Verdant Audio: Wilson Benesch, Canor, Weiss, Antipodes, AVM, Puritan
Dealer/distributor Verdant Audio's room included a few important debuts, including the new Wilson Benesch Geometry Discovery IIIZ standmount loudspeaker ($31,000).
Julie Mullins
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MoFi Distribution, Part 3: Piega Ace Wireless and Premium Wireless speakers
In addition to exhibiting a plethora of "classic" hi-fi gear, MoFi Distribution introduced a modern lifestyle system in Suite 340: the new Piega Ace Wireless series.
Lenbrook: DALI, NAD, Bluesound
Lenbrook of Canada has several modern hi-fi brands under its "umbrella," and I had the chance to check out some of the latest wares from DALI, NAD, and Bluesound in room 729 at AXPONA.
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Fidelity Imports: Michell Engineering, Cyrus Audio, Q Acoustics, English Acoustics, QED, Titan Audio
Tucked away in a corner of the 6th floor were two Fidelity Imports rooms showing a few new gems. Fidelity Imports focused one (room 604) on its imports from the UK.
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Fidelity Imports: Perlisten, Unison Research, Aurender
Fidelity Imports' second room showed on passive display the latest speaker from Perlisten, the three-way S5t tower, a smaller sibling to the Perlisten S7t in the active setup (and that Kal Rubinson reviewed in December 2021, bottom photo). A (forthcoming) new Aurender A15 music server/streamer with DAC (top photo) decoding full MQA served as the source.
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American Sound of Canada: Avantgarde Acoustics, dCS, VAC, Transparent, VPI, HRS
Toronto-based American Sound of Canada, with Angie Lisi at the helm, had a striking showing at AXPONA: Huge horns. If you saw and heard them, you'd remember them. It was a popular room, so I made an early first stop on Sunday when it wasn't crowded.
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American Sound's Second Avantgarde System with Phasemation, VPI, Analog Relax
American Sound presented a second demo in the suite's smaller room: Avantgarde Acoustics' Uno XDs, a smaller model soon to be upgraded to G3 status, driven by Japan's Phasemation amplification.
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Next Level HiFi: Børresen, Aavik, Ansuz
When I heard Usher's "Yeah!" being blasted out from the, uh, Serenity Room, I wondered whether to go in or hang back from the crunk. Not hating on the song, but it was awfully early in the day for this. (It turns out there was someone shooting a video in there.) But the real surprise was that the bumping, club-worthy music wasn't coming from outsized tower speakers, but from a pair of stand-mounted two-ways with some innovative porting.
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The Sound Organisation: Rega System One
It's a good sign that at least some AXPONA exhibitors showed systems that were more budget-friendly than most. On the door to room 666 (perfect, right?) was a piece of paper affixed with blue painter's tape. Handwritten in all-capital letters, it read: "WARNING! DO NOT ENTER IF YOU WANT TO SPEND A FORTUNE ON YOUR HIFI."
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Behind that door I encountered a simple but really good-sounding system that didn't call for apologists to stumble over themselves 'splaining.
The Other Sound Organisation Room: Chord Electronics, Spendor, and Aurender
The Rega room was one of two rooms the Sound Organisation, a distributor of several brands from the UK, had at the show. Their other exhibit in room 662 consisted of some recent gear from Chord Electronics, such as stacked racks of the Chord Qutest DAC, Huei phono preamplifier, etc. on static display. The active system was rather old-meets-new: It had BBC School Spendor Classic 2/3 speakers ($6100/pair, just over $7000/pair with stands) and a 180Wpc Chord Ultima 6 ($9200) stereo power amplifier.
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