

So, it's your final day, last couple hours. You've seen all the rooms. What to do? I revisited those rooms where I just wanted to sit back, relax and dig the music. I guess those are my Top 3:
- Marten Parker speakers powered by Ayre Electronics. I sat behind Ken Micallef, who writes for Absolute Sound, earlier in the day and listened to Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" and was transported (a word I don't use easily). He wrote about it in his online post of the room on their website. I had to go back and listen to more.
- Joseph Audio Pearl Graphene speakers powered by Doshi Electronics with J. Sikori turntable. Jeff Joseph was in the room to discuss his speakers. A record producer was in the room to discuss the music from his record label that he produced and which was playing. A great experience, and the sound was solid and engaging.
- Vivid Audio Giya speakers powered by JMF and Ideon electronics. I only left this room because I knew I wanted to see my other top 3 before the show ended. Probably my top pick.

All told, a fun show. A good crowd, but not too crowded. Looking forward to next year.

Hope you don't mind me commenting.

A couple of the brands that had rooms in prior shows. I always looked forward to their rooms:

- Tidal speakers and electronics
- Bricasti electronics (I saw one Bricasti DAC in the Stillpoints room)
- Absolare amplifiers

Would have also liked to have seen someone have the Graceline cables.

Originally Posted by dminches

That was my quote on another board and I can assure you that I am not selling any agenda.

I have attended that the last 6 Axponas with the same person and we both commented to each other that the number of rooms playing LPs was way down. We didn’t do a tally but that was our impression. Most of the big rooms on 1 and 2 had turntables but they always do. The smaller rooms on floor 3 and above seemed to be much more dependent on streaming digital.

Regarding reel to reel, I have brought a mix tape for the past 4 Axponas and was able to play it (again) in 2 different rooms.

Not trying to argue here; just providing my experience.

I agree with totally. Playing LPs was way down. More baffling were room advertising turntables on the door that seemed perfectly content to sit on their chair to play digital. DCPs. WTF?

Originally Posted by Myles B. Astor

I agree with totally. Playing LPs was way down. More baffling were room advertising turntables on the door that seemed perfectly content to sit on their chair to play digital. DCPs. WTF?

A photo in another thread here showed you appearing to moderate a panel discussion: what was the topic?

Originally Posted by rbbert

A photo in another thread here showed you appearing to moderate a panel discussion: what was the topic?

Axpona 2022 Panel - The Future of High End Audio - YouTube


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Originally Posted by Myles B. Astor

I agree with totally. Playing LPs was way down. More baffling were room advertising turntables on the door that seemed perfectly content to sit on their chair to play digital. DCPs. WTF?

Makes sense to me. Vinyl is enough of a hassle in a home environment. There is far too much down time diddling with LP's to meet the demands at an audio show. No one wants to sit in a demo with continuous periods of silence as tracks are found and played.

Originally Posted by still-one

Makes sense to me. Vinyl is enough of a hassle in a home environment. There is far too much down time diddling with LP's to meet the demands at an audio show. No one wants to sit in a demo with continuous periods of silence as tracks are found and played.

My counter to that was that many of the rooms with only digital sources had poorer sound since the digital setups were rudimentary. One room had really nice speakers and electronics but had a laptop and a DAC as its only source. As a result, the sound suffered. Conversely, one room had a not-too-expensive speaker setup but was play LPs and the sound was much better.

I am generalizing but we did find that often not enough thought or expense was put into making the digital source sound good.

Great read.

I have heard Stennheim only twice I think. But each time I was always very impressed. IMHO an underrated brand.

Last time I was at an audio the average age of the visitors was approaching 60. It would not surprise me if in a few years shows like this will be no more. If this is good or bad, I can't tell.

Originally Posted by dminches

My counter to that was that many of the rooms with only digital sources had poorer sound since the digital setups were rudimentary. One room had really nice speakers and electronics but had a laptop and a DAC as its only source. As a result, the sound suffered. Conversely, one room had a not-too-expensive speaker setup but was play LPs and the sound was much better.

I am generalizing but we did find that often not enough thought or expense was put into making the digital source sound good.

My experience with several previous shows (not AXPONA) is that most rooms have not enough attention paid to optimal source set-up regardless of the source (except perhaps R2R, which has fewer variables). Even though I am not a fan of LP's in general it doesn't make sense when a (e.g.) $15k phono set-up sounds worse than a $5k CD player, and now many exhibitors aren't even bothering with a high-end CD (or SACD) player - which is obviously easier to set up well than laptop streaming.

ptman said, "- Vivid Audio Giya speakers powered by JMF and Ideon electronics. I only left this room because I knew I wanted to see my other top 3 before the show ended. Probably my top pick."

I don't doubt this at all, as one of my best friends has Vivid Giya speakers and his system is one of the best I've ever heard. They are fantastic speakers.

In contrast to many rooms, the Vivid room was quite serene. Music was playing at lower volumes and the space itself was quiet and somewhat removed from the outside noise. Definitely a room to relax in. I thought the sound was among the best at the show, although I would have liked to hear the system pushed a bit.

Originally Posted by still-one

Makes sense to me. Vinyl is enough of a hassle in a home environment. There is far too much down time diddling with LP's to meet the demands at an audio show. No one wants to sit in a demo with continuous periods of silence as tracks are found and played.

Sorry but did you read my post? Obviously not.

And we call them DCPs.

Originally Posted by Myles B. Astor

Sorry but did you read my post? Obviously not.

And we call them DCPs.

Of course I read your post!. I have never heard the term DCP's so I wasn't commenting on that term. I was stating a fact that no one wants to go to an audio show and wait around while some one plays an entire LP (especially if the genre isn't meaningful to them) or while they search for a requested LP track. It is just so much easier to demo gear with a digital set-up.

Originally Posted by still-one

Of course I read your post!. I have never heard the term DCP's so I wasn't commenting on that term. I was stating a fact that no one wants to go to an audio show and wait around while some one plays an entire LP (especially if the genre isn't meaningful to them) or while they search for a requested LP track. It is just so much easier to demo gear with a digital set-up.

There-in lies the rub. If they just want to play disc jockey all day then what you are saying works. If they want to show off how well the equipment can sound then they need to really think about the quality of the source.

If you have an Aurender or Lumin, etc then it is fine. However, many of the rooms had laptops and DACs which really didn’t cut it. The rooms which had modest turntables sounded better than those.

Originally Posted by dminches

There-in lies the rub. If they just want to play disc jockey all day then what you are saying works. If they want to show off how well the equipment can sound then they need to really think about the quality of the source.

If you have an Aurender or Lumin, etc then it is fine. However, many of the rooms had laptops and DACs which really didn’t cut it. The rooms which had modest turntables sounded better than those.

I went into one room and there was a playlist on repeat and nobody in sight. I waited around and nobody came in. The room was empty, but gear was setup and playing. That was a new one.

The challenge comes when working the room. You always have the little old guy that walks up hiding his CD, and then sheepishly asks “can you play this?”, almost a druggie asking a new dealer “whatcha got?” It’s actually quite funny.

I play what I like in my room and don’t care if it’s not up to audiophile quality. If I feel like some Marshall Tucker Band, some Brothers Johnson, some Earth Wind and Fire, Marvin Gaye, Elton John or some AC/DC, it’s getting played. Requests are welcomed and encouraged, but if no one asks, I’m playing a mix of tape, vinyl and digital. I absolutely hate going into rooms and hearing audiophile crap. Play real music. People will forgive the less than stellar recordings if the songs are making their toes tap.

It’s a show, have fun!


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Can anyone who attended the show give me their opinion on the Aroes Cerat room with the new Aurora speakers? please only the sound not the aesthetics of the speakers.

Originally Posted by nonesup

Can anyone who attended the show give me their opinion on the Aroes Cerat room with the new Aurora speakers? please only the sound not the aesthetics of the speakers.

The sound was excellent. Very sweet and detailed. Musical. I’m working on my wrap up video and hope to get it published next week. It’s a lot of work this video editing stuff is! Especially for old eyes!


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Originally Posted by Mike

The sound was excellent. Very sweet and detailed. Musical. I’m working on my wrap up video and hope to get it published next week. It’s a lot of work this video editing stuff is! Especially for old eyes!


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agree. visited that room three times. small room for such a large speaker but it worked at reasonable volumes. the sound in the room was very listenable and balanced sounding. not golden hued, but musical and nice textures and detail. good micro-dynamics as one would expect from a horn. it was the middle level Aries Cerat dac.

i'm still trying to decide if i like the square horn structure visually. i guess i do, but i could never live with it.

Originally Posted by MPW

In contrast to many rooms, the Vivid room was quite serene. Music was playing at lower volumes and the space itself was quiet and somewhat removed from the outside noise. Definitely a room to relax in. I thought the sound was among the best at the show, although I would have liked to hear the system pushed a bit.

agree. went back 6-7 times to try and 'get' the measure of the Ideon digital. i was told the room overloaded in the bass at higher volumes which was why they did not let loose.

too bad because it's hard to judge the new-to-North America JMF electronics and the Ideon digital. both do show promise.

Thanks to both Mike's.

Originally Posted by still-one

Of course I read your post!. I have never heard the term DCP's so I wasn't commenting on that term. I was stating a fact that no one wants to go to an audio show and wait around while some one plays an entire LP (especially if the genre isn't meaningful to them) or while they search for a requested LP track. It is just so much easier to demo gear with a digital set-up.

Digital couch potato.

Cause getting up to flip the LP is the audiophile version of crushing it....

Originally Posted by jmusica

Cause getting up to flip the LP is the audiophile version of crushing it....

Or it is the only exercise they get, or can tolerate.

Lars impressed again with the borrensen 01 speakers. I sat thru a song and knew I'd be doing something to upgrade my current system. While the six figure rooms are always good fun I really appreciate the rooms for working class folk and perlisten speakers were sounding exceptional as were the kef ref 5 meta, dali also did well in the small rooms and that RAZZ speaker with the 15" woofer and horn tweeter for I think $4k a pair agreed with the room. I very nearly bought the legacy Aeris(again) but decided to upgrade the amp for my blades instead. I also thought TT playback was down from previous shows unless i'm getting conditioned to it.

Axpona 2022 Wrap-Up - Part 1 - YouTube


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Great video, Mike & Mike...thanks for sharing! Love the eye candy in the background. Great to hear you are now an Innuos dealer.