Axpona 2019

First timer at AXPONA.   First off, really enjoyed the venue. Lots of walking, typical elevator waits on Saturday.  Friday we had primo access to rooms and sweet spots, plus one-on-one conversations with owners, engineers, and knowledgeable staff.  ( and easier possibility of listening  our choice of music ... although we should have pre-warned Hungarian designers/engineer, Zoltan Bay from Bayz Audio exactly what would happen when he played our Yello selection ( "Shake & Shiver" )  on their $95,000 "Counterpoint" masterpiece. First of all, it was magnificent +  and showed the excellence of his company's work !  Secondly, it cleared the room of most of the "classically inclined" listeners. And "yes" he refused to recognize any of our further requests. ( But if I had the money, I would own these ! ) 

I disagree with audiotroy on the Carver speakers. I found them quite enjoyable. 

The Vandy Wood CT's and Magico's were a disappointment .  (Sadly stated ) 

I was pleased with the Audiovector SR3 Avantgarde Arrete' ,  the Atohm GT3's , the Triangle Magellan Quatour's, and the Muraudio SP1's  . 

A standout moment was in the Jeff Rowland room w/ Vivid Audio Kaya 90 's when a gentleman named Myles ( reviewer ? ) pulled an album by Dead Can Dance and wowed everyone in the packed room for a solid 15+ minutes of pure magic. 

The B&W300 D3's in the Audioquest room were stunning as were the 802 D3 Prestiges's in a MacIntosh room. ( I own 802D2's ) 

It was pleasure to meet Yutaka Miura of ATM and Paul McGowan of PS Audio ( My Hero ), but his new AN3's (prototypes), although beautiful didn't wow me the way I expected. Second chance will be given out of respect. 

Lastly we unknowingly met Samuel Laufer of Laufer Teknik upon arrival at the hotel and did enjoy his entire set-up ( and they did let us play some Yello on their system to test his mettle.  We were not disappointed. ) 

There was so much more, but I'll cut it short ... 

On another note, the JTR Speakers Home Theatre setup was off the chain !!!! 19 mindblowing Channels of " I want this in my house !!" , but I really need to get a bigger house. The JVC laser projection unit was the clearest thing I have seen ever. 

I'll be going back next year ... 

Happy listening my friends.... 

Shad 

  

-The Audio Note room with the live professional Cellist was the Class
 Touch of the show. Thank you.

-The Carver Towers were decent but that room guy never stopped his mouth. Carver seemed like the discount Laufer. Somebody needs to be.

-Way too many rooms picked POOR music. Shall I say it again?
These people are in the sound business. I am hands up over the situation as my Korean friends used to say.

-Yes Technics missed the boat. The 40.2 Harbeths sounded worse that the 30.2s next door at less than 1/2 the price. Room was way too small.
Thanks for closing the door early by the way. People were wanting in.
Some bad vibes there.

-Sanders anemic??? Wow you heard something nobody else I spoke   with did.

Von Schweikert Ultra 11 speakers would stop you in your tracks as you walked by the door. At $300k you do get something pretty good.

Was Odyssey there? Did anyone hear them? 

I've not been to an audio show in almost 3 decades so was a bit overwhelmed and only had 3 hours to make sense of things. I decided that I was going to simply see which rooms automatically engaged me with the music played, I imagine the type of music and recording factored heavily.  I found myself most engaged in the parasound/buchardt room and the Wharfedale linton room, that was good news considering they are amongst the lowest priced speakers at the show. I also heard the Kii 3 (with the new lower section), maybe it was the recording, everything was solid and tight but I found the experience fatiguing. I feel sometimes I have a reverse placebo effect, the bigger and more elaborate looking the set up the higher the expectation is to be somehow floored, the tiny buchardts by contrast seemed to make a sound that belied what you were in front of. The lintons were playing a heavy electronic track which I enjoyed, they might be coloured and tubby sounding? but at that moment I was really enjoying myself.