Axpona 2018

Thoughts on my 3rd AXPONA.  I need to preface while I visited quite a few rooms with expensive gear, I am a 'poor' audiophile who just finished putting 2 kids through college, have had to very recently replace two cars (one with >210,000 miles and the other just too clunky) so two car loans, and trying to pay off my mortgage so I can retire!  That said, I was especially interested in realistically affordable (for me) gear.  However, I still spent quality time listening to speakers well beyond my means.  Here were my favorites

1.  VANATOO - not on my screen but while talking with none other than David Janzen he strongly encouraged going up to the 4th floor and taking a listen.  He was absolutely right!  The entry level powered monitors (Transaparent Zero) were simply amazing, especially for <$375.  If you are looking for speakers for your desktop or small room, you should consider these.  They also exhibited a new larger model that will be available in mid-summer - these were even better.

2. ELAC Andante AS-61.  Heard these at last year's show and I was very impressed.  Since that time and especially recently elsewhere on Audiogon Forums these speakers have taken quite a bashing from some folks.  Hearing them again, all I can say is "Have those folks actually listened to these in person?"  Dynamic, great air, beautiful midrange.  All at an affordable price.

3.  Alta Audio Io - Never heard of this company but visited to see the Van Alstine electronics.  These may be my best affordable speakers of the show that I personally heard.  Open, spacious, full, great bottom and top ends and liquid midrange.  These are making me think bout how I might be able to sell my current speakers which I truly love (and a pair of Spendor floorstanders currently not in use) and replace them with these.

Others outside my price range that I really enjoyed were:

Volti Audio Rival - great sound and gorgeous cabinets. If I ever win the lottery and get a bigger house!
Spatial Audio X2 Modular Dipole - for me, cost-prohibitive plus very not cat friendly!  But boy, did these sound great!
Harbeth 40.2 - see Volti.
Aerial Acoustics 7T - everything written about these sure seemed true to me.
ACT SCM40 - beautiful presentation.

Overall, a very enjoyable show, and really nice new venue.  Now if only the exhibitors would just lower the volumes a bit!  It really made some rooms unlistenable.  Why do so many feel 95 - 100 dB dB or louder in a small room is the way their speakers sound best and that most people listen at that volume?

This was my second year at Axpona and my buddy and I had a great time. Some of the brands I didn’t care for last year I thought sounded great this year. For example, last year I did not care for the MBL room but I was blown away this year. It sounded best in the sweet spot but the sweet spot was huge. Plus the music they were playing was fun; Blood Sweat and Tears (Spinning Wheels), Michael Jackson. I voted it the room most likely to break out into a party. Loved it.

Other rooms I thought were great:
- The big Von Schweikert room was awesome just like last year.
- Legacy Room.
- Harbeth 40.2 speakers.
- I totally agree with the statement about Aerial 7t but I was probably more impressed with the 5t’s in the same room. Very full, natural and spacious sound from a small speaker. Those might be my next speakers.
- Martin Logan Impressions with Benchmark electronics in a relatively small room were holographic. OK maybe those are my next speakers.
- Dynaudio Special 40s with Octave tube integrated were surprising with the bass response from such a small speaker. In fact, I’m really surprised with the overall sound quality and bass response from small speakers in general. (BTW thanks to the Octave rep for playing my requests.)
- Raidho monitors were fantastic. But boy the price.
- The Neat speakers were, well, neat. Tiny little things making really good bass but I wanted to play with placement. I felt like they were too close to the wall.
- I too liked the ELAC Adantes, maybe just a tad too sharp sounding but for 2500 bucks I thought these had great promise.
- Primaluna room was big and vivid with the Golden Ear Triton References. I’ve heard the Golden Ears at my local dealer and there I wasn’t impressed at all. But at the show with Primaluna they were great. Go figure.
- Jeff Joseph room with the reel to reel had a presence to the sound that was unmatched. 
- Plus a bunch of others that I just don’t remember.

In my opinion, musical bliss is not reliant on price. There was a lot of great stuff that was relatively affordable and there was some mega expensive stuff that just didn’t do much for me. My one criticism would be the music being played in many of the rooms but this isn’t new. A little too polite mellow jazzy kind of stuff. Don’t get me wrong I like that too but I would prefer to hear more of a range. But again it was great fun, plus getting to talk to all kinds of folks about this stuff. Hope to do it again next year.

My two cents on AXPONA 2018:
On the cab ride out from the airport, which was 1.5x the meter price, I wasn't digging it. When I got to the hotel and got a feel for the vast number of rooms, I quickly recovered my enthusiasm.
BEST ROOMS AT THE SHOW (IMO)
1. Joseph Audio/Rowland/Cardas---Pearl S3s driven by the Rowland Daemon Integrated. Source was a Marka tape deck with a Doshi pre. Nothing beat this little room. It was audio magic at 3pm on Sunday. Met Jeff Rowland; nice man. Hard to find any fault in this room except its diminutive size.
2. YG Acoustics/Audionet--Powerful! I find the YG Acoustics sound to be too detailed in the treble for me generally. But the Audionet gear transformed the YG treble into something simultaneously detailed and smooth. I heard YGs in two other rooms and they weren't close to the sound synergy happening in this room. The Audionet amps had ample headroom while driving a whole lot of speaker playing dynamic symphonic passages. If you have a massive audio cavern, this setup should be on a short list to fill the space. 
3. Constellation/Martin Logan room was blues butter when I was in there. Felt like the singer was standing right in front me. The room was simple; the sound infectious.
Others to mention:
Border Patrol DAC with Volti speakers. Nice room. If you are looking for a DAC and don't want to spend more than $2K, you should seriously consider the SE unit. Very impressive for the money.
Prana Fidelity--I had never heard these products. The manufacturer was in the room; energetic young guy who clearly loves his work. I was taken by the sound I heard. This appears to me to be another high value proposition.
Thrax Audio--a confusing room with lots of gear up front not plugged in. Turns out they had every bell and whistle present but were only running the entry level set up. Once I knew that, it explained why I wasn't hearing a massive sound from massive gear. They were in a huge room--they should have plugged it all in and pushed a lot of air through the space. Nagra/Organic room--I think I would have liked it; but two guys kept talking about carbon fiber. The music was at 60db. Their conversation was at 65db. One of the guys was the salesman. Can't sell audio if we can't hear the music. I'm not bemoaning the music listening level. I'm saying people should talk less and listen more at an audio expo. 

How did the new Revel F228Be and M126Be sound? Anyone?