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As in prior shows, Mike Fremer’s vinyl sessions are not to be missed. He always plays exceptional vinyl and shares a story or two about the pieces to be heard. He is a HE Industry Treasure.
And, the Magico M6 with the Q18 subs and supporting gear from Luxman and Avid were exceptional.
All 3 of my brothers, my girlfriend, our daughter and I came out to the Expo today, had a blast and I took a load of pictures. I think a few of us might just come back tomorrow for a few hours to go through a few floors and rooms that we didn't make it to.
We saw Michael Fremer in one of the hallways as well as Mat Weisfeld of VPI on another floor, then Gene DellaSala of Audioholics walked into the Raven Audio room that we were in.
Just a couple of notes...
The Carver room was horrible. Too much "brittle" treble, very thin mids, non-existent mid-bass, and totally separated low bass from the mains coming from the REL sub in the corner. Totally unimpressed and totally disappointed.
The Martin Logan room was very good except for the fact that the sub was cranked up way too high. Way too much bass. If there was a gnat on the wall on one of the recordings and it farted, the sub would have blown the windows right out of that room.
The Jolida Audio room... That was some tasty looking and sounding gear, and not for a whole lot of scratch either, less than the PS Audio Stellar gear that I had. Very impressive sound as well as the "Dimension" feature on the preamp, though I think he went a little overboard with the dial, but still, very impressive, very W-I-D-E sound stage.
For me, the best of show that I heard were the MurAudio and MC Audiotech rooms. Most neutral, natural, PURE sound from both of these systems. Highly impressive bass output from the MurAudio SP1 loudspeakers with their four 5" drivers in sealed enclosures in an MTM configuration, and the most natural, effortless, deepest, realistic bass from the four 18" drivers in the folded dipole bass sections of the MC Audiotech Forty-10 loudspeakers.
The last time I heard bass like that coming from the Forty-10's was my old huge and ugly H-frame dipole subs running two 15" drivers each. I may just build myself a pair of similar folded open baffle (dipole) bass sections for my system again one day. That kind of natural, effortless, realistic bass is intoxicating and extremely difficult to replicate with traditional box subs no matter what size or price.
Anyway, on with some pics...
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And a few more...
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Wow....great show! Enjoyed the heck out of it!
My ranking:
Bigboy room: MBL over the top with the most realist sound and presence. Yes I had my new hearing aids in place.
Small boy room: 1: Magico M2’s.....did everything right.
2: yep I loved the Borrensens despite going in with negative mind. I wish I could have heard them at lower volume though as I’m not sure if they would scale down.
3: Stenheim sounded legit as my milenial son says.....lol. I have no idea of their price point but I could be happy with them also.
Congrats to everyone involved in bring a world class show to Florida!
Thanks for all the pics and impressions. Jealous. Hopefully I’ll get to AXPONA again this year so I can participate in all the fun!
Congrats on a great show, and looks like a fun time. and thank you to all for the great pictures and comments.
can't wait to get to Axpona in April.
Wow, looks “legit”! Big congrats to Mike and everyone that is involved. Wish I could be there.
Stenheim got me quite interested. Minimalist look and Mike’s endorsement on sound.
Luxman 900 series seems to be gaining traction. Been seeing them everywhere.
We were wanting to go back today for a bit, but just had too much to do here around the house and such. Plus it doesn't help that I have to go into work tonight at 5:30pm. I would be dead tired at that point. Now if I didn't have to work, that would be a different story.
I wish there were more of these types of shows in Florida. We absolutely loved being there and seeing/hearing all of the gear. And of course, I really enjoyed taking all of the pictures. If only I could get a job traveling the world being a photographer for all of these shows. Now that would be the life!... With a real DSLR of course. Though this Galaxy Note 10 Plus does an outstanding job on its own.
The FL Expo Team did put together a great show. Again, the show demonstration rooms almost doubled in just one year from 35 to 67!
Below are my Top 10 Systems: (Top 3 in order of preference and the rest not so)
1. Magico M6, Magico Q18, Luxman Pre, Power Amps and CDP, Avid TT with SME Arm, Avid Phono Stage, Critical Mass racks, Audioquest - This system came together nicely and was properly showcased by Michael Fremer on Saturday with fantastic vinyl.
2. MBL 101E MKII with MBL Amplification and Digital Front End, Wireworld cables - Nicely setup room with an excellent musical presentation. Perhaps a little light on the bass due to the room (square and very large).
3. VAC, VS, Esoteric, Kronos - Impressive VAC mono blocks driving the VS 11s. It’s a wow system but sometimes the scale of some instruments does not feel right.
Top 4 - 10 in no particular order:
- Fyne, Pass, Aurender, VPI, Shunyata - Suncoast room with the new Fyne 702s. Very musical and a great sounding at its price point. Played vinyl most of the weekend.
- Zesto, Vimberg, Merril, Cardas - George and Carol consistently have great sounding rooms in shows. I really liked the Zesto - Vimberg combination.
- Borresen, Avik, Ansuz, Naim - The little Borresens rock. Very dynamic and clean sounding. A bit pricey tho.
- Joseph Audio, Doshi, VPI - Once again Nick and Jeff put together a very nice sounding room.
- Muradio, Simaudio - The SP1 speakers sounded good although not as good as last year. They were being driven by a small integrated.
- MC Audiotech, Linear Audio - Unique looking speaker but with a very seamless presentation top to bottom.
- MSB, Magico - Magico M2, MSB Ref DAC and Transport, MSB stereo amp. Very quiet background with sheer musicality.
- Wilson, VTL - Sasha DAWs with VTL amplification. A better presentation than last year. Sounded really good on Friday with a slight bass overhang (no room treatments). On Saturday it was standing room only
the several times I visited.
Ok, I did 11 favorites! :P
It was a lot of fun!
And if you heard the lampizator pacific in room 408, it is sitting in the back of my truck as I type this (along with the superkomputer).
BIG shout out to the show organizers - very well done.
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The Packup!
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The triangle art room was excellent to my ears all triangle and usher speakers. great analog sound , fast , dynamic and natural.
I heard the room had great sound, but its what I would imagine from $190K retail front-end driving the Daedelus speakers.
That VAC amp is as fast as lightning and with Lampi Pac and SK fronting it....you would have to work hard to make it sound bad.
Enjoy the Pac and SK!
Mike: Great show as always. Congrats to you and AJ and the gang! Onward and upward. Perhaps next year I can make it...
Well, not really. Stenheim wisely doesn’t want a distributor, just a few key dealers in specific regions in the U.S. Jean-Pascal, the owner of Stenheim flew from Switzerland for the show to help us work the room and answering any questions the attendees or press had. We displayed the Alumine 3’s for people to hear and the 2’s on static display.
JPP is a REALLY tip top guy.
Thanks
Yes , enjoyed the show and your demonstration , must say i was thrown off by the tubes was expecting a full Class D presentation :) we enjoyed the tubes anyway and appreciated the lack of Funeral music, which seemed to be the Norm in most rooms..
Again , another Great show ...
Regards
Thanks great show Mike. The MSB/Magico room was the standout for me.
Barry
Overall i had a lot of fun seeing some familiar faces and hearing some great systems. The exhibitors were all very complimentary of the space and the traffic. You're going to need a bigger hotel soon!
Let me also add that AJ Soundfield sounded really nice. He had two pairs of transducers - ~ $3,800 /pr and ~ $7,500 / pr. Very enjoyable room.
Nicely done AJ!
I just wanted to add, my favorite vendor was Vinh Vu of Ginkgo Audio.
Vinh took all of us in (my 3 brothers, my girlfriend and our daughter) and made us feel right at home in his room. Extremely friendly, extremely funny, and extremely informative. We were there for a good 30 minutes or so with him. I'm pretty sure our daughter tried out every pair of headphones Vinh had on hand, as well as the different cables.
I never did take any pics of his room though for some reason. Probably because he kept us all engaged and entertained.
AJ/Soundfield deserves an award for the most honest marketing!
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