Ken Micallef

At the Munich show, I ran into familiar faces: Mark Sossa of Well Pleased AV and Vinnie Rossi of Vinnie Rossi Audio, both far from their usual American stomping grounds. Seeing them overseas gave me a flicker of homesickness, but a journalist's job is to focus on the gear, not the friendships.

Fidelity Imports’ room 1221 featured electronics from Audia Flight and loudspeakers from Perlisten. Both brands are relatively new to the US market, though Perlisten has gained wider recognition more quickly.

The system consisted of an Audia Flight FLS1 preamplifier ($9999); two FLS8 monoblocks ($23,998/pair); Perlisten S7t SE floorstanding loudspeakers ($23,990/pair); and the new D8is subwoofer (price TBD). QED cables linked it all together.

Victor Kung of VK Music in Canada offers Japanese-made tube amplifier kits that cater to DIY enthusiasts. The amps that VK Music distributes are also available fully assembled—but where’s the fun in that?

The Palm Ballroom and adjacent rooms hosted systems from Acora Acoustics, Scott Walker Audio, and VAC—an ambitious collaboration by Valerio Cora, Scott Walker, and Kevin Hayes. The trio presented a range of well-curated systems.

Mike Stephens of Farmersville, Texas’s Western HiFi presented one of the show’s top five systems at AXPONA. Built from modestly priced gear, it stopped people in their tracks and kept them planted in their seats—including me.

Ask the average jazz-loving audiophile to list his favorite recording engineers, and such icons as Rudy Van Gelder, Roy DuNann, and Fred Plaut would top their lists. but if you asked a handful of current and recent New York City jazz musicians to cite their favorites, one name would leap to the front of the pack: James Allen Farber.

Steve Daniels's Sound Organisation showcased components from Rega Research, Chord Electronics, and ProAc—renowned British manufacturers known for their competitively priced, high-quality designs—and drew attention with several debut products.