Axpona 2013 - Chicago March 8th - 10th

 I just purchased a three day show pass from axpona.I  am planning on going .There are lots of exhibitors at the show.I see that hifi man and audeze are exhibitors along with benchmark and mytek.I hope to see and listen to the new dac 2 from benchmark as well as the mytek dac.

There appears to be a lot to see and I hope to meet some fellow headfiers there as well.

Wow that's great to hear I wasn't expecting a solid headphone turnout. 

Psyched. 

I think I might just check this out.  Wish there was a T1 to test there :(

I'm thinking about going, unless work gets in the way.

James

Hey guys,

I've not bought a ticket yet but am thinking about going tomorrow.

Anyone else gonna be around?

  I got back from my first day and the show was great.Got to hear some amazing sounding set ups.The selection of headphones and related equipment was great.The mezzanine level especially which was where most of the headphone equipment was beeing displayed.There was setups including audeze,hifi man and sennheiser models among others as well.The cable company was displaying and demoing a new prototype orthodynamic which will cost a cool five thousand five hundred dollars.The phone was very wild looking in black looking somewhat reminiscent of the audeze phones but more aggressive looking.I briefly auditioned them with the luxman headphone amp they were using and it sounded promising in single ended fashion.

  I finally got to hear the new benchmark dac 2 which sounded promising as well but I was surprised at the compact dimensions I thought the amp was bigger.I also listened to the mytek stereo 192-dsd-dac preamp but with just headphones and it sounded mighty impressive as well driving both a sennheiser 600 as well as a hifi man 5es othodynamic phone.The sound was resolute and powerful while sounding full bodied at the same time but in a pleasing fashion.Peachtree was demoing there new decco 65 integrated amp with there own standmount speakers set up on stands.The sound was very good and surprisingly large sounding for such compact speakers.

  There were a lot of good sounding speaker set ups.One that I found particularly satisfying was the venture set up.They sounded very dynamic, resolving and coherent sounding.The quintessence sonus faber room sounded very good as well sounding better than I have ever heard the sonus fabers sounding before.They were powered by audio research equipment and augmented by four rel gibralter subwoofers.There were others as well but after a day of roving I am in sensory overload and i just cannot remember everything.

  I was only able to cover the main mezzanine  and most of the eigth floor today.But tommorow i am going back and cover the other two floors and go back to some of the stuff that I missed on the first day.

  It is great to see a show in chicago after so many years.I really miissed going them it has been a show vacuum in chicago for a long time.

I am looking forward to tommorow.I am sure there is lots more to see.

Great coverage from day one, thanks guys. 

Hope to head over today as well. 

Went on Friday for an hour.  Being the blowhard I am, I neglected to read that this is chiefly a home audio show.  At least I got to finally try the LCD-3's--divine--and the HD 800's.  I also got to learn that people really, really, really like Jazz at these shows haha.  I mean if you're showing me $100G systems, show me what they can actually do.  Play some electronic, I mean mix it up a bit.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Audio Addict 

I saw saw Brian from Audio-Head early today.


I am not sure what time I am heading back Saturday. The Cable Company has the final preproduction JPS Abyss headphones for the intro price of $5500. Yes more than the Stax SR009. Yes they are power hungry.


Audeze, HiFMan, Sennheiser, Centrance, ADL, and a couple of others are here with table exhibits.

I got to try the JPS headphones.  I imagine that these are geared towards people who are searching for the absolute best neutrality that money can buy--I was not impressed.