AXPONA Video 5 And MF's Show Wrap-Up

I second Ken Redmond's "Best Yet"!

Yes, it's an audio show, but I'd rather cover what was new there to see rather than how the gear sounded in hotel rooms. Sure, some rooms made pretty compelling music and it wasn't necessarily based on cost, but when I hear equipment at shows that I've had at home or own, it never sounds as good in a hotel room or a hotel ballroom. So I don't think it's of much value to tell readers about the "great sound" in any good sounding room or the "bad sound" in the bad sounding rooms. Other reviewers differ, but....and of course I was there mostly looking for analog news.

Between the room acoustic and the dirty electricity, getting great sound is nearly impossible. This year Tracking Angle only had a few people covering the show. Read Ken Redmond's written report on the TA website and I'm hoping that John French will chime in. Ken's is a highly personal show report that contrasts well with my more "inventoried" approach. Nonetheless at the show Ken made a year's worth of reviewing plans! And he visited some rooms I missed, which for me was a big relief.

Given how many rooms there are to cover and there's just me covering it by video, there's very little time to sit down and listen to much. I did take a few minutes out to talk with "head Monster" Noel Lee, who could be credited for starting the entire high end cable business. Lee has had some health issues but he appeared to be in pretty good shape.

I used to stop in the hallways and "schmooze" with friends and business acquaintances and I used to start the show in the marketplace where the record dealers are but this year I went there only at the end. The result is one person, me, covered a lot of rooms! Maybe not in full, precise detail but good enough for an audio show and where there was something notable the coverage included an interview.

Nonetheless I missed some important rooms I'd meant to visit including the Constellation room where TechDAS's Motofumi Hirata presided over the American show debut of the new TechDAS Air Force 10 air bearing radial tracking tonearm.

The gear in the room (I missed) includes TechDAS AF 3 Premium S turntable ($44,500), TechDAS TDC-01 DIA cartridge ($19,000), Constellation Revelation 2 Preamp: ($25,500), Constellation Revelation 2 Phono: ($29,000), Constellation Revelation 2 Stereo amp: ($30,000), Magic S3 speakers ($45,000), Cardas and Transparent cables and Artesania rack.

This is an "aerial view" from the top of the arm. The bearing is "air" laterally only. Tracking force and anti-skating can be set "on the fly" while the record plays. The 10" version costs $45,000.

I think this was my best show coverage ever—and that goes back decades. Your opinion might differ. This video mostly covers rooms: Axiss Distribution's more affordable room featuring the lower cost products from Gauder Akustik, Transrotor and Soulution for instance.

The big room is covered in one of the earlier videos and while i didn't sit down to listen, it was clear walking around shooting video that it was among the best sounding, relaxation-inducing rooms at the show.

GTT Audio's presentation featuring Kronos turntable, Audionet phono preamp, and Giya loudspeakers had an equally relaxed and natural presentation.

Kronos turntable

Zesto Audio known most for tubes especially tubed phono preamp introduced a tube based Athena DAC, Doshi Audio showed its line of tubed and hybrid gear. Fourier Transform introduced the weirdest looking loudspeaker at the show or at pretty much any show—and they sounded pretty good (though yes, I didn't sit down and listen).

Rockport's Jon Zimmer gave me a good "tour" of the company's $78,000 Lynx loudspeaker. I broke my rule and listened there and it sounded as expected: smooth, detailed and musically credible. The video segment is in the 5th video and viewers/listeners commented that they could hear how good these sounded despite our conversation over the music.

It was impossible to not hear the great sound in the Sonus Faber/Audio Research, Wilson Audio/Boulder/Clearaudio, and especially in the Estelon/Vitus room, which was a huge costly system in a huge ballroom. Don't count darTZeel out. It was at the show with the CSPORT Japanese tonearm and tangential tracking tonearm. DeVore introduced a new speaker and spun records on Well Tempered Versalex turntable, Ampsandsound made good sound with its tubular gear (I reviewed its top preamp and its sound was addictive and not at all "tubby the tube-a" sounding. And finally I made it to the marketplace where some but not all were packing up before show's end. You'll see all of that in the video embedded below.

I ran a seminar on record manufacturing from lacquer cutting to plating to pressing with Chicago Mastering's (and Shellac bassist) Bob Weston, and RTI's Nick MacInnis and his dad Don. I'd originally gotten Paramount Pressing's plating guru Gary Salstrom to cover the subject but a family illness prevented him from appearing so we are grateful to Nick for filling in (sorry Bob Weston is blocked).

The discussion was prompted by a comment I read either on this site or somewhere else a comment claiming that "once the lacquer is cut, you're 'home free'"! Of course that's completely wrong and I figured a panel discussion would be a good idea. It was. The panelists brought lacquers and metal parts to show and everyone attending enjoyed the discussion.

Fidelity Distribution now handles Wilson-Benesch in The United States and it brought a Prime Meridian turntable to the show, parking it in the big Utopia D ballroom.

I was enlisted to play records in the room twice a day Friday and Saturday (I'm seated off to the left) and it attracted a pretty good crowd each session. I brought an assortment of great records: Krall, Stevie Ray, "Keith Don't Go", Jazz at the Porn Site, etc. Just kidding. I brought some classical, rock and some jazz, including the recently re-issued Strata-East Stanley Cowell album Musa-Ancient Streams originally released in 1974 (yes, Strata-East paid me to consult to them about how best to present to the audiophile world the first four AAA release). It sounded gorgeous on the system that featured along with the Prime Meridian turntable the new Esoteric phono preamp, Audio-Flight electronics and Wilson-Benesch loudspeakers.

No one shot usable video and I was so anxious to get back to show coverage I didn't take any stills or video of the turntable myself. DUH! The best I can do to show you the turntable is a blow up of the above room shot.

The Cowell album sounded like the piano was in the room. But then so did the recording of the Everest Woodwind Octet record that I've referenced in some recent reviews. Craig and Luke Milnes were at the event and I'm sure they left feeling the turntable got a good reception from the crowds. The Prime Meridian is one down from the GMT. It's essentially identical minus the active suspension system that's not necessary in some situations including mine. W-B will be introducing further less costly versions as well as making the Graviton arm available as a separate product.