Florida International Audio Expo Days 2 and 3 Coverage
a growing show demonstrated its international reach
Here's coverage of days 2 and 3 of the Florida International Audio Expo. This truly was an international Expo as you'll see. Products were on display from everywhere from Latvia to the U.K. to France, Canada, Finland, Austria, Czech Republic, Vietnam and Denmark.
Product prices were equally wide-ranging. There was something for everyone at the show, though there was less analog and vinyl than hoped for.
Loudspeakers were as usual an important part of the show and there were many new and interesting ones, but especially noteworthy was the new Børresen X series that included a floor stander for $8800 a pair. It includes much of the tech (albeit downsized and "down-tech'd") contained in the top tier $280,000 M3.
$8800 Børresen "X" Series
$280,000 Børresen M3
Also at the top end and among the best sounding at the show were the Acora VRC-1 ($220,000). (See lead photo). They filled a huge room with magnificent sound. Gershman Acoustics showed a 30th anniversary edition of its Black Swan speaker.
SVS debuted at the show a new top of the line "Ultra Evolution"" series, the most expensive being $5000/pr.
MC Audiotech introduced the TL-8 ($15,000) a floor stander, but smaller than previous speakers from the company featuring an 8 inch transmission line loaded woofer and a single WBLS (wideband line source) driver, which inventor Paul Paddock patented almost forty years ago and was used in speakers reviewed by my previous endeavor more than twenty years ago. The speaker offered impressive clarity and detail resolution but the video wasn't useable so you'll just have to take my word for it.
MC Audiotech TL-8
At the other end of the price spectrum Vienna Acoustics showed its fifth generation 2 way Haydn costing $3500. Sounded sweet and as they say, "musical".
Vienna Acoustics Haydn
ELAC demoed a pair of Concentro S503s bookshelf speakers ($6999) that impressed. And back at the other end, Stenheim's Alumine Five SE ($73,500) impressed. Falcon Acoustics demoed for me via virtual reality googles a new "futuristic" speaker I'm not sure I'm supposed to talk about so I won't but it's a huge step forward for a company mostly making LS35A/KEF 104AB type speakers and when it's introduced its looks alone will amaze you!
Most interesting, novel speakers were from SubDrum Industries, which has found way to use drum enclosures as speaker enclosures. You'll see them in action in the video.
I wish I could tell you there was a lot of analog news, or any analog news but there really wasn't any. Hopefully AXPONA and definitely Munich High End 2024 will offer more. Which doesn't mean this wasn't a great show, because it was.
There's a lot to see in the video!
