Mr Peabody
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Southwest Audio Fest, anyone go? See anything worth talking about?
SWAF 2026
- Thread starter Mr Peabody
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RepublicOfTexas69
Active member
No I spent the last 10 days up in Colorado in the mountains to escape the TX heat...
I attended all three days with my wife (her first audio show). It was actually cooler in Dallas than our home in Denver. Never thought of Texas as a place to escape the heat of Colorado.
The hotel provided ample space, a new venue this year, for the vendors and attendees which was convenient given the Dallas summer temps and avoiding getting out into the heat. Like most shows, the elevator wait sucked moving between floors. So, we made good use of the stairs.
Scott Walker Audio hosted four rooms playing mostly Sonorus R2R tapes. Reference Audio out of Oklahoma demo'd Boulder Amplifiers (2000 series stereo), Rockport Orion speakers, Nordost Odin cabling, Dohmann Helix 1 TT with a Hana Umami Black cart. This room sounded amazing by the third day.
Two rooms hosted gear I had not heard before that really captured both my wife and my attention.
The Perfect8 room presented Cube-T speakers made of glass and sounded very balanced and coherent along with a very interesting design. The bass presented powerful but tight, surprisingly since the drivers were mostly unremarkable in size.
The other room hosted by AudioArts presented Zellaton Plural Evo Speakers powered by Stellavox mono amps and a Reed 1C turntable (not sure the arm or cart). I have never heard nor seen this system in any other shows in North America before, although I understand AudioArts regularly attends the SWAF show. This room was untreated and did not have any power condition, yet unreal depth and breadth of soundstage I dont recall hearing in the other rooms, speed and details to die for, and yet incredibly musically engaging. My wife, who is very sensitive to brightness in systems, commented that the AudioArts room was the only one she could sit and listen for hours without fatigue.
Once we returned home and turned on our system, she mentioned how bright our system sounds compared to the AudioArts system at SWAF. I don't notice it as much as my hearing is not great at the higher frequencies. A WAF forced speaker upgrade may be in the future.
The hotel provided ample space, a new venue this year, for the vendors and attendees which was convenient given the Dallas summer temps and avoiding getting out into the heat. Like most shows, the elevator wait sucked moving between floors. So, we made good use of the stairs.
Scott Walker Audio hosted four rooms playing mostly Sonorus R2R tapes. Reference Audio out of Oklahoma demo'd Boulder Amplifiers (2000 series stereo), Rockport Orion speakers, Nordost Odin cabling, Dohmann Helix 1 TT with a Hana Umami Black cart. This room sounded amazing by the third day.
Two rooms hosted gear I had not heard before that really captured both my wife and my attention.
The Perfect8 room presented Cube-T speakers made of glass and sounded very balanced and coherent along with a very interesting design. The bass presented powerful but tight, surprisingly since the drivers were mostly unremarkable in size.
The other room hosted by AudioArts presented Zellaton Plural Evo Speakers powered by Stellavox mono amps and a Reed 1C turntable (not sure the arm or cart). I have never heard nor seen this system in any other shows in North America before, although I understand AudioArts regularly attends the SWAF show. This room was untreated and did not have any power condition, yet unreal depth and breadth of soundstage I dont recall hearing in the other rooms, speed and details to die for, and yet incredibly musically engaging. My wife, who is very sensitive to brightness in systems, commented that the AudioArts room was the only one she could sit and listen for hours without fatigue.
Once we returned home and turned on our system, she mentioned how bright our system sounds compared to the AudioArts system at SWAF. I don't notice it as much as my hearing is not great at the higher frequencies. A WAF forced speaker upgrade may be in the future.
Mr Peabody
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- Thread Author
- #4
I attended all three days with my wife (her first audio show). It was actually cooler in Dallas than our home in Denver. Never thought of Texas as a place to escape the heat of Colorado.
The hotel provided ample space, a new venue this year, for the vendors and attendees which was convenient given the Dallas summer temps and avoiding getting out into the heat. Like most shows, the elevator wait sucked moving between floors. So, we made good use of the stairs.
Scott Walker Audio hosted four rooms playing mostly Sonorus R2R tapes. Reference Audio out of Oklahoma demo'd Boulder Amplifiers (2000 series stereo), Rockport Orion speakers, Nordost Odin cabling, Dohmann Helix 1 TT with a Hana Umami Black cart. This room sounded amazing by the third day.
Two rooms hosted gear I had not heard before that really captured both my wife and my attention.
The Perfect8 room presented Cube-T speakers made of glass and sounded very balanced and coherent along with a very interesting design. The bass presented powerful but tight, surprisingly since the drivers were mostly unremarkable in size.
The other room hosted by AudioArts presented Zellaton Plural Evo Speakers powered by Stellavox mono amps and a Reed 1C turntable (not sure the arm or cart). I have never heard nor seen this system in any other shows in North America before, although I understand AudioArts regularly attends the SWAF show. This room was untreated and did not have any power condition, yet unreal depth and breadth of soundstage I dont recall hearing in the other rooms, speed and details to die for, and yet incredibly musically engaging. My wife, who is very sensitive to brightness in systems, commented that the AudioArts room was the only one she could sit and listen for hours without fatigue.
Once we returned home and turned on our system, she mentioned how bright our system sounds compared to the AudioArts system at SWAF. I don't notice it as much as my hearing is not great at the higher frequencies. A WAF forced speaker upgrade may be in the future.
Very cool your wife went with you. More so she wants new gear, LOL Unless you are really attached to what you have now.
Thanks for the great report. I attended SWAF in 2025-different hotel-and had exactly the same opinion of the Zellaton/Reed room-which was also a very large untreated room. All of this is a matter of personal taste, but I was impressed enough that I bought the Plural Evos that were on demo at the show and later bought a Reed 3(c) TT. I haven't been disappointed-very happy with those acquisitions. The Zellaton/Reed setup seems to consistently produce great sound at shows, not an easy thing to do.I attended all three days with my wife (her first audio show). It was actually cooler in Dallas than our home in Denver. Never thought of Texas as a place to escape the heat of Colorado.
The hotel provided ample space, a new venue this year, for the vendors and attendees which was convenient given the Dallas summer temps and avoiding getting out into the heat. Like most shows, the elevator wait sucked moving between floors. So, we made good use of the stairs.
Scott Walker Audio hosted four rooms playing mostly Sonorus R2R tapes. Reference Audio out of Oklahoma demo'd Boulder Amplifiers (2000 series stereo), Rockport Orion speakers, Nordost Odin cabling, Dohmann Helix 1 TT with a Hana Umami Black cart. This room sounded amazing by the third day.
Two rooms hosted gear I had not heard before that really captured both my wife and my attention.
The Perfect8 room presented Cube-T speakers made of glass and sounded very balanced and coherent along with a very interesting design. The bass presented powerful but tight, surprisingly since the drivers were mostly unremarkable in size.
The other room hosted by AudioArts presented Zellaton Plural Evo Speakers powered by Stellavox mono amps and a Reed 1C turntable (not sure the arm or cart). I have never heard nor seen this system in any other shows in North America before, although I understand AudioArts regularly attends the SWAF show. This room was untreated and did not have any power condition, yet unreal depth and breadth of soundstage I dont recall hearing in the other rooms, speed and details to die for, and yet incredibly musically engaging. My wife, who is very sensitive to brightness in systems, commented that the AudioArts room was the only one she could sit and listen for hours without fatigue.
Once we returned home and turned on our system, she mentioned how bright our system sounds compared to the AudioArts system at SWAF. I don't notice it as much as my hearing is not great at the higher frequencies. A WAF forced speaker upgrade may be in the future.
Mr Peabody
Well-known member
- Thread Author
- #7
Stellavox looks to be very new to the U.S. not even a dealer to my knowledge. They have a unique topology and to be more a proprietary system.
My next show I hope to hear Zellaton. I watched a video report of SWAF seems that Rockport/Boulder/ARC room was on several people's list of great rooms. I thought that was an interesting mix the Ref 20 preamp into which ever Boulder amp.
My next show I hope to hear Zellaton. I watched a video report of SWAF seems that Rockport/Boulder/ARC room was on several people's list of great rooms. I thought that was an interesting mix the Ref 20 preamp into which ever Boulder amp.
Audioarts of NYC-Gideon Schwartz-represents Stellavox. I haven't heard a Stellavox piece, so can't offer an opinion. Gideon also represents Zellaton which I think has a place among the top speakers around.