Axpona reviewers perceptions and reality


Just read the Absolute Sounds' review of speakers $20k and many of  the speakers and systems singled out by Mr. Vallin were in our opinion were mostly subpar and many of these systems were extremely expensive to the tune of $500k and above price levels. 

Many critics love the big Von Schweikert/Vac rooms we felt that in both recent shows: Cap and at Axpona these rooms were way too massive for even these large and expensive speakers and these systems did not have the room lock effect where the speakers are actually presurizing the room and therefore producing the realistic size and scope of a live performance.

Other disappointments that critics liked

The High Water Sound room was just dismbodied, soft sounding and utterly uninvolving,.

The CH Precision room not that good especially for the insane price tag of $500k for this room at least.

The YG acoustics/Audionet was an extremely expensive rig that failed to impress.

The Hanawi  speakers first sounded great on an old recording totally disapeared and then sounded aweful on a modern record dead, no dynamics, limited top end no bottom.

We do agree that the YG Linenberg setup was very good and way less expensive then some of the other rigs.

Both Magico systems were horrible, the gigantic Magico dual sub system was impressive in the way it filled the space with scale and  image size and bass output,  but was lifeless and dead sounding, and the CH Precison Magico setup was also boring and uninvolving with an insane cost of probably another $500k level room.

We also agree that the Wilson/Arc room was magical

We also thought the MBL's sounded very good

We also thought the Avante Garde room was also extremely good. 

The point is Mr. Vallin hailed many systems as being best in show that in our opinion didn't deliver the goods at all

The Piega room was not anything special, the German Physics again not bad not that good either, most omni's don't sound right to us,. the Eikons were good for an all in one and the Haniwa's were just aweful other than a 1950's record they were playing which sounded great.

Best Sound of Show (price notwithstanding): This is a tough one, given that most of the contenders competed on a fairly even footing. So I’m going to declare a tie among the Stenheim Alumine Five, (We didnt hear these no comment)

the YG Hailey 2.2,   the MBL 101 E, the Goebel Divin Noblesse, the Magico M2, the Magico M6, the Avantgarde Duo Mezzo XD, the German Physiks Borderlands, and the Piega Coax 711.

Best Sound of Show (for the money): I didn’t get to hear the new $695 Maggies (that’s how busy I was), which reputedly were terrific, but in my category the Eikon and the Haniwa were pretty darn appealing.


Our best in show for expensive speakers and systems was very, different then Mr. Vallen's just currious what others tought of his listings:


Our best in show no particular order

Wilson/ARC

Gryphon Room

T+A Solitare 

Vimberg (best bang for the buck reference speaker at show at $36k sounded amazing)

MBL

Grande Utopia EM/Naim Statement Our pick for best in show 

Avante Garde


Worst in show for very expensive setups


Both Magico rooms

YG/Audionet

Piega/Air Tight


What do you guys think of our list and comments on Mr. Vallens opinions.


Dave and Troy

Audio Doctor NJ



128x128audiotroy
@geoffkait -  Weren't you advised to cut down on your sodium ? LOL 
( sorry ..had to put that in there and I agree with your comment  ! )  

@Bubba12 - The Atohm's were being displayed/demo'd by some of my STL homies ( Music for Pleasure ) and I went to their room unprepared to be blown away by GT1's and GT2's.  I have put the GT2 ( possible GT3)  on my wish list . 


I always take comments from people who are in the business of trying to sell me something with a big grain of salt.  This is particularly true when their posts are incoherent (as others have mentioned) and full of grammatical errors (like others have also mentioned).

Dave & Troy are famous for the above.

Now, does this post have to be removed, too?
Really Liamowen, what are we trying to "sell" you? 

As per incoherent or full of grammatical errors, really who cares?

Either the post is interesting or relevant or it is not. You mistake the ability to type and see what you are writing with relevant or insightful commentary and unfortunately there is no real spell check along with this program also some of us our eyes aren't what they used to be.

Personally your post should be removed as it is "derailing" the thread which is not about us, per se, nor grammar or syntax.

The post is about a particular reviewer's opinions and to see if people agreed with him or not.

We thought some of this choices were questionable and are contradictory, for example the reviewer tends to like Rahido and Bortessen speakers which tend to present a lot of high frequency detail yet he is also praising speakers which in our opinion sound distinctly rolled off like the High Water Sound speakers and the Hawaii speakers.

As a retailor you need to have different loudspeakers based on the consumers tastes, which include physical looks, speaker size, type of cabinet finish some people like wood others like painted finishes, amount of bass, and of course price range.


A reviewer doesn't have to have that luxury, which is why we wrote the post. Do you have comments on our observations?


Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
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