Jana's Day Two, Part One: In Pursuit of the Affordable at AXPONA
The first of two Auralic-sponsored systems I encountered featured an Auralic Polaris wireless streaming amplifier ($3800), Ryan R630 speakers ($5000/pair), and AudioQuest cablesthe idea being to present a minimalist, all-in-one, hassle-free setup that still offers high value and high performance
Jana's Day Two, Part Two
Anything that involves DIY or contains the word "kit" is of automatic interest to me, nearly to a fault. It began with homemade stuffed animals (read: ugly felt objects) and miniature inedible pastries (God knows why), which later evolved into headphone mods
and now, my current learning project: a Pete Millett Butte DIY headphone amp, recommended by Sir Tyll Hertsens.
Jana's Friday Afternoon at AXPONA
A couple of months ago, I listened to a prototype of the Sonoma Acoustics electrostatic Model One Headphone System ($5000) at CanJam NYC, so I was excited for the opportunity to have some more one-on-one time with a production model of the system at AXPONA.
Jason's Day One Continues: One Step Closer to Oz
Kyomi Audio's was the first room I'd entered where I was so taken by the sound that all I wanted to do was sit and listen, and then listen some more. And it wasn't just the fabled Jadis midrange that had me in its grip; the bass was also quite good, and the highs divine
Jason's Discoveries at AXPONA's End
The most astounding and baffling system I encountered at AXPONAI'm not sure which of those descriptors should come firstwas in the Raidho/Aavik room, which used Ansuz cabling to join Danish-made Raidho Acoustics D-1.1 Black speakers ($23,000/pair) with sister-company Aavik Acoustics' C-300 control amplifier (preamp) with two phono stages ($42,000) and brand new M-300 300W class-A mono power amplifier ($48,000). At first, I was completely wowed by the sound
Jason's Rise at the End of AXPONA's First Day
GamuT's designer and CEO, Benno Baun Meldgaard, was on hand in the first room I entered on Floor 4 to introduce the new optional R2R tape playback board ($1990) for the GamuT D3i dual-mono preamp ($8490). Whether the presence of a number of new and old tape decks at AXPONAthe one in this room was a rebuilt Studersignals a rekindled interest in tape amongst anyone other than confirmed audiophiles is unclear. But what was clear is that the piano on Ben Webster's Gentle Ben sounded beautiful and mellow. The horn, in turn, was appropriately bright, and the presentation distinguished by a nice sense of depth.
MQA: Yes or No? An AXPONA 2017 Poll
With any large gathering of people who share a common passion, one is bound to encounter polarizing issues and the fiercely opinionated standing on either side. In the world, it's politics and religion. In our world, it's tubes vs solid-state, whether cables really matter or not, and, most recently . . . Master Quality Authenticated.