Axpona 2018


Went again this year and found the show to be larger, higher quality sounding rooms than previous shows. I have been to many brick and mortar stores which have good sounding rooms, but at Axpona this year many rooms were better sounding than their store show rooms!

My best sounding large room was the VAC/Von Schweikert Audio/Esoteric, room. The Wilson room with the DCS stack was also very good. My best small room, and there were many, was the Gershman Accoustics room, their new speakers were sounding great with top end electronics. Also, I was impressed with NOLA room again.

 

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I’d be interested in hearing impressions of the Exogal room with the new Ryan S610 monitors if anyone can share that.
@chrshanl37 I’d be interested in hearing impressions of the Exogal room with the new Ryan S610 monitors if anyone can share that.

That one is easy.  They were hands-down the best smaller speakers I heard at the show.  I listened for a couple of songs and even waited until the crowd cleared out so I could have a go at the sweet spot.  My buddy also agreed they sounded excellent.

The only smaller speakers that even came close in that size of speaker were some Elac monitors, but the Ryans were much better, as one would expect at their price point.

I want to say they retail for $4,000 so that would be my only caveat with them; at that price point there may well be other speakers that offer better performance - albeit probably at a larger size.  

On a personal note, my gripe with floor standers is that if you are taking up the same real-estate with bookshelf speakers and some nice stands, why not just go with floor-standers and enjoy better bass?  I am aware that Ryan also offers some larger speakers, so those could be intriguing as well and perhaps best the S610's?

With that stated, I absolutely cannot discount how accurate, tight, smooth and refined the S610's were.  I was frankly blown away by their size vs performance ratio.

While talking with some other vendors later on, the venders -who often don't have much time to get away from their own wares to see the other stuff in the show - asked me what they should go listen to and what some of the best rooms were.  I mentioned the Sonus Faber and Wilson rooms, but also mentioned "you have to go hear the Ryans".  

All that to say that if they fit your needs and you like that price point, you absolutely should consider auditioning them.
@chrshanl37 

The first Ryan Speakers I heard were the R620s in the Aurilac room on the first level, and I thought ‘these are the speakers everyone raves about?  These don’t sound great’. 

The S610s in the upstairs room were a completely different story - those were great, open, detailed, nice bass and smooth treble, I walked away with renewed respect for Ryan Speakers.