Though I've hit the last two years of the FL Audio Show, I hadn't been to Axpona since '19. BIG show. Was there for 5 hours. Saw/heard a ton of stuff. Three speakers (actually two) stood out for me, above the "typical" technical wonders of many, many speakers sounding really good.
Room 454, Altec Ribbonacci Reference..WOW. I guess as of last year, Altec is getting back into high-end audio. The Ribbonacci's are push-pull planar magnetics (somewhat similar, I'd guess, to Eminent Tech's LFTs). In a too small room, but the sound was heads and shoulders above about all of what I heard throughout the day, regardless of cost.
Room 1506, Perfect 8. I heard the Cube-S speakers. WOW, again. Sooo easy to listen to. While they are small-ish in size, the soundstage is huge. Some speakers you have to listen to for a while with various music to decide whether you could live with them, or not. The Cube-S, I listened to them for 5 minutes and was ready to take them home. Wonderful.
Room 360, Aretai Contra 200. I LOVE these speakers. This is another speaker, like just above, that I could take home with no additional audition time. I heard them played well in at the FL show. Sadly, yesterday they played at about 60-65dB. Far below a sound level where you could actually hear what they sound like. BIG disappointment. People walked in the room..nothing much happening here and left. Unfortunate as they missed something really special. Hopefully this changes.
The three above are far-standouts from my visit. I managed to hit close to 100 rooms including the big systems on the 1st & second floor (that, honestly, don't do much for me..not because they are "unattainable", but they're just not engaging enough to want to listen to them more). I can stop in a room and listen for a minute and decide whether I'd like to hear more. Most setups, regardless of cost, while being technical marvels, don't make me want to sit down and soak it in.
