2026 Florida International Audio Expo Feb 20-22
Who's going to the 2026 Florida International Audio Expo (Feb 20-22)? Our local Suncoast Audiophile Society (also the Central Florida club) will again have a "hangout" in the Shelton Room, and also manning a table near the Cypress Room. Looking forward to seeing/hearing the latest gear, and chatting with like minded hobbyists, both young and old.
@nogaps agree on the Aretai with Grimm MU2 DAC and Benchmark gear. Nice minimalist setup but great sound. @lanx0003 agree on the Living Voice , Border Patrol room. So silky smooth and easy to listen to. Would love to try out the Zola DAC. another favorite was the Audio Note room. Field Coil speakers AND field coil cartridge on the TT. here’s some pics I took as well. |
I would never imagine that a tube dac on top of tube amp will render that silky smooth but not overly warm sound. Especially Zola Dac has not only rectifier tube but also tube output stage, unlike its predecessor SE or SE-I that has only rectifier. As an alternative, you might want to look at much affordable Glass FX Dac which is a true tube Dac and could handle higher resolution music. |
CORRECTION: My apologies! I thought the Benchmark monoblocks above with the Aretai speakers were Class D. My error. Sorry. The Benchmarks were wonderful in the room with the Aretai's.
Per John Siau of Benchmark. One correction: The AHB2 is not a class-D amplifier. Our AHB2 is actually a class-AB amplifier with linear class-H tracking rails and a unique feed-forward error correction system. It delivers 380 W into 8 Ohms with a 135 dB SNR. THD+N is held below the 0 dB SPL threshold of hearing at all output levels even when driving high-efficiency speakers. It is designed to deliver the music to the speakers without adding the slightest electronic "fingerprint" to the music. |
This is from Frank Doris' coverage in Copper Magazine https://www.psaudio.com/blogs/copper/florida-audio-expo-2026-warming-up-to-high-end-audio-part-one
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