Axpona Jacksonville expo: quick impressions

Posted by hesson11 (A) on March 6, 2010 at 21:44:57

I wish I had time to expand a bit more, but just thought I’d pass along my impressions of the Axpona/Stereophile show in Jacksonville (about 1.5 miles from my home, thank you!). Mention of specific gear follows “The Exceptions,” below.

First, if you’ve ever been to a show like this, you surely know just how difficult it is to form any solid impressions. Although the exhibit rooms were, I believe, mostly large enough to allow decent speaker placement and frequency response, a few, I’m sure required compromises. So you can’t blame some exhibitors if they were unable to achieve the best sound. Also, there’s so much going on around you, that it’s often difficult to focus on the sound (people moving around, talking, etc.)

The most lasting impression I took away was—I really like my own very modest system! I listened to many mega-buck systems that simply did not sound as much like the music I hear in concert halls as my own gear does. Let me qualify that by saying that I’m a classical-music guy, so I always listen for a reasonable facsimile of unamplified acoustic instruments in a suitable concert environment. Actually, I found little of that at the show. I don’t know whether it’s the quest for “detail” or something else, but I was a bit disappointed by most of the sound I heard.

Most exhibitors were playing music far exceeding concert-hall volume levels, which I guess some people enjoy but which I find pointless. Maybe they’re trying to reproduce the sound of pop or rock concerts, which I’m sure appeals to those who listen that way.

I was mostly interested in listening to speakers, and a surprising number of the ones I heard just did not sound like they were reproducing real instruments. Many were characterized by shrill highs, artificial-sounding tone colors and an overly mechanical—rather than natural—sound. I brought along a CD with some of my reference music on it, but I wasn’t able to listen to it in each exhibit I visited.

The Exceptions:

I won’t name those whose equipment I did not warm up to, giving them the benefit of the doubt that show conditions or sonic objectives that differ from mine were at least partially responsible. That said, the finest, most natural sound I heard was from Applause speakers in an exhibit hosted by that manufacturer and the superb Jacksonville dealership House of Stereo. The large Audience ClairAudient LSA 16+16 line source loudspeakers were simply wonderful (and at $54K, they should be!). They also displayed a stand-mounted variant priced at $5K, which I did not hear. (Source: BAT electronics, mostly, with an Oracle Delphi turntable. Sorry, but I wasn’t really paying much attention to electronics at the show.)

The other speakers I heard that I really liked were far at the other end of the price spectrum. A company called Glow Audio (glow-audio.com, I think) had a pair of small, single-driver spheres sitting atop two small subs with shapely, cool-looking stands in between. The spheres are about $350/pair, and the subs each cost about that much, I believe. The sound was superbly natural, unforced and very faithful to the sound of acoustic instruments. I did not note the electronics.

The same went for the Epos M22i speakers, about $2,500 per pair (Creek electronics). These combined natural timbres with nice, airy highs and solid, clean bass response.

Like Glow-Audio, I had never heard of Davone speakers. Their Rithm speakers are so cool looking, I have to post a link (below). At $4K, they also presented tone colors and spatial information with a great degree of unstrained, natural ease. Peachtree and McIntosh electronics.

Acoustic Zen was showing, I believe, their largest speakers. I only had a chance to listen for a short while—and without my own music—but they seemed exceptional, in all the regards mentioned above.

Overall, I was struck by the number of gorgeous-looking, very expensive speakers that, while I’m sure many others would love, I had absolutely no desire to own! That alone was well worth the cost of admission.

Stereophile is blogging about the show, with a link on its home page.

Oh yeah, Michael Fremer’s turntable-setup seminar was a hoot—and very informative.

-Bob

Davone Rithm (Open in New Window)

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