By Sunday all that was to give it the olde college try and go for broke. Sunday's game plan was to start as early as possible—beginning with a 7:30 AM breakfast with buddy Andre Jennings from The Absolute Sound—and visit as many of the rooms that had missed. There's no question that covering audio shows is for the younger people. (We agree - Dave and Carol Clark)
First up on Sunday was the Classic Audio speaker, Atma-sphere tube electronics, Kuzma table/Tri-planar arm and United Home Audio reel-to-reel tape machine room. (I missed this room on Friday and Saturday because it was unceremoniously buried between two home theater rooms.) It's always a pleasure to visit with Greg Beron of UHA and this show was no exception! My biggest regret at AXPONA 2018, in fact, was having dinner engagements on Friday and Saturday night and missing Greg's legendary tape listening sessions. Greg brought to AXPONA the Ultima 4–his newest deck that among other improvements includes several updates to the tape path to reduce scrape flutter. Not shown: the huge power supply sitting under Greg's deck. No question that someday would love to hear Greg's Ultimata 4 UHA machine in my system.
What a sight for sore eyes! The Supreme-Analog Tangenta 12-inch Reference tonearm from Serbia mounted on an Artisan Fidelity Garrard 301 Statement turntable. Accessorizing by Transfiguration Proteus!
Headphone lovers flocked to the Woo Audio, Kimber Kable and MrSpeakers headphone exhibit Club Lounge on the 15th floor. Perhaps it had something to do with the bar at the end of the lounge?
There will always be to the day I die a warm spot in my heart for Magnepan speakers. My old Magnepan 3As served me well back in the '80s (replacing my DQ10s) and into early '90s (?) until eventually they were replaced by Martin-Logan Quests. For one thing, few tweeters can match the Maggie ribbon driver's effortlessness, extension and airiness. While the 3A didn't quite have the speed, transparency or resolution of a stat, the Maggies were easier to drive and were a little warmer in the midrange. The older conrad-johnson Premier 4 tube amplifiers simply loved that easy 4 ohm load and made a wonderful match. Then again Maggies didn't move a lot of air down low but what they did when playing back the snap of a double bass was pretty special.
Jump ahead a couple of decades and Silnote Audio was using a Levinson 335 solid-state amplifier to drive Magnepan's latest 3.7i speakers and demonstrate their cable line. (I reviewed its brother 336 amplifier back in the '90s for Ultimate Audio and gave it very high marks when hooked up to the Martin-Logan reQuests!) Interestingly too, this was a successful pairing of a tube preamplifier (Allnic L4000) with a solid-state amplifier. These Maggies—like their older brothers—still had that old image height that I so crave. Yes, the system was really fast; more importantly, however, this system was far more transparent than many of the other rooms at AXPONA (in fact, transparency was a really elusive quality at this year's AXPONA).
Roger Gibboni's new PA-1A phono preamplifier debuted at AXPONA 2018. The dual mono, all tube, Class-A design sports an impressive 95dB at 20 mV input. Gain is also adjustable (50-65dB) with a combination of 12AU7 and 12AX7 tubes.
Carl and Marilyn Marchisotto of NOLA brought the new $6900 Contender 3 speakers to the Chicago Show. The latest Contender 3 features redesigned bass drivers and silk dome tweeter as well as Mundorf capacitors and internal Nordost mono-filament silver wiring. This year Carl opted for VAC's new 85 wpc Sigma 170i integrated amplifiers—instead of his staple ARC Reference 75 amplifier—to drive the Contenders. I've always slightly preferred the VAC/NOLA to the ARC/NOLA combo at some shows. Like all NOLA speakers, the Contender 3 has very good low end as well as being very dynamic and transparent. (Yes, sometimes Carl plays his system was too loud.)
The 70 grand Triangle Arts Magellan Grand Concert speakers from France were paired with Luxman electronics were in room 582 at the Renaissance. Oh yeah. Please leave that Stevie Ray Vaughn album home. Whatever love I had for this album has been killed by hearing this LP in practically every room visited. No mas!
As we know, once an electrostatic lover, always an electrostatic lover. Despite having moved on from my Summit-X speakers, I still love and covet the transparency, speed, linearity and resolution of the best stat panels. There's just something addictive about the Martin-Logan's ability to resolve those little instrumental nuances. Little in scale but huge in terms of bringing one closer to the emotion of the music.
Those qualities were out in full force in the Precision Audio Video room featuring the Constellation Revelation Series electronics driving Martin-Logan's $25K Rennaissance ESL 15A! This is the first time that I can recall that the two teamed up and the sound using the Continuum table outfitted with an Ortofon A95 really stood out from the bulk of the rooms at the show. In fact, this was the best sound in fact that Martin-Logan has gotten at a show. I would also add that the sound of the Constellation electronics is evolving and the new Revelation line doesn't appear as stark and sterile as the original electronics. The electronics—at least the amplifiers, preamplifiers and phonostage—sound more like music. I hope these two companies continue to team up at future shows!
Triangle Arts, ACA and teo audio teamed up this year at AXPONA 2018. On display: the $25,000 ACA Seraphim Prime speakers driven by Triangle Art Reference $18,000 tube monoblocks and electronics along with the new $7500 Triangle Art Maestro turntable, $6800 Osiris Mk. 2 12-inch arm and $8000 Apollo cartridge.
Gayle Sanders marked his return to high-end audio manufacturing not with another electrostatic speaker design but an active, DSP controlled speaker named the Eikon. Speaker is priced at $25,000.
Axiss Audio brought a boatload of new toys to AXPONA 2018 included a recently released new series of electronics from Air Tight electronics along with Piega speakers and the Reed turntable and arms. Included among that was the first new Air Tight preamplifier in 28 years. I really dug the look of the new Air Tight step-ups!
PASS Labs had, as at last years' AXPONA show, a "dry" exhibit (static). Among the featured components were the recently released XP27 phonostage and XP22 preamplifier.
Convergent Audio Technologies, VPI, van den Hul and Magico teamed up once again at this year's AXPONA show. A.J. van den Hul brought to AXPONA a slightly revised version of the Colibri Signature Stradvarius moving coil cartridge that I recently reviewed in Positive Feedback. (HERE) The new Colibri Master Signature ($13,995) moving coil features a slightly harder and unlacquered white Brazilian hardwood. Hopefully I'll have a chance to listen to and report on this new cartridge down the road.
