Photos and text by Juan C. Ayllon BARRINGTON, IL -- The middle aged proprietor at Barrington Barbershop was cutting my hair some time ago when he told me about his musician friend’s Leslie speaker that employs a motor to spin its treble horn and woofer for an unusually pleasing effect. “Would you believe he spent over $2,000 for that?” he said, fascination turning to disbelief. He would have been floored had he known that 20 minutes away, a trade show would showcase speakers ranging from several hundred dollars to $300,000 - plus, with some systems topping over $1 million in a single room. The event? Audio Expo North America (AXPONA), which relocated from Rosemont out to Chicago’s northwest suburbs little over a month ago on the weekend of April 13-15, a move that paid off handsomely for its organizer, JD Events, which saw a 21 percent increase in attendance from last year’s show with 8,134 attendees. Held at the swank and ultra modern Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center, it wowed with its amenities and showstoppers presented by over 400 manufacturers and retailers throughout the property. “I’ve attended audio shows since the Chicago CES in 1989. AXPONA 2018 had the strongest opening day of any show that I’ve ever seen,” said Bill Leebans, Director of Marketing for PS Audio, a manufacturer of home audio electronics based out of Boulder, Colorado. Sneak Peaks As a reviewer of high end audio equipment, a week prior to the show, I get an unexpected sneak preview when the $8,500 LampizatOr Super Komputer music server is shipped directly to our home from Warsaw, Poland for review, courtesy of LampizatOr North America’s Fred Ainsley, a full-time attorney, former bodybuilder and entrepreneur (you can read that review here). Following my review, I drop it off at the Renaissance the Wednesday night before setup day. Fred also ships their gleaming, 24 karat gold plated, $30,000 flagship Digital to Analog Converter (used to convert digitally stored music to analog for playback), the PACIFIC DAC, with five oversized vacuum tubes sprouting from its top to my home for review and subsequent delivery to the hotel. Unfortunately, it is held up in customs and arrives on opening day, too late on both counts, forcing Ainsley to bring his own for their showroom. My wife. Belle, drops it off that Friday morning at the front door of the Renaissance. It weighs over 100 lbs. In its flight case so, thankfully, the FedEx driver loads it into her SUV. I unload it and Ainsley wheels it inside, muscling it up the stairs and onto an elevator, delivering it to the room of a vendor who’d purchased it. Both the Super Komputer and PACIFIC are featured in one of the better sounding rooms with the -- ahem -- $22,800 Daedalus Audio Apollo 11 speakers. The Show Goes On PS Audio’s showroom had not yet officially opened when I saunter into the Journey/Creation suite and encounter their gregarious CEO, Paul McGowan. A pair of mammoth, piano lacquer finished $8,500 GoldenEar Triton Reference speakers (said to perform competitively with speakers in the 20 thousand dollars and up range) are warming up with their Stellar Gain Cell DAC ($1,699), Stellar M700 monoblock amplifiers ($2,998 a pair) and a souped-up Mac Mini providing the tunes. They sound magnificent. Slender and fit, McGowan explains that this year, they are eschewing the display of reference gear like their $6,000 PS Audio BHK Reference preamplifier in favor of a “budget-friendly” system showing what’s possible to achieve closer to the $10 grand mark. I am impressed. I overhear him tell a staffer, who is adjusting a prop, “make sure no one else comes in,” as I exit. There is so much to see that even after spending the better parts of Friday and Saturday, as well as a portion of Sunday afternoon, I feel I have scarcely scratched the surface. Belle, who much prefers makeup and healthcare but has a surprisingly good ear and humors and joins me on Saturday. It so happens that we are also in the market for new speakers, so we both are on the lookout for attractive options. My stepson, Connor, 25, a nurse working on his Masters degree with no audio background, also joins us, as well as Dan, a 30-something media director at a church in Naperville, and his friend later that evening. Catching a vocalist on a keyboard in the Focal speakers suite, we move room to room, starting at the Convention Center and working our way up the floors. What follows are some highlights. Heavenly Sounding Onions I am most impressed were the MBL 101 E Mk II Radialstrahler loudspeakers ($70,500), which are supported by a bank of four Noble MBL N15 Mono power amplifiers ($17,800 each). They resemble a pair of five foot tall, white food processors, with the carafe portion a silvery, fluted oblong oval structure with a black, oversized lid. “Onions -- that’s what they call them in Poland,” my friend, Sam, a speaker designer from Warsaw informed me later. But, oh, could they play! And in all directions; a voice coil below flexes the bulbous fluted sections in an even manner, providing an omni-directional dispersion of pure sound. (Fremer) “Now, that’s what a trumpet should sound like!” exclaims my friend, Bob, who bumps into us Saturday afternoon and insists that we hear them. The articulation, the timbre of the horns, the decay of notes fading, the sense of air and space -- it is all done just right -- and loud. To me, that was the best I’ve heard all weekend. Joseph’s Pearls Just a notch or two below, the Joseph Audio Pearl 3 speakers ($31,500) absolutely impress. Supported by the 1,500 watts per channel Jeff Rowland Daemon Super Integrated Amp ($38,800) and fed signal via a Mara Tap Machine, we all let out a collective sigh. Belle cannot not get over the analog delivery of high resolution, reel to reel recordings of jazz vocals and instrumentation playing over the Pearls. There is no sense of etching or artifice -- just pure, unadulterated, natural sound. Big Horns a Portal to Better Music? Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon never sounded bigger, playing at concert level volume from what appeared to be two identical assemblies of an oversized tuba horn on scaffolding with a normal sized one above and a trumpet horn stuffed into a large pipe of the same diameter squeezed out to the side -- with a pair of futuristic, detached rotating door/portals sandwiched in between. As a whole, they comprise the Avant Garde Trio XD with four Basshorns ($148,700). Backing them are Esoteric Electronics components, including:
I had previously seen pictures of these in stereo magazines and online and always wanted to experience them. In person, they are very balanced, nimble and a touch dark. They also sound a bit sterile, evoking distant memories of my vintage Mark Levinson ML-9 amplifier. A Goober for Goebel A stunner, the futuristic silver Goebel Epoque Aeon Fine speakers ($140,000) resemble modern abstract stainless steel sculptures with a large, flat rectangular, rubbery membrane tweeter/driver that viewers were encouraged to touch. Dubbed the Goebel Excellence Aeon bending wave driver, it addresses the bands from 170 Hz to 31,000 Hz “with a constant frontside dispersion of nearly 180 degrees,” according to their website, www.goebel-highend.de. By doing so, it avoids timing and phase problems, adding that the phase velocity on its membrane is faster than in the air. (“Epoque Aeon Fine.”) I will take their word for it. Extremely accurate, cohesive and nuanced, they had Belle and me speechless for several minutes. Carmel Ear and Eye Candy In the CH Precision room, the sleek, black and, at 40 ½” tall relatively diminutive, YG Acoustics Carmel 2 speakers are a modern, spin on a flat topped obelisk with a sexy curve thrown in that pack an oversized delivery of sound that is dynamic, smooth, with a nice balance of detail and full body. Snagging their brochure, I think for sure that I’ve found my next set of speakers -- until an emcee tells me their price: $24,300. Yikes! Think again. Driven by the CH L1 Integrated amplifier ($38,000) and sourced by the CH D1 SACD/CD transport ($38,000), it did what it was supposed to do with flamboyance. K2 -- or Make That ‘Mount Schweikerts’ The gleaming, blue, seven feet tall Von Schweikert Ultra 11 speaker ($295,000) in a large, cavernous room are easily the most imposing of the offerings, and backed roughly a million dollars worth of Valve Amplification Company electronics, they quite literally sound like a million bucks. They sport a pleasant, well-balanced and full sound. Playing an assortment of music from jazz to rock, they performed as one would expect of such an uber system. My friend, Dan, suggests that he felt they could use a little more lower end -- which is what I might expect from someone who produces contemporary worship services heavily augmented with the use of subwoofers, which many audiophiles find unagreeable (personally, I do not). I feel that the speakers are fine on the low frequency end and, if anything, have been tuned to a more conservative audiophile-friendly level. Viva Italiano Belle is very impressed with the Gold Note XT-7 speakers ($16,700) that hail from Italy in the Gold Note and Toska Audio room. They have a very natural and balanced presentation she especially likes -- and the tower speakers had an understated wooden elegant furniture quality that she admires. Big Dae-ddy Speakers Light Up the Lampis Then there is the previously mentioned Lampizator room with the lovely Daedalus speakers. The Super Komputer and the magnificent PACIFIC DAC ply their visceral magic, rendering the bass and banjo with startling, shimmery detail and a wide and deep soundstage in Bella Fleck’s “Flight of the Seismic Hippo.” Someone effuses, "This is the best room I've heard so far at the show -- at least on this floor!" The gold plated Pacific aside, both Belle and I are enamored with the craftsmanship and sound pouring out of the lovely, rich wood-grained finished Daedalus Apollo 11 enclosures. We run into friends Michael and Amy, who fall under a similar spell. Engaged to be married this summer, they seemed to be conspiring on how they might make this a grand wedding gift. An Odyssey on a Budget The Odyssey room is one of many that uses a VPI Industries turntable, employing their VPI Avenger Reference, at $20,999 (I am currently reviewing their VPI Prime Signature turntable), but that aside, Odyssey’s total system costs totaled $6,900, including the Odyssey Lorelei speakers ($2,900) and Khartago monoblock amps ($2,000 a pair) -- which for the level of performance, is quite striking. Housed in a smaller, darkly lit room they are highlighted with attractive canister lights that catch Belle’s fancy, which leads her to ask the zany proprietor, Klaus Bunge, where he got them (he says, “Costco.”). My heart swells with pride and I find the visit quite gratifying, as I own their stereo Khartago Stereo Extreme SE speaker in my system and it performs quite well in my living space. Reflecting later, Belle says, “I really liked the room with the fancy Costco lights.” Budget Tannoys Up to the Name Along a similar vein, I enjoy listening to a pair of chic looking Tannoy XT8T speakers that at $2,300, are certainly affordable. They’re in one of the Holm Audio rooms on the fourth floor. Steven Hill, a 30-plus year veteran in the industry and president of Straight Wire who provides cabling and shares the space, insists that I give these a close listen. Sporting a dual concentric driver Tannoys are renowned for, the U.S. rep for Tannoy tells the XT8Ts are the top of their line manufactured in China; their much pricier and bulkier siblings are handmade in Scotland. Powered by the Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum 2 integrated amplifier ($2,595) they strike a nice, detailed, seamless balance between highs, mids and lows with plenty of volume for its price point. Unfortunately, they also have a max power handling of 100 watts, which is notably less than what my Odyssey amplifier generates. Oh, well. A Slight Hitch If there was one complaint we had, it was the lack of elevators in such a large and packed hotel. We counted six, but later, Fred Ainsley says that he’d found some freight elevators that made teardown on Sunday much easier. I pity the vendor packed shoulder to shoulder in an elevator going down, cradling a speaker in his arms at the conclusion of the show! Needless to say, we used the stairs a lot, but when contemplating a trip to the 16th floor, we waited… and waited. Last Minute Run Around While Belle sips a drink at Sam and Harry’s Steakhouse on the main floor, I run around Sunday afternoon, catching last minute glimpses of components. I miss hearing the Tekton Design Double Impact speakers ($3,000) that I’ve heard so much about (some say they rival $40,000 speakers; others say they sound out of phase and lack spatial maging depth, but I wouldn’t know), but manage to listen to the red floor to ceiling, column-like Ruel line level speakers. Comprised of modules that are roughly 12” tall and maybe 10” wide, they are stacked together and priced according with how many modules are used. A setup for a 94” to 105 ½” ceiling costs $39,000. They sound very pristine and because they use only tweeters, employ no crossovers whatsoever, their maker claims. What’s more, they employ their own Digital Signal Processing, amplification, DAC, produce sound that ranges from 40Hz to 18kHz, use 1000 watts and will peak at 125 dB using their eight modules (eight foot tall) stack. They sound pretty impressive, but it’s closing time and I have to run. It’s a Wrap I catch Steven Hill on the fourth floor, have a glass of merlot with him, say my goodbyes and head down to unwind and have a laugh with Belle at our table at Sam and Harry’s -- which, we discover, makes an black angus burger worthy of the gods! Reflecting on this year’s AXPONA, for the audiophile and uninitiated alike, it has been a treasure trove experience. Both Connor and Dan’s friend had nothing to prepare them for this occasion but were very impressed. We certainly enjoyed it. If you missed it this year, mark it on your calendar for next April at the Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center. There’s something for everyone -- even my budget conscious barber friend at Barrington Barbershop! Work Cited:
“Epoque Aeon Fine.” Goebel High End. 2003-2018, Web, 21 May 2018. Fremer, Michael. “MBL Radialstrahler 101E Mk.II Loudspeaker.” Stereophile.com. 6 April 2012. Web. 20 May 2018.
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