AXPONA Chicago April 21-23, 2017 - Who's going?

With all the big bucks systems, the next morning I sat in my cave and felt my system sounded just as good as many I heard, at a fraction of the cost!
Glenn

Interesting how that works. I wonder if that is because you can always sit in the sweet spot at home.

The year I went (with a friend with similar hearing & preferences) we would walk into some rooms and just do an about face and leave, thinking we did not need to waste any time with really poor sound. Then we majorly disagreed in the Audio Note Room, discovered that there was a very small area that the room sounded good. The second-row center was magic, first-row sounded like tinny computer speakers, third-row sounded like too much bass.

After that, I wondered if some of the rooms where we just had a quick listen and left should have been given more of a chance?
 
Some of the smaller rooms just weren't set up very well. Couple that with a bad recording... One room that both me and my buddy I went with thought sounded really good was the audiophile direct room. The Aurum Cantus speakers sounded great with his set up. I would have thought that "cheap Chinese import" speakers would sound like ass, but I would have been wrong. It wasn't the "best" sounding room, but they did a great job setting up, and playing music that really showed off the system.
 
I had that same experience. When I got done with Axpona, I listened to both my rigs, and didn't feel the need to make any changes at all :)
 
Interesting how that works. I wonder if that is because you can always sit in the sweet spot at home.

The year I went (with a friend with similar hearing & preferences) we would walk into some rooms and just do an about face and leave, thinking we did not need to waste any time with really poor sound. Then we majorly disagreed in the Audio Note Room, discovered that there was a very small area that the room sounded good. The second-row center was magic, first-row sounded like tinny computer speakers, third-row sounded like too much bass.

After that, I wondered if some of the rooms where we just had a quick listen and left should have been given more of a chance?
No doubt. Some rooms I spent a good amount of time in, so I could migrate to the sweet spot seats to get the best possible experience within the limitations of the space.
When I sat and listened to my system, at the same volume levels, I was very happy with what I have.
 
I always like to see what is out there. There was some interesting things, one being a TEAC all in one integrated amp, disc player, DAC - it sounded pretty good. They were using ELAC UF 5 speakers.

The TEAC room was one of the first I visited early Friday, and other than the "opening of the show overly eager staff" (not knocking them, they were really nice guys), I was quite pleasantly surprised. I might give their inexpensive DSD DAC a try at home.

One impressive thing in that room was the material played. Not the usual; jazz, blues, classical - one tune was "tears of a clown" performed by a woodwind sextet(!) All very well recorded in DSD - they brought in the recording engineer; I made a note of the logo on his shirt, "Earful Recording" I'll have to look into them some more.
 
the big JBL horns, which I have heard sound great, sounds just plain WRONG.

My half-assed L300 lash-up walks all over that set-up. A real shame.

Last year they were much better on McIntosh gear. I think it was even the same room, or at least the same floor plan. I chalked it up to the Levinson amps - every room with Mark Levinson, I didn't like. The big Martin Logans everybody wanted to hear but didn't like? Levinson amplification.

I liked the Volya's as well.
 
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These were quite fun to listen to. They were actually quite dynamic too. I had them play Red Light, Blue Light by Harry Connick and WOW - yeah it was fun to listen to.
Those are wild! Way cool!
 
Those were cool, and among the most unique offerings at the show (speaker-wise). I gave them a good bit of a listen and didn't find them to be terrible in any way, though I'd like to reserve final judgement until after I could hear them more. But they didn't send me from the room!
 
It depends on the room, really, and how the exhibitors set it up. Some rooms it didn't matter where you sat, others only had one or two seat sweet spot.

I have felt that way about Jan-Zen speakers, and Sanders audio (big electro-stat panels, too). From the Sanders, the sweet spot is uncharacteristically narrow - the room hosts have chairs (3 or 4) set up in single file so you are kind of "forced" to sit and hear them with their near-best optimization. I have always loved the sound - among the most natural timbre I have heard - and I think that their room set up, while seemingly not very user-friendly, might reduce the easily-dismissed "not for me" judgements from the doorway to "obviously I need to come back and give them a proper listen to form an informed opinion."
 
Audio Video Interiors totally ruined the Martin Logan Neolith demo by blaring "The Great Gates of Kiev" at ear-bleeding volume through that bad sounding (IMHO) McIntosh system. Which is a shame, as I really wanted to spend quality time with the speakers. Yes, OK, fine, we get it. They play loud. Really loud. Really really loud. Only this time, their idiocy had the room 2/3 vacant. This year's sound was so bad I've complained to Martin Logan about it. Last year's setup in this same room had the Renaissance speakers that as I mentioned earlier, sounding similarly strange through this exact same system, but this year sounded completely different driven by Constellation electronics in another room--I spent time in that room both days I was there, since it sounded so much better. And the music selections were way better. They were spinning vinyl on the Continuum Obsidian/Viper combo. And amusingly enough, they played part of "Pictures at an Exhibition" and did not feel the need to play it at an absurd level.

Funny you should mention that, and I completely agree. I like Martin Logan speakers and I like McIntosh and I felt that their demo was among the worst at the show this year, perhaps one of the worst ever, for all of the reasons you mentioned. I'll go further and say that the transition from one track to the next can be handled with finesse (if you're paying attention and/or actually care) or can be akin to shifting gears without use of the clutch, and the transition from the end of "Great Gate" to some industrial/techno track was, literally, jarring - I was startled in a way that a musician who is (more or less) used to this stuff shouldn't be startled. If I was a manufacturer or manufacturer's rep, I would be upset that my (very excellent and very expensive) gear was being demonstrated on such a high profile stage in such a careless and thoughtless way. Alas.
 
Did you ever get to the Soltanus Acoustics room? I don't know if it blew my socks completely off, but it certainly gave me another future to consider in planar speakers and I came away impressed. If it were my room, I'd pair them with two Hsu Research subs, coming in only around 40-45 Hz. When I visited the second time, one of our fellow visitors requested they play one of his CDs with (as he put it) "some aggressive electronica". It sounded like "Moog overload gone spaz" and the bass of course wasn't so powerful, but the speed of the panels pretty much nailed all of those sharp electronic transients.

And I do like the planars, but I was still disappointed in the Maggie demo. The bass fell apart at a certain depth, becoming ill defined and peaky in spots. I do feel, however, that the speakers were not suitable for the room. With a larger room and some more tuning, that would have sorted the bass out properly. The mids and highs, though--very nice. Better than I remember Maggies sounding.

I am still reeling over the difference in the systems used behind the Martin Logans, as I mentioned last night. Just a change in electronics changed them from "those are good" to "take my money!", in my opinion. They seemed to sound best with the Constellation electronics (and that room was also playing vinyl...double good).

I did give them a listen on Sunday morning, but I took few notes so I don't have an "impression" from the moment, but I dide not that the timbre was good and I felt the panel drivers were well-integrated. I'd give them another listen again for sure.
 
Funny you should mention that, and I completely agree. I like Martin Logan speakers and I like McIntosh and I felt that their demo was among the worst at the show this year, perhaps one of the worst ever, for all of the reasons you mentioned.
I could probably admit that although I'm not a big McIntosh fan, I haven't heard enough of it to remember what the older (and arguably better) models sounded like back in the day (I first heard them at Pecar's, in the original location on Morang in Detroit...so I'm afraid that dates me somewhat ;) ), and I don't think I have ever heard a system comprised completely of their tube electronics either, which I would bet have a more easygoing sonic character. Whatever it was, there was something in their setup in this room that just didn't work out. And without substituting them one at a time, I guess we'll never know if it were the big monoblocks, or the preamp, or the digital media player...or maybe all three? It also makes me wonder what changes happened with their R&D once they were purchased by a larger company.

Whatever it was, the Constellation electronics in the other room were certainly more suited to these speakers. They had the "secret sauce" the A/V Interiors room was lacking, IMHO.

And yes, the demo music left much to be desired, both in selection and sequencing. (Could be our "musicians' ears" at play here too. ;) ) What bothered me also this year is that they were playing essentially the same small handful of tracks they had played last year. I gave this a lot of thought yesterday as I put a tube amp in my system through its paces (I finally landed a C-J Premier 11), finding plenty from my own collection that were well recorded enough to use as demos, and some challenging enough that they could demonstrate strengths or weaknesses in any system. That demo room was playing music from a hard drive or server--they had plenty of room to offer more than the very narrow playlist they offered up for the show attendees.

No worries though--they are not a local dealer for us, so I don't have to buy anything from them. ;)
 
Serious question for everyone, as I'm working on something...

Can you give me just a couple of specific song titles and artists you feel were overplayed at AXPONA, either this year or in the past?

Surprisingly I never heard one single Diana Krall recording this year. Last year, only one. Which is good, as I actually like the gal. :) And I think I heard Donald Fagen only once. Back in the 80s, you couldn't escape a high-end audio salon without hearing the album from at least one of the demo rooms.

I know that annoying "No respite, no refuge, no sanctuary..." tune was playing in way too many rooms last year, and eeked into a few this year.
 
While I love it deeply, Muddy Waters Folk Singer was overplayed this Axpona. First time I recall that.
 
I can relate to the Dire Straits--my least favorite track is "Money for Nothing" simply due to it being so overplayed back in the day. And I heard it in more than a few rooms this year. In fact, my Chicago pals and I were talking about Brothers in Arms while we passed a room playing "Money For Nothing," and how the song and even the entire album was burned out in all of us for so long. Actually, I pointed out that if we skip the first three songs, the latter part of the album no longer seems tedious.

I don't think "Money For Nothing" sounds all that great anyway, so...

Oh yeah, on tape, Hugh Masakela - HOPE . They play that every year.
That was "Stimela (The Coal Train)" from Hope. First time I'd heard it at the show, actually. I have the SACD version here, but considered the AP 45RPM cut.

Anything from Pink Floyd, Neil Young, and Bob Dylan (recorded well but MEH that voice),
No offense to fans, but the latter two would instantly drive me from any room, simply due to the voices. Pink Floyd I only heard in a couple of rooms but, since I never play PF at home, it didn't bother me so much.

The blaring of Pictures at an Exhibition in the Audio Video Interiors room took the cake. That was the most painfully loud demo I'd heard at the show. I've played Pictures once since I returned from Chicago, but I had to skip the "Great Gates of Kiev". I may just be scarred permanently. :D
 
Check out this video, at the 1:40 mark:


McGrath has it nailed. "...borders on musical illiteracy."
 
Some rooms had beautiful music, others not so much. I mean both Paragon SNS (from Ann Arbor) had excellent music playing and it was none of this contrived stuff, some of the rooms were playing. Same with the Gamut room as they played some beautiful jazz on vinyl.

As a matter of fact, I was in the Wilson Alexx room early on Sunday morning (before it opened - I know them well :D ) and they were playing 'Appetite for Destruction' by Guns and Roses loud - that was fun.

I don't know Paragon all that well yet (I should hop out there next time they have a store event), but I kept running into Dawn a few times each day. Got to be a running joke after a while, especially when I spotted her in the bar at the Westin Saturday night. :D They seem like nice folks. Not uptight like a couple of other dealers in the area which shall remain nameless.

The smaller Paragon room (the one we didn't need to wait in line for) was playing vinyl demos when I walked in. What impressed me was the sales rep saying they played "regular music, not audiophile music." Indeed. He played Elvis Costello's "Every Day I Write The Book" from what appeared to be a 12" promo single.
 
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