Audio Doctor goes to Axpona observations so far



 
For the first time went to Axpona, one heck of a show more audio then we have ever seen, the old New York audio shows were like this.

Anyway walked most of the show and most of the systems heard were just bad, common problems no room tuning, rooms that were too big for the gear or too small.  Even some of the really expensive stuff was dissapointing.

There were a few room that were good.

So far winners for us that were very good not in any particular order:

1: Big Horns from Germany forgot the name really famous one,
2: Muiraudio $15k electrostatic hybrid 
3: Alta Audio cheapie $5k speakers sounded great
4: Vimburg
5: Paradigm Persona 3F

(not a great setup,  but the sound comming out of them for a $10k speaker was very impressive. excellent, midrange soundstage was impressive  image floated nicely, even though the speakers were way too close together and the bass response was excellent.  Would have been way better with a few substitions.

6: T+A $75k floorstanders were impressive for such a small size reference speaker, don't know if they are worth that kind of money, the electrostatic tweeter coupled to a line array with buillt in subs was very musical in a way too small room. Would have liked them to be taller

Decent but not up to the hype the new PS audio speakers bass was very good for a $12-15k set of speakers filled up a big room ugly, and not the ultimate wow that PS was billing them as.

The Scaena line array  when we had them setup in our show and at some of the older New York Audio Shows were mind blowing this setup didn't gel which was sad.

Today to hear the Gryphon room, Golden Ear and a few others.

Scott Markwall gave a great demo of the Furutech NCF products which are really cool.

Innous gave a great demo of the Statement vs the Zenith, and wow what a difference in soundstaging and clarity.  

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Paradigm, T+A, Persona dealers.

128x128audiotroy
@firstnot, what did you think of Magnepan's new entry-level model, the LRS?

Pwinson, we couldn’t agree with you more, very astute commentary!

One common issue was rooms with gigantic speakers that were too small and gigantic rooms with speakers that are too small!

In a few rooms that were a bit small there was still good sound. These tended to be speakers with good low frequency response but not crazy deep bass response.

Rooms that sounded really good which matched speaker output to room size:

1: Paradigm Person 3F sounded fantastic and was a compelling demonstration of the power of room correction. The bass was tight and powerful and worked well in the room.


2: Muriaudio, the panels are fantastic and they produced enough bass to work in the room and program material and not too much to overload the room.


3: T+A Compact Metal speakers bass was impressive for the room size and they sounded very good, T+A electronics are amazing.

There were tons of other rooms these were a few of the standouts


4: Vimberg great sound and even though the room was a bit big the speakers sounded fantastic.


Rooms which didn’t work:


1: All Von Schweikert demos, rooms were way too big no room lock.

When you get deep bass to pressurize the room you feel it, even the $300k Von Schweikerts don’t have enough bass for such a huge room.

2: Vandersteen’s way too far apart, not enough bass for such a big room not a great showing.

There were a lot of good sounding rooms but very few standouts.


The Borretson setup was very interesting the image was poor way too spread out, and the bass response in the room was very uneven, the clarity was awesome and the system was setup weird, $90k worth of Avik electronics with a Naim CD player?

Also why does their class D amplifiers have the right to cost $100k? Class D generally costs a lot less to produce than linear amplification.

First time heard a Rahido variation that wasn’t too artificial in the top end.

Stunning looking speakers their pricing is obscene for the lower models $30k for a two way monitor.

Surprising was how good the Wilsons were sounding in a few setups mostly the big rooms. The combo of ARC with Sasha DW was very impressive, way better than the Dagastino setups.

The Magicos were universally just boring and lifeless.


The giant F1 step did capture scale beautifully except there was no magic in the midrange and the sound was uninvolving.


Dave and Troy

Audio Doctor NJ Paradigm, T+A dealers





It was easy to compare the Sanders electrostat hybrids to the Martin Logans:  I thought Sanders had much much better integration between their dynamic sub driver and the electrostatic panels than ML, really surprisingly so since ML has been at this game a very long time now and should have it down.  Maybe there was something that was leading me to an incorrect conclusion with regard to the MLs but for me driver integration was much better on the Sanders.  Clarity above the bass range I thought was good on both but just a little bit more so on the MLs.  I guess Vandy and VS look at this as more of an almost static display than an attempt to make their equipment sound good, maybe they rely more on the generally well established word of mouth that they perform well but this particular showing certainly didn't advance that assertion at all.  Pass had a huge display but as I recall it actually WAS static...there was a huge amount of Pass products on display practically the whole line, sitting out on display.  I can't recall now if they were actually playing music in that room or not.  I do love the Pass products.  I didn't see Aesthetix anywhere and its a shame because their preamps are magnificent in my opinion (their power amps very good but maybe just not great).  I actually respect the fact that they aren't continuing to churn out new models to feed the upgrade cycle but I DO hope they stick around.  Their Calypso line stage and Janus preamp are still A1 in my book.
Pwhin: No real surprise re the Sanders advantage.
-Roger designed Mls for years
-Roger make a transmission line bass (which I am a sucker for)
-Roger has room correction +++
-Roger has class a/b power up they ying yang. 2,000 wpc a side. No clipping there
-Roger makes one speaker. ML has a dozen.
Make sense?
Sanders is my next purchase.
bdp24
I heard the Maggy 3.7s-Excellent- but missed the little guys darn it.
They are getting raves everywhere though.