AXPONA 2024

i enjoyed Axpona 2024, and i'm glad i went.

i did take pictures of all the rooms listed below. here is a link to those.

https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/axpona-24%E2%80%99-mike-lavigne-pics.38610/

it was awesome to see the level of attendance, and feel the positive energy and obvious momentum in our hobby going on right now. i was only at the show from 9:30am-6pm Friday, and 9:30am-4:30pm on Saturday. my plan was to try and go into as many rooms as i could and get a feel for them by Saturday mid day, then go back to a few rooms Saturday afternoon and listen more. i decided what i could do to provide info those not able to come, was to take basic pictures of as many rooms as possible, then also take a picture of the room sign too for reference. this i could do in my process without slowing me down very much. with my limited tech skills it was doable. i did not hit every room for various reasons, whether too crowded, too loud, or my initial view of the gear. some doors appeared to be locked. i was very focused and decided not to travel with any group or listening partner as that slows me down.

i wanted to avoid the elevators as much as possible, so i started Friday morning on the 16th floor, and worked my way down to floor '11', then took the elevator to floor 7. at that point needed a break from the smaller rooms, and went to the main floor, and then over to the large rooms at the far end. then on Saturday started on floor 6 and worked my way down to floor 3. i must admit by the time i got to floor 4 on Saturday my focus to hit most rooms was spent. my tank was empty. so i just quickly did a few rooms on floor 4 and floor 3. then returned to some rooms i missed or wanted to hear again.

lots of good sound, and quite a few a notch or two better, then a few stand outs. it's important to note that many rooms could be pretty good assuming you played music that matched the room performance envelope properly. not every room could do all music properly.

Stand out rooms "special" sound---
-1620--Avantgarde/both with itron and Phasemation tubes. (great set-up Todd!)
-Club Lounge (15th Floor)--Gobel/Wadax/Riviera--liquid with rich textures. beautiful tonality.
-1210--darTZeel/Stenheim/+ Jerome Sabbagh live sax
--big Acora VRC speakers/VAC/SAT---with the SAT turntable. the next level lower with the digital.
-596--Cessaro/TW Acustic--High Water Sound---great musical connection. immersive, had flow and liquidity.
-592--Wolf Von Langa/Zeiler---great piano.

my two favorite listening moments were in the Gobel/Wadax/Riviera room and the Acora/VAC/SAT room (besides Jerome Sabbagh's "live" sax  ).

a notch or two better than merely good-- pulled me more into the music.
-1628-Gauder/Soulution---especially tall ceilings, really even and tuneful bass for a small room.
-1632--Gauder/Soulution--larger room, very nice and balanced sound.
-1545--Rockport/Briscati
-1130-Airtight/Reed
-724-ADG productions.
-Schaumburg D-lobby floor.--Estelon/Vitus.
-Nirvana B--Credo/Emm Labs/Schroeder--spooky imaging.
-Nirvana A--Joseph Audio/Doshi
-1505--Artisan Fidelity/Tidal--sweet sound.
-476--Infigo/Alta Audio---outstanding digital sound.

good enough to be positively memorable---i liked it.
-1642--Rethm
-1627--Vivid
-1544--Marten/Constellation
-1428 Vinnie Rossi
-1416--Endow
-1403--Audio Note
-1229--Amphion/TEAC
-1223-PMC/Esoteric (had the T1 tt but did not hear it.)
-1245--Harmonia/Fyne
-1145--Porzilli Audio
-745--Cube Audio/Pass Labs
--664-Goldmund
--660-Garrard/Goldmund
--650-Tidal/Briscati
--646--Devore
--628-Leben--Tone Imports
--676-Clarisys/Hegel (very very slightly tipped up)
-530--Sierra/Aesthetix
-480-Ideon/JMF/Stenheim
-468-MSB/Magico
-448-Magnan Cables/Graham--relaxed, immersive
-428--AAD tape machine, Horst House tapes.
-Schaumburg B-Stenheim/VTL/dCS/Nordost (great sound but really tall ceiling so boomy bass).
--Wilson Sasha's/Moon Audio--liked it more than the other Quintessence rooms. seemed balanced. not too loud.

some good....memorable (or of particular interest)......but not entirely there
-709-Clarisys Minuet/VAC--a little tipped up
--Schaumburg H-lobby floor--ESD--big horns--playing too loud, and hard music to tell anything. might be great?
--Clarisys Auditorium/CAT--1st day---music with highs was tipped up, 2nd day seemed the same, then left quickly too loud. maybe on Sunday better? when they played Leonard Cohen sounded good as his voice has no upper octaves. YMMV. had a strong interest to investigate this speaker....expected that the CAT amps might = a great combo....but not when i heard it.
--Schaumburg G--T+A---might have been great but too loud.

@botrytis 

you are refuting my perspective, by claiming expertise on hotel hifi system room set-up. i am asking you to support that claim. 

how would you have overcome those room challenges?

you did not need to throw my perspective back in my face, but you did.

The Gobel/Wadax room is always disappointing as there is so much money there and some of the smaller systems sound way better than this room. People seem to get all goo-goo eyed about the expensive equipment - I went in Friday/Saturday/Sunday to see if the room was busy and it never was.

@botrytis

if you asked Elliot in the Gobel/Wadax/Riviera room, he would be the first to tell you that the room is a major problem. with windows all along the left side and alcoves everywhere it is impossible to get right, so even with taking 3-4 times the effort to try and mitigate that it’s still a problem for any high energy music. he tried to change rooms, but likely he will not do Axpona in the future with that room.

OTOH if you heard more small group or quieter music in that room it did have tonality and textures superior to other rooms i heard at the show. so i respect your comments that it had issues, but hearing music that the room could do it was superb. if you read my comments they were very limited, and i made a point of explaining that many/most rooms had limitations to what type of music would work.

the room is the thing. and gear can only operate with what a room allows it to do. you are correct that when people see the $$$$’s involved they expect that overcomes the room....but stuff does not work that way.

everyone loved the same gear at Capital Audio Fest with exactly the same gear and much less effort......as that room worked.

if you want to hear a room with Wadax that works perfectly you are welcome to visit me here in the Seattle area. i promise to make zero excuses. my room is fully sorted out. no one, and i mean no one, realizes more what a room can do or not do.....and then what room tuning can contribute. super duper gear can only take a great room further, not fix a problem room.

@jayctoy 

i did not go into the Borenson or Raidho rooms at Axpona 24'.

@botrytis

ok, describe that room (dimensions and layout) from memory. see if you recall just what is going on.

@botrytis

i absolutely respect any listening opinions and did not in any way claim you were wrong. i agreed with you. when i sat down to hear the Gobel/Wadax/Riviera room on Friday morning and heard it do energetic music it was a relative mess. the large speakers moved too much air for that particular room to handle it. you could listen around the room issues to a degree, but most listeners would not likely do that and would not be expected to.

and my original response stated that i respected what you wrote.

i’ll stop there, i’ve made my other points already. but please see that i was not claiming you were wrong.