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. Black Elk

    Black Elk Music Lover

    Location:
    Bay Area, U.S.A.
    I'm not sure where Paul is getting his information, but an SACD license was $5k originally for companies that already had a license for CD (with player and disc royalties the same as CD, if I remember correctly -- it was nearly 20 years ago!). Philips and Sony did this deliberately to make adoption of SACD attractive. Not sure what the cost was for companies without a CD license, but definitely NOT $5M!

    No, that was not the case. The SCD-1, Sony's first SACD player was 100% designed and produced by Sony Japan's engineers.

    Andreas was one of the first members of Sony's US SACD team, and would go on to head the development of the Sonoma Digital Audio Workstation.

    Ed Meitner got involved through Tom Jung (TJ). While TJ was a big fan of DSD, he was not a fan of Sony Japan's first DSD converters. He did like the Philips DSD converters, but as they were based in Europe, he mostly worked with Sony US on SACD projects. So, he convinced Sony US to engage Ed to design a DSD converter, which he did, and which became hugely popular/successful (in the Pro community) through several iterations (first 2-ch then 8-ch converters).

    Andreas would then join Ed for a time at EMM Labs to help Ed produce consumer-oriented products.

    I thought the HD-820 was now in production? Sennheiser have been showing it at recent CanJams.
     
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  2. Tony Plachy

    Tony Plachy Senior Member

    Location:
    Pleasantville, NY
    BE, The $5M seemed high too me too, but I was not going to argue with Paul when there were at least two or three other people in the discussion. Hopefully, PSA can figure out how to keep the DPM going without Oppo Digitial in the picture. Clearly PSA has a CD license.

    Thanks for the history clarification on the early days of SACD and DSD.

    The dude at the Sennheiser table said that what I was listening to was a prototype, if the 820 is in production that is good to know.

    As always, your input is much appreciated.
     
  3. Metralla

    Metralla Joined Jan 13, 2002

    Location:
    San Jose, CA
    As you all know, Paul can spin with the best.
     
  4. -=Rudy=-

    -=Rudy=- ♪♫♪♫♫♪♪♫♪♪ Staff

    Location:
    US
    Did you check out the Morrow Audio used LPs? Apparently they opened a record store back home, and many of these LPs were from a large collection they had acquired. Mine are a little noisy (dirty), but a trip through the cleaner should fix those right up. They look practically like new. Many interesting classical and jazz titles (I picked up two of each).

    Chad got some of my money also--I finally caved and got the 45 RPM Time Out, and the newly-pressed 45 RPM Hatari!.

    Some pics of this year's marketplace:

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  5. -=Rudy=-

    -=Rudy=- ♪♫♪♫♫♪♪♫♪♪ Staff

    Location:
    US
    PS Audio was doing a demo of the Stellar stack this year--the Stellar Gain Cell DAC, Stellar M700 monoblocks and one of the Power Plant conditioners on the bottom.

    IMG_20180413_111131_1.jpg

    For ELAC, I couldn't get into the Andrew Jones room with the Debut 2.0 speaker debut, but did pop into their adjoining room to see ther Adante speakers and Miracord turntable, looking nice in its wood finish.

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  6. -=Rudy=-

    -=Rudy=- ♪♫♪♫♫♪♪♫♪♪ Staff

    Location:
    US
    If you ever wanted something to dominate your room and scare off small kids and pets, these Avantgarde Acoustics Trio horns would do the trick. Each side had two bass horns. They were played a bit loud (of course), but had some serious punch with the right music.

    IMG_20180414_103321.jpg

    Their more scaled-down system was the Uno XD, which has an internally-powered subwoofer:

    IMG_20180414_104204.jpg


    Another impressive room (both sonically and visually) was in 2-Euphoria, hosted by The Audio Company (Marietta, GA). This room featured Von Schweikert speakers and VAC monoblocks. The speakers themselves look to be about 7 ft. tall. I walked in to the Poulenc Organ Concerto in G Minor and the bass was extremely low and effortless.

    IMG_20180413_131105.jpg

    Keep in mind that the controls on the rear of this speaker are at about eye level for me; those are 15" woofers top and bottom.

    IMG_20180413_131549.jpg
     
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  7. -=Rudy=-

    -=Rudy=- ♪♫♪♫♫♪♪♫♪♪ Staff

    Location:
    US
    Sonist Audio was there again, as usual, sounding quite nice, and the cabinets have exquisite woodworking. Seems a certain @Steve Hoffman recommends these. (See the quote?) And maybe your wife does as well!

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    The Joseph Audio room also sounded good this year with their Pearl 3 speakers on demonstration. That is a 1500w/ch Rowland integrated amp on top of the rack, a Mara Machines tape deck, and the room is wired with Cardas Cable.

    IMG_20180414_112733-01.jpeg

    Remember Ohm speakers, with the Walsh cone drivers? HHR Exotic Speakers was showing a modern day version.

    IMG_20180414_110143.jpg
     
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  8. -=Rudy=-

    -=Rudy=- ♪♫♪♫♫♪♪♫♪♪ Staff

    Location:
    US
    One of my favorite rooms, hosted by Precision Audio Video, had the same setup as last year--Constellation electronics, Martin Logan Renaissance 15a speakers, and the Obsidian turntable with Viper tonearm from Continuum Labs. That is one room I could sit in and just enjoy the music.

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  9. -=Rudy=-

    -=Rudy=- ♪♫♪♫♫♪♪♫♪♪ Staff

    Location:
    US
    One of my favorite rooms, exhibitors and new products was the new Eikon Audio speakers designed by Gayle Sanders, the former co-founder of Martin Logan. The speakers function by way of a Wavelet control unit that serves the function of preamp, 4-way crossover, DAC and DSP unit. Each speaker has four drivers, and is fed by four balanced analog cables from the Wavelet, with each driver being driven directly by a built-in class D amplifier.

    The DSP not only can apply equalization during setup (with a calibrated mic), it also recognizes sound events in time to apply correction, and in combination with the crossover, can time- and phase-align each driver precisely to provide a uniform wave launch. Rather than describe it further, this video covers the essentials. All I can say is, the DSP works. With the bass response, for instance, you could get up and walk around the room and hear nearly uniform bass throughout the entire room. To my ears, it was one of the best sounding systems using dynamic drivers at the show. (With me preferring planars, and Gayle's background in it, it's no surprise as to how coherent these sounded.)



    Gayle is also a treat to speak with. Sadly, I noticed a problem during the demo in one of Eikon's two rooms--the image had shifted to the right. Once I pointed it out, they apparently tracked it down to a faulty cable, and ended up having to close that one demo room on Sunday. (Sorry!)

    The photos aren't the best (the room was dimly lit), but here you go...

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    The rear, showing the four balanced inputs and subwoofer.

    IMG_20180413_164131-01.jpeg

    Lamborghini not included... ;)

    IMG_20180415_113900_554.jpg
     
    Last edited: Apr 20, 2018
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  10. -=Rudy=-

    -=Rudy=- ♪♫♪♫♫♪♪♫♪♪ Staff

    Location:
    US
    Saturday night's blues revue featured The Corey Denison Band (which also backed Demetria Taylor and Jimmy Johnson).

    IMG_20180414_201153.jpg
     
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  11. -=Rudy=-

    -=Rudy=- ♪♫♪♫♫♪♪♫♪♪ Staff

    Location:
    US
    And finally, no AXPONA coverage is complete without a pair of flux capacitors MBL speakers.

    IMG_20180414_153321.jpg

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  12. DonnyMe

    DonnyMe Forum Resident

    Location:
    SC
    Great pictures and reviews Rudy! Thanks for sharing with us SHF viewers.
     
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  13. Erik Tracy

    Erik Tracy Meet me at the Green Dragon for an ale

    Location:
    San Diego, CA, USA
    Yup - thanks, Rudy. Much appreciated.
     
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  14. timind

    timind phorum rezident

    Great pics @-=Rudy=-
    The only problem is the pics with people make it look like only men (old white) attended the show.
     
  15. Minty_fresh

    Minty_fresh Forum Resident

    Location:
    B.
    Anyone hit the Odyssey Audio room? Curious to know if he had anything new.

    I’ve become a huge fan and a believer
     
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  16. Tony Plachy

    Tony Plachy Senior Member

    Location:
    Pleasantville, NY
    I think you already know the answer to your post. There were women there (my guess is 5% to 10%, excluding staff) and there were young people there (my guess is 20% to 25%, excluding staff) and there were people of color there (my guess is about 5%, excluding staff). So my best guess is at least 50% of the people there were old white male boomers (or old white geezers like me). If you look carefully at the pictures you can see young white males and I saw one female.
     
    Last edited: Apr 20, 2018
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  17. Tony Plachy

    Tony Plachy Senior Member

    Location:
    Pleasantville, NY
    I missed the darn Obsidian TT. It was on my list to see and hear, but I never got to it. Thanks for the picture.
     
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  18. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

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  19. -=Rudy=-

    -=Rudy=- ♪♫♪♫♫♪♪♫♪♪ Staff

    Location:
    US
    I didn't get a photo of it (borrowing one here), but one of our local audio club members is a co-owner of Creative Sound Solutions, and he had mentioned to me on Friday that someone from The Absolute Sound had shown up early in the day to hear their system. Turns out they were recommended by TAS in the show coverage under Most Significant Product Introductions in their show coverage. I didn't get a chance to hear these monitors, but did hear their larger MTM model.

    upload_2018-4-20_9-59-4.png
     
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  20. Erik Tracy

    Erik Tracy Meet me at the Green Dragon for an ale

    Location:
    San Diego, CA, USA
    So Rudy, you mentioned dropping in on the Elac Adante room. Any thoughts on what you heard?
     
  21. -=Rudy=-

    -=Rudy=- ♪♫♪♫♫♪♪♫♪♪ Staff

    Location:
    US
    IMHO it has incredible clarity. This is two years in a row I've heard it in the same setup. Last year I was able to sit through an entire album side and just enjoy it. Sadly the room is a bit small for the Renaissance 15as, so the bass was a bit choked compared to last year, but otherwise the system as a whole sounded nice.

    I didn't stick around to listen--we had a lot of rooms to take in, and since designer Peter Madnick (who designs ELAC's Alchemy line of electronics) was in the middle of a lengthy discussion with some other attendees, I made a note to revisit but never got back there. I thought the Adante I heard last year (I believe it was the tower version?) was slightly on the nasal side, but never had a chance to really sit and listen to them properly either. ELAC's rooms always draw a crowd, especially when Andrew Jones is in attendance. I was lucky last year to just get into the vestibule to listen.

    The UniFi UB-5, from two years ago, was the one that impressed me the most, but I also had a better chance to hear them at the show. A few locals now own pairs of these--they're really nice "bang for the buck" speakers. They were on sale over the holidays for $349/pair. I was almost tempted myself, but I really don't have a room to use them in. (And too many other old "things" to sell off!)
     
  22. EddieMann

    EddieMann I used to be a king...

    Location:
    Geneva, IL. USA.
    First, a qualifier; I am an old white man. I was there on Friday and had a great conversation with a fellow audiophile (and in my case I use that term loosely) who just so happened to be a man of color. He noticed me wearing my ever present Boston Red Sox hat, and was originally from Cambridge Mass. That was all the opening we needed, and we embarked upon a 20 minute or so conversation. Touched upon a LOT of topics, not all of them audio, and realized that we shared being caretakers for a family member with mental illness. Might have been the best half hour of the day. Guess you just have to keep your eyes, ears, and heart open.
     
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  23. -=Rudy=-

    -=Rudy=- ♪♫♪♫♫♪♪♫♪♪ Staff

    Location:
    US
    I was in a nice discussion with a few of the distributors or manufacturers in the rooms. In one of them, I had asked about the recording that was being played, which turned out to be Neil Larsen's Orbit. That one flew right over my head 11 years ago, and we got to talking only because we were into the same kind of music, and I've done some work for one of the musicians in the credits.

    Tell you what--if a room is nearly empty and the owner/designer is there, don't be afraid to approach them. I even stopped by Kevin Deal's table just to thank him for some help he gave me last year in choosing tubes for my power amp. (He was representing Prima Luna, one of the amps that Upscale Audio sells.) Speaking with Paul McGowan and his son Scott (developer of the Sprout) was nice also. To a person, they are all appreciative of our interest, and are gracious enough to answer any questions we may have.

    Heck, I even survived an encounter with Roy Hall. :D (He's a character, though--hilarious! I enjoyed our very brief chat in the PS Audio room.)
     
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  24. timind

    timind phorum rezident

    I'm also an old white male, and a caregiver to my wife (stroke victim) as well. Wish I could've joined the conversation, but we were in Phoenix for my father-in-law's 80th birthday.
     
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  25. recstar24

    recstar24 Senior Member

    Location:
    Glen Ellyn, IL
    I concur, there is a clear, well defined demographic in the audiophile world. I guess I stick out a little being youngish 30's and asian/pacific islander myself!

    I had a nice laugh with Emotiva as they were passing out free shirts, and the only sizes they bothered carrying were men's large and extra large :)
     
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