Who's attending the 2018 Axpona Show audio expo in (suburban)* Chicago?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Shawn, Apr 3, 2018.

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  1. kevinsinnott

    kevinsinnott Forum Coffeeologist

    Location:
    Chicago, IL USA
    I'll be there Saturday with my pro-engineer guru, friend John "Mac" McCortney. The last two years I've had travel conflicts which kept me away. So glad I could come home and go. I really enjoy this. I'll be wearing a Chemex hat. [​IMG]
     
  2. bajaed

    bajaed Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    Please post some pics of the LM's.
    Have fun!
     
  3. rischa

    rischa Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mt. Horeb, WI
    Here now--rooms are a lot smaller than they were at the Westin. Pretty good crowd.
     
  4. varyat

    varyat Forum Resident

    Location:
    wheaton,IL,USA
    Going on Sunday...must take a look at that new Technics uber-deck:agree:
     
  5. Joe Spivey

    Joe Spivey Forum Resident

    Joseph Audio room was probably my highlight of Friday. So enjoyable with the Pearl3 speakers and reel to reel.
     
  6. EddieMann

    EddieMann I used to be a king...

    Location:
    Geneva, IL. USA.
    I was there yesterday. If you're a vinyl nut, make sure you stop in at Sugarcube for a demo.
     
  7. Shawn

    Shawn Senior Member Thread Starter

    Went yesterday and will be going today. Great show so far, biggest surprise to me was a couple vendors selling ultrasonic record cleaning machines for $700.
     
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  8. avanti1960

    avanti1960 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago metro, USA
    no pics this year, sorry. the LM amps sounded OK, nothing special and nothing to pry me away from my rogue cronus.
     
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  9. avanti1960

    avanti1960 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago metro, USA
    the crowd was bigger than ever, very nice hotel, but the rooms were so narrow! a very poor way to showcase systems unless you were a big spender and had a suite (dynaudio). the size of the rooms was a big downer but I was there to talk to people and not listen this year so it worked for me.
     
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  10. Erik Tracy

    Erik Tracy Meet me at the Green Dragon for an ale

    Location:
    San Diego, CA, USA
    That's interesting; any names?
     
  11. Seafinch

    Seafinch Preferred Patron

    Location:
    United States
    Which ones did you hear and what were they paired with?
     
  12. Joe Spivey

    Joe Spivey Forum Resident

    Yeah the size of the rooms were a bit small for most. Generally I didn't think most of the rooms I visited sounded as good as they should. Perhaps due to being early on Friday or the size of rooms or both:shrug:However, I did like the new hotel with the additional space and how the floors were circular with the space open in the middle. More enjoyable walking around. I'm contemplating going back on Sunday too!
     
    Last edited: Apr 14, 2018
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  13. avanti1960

    avanti1960 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago metro, USA
    my favorite "sounds" of the show were the (as always) vinnie rossie / harbeth room and the primaluna (cayin) goldenear rooms. every time i think about speakers other than Harbeth all i have to do is listen to speakers like dynaudio, YG acoustics, Gamu t, etc. to remind me how fake they sound. and how much I love the natural harbeth sound!
    sure those other speakers have more treble extension and can handle more power but when high frequencies are cycled and reproduced through the process and signal chain they sound un-natural and hiss tinged.
    I could not tolerate the sound of the YG Acoustices Sonja 1.2- $72,000 per pair (yes $72,000) sounded clear and powerful but were tinged with hiss at the high end.
    but in the vinnie rossie room the relatively diminutive $2K Harbeth P3ESR sounded 20X better!
    The P3ESRs had the best sound with the most live realism that I heard all day. Of course the 40.1s were awesome as well but overloaded the room. The new 30.2s were disapointingly dark sounding.
    Anyone with a smaller / medium room the P3ESR can ROCK with the right amplification and sound incredibly real!
    also the new goldenear reference speakers sounded more natural than I have ever heard in a GE speaker and had extremely tight, powerful, natural, deep well controlled bass.
    biggest score was the vinyl in the market place. i put in a personal request with chad cassem to re-issue two of my favorite jazz LPs in typical analog production style- john scofield "rough house" (awesome pre fusion guitar jazz) and larry coryell "tributaries". a melodic non-wanking acoustic guitar record with three guitar masters- larry coryell, john scofield and joe beck.
    he didn't promise anything but i am very hopeful!
    picked up several LPs too- analog productions, some mofi, some from elusive disk (great selection!). great day for vinyl shopping!
     
  14. avanti1960

    avanti1960 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago metro, USA
    they were playing through falcon speakers, not sure the model of the amps. seemed like (2) amps - black with black tube cages. the sound was OK but nothing special whatsoever.
     
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  15. avanti1960

    avanti1960 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago metro, USA
    yeah, walking around was nice with the open atrium in the center compared to the typical clostrophobic hotel!
     
  16. Seafinch

    Seafinch Preferred Patron

    Location:
    United States
    Interesting. All I know is all other things equal in my system - switching from the Rogue CMii to the LM-508ia was one of the better changes I’ve made to my system - and that’s not to take anything away from the Rogue - the LM was just that much better (for my tastes, in my system/room).
     
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  17. rischa

    rischa Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mt. Horeb, WI
    My favorite room so far has been Paragon/Tekton--great imaging and the system seemed to handle the small space well. The Technics room was disappointing. The SP-10 didn't sound great to be honest, but I blame it on the small room.

    So far the best sounding rooms have had smaller systems. It really goes to show that bigger isn't necessarily better. A system has to be appropriate for the room it's in.
     
    Joe Spivey likes this.
  18. Joe Spivey

    Joe Spivey Forum Resident

    I enjoyed the Tekton/Paragon room as well!
     
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  19. bean_counter

    bean_counter Well-Known Member

    I asked what the amp was (just one was running, with big thoriated filament tubes), it was the 805 based amp. A shame it was being played through LS3/5a’s. Not a lot of big tubes at the show, and these were played though tiny obsolescent bookshelf monitors. Ugh.
     
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  20. avanti1960

    avanti1960 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago metro, USA
    no problem, im sure the lms are great, just not in that system and setting. plus i have tube swapped the bat signal out of my cmii with some premium nos goodies such that most tube amps running current production tubes are at a disadvantage to begin with.
     
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  21. avanti1960

    avanti1960 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago metro, USA
    true but the falcons have a cult following for some reason. not very big on their turntable either, was it a well tempered?
     
  22. avanti1960

    avanti1960 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago metro, USA
    i forgot this one! they were on revision D of my advance plan and i blew it!
     
  23. BluTom

    BluTom Forum Resident

    Went yesterday. Fun time. The Prana Fidelity room is not to be missed. Laid back friendly people, great music,and killer speakers for the money.
     
    Joe Spivey likes this.
  24. Matt Richardson

    Matt Richardson Forum Resident

    Location:
    Suburban Chicago
    I was there this morning. With the first and second floors more open, I liked this venue more than the previous. My highlight was speaking with Paul McGowan (the P of PS Audio). He's as down-to-earth and friendly as he is in his YouTube channel. Also got a look at the new JBL L100s (pic below).

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Apr 14, 2018
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  25. bean_counter

    bean_counter Well-Known Member

    Not sure on the TT but it was one of the weakest I heard.

    The Falcons are the BBC monitor LS3/5a types, folks go gaga, they were something back in the day but they’re hardly hi-if now
     
    avanti1960 likes this.
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