Florida Audio Expo Show Report

**Devg** · February 23, 2022, 05:15 PM

How did the Lampizator/Tobian room sounded ?

**crwilli** · February 23, 2022, 05:30 PM

Very nice. It was a pleasure to sit in that room. It was musical.

**Audioseduction** · February 23, 2022, 06:09 PM

Images for today. Many more to come. Shot more than I thought.

ENJOY!

**Edward** · February 23, 2022, 09:04 PM

i really enjoyed the show! great to see so many old friends. so many highlights! two of my golf buddies (music lovers with modest systems) stopped by for hours on Saturday. they loved it and were very impressed with the sounds and the people. both now have upgradeitis.....thanks to all!

**Devg** · February 23, 2022, 09:44 PM

Originally Posted by Audioseduction

Images for today. Many more to come. Shot more than I thought.

ENJOY!

Great Photos George. Thanks for sharing.

**a.wayne** · February 24, 2022, 10:13 AM

Florida Audio Expo 2022 Coverage - Best Rooms - Review and Recap Pt 2 - YouTube

**a.wayne** · February 24, 2022, 10:20 AM

Originally Posted by Devg

How did the Lampizator/Tobian room sounded ?

The digital was fantastic , free of digital artifacts typical of digital only rooms IMO, it was as if walking into a analog playing room , this is very noticeable going from room to room at shows..!

Very musical for sure ..!!!

Regards

**Mike** · February 24, 2022, 10:53 AM

Originally Posted by a.wayne

Florida Audio Expo 2022 Coverage - Best Rooms - Review and Recap Pt 2 - YouTube

Good video. We took spots 1 and 3 and 1 and 2 from the other fellow. Not too shabby! The Xtremes seemed to be on many peoples top lists, but not everyone, and that’s cool too. Some love a point source sound much better. I agree with him about the BlueHawaii/Stax combo. It’s fantastic. It’s what we show here in the store.

Next year, we will have the 101e mk2 in the Tampa Terrace room (where the Vivid’s were) and in the big room (where the MBL Xtreme’s were)….stay tuned….

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**Mike** · February 24, 2022, 10:54 AM

Originally Posted by a.wayne

The digital was fantastic , free of digital artifacts typical of digital only rooms IMO, it was as if walking into a analog playing room , this is very noticeable going from room to room at shows..!

Very musical for sure ..!!!

Regards

That’s the one room I wanted to hear. Never got a chance to get away.

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**Puma Cat** · February 24, 2022, 11:52 AM

Originally Posted by a.wayne

The digital was fantastic , free of digital artifacts typical of digital only rooms IMO, it was as if walking into a analog playing room , this is very noticeable going from room to room at shows..!

Very musical for sure ..!!!

Regards

Yeah, I watched an interview with Lukasz Fikus on YouTube. Interestingly, he said that rather than the Pacific being the "father" of the Horizon, that the Horizon is the "bastard son" of the Baltic 3. When I interviewed him last year, he told me all the intensive R&D that went into the Baltic 3 would be the foundation for a new design paradigm for DACs. Looks like the Horizon is the first new DAC to be based on the seminal research done for the Baltic 3.

**Mr Peabody** · February 24, 2022, 01:35 PM

Not that it matters much but the interview I saw with Lukas he says they started with a blank page for the Horizon. Then he goes on to explain the tube circuits as my eyes begin to roll back in myhead LOL

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

Yeah, I watched an interview with Lukasz Fikus on YouTube. Interestingly, he said that rather than the Pacific being the "father" of the Horizon, that the Horizon is the "bastard son" of the Baltic 3. When I interviewed him last year, he told me all the intensive R&D that went into the Baltic 3 would be the foundation for a new design paradigm for DACs. Looks like the Horizon is the first new DAC to be based on the seminal research done for the Baltic 3.

**a.wayne** · February 24, 2022, 01:47 PM

Originally Posted by Mike

Good video. We took spots 1 and 3 and 1 and 2 from the other fellow. Not too shabby! The Xtremes seemed to be on many peoples top lists, but not everyone, and that’s cool too. Some love a point source sound much better. I agree with him about the BlueHawaii/Stax combo. It’s fantastic. It’s what we show here in the store.

Next year, we will have the 101e mk2 in the Tampa Terrace room (where the Vivid’s were) and in the big room (where the MBL Xtreme’s were)….stay tuned….

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I do agree mostly with his show assessment, so are the big MBL’s coming back as this yr ..?

**Audioseduction** · February 24, 2022, 02:23 PM

OK, next list of images. Still, many more to come. ENJOY!

**Mike** · February 24, 2022, 02:44 PM

Originally Posted by a.wayne

I do agree mostly with his show assessment, so are the big MBL’s coming back as this yr ..?

No. That’s XTreme. We’ll show the smaller 101e mk2 next year in the square room.

. I’ll take my big room back and show….hmm….

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**wisnon** · February 24, 2022, 06:50 PM

Originally Posted by Mr Peabody

Not that it matters much but the interview I saw with Lukas he says they started with a blank page for the Horizon. Then he goes on to explain the tube circuits as my eyes begin to roll back in myhead LOL

Actually to my mind, the Horizon has elements of the Baltic, Atlantic TRP and the Pac all rolled into one and taken to an extreme level...17 linear power supplies 5x overspeed.

The Pac has one 6n1p anode load tube in SE, while the Horizon has TWO pentodes to do the same job. Output on the Horizon is equivalent to one dual triode for SE, BUT a couple pins in the output triodes are blended with a couple the Pentode pins to form a VIRTUAL new tube. This give some semblance of the TRP circuit, B£ circuit with the anode load shedding of the Pac/B3....all done with outrageously elaborate componentry. On paper a significant step up over the Pac.

**wisnon** · February 24, 2022, 06:52 PM

Originally Posted by Mike

That’s the one room I wanted to hear. Never got a chance to get away.

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Hahahahaha. Couldn't tear yourself away from the full blow warp core Star Trek sound! I don't blame U. Million dollar sound.

**wisnon** · February 24, 2022, 06:52 PM

How were the Mac 3500 amps?

**SCAudiophile** · February 24, 2022, 07:12 PM

The photography is masterful...thank you for posting all of these photos!

**crwilli** · February 24, 2022, 08:49 PM

Maybe Kharma Veyron? 😂

**Puma Cat** · February 25, 2022, 12:51 AM

Originally Posted by Mr Peabody

Not that it matters much but the interview I saw with Lukas he says they started with a blank page for the Horizon. Then he goes on to explain the tube circuits as my eyes begin to roll back in myhead LOL

At 15:58 in the video, after Ron Resnick asks him if the Baltic 4 will receive trickle-down technology from the Horizon, Lukasz states: "It's the other way around, actually. Its' the Horizon that enjoys trickle-down technology from the Baltic 3." At 16:46 into the video, Lakasz states, verbatim, "So, it's not that the Horizon is the baby of the Pacific, it's the bastard-son of the Baltic 3."

That also speaks to just how good the Baltic 3 is.

**Devg** · February 25, 2022, 01:57 AM

Originally Posted by ;345499

"Its' the Horizon that enjoys trickle-down technology from the Baltic 3."

Horizon got trickle-down tech from Baltic 3 and now its time for Horizon to give it back. So did Lukasz say when is Baltic 4 with trickle-down tech from Horizon coming out ? Horizon is out of reach for many.

**Puma Cat** · February 25, 2022, 02:02 AM

Originally Posted by Devg

So did Lukasz say when is Baltic 4 with trickled down tech from Horizon coming out ? Horizon is out of reach for many.

Hey Dev, no, Lukasz said they were going to take what they had learned from the (considerable) R&D effort from the Baltic 3 and Horizon development projects, and apply it to the development of some new (analog) amplification products.

Here's what I would recommend, though: Put a Shunyata Altaira Chassis Ground hub when it's available onto an unused digital port of your Baltic 3.

Cheers.

**Devg** · February 25, 2022, 02:22 AM

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

Here's what I would recommend, though: Put a Shunyata Altaira Chassis Ground hub when it's available onto an unused digital port of your Baltic 3.

Cheers.

Have you tried ? what was the result ?

**Puma Cat** · February 25, 2022, 02:41 AM

Originally Posted by Devg

Have you tried ? what was the result ?

No, I don't have a Shunyata Altaira Chassis Ground hub, but I plan on getting one when available. I very briefly had an early Altaira prototype in-house for beta-testing back in 2020, but I had to send that unit on to another beta-tester after only about 2 weeks. That other beta-tester had components with more sophisticated "built-in" grounding system, so it was important for him to test it extensively from that circuit topology perspective. To be honest, I don't remember if that prototype was the Chassis Ground hub or Signal Ground hub version as it was about 2 years ago.

What I did do recently, though, was to connect a Shunyata Venom CGC spade ground cable to the screw-down chassis terminal screw on the front of my UpTone Audio EtherREGEN to one of the GP-NR ground posts of my Everest and was gobsmacked at the level of improvement that resulted. Then, I connected another Shunyata Venom CGC ground cable with an RCA plug on the component end to the S/PDIF terminal of my Baltic 3 DAC and the spade end to another ground post of the GP-NR of my Everest, and got yet an another, equal degree of improvement in the reduction of the noise floor. The improvement from connecting both these cables to establish a chassis ground connections from both the EtherREGEN and Baltic 3 to the GP-NR system of Everest was fairly startling: a notably quieter noise floor, more transparency and clarity for reproduction of instrumental and vocals, greater and more full-bodied tonal density and finer articulation of timbre, as well as improved imaging and soundstaging: specificially more solidly-defined and stable images, with more finely articulated layering of instrument and vocals in the oundstage and improved "vapor trail" of decay.

And most notably, it imparts a really nice sense of what I could call "listening ease" to the presentation. I think Hans uses the term "relaxed" to mean the same thing.

The GP-NR system of Shunyata power distributors was put there for a reason, and Man! It really works. Frankly, I'm surprised more people don't use it.

Cheers, Dev.

**johnthomas** · February 25, 2022, 08:25 AM

I'm under the assumption that when you plug a component into the Everest that chassis grounding automatically occurs and you don't need to run a ground cable from a component to the GP-NR system of the Everest. So I would guess that Everest owners that have everthing plug into the Everest would only need the signal grounding hub. Is that how you guys see it?

**crwilli** · February 25, 2022, 08:46 AM

Originally Posted by johnthomas

I'm under the assumption that when you plug a component into the Everest that chassis grounding automatically occurs and you don't need to run a ground cable from a component to the GP-NR system of the Everest. So I would guess that Everest owners that have everthing plug into the Everest would only need the signal grounding hub. Is that how you guys see it?

Yes, that’s what Richard from Shunyata told me.

**Swisstrips** · February 25, 2022, 09:54 AM

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

That also speaks to just how good the Baltic 3 is.

And similarly, how good the Amber 3 must be, since the Baltic is based of that (basically a souped up A3) if I’m not mistaken? Never heard one though.

**Audioseduction** · February 25, 2022, 01:06 PM

Here is the final set of images. Please enjoy!

**SCAudiophile** · February 25, 2022, 02:09 PM

Absolutely incredible photography...don't know how you pull that off in a show environment!

**Barry** · February 25, 2022, 03:38 PM

Mike, congratulations on a very successful show! Although I did not attend, I watched over a dozen "Audiophile Junkie" videos, and was really impressed by the quality of the participants' rooms and the breadth of the products on display. I learned a lot and really enjoyed the YouTube coverage. I'm definitely going to have to be there next year!

**Mike** · February 25, 2022, 03:48 PM

Originally Posted by Barry

Mike, congratulations on a very successful show! Although I did not attend, I watched over a dozen "Audiophile Junkie" videos, and was really impressed by the quality of the participants' rooms and the breadth of the products on display. I learned a lot and really enjoyed the YouTube coverage. I'm definitely going to have to be there next year!

Thank you

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**Audioseduction** · February 25, 2022, 04:33 PM

Originally Posted by SCAudiophile

Absolutely incredible photography...don't know how you pull that off in a show environment!

Thanks! Was not easy as the lightning was very poor in most cases. Good thing my lens had an F-Stop of f2.8 which helps.

**still-one** · February 25, 2022, 05:39 PM

The only problem I see in the shows coverage, when Mike has his own rooms at a show he doesn't have the time for his normal end to end photographic coverage of the entire show. I missed that.

**Mike** · February 25, 2022, 05:41 PM

Originally Posted by still-one

The only problem I see in the shows coverage, when Mike has his own rooms at a show he doesn't have the time for his normal end to end photographic coverage of the entire show. I missed that.

Thanks! I didn’t get a chance to hear a single room other than my 3.

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**the professor** · February 25, 2022, 07:06 PM

Slacker.

**Mike** · February 25, 2022, 09:17 PM

Originally Posted by the professor

Slacker.

Grey goose is in short supply in Florida. I wonder why….

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**the professor** · February 26, 2022, 01:40 AM

I didn't slack off -- obviously. LOL

Just think how bad it would be if I was there all 4 days.

**kiwi_1282001** · February 26, 2022, 07:17 AM

Jays Audio Lab – Top Rooms at Florida Audio Expo 2022

Source: Jay's Audio Lab "2022 Florida Audio Expo:My Top And Most Disappointing Rooms!!!"

**kiwi_1282001** · February 26, 2022, 07:20 AM

Originally Posted by Devg

How did the Lampizator/Tobian room sounded ?

Very good according to Jay's Audio Lab. See above video.

**Mike** · February 26, 2022, 09:32 AM

Originally Posted by the professor

I didn't slack off -- obviously. LOL

Just think how bad it would be if I was there all 4 days.

There’s always next year.

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**JCS123** · February 26, 2022, 10:06 AM

Audioseduction, I previously thanked Mike and jmusica for their photos, and now I would like to thank you as well for helping those of us who couldn't make it to the show get an idea of what the equipment on display looked like. Dare I say that you even made the rooms look a little more romantic with the way you managed that lighting? Great work!

**tube-vds** · February 26, 2022, 01:42 PM

Originally Posted by kiwi_1282001

Jays Audio Lab – Top Rooms at Florida Audio Expo 2022

Source: Jay's Audio Lab "2022 Florida Audio Expo:My Top And Most Disappointing Rooms!!!"

16:42 the cheapest what??

**chops** · February 27, 2022, 01:46 AM

Originally Posted by Alpinist

Best comment of the year thus far! LOL

You make it blatantly obvious that you're not very bright. Quite the trend with many others on this forum. At least you all flock together.

**kzhtoo** · February 27, 2022, 03:11 AM

Originally Posted by chops

You make it blatantly obvious that you're not very bright. Quite the trend with many others on this forum. At least you all flock together.

Ken always sounds pretty smart to me.

**chops** · February 27, 2022, 08:29 AM

Originally Posted by kzhtoo

Ken always sounds pretty smart to me.

That's not saying much for you then...

**Ritmo** · February 27, 2022, 08:43 AM

Originally Posted by chops

You make it blatantly obvious that you're not very bright. Quite the trend with many others on this forum. At least you all flock together.

Completely unnecessary. You are certainly entitled to your opinions as well as other members of the forum. There is no us vs. them here. You like what you like and that’s ok.

There is too much noise in the world. Let’s keep it fun and not personal.

**brad225** · February 27, 2022, 06:03 PM

Originally Posted by Audioseduction

Thanks! Was not easy as the lightning was very poor in most cases. Good thing my lens had an F-Stop of f2.8 which helps.

George is a great photographer. You can have a 2.8 F stop but without steady hands, well, you understand what I am saying.

**RDSChicago** · February 28, 2022, 05:33 PM

What are the speakers?

Originally Posted by jmusica

This was one of my top 3 favorite rooms. The sound was organic, relaxed yet dynamic, balanced, lush and infinitely musical.

They tried to explain the tech to me but all I got was something like its class D amp inside a glass tube. /shrug, tl;dr my ears told me what I needed to know.

Not to mention that imo its among the best looking esthetically I've seen. Speakers weren't as beautiful but they sure sounded amazing.

I will consider both brands for future purchases.

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**jmusica** · February 28, 2022, 05:41 PM

Ocean Way, out of California. Ocean Way Audio – World Class Pro Audio and Hi-Fi Innovations

**jmusica** · February 28, 2022, 06:00 PM

Realized a couple of things since the show:

1- three of my four favorite rooms were Class D amps. Hmmmm.

2- I don't get how people put on LPs with audible, annoying, distracting, pops and crackles (or whatever you call them in LP land) for reference listening (or any, really). The Von Schweikert room played several songs from albums with very audible clicks and pops, and another room (can't recall which), a guest brought some precious demo LP he insisted be played, again with audible pops and clicks. What was also annoying in that scenario was how much time it took to remove the LP oh so carefully, hand it over like it was made of finest gossamer silk, put it on the TT, clean it, queue it, multiple attempts to find the right track/start of track. Just to hear "pop, clack, crick, crackle" in the audio and have to walk out and not really hear the system. A few other really great rooms - notably to me, the Graham Audio/Moonriver room, and I think maybe the Acora room - were playing LPs that sounded great. Smooth, clean. Almost digital even

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