2023 AXPONA Show Report

Cost for an AXPONA one day pass was $25.

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. 

What did others think?

Best,