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My latest travels took me to Florida last weekend for both the Axpona 2010 audio show and the meet that was better than the Boston meet.
Axpona show impressions
The best word I can think of to describe Axpona is: lackluster. When I saw the venue hotel, the first thing I thought was: it was small. It was practically right on the riverwalk (St. Johns River that is) and not too far away were several far more imposing hotels which made it look especially shabby. On the inside though, things looked better actually - there was lots of interior space, roomy conference rooms on the main floor with lots of spacious halls, and 2 additional floors occupied by vendors (the floors weren't fully occupied though). I was there only on Friday 3/5 and foot traffic wasn't very high. If I wanted to, I'm sure I could've listened to more than 1 track at each vendor system but I didn't for time reasons. It was overall a slower feel than the chaos of RMAF, which was nice, but I'm sure the vendors were disappointed.
Compared to RMAF, this show seemed about 20-25% the scale and even then I wasn't able to see everything in one day. If I had come back for Saturday 3/6, I'm sure I could've covered the rounds completely (I left for another part of Florida on Saturday instead and also skipped the show on Sunday 3/7).
New music I discovered at the show included Diana Panton and Terry Cade (female vocals).
Music Direct and May Audio Marketing (supplier of audiophile recordings for such vendors as Acoustic Sounds, Elusive Disc, Music Direct) were both at the show and since they were offering discounted prices I picked up a stash of CDs: Amanda McBroom - Midnight Matinee XRCD, Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms XRCD, Horace Parlan - Speakin' My Piece XRCD, Linda Ronstadt - Hasten Down The Wind MFSL, Santana - Santana MFSL, and Tina Brooks - True Blue XRCD. Amount saved by buying these at Axpona: $50.
Speaker impressions (not in any particular order)
- Haniwa HSP1C07 (mini-size - in-wall?) ($12K) (forgot to note source & amp) (photo not taken)
Bad-sounding speakers. These did not reproduce the scale of Julia Fischer's Bach Concertos very well and were also very tinny-sounding. It was almost like listening to tinker-toy speakers.
- Penaudio Charisma ($4K) (bookshelf) > Chapter Precis 250S int amp > Chapter Sonnet S CDP
These were pretty good. They were initially playing some music I haven't heard before (Diana Panton) which sounded pretty good, and then I played Alison Krauss' New Favorite which went surprisingly well. The soundstage wasn't very large but bass went deep enough to hear the bass notes. Its price seems kinda high though.
- Horning Aristoteles (floorstander) ($15K in show configuration) (source: TW Acustic Black Knight turntable | amps: Thoress phono stage, pre-amp, & 300B monoblocks)
I requested the vinyl copy of Robert Plant & Alison Krauss' Raising Sand for this turntable-based system (it was the only music on LP they had that I was familiar with). I've never really listened to vinyl before and it sounded pretty dang good. However, I couldn't really discern a major difference between the CD and the LP (track used was "Trampled Rose"). The speakers sounded fine but nothing grabbed me about them. There was a slight bass sinkhole and Alison's voice wasn't pushed forward that much. There was really good instrument separation though and the soundstage was pretty wide too.
There was also a CD player in this system so I also played Porcupine Tree's Deadwing. It went ok but didn't have too much thrash and/or power and I wanted a lot more grunt to the mid-bass.
- Koetsu Rosso Fiorentino Volterra (floorstander) ($11.95K) > Goldenote Demidoff Silver Plus int amp > Blacknote CDP 300
These speakers were pretty impressive and had extremely physical bass. There was initially some type of percussion music playing on them that had some really highlighted drums and every impact felt like a physical attack. So I requested Massive Attack's "Inertia Creeps" to hear what it would do and it did not disappoint. The bass was powerful and the belly drums were whacked really well. I suspect the results would've been even better if positioning were more ideal (they were kinda far from each other and the listening chairs were also kinda far away).
- System Audio Explorer (floorstander) > Cary 211 Thunder monoblocks > Cary SLP-05 pre-amp > Cary 306 SACD Pro
I played the Bach Concertos track #8 but these speakers effectively crashed and burned. Ok they weren't terrible but they didn't really gel the orchestra together that well and the solo violin lacked intensity and power.
- Napa Acoustic SAG-350 ($3.7K) & BOW-A6 II ($2K) (floorstanders) > Napa NA-208A amp > Mistral DT-307CD CDP
These two pairs of speakers were both ok, but the SAG-350 clearly beat the BOW-A6 II. I started listening to the BOW-A6 II which was ok but felt kinda "small" in its presentation and a little bit thin, and insta-switching to the SAG-350 resulted in a wider soundstage and more body to the sound. It was enough body that I listened to "Inertia Creeps" here too, and the SAG-350 did a good job but not as good as the Volterra above. Granted, it did nothing wrong but it didn't sound very fast and didn't whack the belly drums that well, and the male vocals weren't very deep.
- Acoustic Zen Crescendo (floorstander)
These did a good job with Alison Krauss' New Favorite track #2 - good clarity throughout and decently fast. However, they didn't exude too much power at the bottom of the rhythmic double-bass and they weren't very dynamic-sounding. Not bad though and I'm pretty sure the positioning was less than ideal.
- Axis Voicebox S (bookshelf) (forgot to note source & amp)
These were ok for bookshelf speakers. With the Alison Krauss, treble detail and speed were good. Not a whole lot of dynamic range though.
- Nightingale Concentus CTR 2 > Nightingale Onda 50 monoblocks > Nightingale PTS 03 pre-amp > Raysonic CD168
These speakers instilled awe. The room was pretty big and they more than filled it and were able to play at very loud volume (apparently the rep didn't mind the volume regardless of music) with no audible distortion. I was inspired to try Bach Concertos track #8 and was blown away - these speakers almost perfectly matched one quality that I routinely get with my Plinius CD-101/BHSE/Stax OII system, which is a heart-racing, pulse-pounding sensation on the solo violin as it modulates in intensity and volume. I thought it was amazing that I found speakers that were able to do this as well as the OII does, because honestly it blew me away and the pulse-pounding factor practically left me dizzy, it was that surreal. I really could not pay attention to any other aspect of the music, it was that awesome. Oh and they did have pretty nice bass too, as I found out next when the vendor rep switched the music to something else.
Axpona show impressions
The best word I can think of to describe Axpona is: lackluster. When I saw the venue hotel, the first thing I thought was: it was small. It was practically right on the riverwalk (St. Johns River that is) and not too far away were several far more imposing hotels which made it look especially shabby. On the inside though, things looked better actually - there was lots of interior space, roomy conference rooms on the main floor with lots of spacious halls, and 2 additional floors occupied by vendors (the floors weren't fully occupied though). I was there only on Friday 3/5 and foot traffic wasn't very high. If I wanted to, I'm sure I could've listened to more than 1 track at each vendor system but I didn't for time reasons. It was overall a slower feel than the chaos of RMAF, which was nice, but I'm sure the vendors were disappointed.
Compared to RMAF, this show seemed about 20-25% the scale and even then I wasn't able to see everything in one day. If I had come back for Saturday 3/6, I'm sure I could've covered the rounds completely (I left for another part of Florida on Saturday instead and also skipped the show on Sunday 3/7).
New music I discovered at the show included Diana Panton and Terry Cade (female vocals).
Music Direct and May Audio Marketing (supplier of audiophile recordings for such vendors as Acoustic Sounds, Elusive Disc, Music Direct) were both at the show and since they were offering discounted prices I picked up a stash of CDs: Amanda McBroom - Midnight Matinee XRCD, Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms XRCD, Horace Parlan - Speakin' My Piece XRCD, Linda Ronstadt - Hasten Down The Wind MFSL, Santana - Santana MFSL, and Tina Brooks - True Blue XRCD. Amount saved by buying these at Axpona: $50.
Speaker impressions (not in any particular order)
- Haniwa HSP1C07 (mini-size - in-wall?) ($12K) (forgot to note source & amp) (photo not taken)
Bad-sounding speakers. These did not reproduce the scale of Julia Fischer's Bach Concertos very well and were also very tinny-sounding. It was almost like listening to tinker-toy speakers.
- Penaudio Charisma ($4K) (bookshelf) > Chapter Precis 250S int amp > Chapter Sonnet S CDP
These were pretty good. They were initially playing some music I haven't heard before (Diana Panton) which sounded pretty good, and then I played Alison Krauss' New Favorite which went surprisingly well. The soundstage wasn't very large but bass went deep enough to hear the bass notes. Its price seems kinda high though.
- Horning Aristoteles (floorstander) ($15K in show configuration) (source: TW Acustic Black Knight turntable | amps: Thoress phono stage, pre-amp, & 300B monoblocks)
I requested the vinyl copy of Robert Plant & Alison Krauss' Raising Sand for this turntable-based system (it was the only music on LP they had that I was familiar with). I've never really listened to vinyl before and it sounded pretty dang good. However, I couldn't really discern a major difference between the CD and the LP (track used was "Trampled Rose"). The speakers sounded fine but nothing grabbed me about them. There was a slight bass sinkhole and Alison's voice wasn't pushed forward that much. There was really good instrument separation though and the soundstage was pretty wide too.
There was also a CD player in this system so I also played Porcupine Tree's Deadwing. It went ok but didn't have too much thrash and/or power and I wanted a lot more grunt to the mid-bass.
- Koetsu Rosso Fiorentino Volterra (floorstander) ($11.95K) > Goldenote Demidoff Silver Plus int amp > Blacknote CDP 300
These speakers were pretty impressive and had extremely physical bass. There was initially some type of percussion music playing on them that had some really highlighted drums and every impact felt like a physical attack. So I requested Massive Attack's "Inertia Creeps" to hear what it would do and it did not disappoint. The bass was powerful and the belly drums were whacked really well. I suspect the results would've been even better if positioning were more ideal (they were kinda far from each other and the listening chairs were also kinda far away).
- System Audio Explorer (floorstander) > Cary 211 Thunder monoblocks > Cary SLP-05 pre-amp > Cary 306 SACD Pro
I played the Bach Concertos track #8 but these speakers effectively crashed and burned. Ok they weren't terrible but they didn't really gel the orchestra together that well and the solo violin lacked intensity and power.
- Napa Acoustic SAG-350 ($3.7K) & BOW-A6 II ($2K) (floorstanders) > Napa NA-208A amp > Mistral DT-307CD CDP
These two pairs of speakers were both ok, but the SAG-350 clearly beat the BOW-A6 II. I started listening to the BOW-A6 II which was ok but felt kinda "small" in its presentation and a little bit thin, and insta-switching to the SAG-350 resulted in a wider soundstage and more body to the sound. It was enough body that I listened to "Inertia Creeps" here too, and the SAG-350 did a good job but not as good as the Volterra above. Granted, it did nothing wrong but it didn't sound very fast and didn't whack the belly drums that well, and the male vocals weren't very deep.
- Acoustic Zen Crescendo (floorstander)
These did a good job with Alison Krauss' New Favorite track #2 - good clarity throughout and decently fast. However, they didn't exude too much power at the bottom of the rhythmic double-bass and they weren't very dynamic-sounding. Not bad though and I'm pretty sure the positioning was less than ideal.
- Axis Voicebox S (bookshelf) (forgot to note source & amp)
These were ok for bookshelf speakers. With the Alison Krauss, treble detail and speed were good. Not a whole lot of dynamic range though.
- Nightingale Concentus CTR 2 > Nightingale Onda 50 monoblocks > Nightingale PTS 03 pre-amp > Raysonic CD168
These speakers instilled awe. The room was pretty big and they more than filled it and were able to play at very loud volume (apparently the rep didn't mind the volume regardless of music) with no audible distortion. I was inspired to try Bach Concertos track #8 and was blown away - these speakers almost perfectly matched one quality that I routinely get with my Plinius CD-101/BHSE/Stax OII system, which is a heart-racing, pulse-pounding sensation on the solo violin as it modulates in intensity and volume. I thought it was amazing that I found speakers that were able to do this as well as the OII does, because honestly it blew me away and the pulse-pounding factor practically left me dizzy, it was that surreal. I really could not pay attention to any other aspect of the music, it was that awesome. Oh and they did have pretty nice bass too, as I found out next when the vendor rep switched the music to something else.
