AXPONA 2022

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AXPONA 2022

The MartinLogan Rooms at AXPONA

Rogier van Bakel Apr 24, 2022 First Published: Apr 24, 2022 0 comments

When a brand that's rightly famous for world-class electrostatic panels wants to design a line of in-wall speakers, things can get pretty daunting. After all, electrostats are dipolessound flows from both the front and back. Installing a dipole in a wall is as useless as hanging a stained-glass window in a dark closet.

AXPONA 2022

Harman/Revel & Mark Levinson at AXPONA

Rogier van Bakel Apr 24, 2022 First Published: Apr 24, 2022 0 comments

In search of beauty and excitement, I struck a lode on the fifth floor, where a pair of just-introduced, double-ported, full-range Revel 328Be speakers ($17,600) played in tandem with a spiffy Mark Levinson front end: the No 5101 streaming SACD player/DAC ($5500), the 5206 preamp ($9000), and the 5302 power amp (also $9000).

AXPONA 2022

Harman/JBL at AXPONA

Rogier van Bakel Apr 24, 2022 First Published: Apr 24, 2022 0 comments

The Germans have a great word to describe things that are insipid and inoffensive: salonfähig ("fit for the parlor"). On that note: How many Patricia Barber tracks can a man take? After two days at AXPONA, I craved some kickass rock 'n' roll. Green Day, Rammstein, Rage Against the Machine; the Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin would do in a pinch. And fortunately, that's the scene I found in the JBL room. Unapologetic raucous rock emanated from the new 13"-tall JBL L52 bookshelf speakers ($995/pair), powered by a JBL SA750 Class-G streaming integrated amplifier ($3000).

AXPONA 2022

Linear Tube Audio, DeVore Fidelity, Spatial Audio, LampizatOr, HoloAudio/KitsunéHiFi, Cardas, Anticables

Ken Micallef Apr 24, 2022 First Published: Apr 24, 2022 0 comments

A consistent player both at shows and in the hi-fi world, Linear Tube Audio's Nicholas Tolson brought smart, sparse rigs to two AXPONA rooms that played great music.

AXPONA 2022

Acora Acoustics, Valve Amplification Company, Aurender, Cardas, TW-Acustic

Ken Micallef Apr 23, 2022 First Published: Apr 23, 2022 0 comments

Presented in the Nirvana A Ballroom with Val Acora's Acora Acoustics granite SRC-2 loudspeakers ($37,000/pair), Valve Amplification Company (VAC) electronics sounded crisp, lively, and human.

AXPONA 2022

Luxman America & Magico

Ken Micallef Apr 23, 2022 First Published: Apr 23, 2022 0 comments

Peter Mackay of Magico Loudspeakers (pictured above) and Jeffrey Sigmund and John Pravel of Luxman America brought a fantastic-sounding system to the Prosperity room. Exceptional scale, resolution, depth, dynamics, precision, and juicy tone could all be heardaudio prosperity of the highest order.

AXPONA 2022

Nordost Teams up with Stenheim, Wadax, VTL, and VPI

Jason Victor Serinus Apr 23, 2022 First Published: Apr 23, 2022 0 comments

For huge sound in a huge room, you needed to look no further than the Schaumburg Renaissance Convention Center's Schaumburg F. Played at full volume, the momentous, quasi-apocalyptic opening of Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra, aka the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey, virtually knocked me back a row. Only the deep bass, which was eaten alive by the room's spongy air walls, suffered. Which means that the deepest organ pedals on the forthcoming superbly recorded 7-CD Strauss set from conductor Andris Nelsons (heard in 24/96) had about the same weight as on the hi-rez digital transfer of Fritz Reiner's famous RCA Living Stereo recording with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

AXPONA 2022

Burmester of North America

Ken Micallef Apr 23, 2022 First Published: Apr 23, 2022 0 comments

Some audio equipment makes its presence felt simply by its elegance. With its Versailles-like appeal, the colossal Burmester rig in the Schaumberg A room was magnificent to behold, virtually an audio treatise in luxury. A legacy German brand that manufactures everything from nuts and bolts to speaker cabinets and drivers, Burmester, represented at AXPONA by its US distributor Rutherford Audio, brought some of their classiest, biggest, and boldest equipmentall the listener need do was indulge the senses.

AXPONA 2022

SVS Is Ready to Rumble at AXPONA

Rogier van Bakel Apr 23, 2022 First Published: Apr 23, 2022 0 comments

"The road to the graveyard is littered with corpses of subwoofer companies that wanted to sell a range of regular speakers," Gary Yacoubian observes with a laugh. We're standing outside the SVS room at AXPONA while on yonder side of the door, a 7.2 SVS Dolby Atmos setup is testing the Renaissance hotel's structural soundness with an explosive fight scene from a Spiderman movie. Fittingly, Yacoubian is ready to, you know, rumble. His company has built a solid reputation by making and direct-selling excellent-value, powerful subwoofers and providing some of the friendliest pre- and post-sale service in the industry.

AXPONA 2022

Wynn Audio with Thales, Kalista, Vimberg, Karan Acoustics: Stereo with Style

Julie Mullins Apr 23, 2022 First Published: Apr 23, 2022 0 comments

It's showtime again! With a business and showroom in Toronto, Wynn Wong's Wynn Audio is a next-generation dealer and distributor for a number of luxe European high-design high-end brands, a few of which had new product introductions at AXPONA. Wynn's preferred equipment leans toward striking and colorful rather than gaudy or blingy.