You all got to hear the all new Mon Acoustic Supermon Isobaric Speakers and Sanctus Cables, they must be heard to be believed ! They will at Booth 646 at this Show !
I'll be bringing ATC Entry Series to the show. We do it every year as this has been the best run consumer audio show in the US. I am expecting good attendance this year.
Visitors should use it as an opportunity to learn about the companies they are drawn to, learn about the offerings of companies you don't know and their history and focus. No one knows their gear better than the people that work building it. Discovering from a chat with factory staff what they do differently from others is the gold you can't get anywhere else.
@erik_squires I have had A50-IIs in my living room for almost two weeks, and I have to say the mid domes are something else. I hope Scan-Speak is able to control first reflections in their room because they disperse quite wide.
That's interesting!! I wonder how much the wide baffle helps. I have always felt that a wide baffle "pushes" the sound in a direction, so having the drivers on the inside could keep the dispersion inwards. I don't have a lot of measurements to back this up.
How wide is your listening room, and where do you have them set up?
Fritz Carbon 7 SE Mk2 speakers will be in room 512 driven by the fantastic Atma-Sphere class D mono blocks. Come on by and check out the system! Thanks, Fritz
The few rooms I find listenable at most shows are Fritz and Vandersteen. I highly encourage anyone to go listen to them if they want to know what I think good speakers should sound like.
@erik_squiresIt’s a disaster on a desktop browser but workable through the Reddit mobile app. Sorry, it’s just the place I’ve spoken the most about it, thus far.
Initially, I didn’t place them on the bases/feet that were made for them because my listening position is a bit low, but I’ve since put them under the speakers with a slight tilt down. That helped focus everything and increase low end reach. I used to use a subwoofer with my 3WC-15 build but don’t need it at all, anymore, with the A50-II. I’ve measured bass rolloff beginning at about 25hz in my room with one of Troels’ Hypex presets.
The worst part of these shows is the horrendous BO smell in the listening rooms. Imagine a small hotel room packed with people all day... go figure. Not trying to knock the show. It's worthwhile but brace yourselves!!!
I notice you have a Luxman amp. Are you using the A50's as fully powered speakers, or just the bass section?
Have you seen the AM Acoustics room mode simulator? It helps place speakers outside of the worst room modes, and your listening room too. Have you measured your room? I'm curious how great you can make it sound if you took full advantage of the DSP capabilities of those amps.
It’s the semi-active A50-II, so the 30w Luxman is only amplifying the upper 3 Ellipticors.
The suite of REW measurements have given me an idea of what my room is doing and helped me figure out room treatments and their positioning but, mostly, been tweaking by ear.
I don’t have the skills to leverage everything the Hypex software can do, but am happy with one of the two presets Troels offers for the 15” woofers.
@bubba12Sure, would love to meet. I’ll be working at the DH Labs booth a bit, but also splitting time between the T+A room and AV Luxury International when I’m not exploring on my own. Feel free to PM and I can share my cell if you want to coordinate.
The Clarisys Audio Minuets and the other models already have some upgrades done to them for this Axpona Show ! They will sound much better now with these upgrades done to them !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQrqmgrHfUM
@rick2000, $25,000 for the Supermons? You have to be out of your mind. The only thing special about them is the marketing.
@rsf507, The Sanders model 10 is a fabulous speaker......for one person at a time. Anyone not directly on axis with the speakers will not get any high frequencies. Sander's argument for this is that all systems have only one listening position and if you are not in it the system is just playing background music so it does not matter. I still like to have a balance of frequencies even as background music and my system doubles for theater use. I think most people would prefer the Sound Lab 545 as it's dispersion is much better and it requires only one amp not two and a digital crossover. Both speakers would still benefit from subwoofers but the 545 more so than the Sanders.
Clarisys Audio just might get one of the Best-Of-Show awards again with these upgrades to their speakers and the prices will stay the same ! On these Minuet Speakers they made the mids and tweeters Ribbons wider.. bigger ! In rooms 352 and 676
Eric,, I'm not surprised you like the Fritz speakers as well as the Steen's. I really enjoy their sound too (as you know I'm a Vandersteen owner). I wish was there to hear Richard and others talking (they just started as I'm typing this) in the forum. I also wanted to hear the new VAndrsteen control center with built in EQ (his new remote controlled preamp). Wasn't able to attend, but I read Bliss Audio's post on how to attend and it makes a ton of sense.
All it takes to make an audio show worthwhile is to give out a few choice freebies for your price of admission. Like say a nice Audiophile music sampler CD. Don’t cheap out expensive audio shows!
Clarisys Audio in room 352 didn't sound good, no depth and lack of controlled bass. Now the same speakers in room 676 were outstanding. Transparent, quick, clean, musical and high energy. If I had only heard them in room 352 I would have dismissed them. Just my opinion.
First time, I was ever been to Axpona and I went yesterday late morning for a couple of hours as that was all I could get away. I won't go into too much detail, but honestly it was a lot of fun and I saw a lot of pretty neat gear, although a large percentage of it was way out of my budget. I made a list of the things I wanted to see and do. I managed to see most everything on my list, though I certainly would have liked at least 4 or 5 hours to really spend the time to really appreciate everything. I will definitely attend next year.
Kenjit - the room admins have every right not to allow everybody to -lay their own music and I agree with them. Most of the music I have heard in rooms was garbage and it takes forever for the admin to cue up a specific track. 1 clown couldn’t remember which track he wanted to hear so we had to listen to 5 seconds of each track before he got to the track he wanted. Then he wanted to do the same for another album. BS, not enough hours in the day to put up with this. If somebody was really interested in the speakers/equipment, then make an appointment for after hours and play what you want. 99% of the show goers aren’t interested in buying at the show. I’ve never brought music the CES, rmaf, THE Show, Florida expo, and others, I check out each system and if I wanted to pursue something further, I met with them after hours
I spent 4 hours at Axpona yesterday and it was worth going; next year I'll do two mornings before the crowds. I'd never justify to myself (or my wife!) spending $100k on a stereo but for reference it was indeed worth experiencing the MBLs. I had to shut my eyes and just enjoy the music because they look like harbor bouys sans the beacon. Closer to earth, the large Tannoys in one of the Upscale rooms was marvelous. An unexpected pleasure was hearing the new version of the Mission 700.
The varying SQ had me scratching my head. All of the above speakers were in small rooms. Some that I expected to sound great were just OK, like the Fritz speakers in the Atma-Sphere room. And there were others where I had to leave, they sounded so bad. I want to be a Vandersteen fan but in a crowded room where an unpleasant salesman was extolling some magical Audioquest DC line cleaner the gorgeous Vandersteens were causing my temples to vibrate like a driver. I am well-disposed to both Vandersteen and Audioquest, but I couldn't get out of that room fast enough. The beaming salesman was surreal.
Altogether the show was well worth it to me. It's always good to have one's expectations challenged.
Overall a positive experience for me. It’s been a few years since I’ve attended. I was front row center in the million dollar estelon room. I thought it sounded very good. The credo room was fun also. A stand out for me was the CSS room, exceptionally good, and some of the best value at the show for me. I wish the Focal Maestro Utopia EVO setup was better. I am certain they sound great. Lastly, the Joseph audio room was great, and it was fun chatting with Jeff for a few moments.
this was the first time I charted a plan for what to visit, it was totally worthwhile for me. I only had a day. I skipped quite a few floors, but got to see everything I wanted to see.
This year Axpona is much better. Only problem so many good systems but they play crazy sounds not music. When they play real music those systems shines.Overall this show is a good one. I was also able to buy good records and xrcd24 and sacd.Since I bought 3 day pass ? Iam coming back today.So far so good.
I was kind of hoping a room or two would play some big orchestral music with some dynamics but anyway, one room played a choral piece and that was refreshing and sounded quite good. This was the room with Vitus speakers I think. I could have listened to a lot more of that style but they switched to one of those standard tracks so that was it there.
I went all day Friday and Saturday morning. I covered all the rooms I had planned more than 40, then went into many more after that. I was surprised by two monitor speakers, the little Falcon and the Paradigm/Anthem room. Both of those packed a good punch for the size and cost. I also liked the Volti Razz LE it seemed very smooth but still had enough detail. The MBL room was too loud maybe but was still very lively. They were playing some more upbeat jazzy stuff I think.Headphone room was really fun but I didn’t get to spend a lot of time there.
Made it to two seminars and I enjoyed the one Friday on reissuing recordings. Michael Fremer mentioned some young talented jazz pianist he is working on releasing so that sounded interesting. I’ll have to look that up.
So for a first time show, I enjoyed it but definitely could feel the listener fatigue setting in earlier than I thought it would. Taking breaks is a really good idea. Looking at comments around, it looks like I still managed to miss some interesting rooms but maybe next year. I might go down to the Florida show and visit some friends and bring someone along.
I contacted Fritz before the show and he alerted me to the show discount. I've heard great things about his speakers and was considering a purchase. Plus, I have a Peachtree Gan1 so I thought the Atma-Sphere D amps would give me a good idea how the pairing would sound. Well, I've put that on the back burner. They didn’t sound bad, but rather unremarkable. Nothing that would cause me to switch from the Spendors I currently have. Now, I have a lot of respect for both Fritz and Atma-Sphere so I chaulk this up to poor room acoustics. Too bad as I was ready to be convinced. No changes for the time being.
I agree with treepmeyer, Fritz/Atma-Sphere didn't really sound very special compared to many other good rooms out there. I don't doubt they're good speakers but they weren't convincing enough to make me want to switch.
Just got back home from the show yesterday. It was fantastic. I got a chance to meet some great people like John Siau with Benchmark and Gary Yacoubian with SVS. Two things I’m really excited about:
1. Al Clark, Pres/CEO of Danville Signal Processing. He spent a lot of time speaking with me and I’m going to be an early adopter of his dspNexus which will replace my Mini DSP at more than twice the fidelity and offers much more flexibility for an active crossover plus some fun things like Bluetooth play etc. I would never have known about this without going.
2. The best in show was the Minuet Speakers by Clarisys Audio playing in the room sponsored by and paired with Hegel amps. The combo was stunning and bests my 20.1’s by light years and there wasn’t another speaker in the place that could touch them to my ears. They have completely modified and improved on the Apogee system, solid aluminum frame weighing 210lbs per piece at 4ft tall. Frequency range 28Hz to 25KHz, my hair stood up the three times I listened to them. The sound was so coherent and effortless within the entire range. My wife couldn’t come to the show and when I called she said I sounded giddy. Lol
Also agree with treepmeyer and driftingbunnies Fritz/Atma-Sphere didn't really sound very special just ok. Most rooms were just ok which is understandable for show conditions but there were some standout rooms so if you take your time you can get GREAT sonics.
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.
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.
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.
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