2023 AXPONA Show Report

First time attending for me. I went on Saturday and hit rooms I had mapped out earlier.  Some really quick observations:

Kyomi Audio - showing MBLs and easily the best set up I heard while there.  I will be speaking to George further about the speakers and Ideon DACs.

Magico - about what I expected.  Very detailed and revealing, but dry and not my cup of tea.

Vinnie Rossi/Rockport - I was quite interested in hearing this setup but came away disappointed. It must have been the room because I’ve heard Rockports before and loved them. I’ve had my eye on the Brama gear from Vinnie Rossi (beautiful aesthetics and interesting tech) but this was a really disappointing showing for me.

T+A - I own some of their gear and was hoping to chat w/ the people there, but the room was crowded with little opportunity to interact with them - at least while I was visiting.  Sound was hard to judge but was better than the Magico and Rockport previously noted.

GTT - showing Vivid speakers and Audionet electronics. This room sounded pretty good, but I didn’t come away thinking it sounded great like MBL.  Regardless, I could never live with the speakers. 

What did others think?

Best,

Would love to know how those Class D mono’s played with the Carbon 7 speakers.

I thought they worked pretty well. I got a better match with the sub on the second day by angling it a bit to reduce standing waves in the room. The Carbon 7s were running full range. The sub was just there for the bottom octave.

Depending on when you were in the room, the sound was really variable simply due to the recordings themselves. I found out the hard way decades ago that there's no accounting for taste and personally can't stand most 'audiophile' recordings. So I just play what I want to hear, unless I get a request.

Its always surprising to me to see people walk in, and even though a chair in the sweet spot is available, they sit to the side... and might be there for 15 minutes. Those little rooms don't allow you a lot of flexibility to get a wide sweet spot, so the center chairs are really the only game in town.

Ok, show lots of similar overpriced gear lots of safe bets with design choices and music played. 

I couldn’t make it to the show, so I’ve just enjoyed watching the many youtube videos posted covering the show. I watch them in my home theater on the big projection screen with a good surround system (Hales Transcendence speakers)

and the impression of "walking in to those rooms and hearing the sound" can be almost eerie. Even if, of course, it's hardly fully accurate to the real sound, there is nonetheless a sense of the sound changing quite specifically from room to room.

In any case, I’ve certainly had my yearly fill of "single female vocalists with sparse instrumental accompaniment." Gag me with a spoon.

@atmasphere, that's "midwest nice" behavior you are describing.  It's a "I don't want to be the selfish one in the room" sentiment and often results in nobody getting "the best seat". It's also why the last piece of pie will sit, unattended, for days, on the countertop.