AXPONA 2023

Mick Survance of Quintessence Audio in Morton Grove, IL knows his brands well. Wilson Audio, Dan D'Agostino Master Audio Systems, Clearaudio, DS Audio, dCS, Transparent, Bassocontinuo, Sonus faber, Boulder, Critical Mass Systems, Hana, and Kubala-Sosna: these are among the major, time-honored brands that fill the homes of many audiophiles with means.

Each of these rooms had several elements in common: premium equipment, meticulous set-up, and heavy black draping that, while necessary to reduce multiple issues in narrower air-walled spaces (which were nonetheless larger than my music room), also reduced three-dimensionality and air. It was thus a wonder that individually as well as collectively, Quintessence's showcases produced some of the best sound I encountered at the show.

Just as I dashed into the Expo Hall to check out Coherence Systems' ADD-POWR SorcerX4 ($4399.95) and smaller Apprentice ($3299.95) harmonic conditioning devices, Bill Stierhout (above) was packing up. We just had enough time to snap this photo before his booth became a booth no more.

Grandinote owner/designer Massimiliano Magri (above) joined his North American distributor Reinhard Goerner at AXPONA for the premiere of the Grandinote Premier Mach 8XL loudspeaker ($30,800–$33,000/pair, depending upon finish). According to Grandinote's endearingly "English as a second language" website, the Mach 8XL's eight full-range drivers utilize a special treatment behind the drivers' membranes that prevents cone break-up. The drivers roll-off above 13kHz, allowing a super tweeter that handles harmonics above 7kHz to come to the fore. Rather than employing a crossover—the Mach 8XL has none—drivers are modified to create "a solution in the middle between bass reflex and transmission line."

Credo Audio Switzerland's Cinema LTM loudspeakers ($199,995/pair) may have towered above all else, but the gear from EMM Labs and their lower priced Meitner Audio line, van den Hul, VPI Industries, and DS Audio displayed in another "give it all you've got" large room was nothing to scoff at. Though I've grown tired of the overblown sound on Gary Karr's LP, Adagio di Albinoni, I was awed by the midrange beauty of Sara Barreilles's voice on a 24/88.2 file of "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road." The recorded sound of this live performance seemed uncannily real, and the soundstage was awesome.

Air-walled exhibition rooms are one of the biggest challenges at audio shows. With no solid surfaces, many exhibitors in the large rooms on the first and second floors of the Schaumburg Convention Center had no choice but to struggle to put their best face forward.

Dynaudio and Octave probably had it better than most because, at the end of a row in Utopia D, presumably two of their walls were solid. Their sound on their biggest system certain was solid and all-of-one piece, yet extremely smooth. It had lots of life and flow, especially if you listened to LP and sat in the first row where the sound was at its tube splendor wettest and the low bass clearest.

The room was noisy, and the switching between selections a classic case of trackus interruptus. Nonetheless, the ability of Atohm's GT1 bookshelf speakers ($4499/pair) to convey bass far more powerful than one might reasonably expect from speakers of their size left me smiling. I was smiling as well because the first demo track chosen to display this wonder was one I occasionally reference for color, texture, and speed: Yosi Horikawa's "Bubbles" (16/44.1Tidal/First World Records).

Trigger warning: If sky-high prices for audio gear make you gnarly, this AXPONA report (and many others) won't lift your mood. Just the MasterBuilt-brand cabling in dealer Scott Walker Audio's room carried a heart-stopping six-figure price tag.

The space, featuring Von Schweikert Ultra 7 speakers ($180,000/pair), wasn't especially small or large. Let's call it a Goldilocks room. Leif Swanson, Von Schweikert's chief designer, said that the brand's products had often been demoed in big expo rooms, which occasionally scared off potential buyers who assumed that the speakers needed a jumbo-sized space to sing. Not so, says the company.