2018 AXPONA: April 13-15, Schaumburg IL

[DC]

Sounds like you need my "2112" margarita. My better half was on the warpath this morning, and says she'll need one when she gets home. (Court day; she works in legal aid.) Might as well make a gallon of 'em and spread the joy!

No Tequila for me, thanks.

 

[Wildcat]

No Tequila for me, thanks.

I can't drink the cheap rot gut variety--that stuff tears me up. I had to step up the scale quite a bit to find one that has an actual flavor to it, vs. the headache-in-a-bottle turpentine that is Cuervo.

27 minutes and I'm out the door. Loading up my demo music USB stick before I leave. I'll be on Instagram as @rekkidcollector with a few pics throughout each day.

 

[RDSChicago]

Was there today. Met Gordon. Great guy and his VAC system was to die for! I’ll take two of them, please, as I just happen to have a spare $3 million lying around! Really superlative sound.

 

[Wildcat]

I didn't get to stop over there today (had some work to finish up here at the hotel), but I'm getting ready for the show tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing everything tomorrow!

 

[DC]

Made it home, "checked in" for my flight in the morning, and packed a bag. Provided I can pull my head off the pillow at dark o'clock, I should be there around 10ish.

How's the weather there looking?

 

[DC]

On the ground! See y’all soon...

 

[Old Guy8]

FYI,
I wrote down the listening room numbers for my agenda, from online Axpona info. At show, was completely different room numbers. Handout book will help, but not complete.

Nice show. The Harbeth monitor speakers were nice!!! So were the Elacs at lower price. Monitor Audio Silver 300's too.

 

[Skylab]

 

[Skylab]

 

[DC]

A few of the rooms I heard today

 

[Audioraven]

Thanks for the pics, Skylab and DC!

 

[Zekeman]

Skylab - where is that amp with the meters?

 

[DC]

A few thoughts after the first day:
- I wish those running the gear would fade the music out and in (even just quickly) rather than the abrupt, shift-without-a-clutch changes. (This has bugged me for years.)
- "Fanfare for the Common Man" was the demo track du jour.
- I'm more impressed with the quality of sound of the digital front ends than I've ever been. Usually my ears are critical of some of these "it's a show, so let's make it easy" sources, but these are better.
- The best thing I heard was 15ips tape. Again and again it's the best source sound. One guy commented, half-jokingly, "It's like cheating - all the benefits of analog without the LP problems." He's actually right, but oh the prices...tape is a game played by those who throw budget out the window.

Looking forward to a great day two!

 

[Old Guy8]

I was impressed by some very fine sounding record/turntable frontends. No clicks, pops, hiss. Given hotel room temporary setups, impressive.

 

[bean_counter]

I thought that sound was pretty much better vs prior years across the board, but was a bit surprised at the general lack of room treatments.

Was it just me, or was the fashion this year for the treble to be a little ‘hot’? I ended up turning up the tweeter Lpads when I got home to adjust to what I had been hearing.

Agree, digital sources were pretty darned good, I think digital has finally arrived. TT ‘s for the most part were very good. And oh my, the 15 ips tape...

Variety of music seemed to improve later in the day. First few hours were audiophile dreck. Could be the rooms I visited early vs late tho.

ELAC cheapo demo wasn’t super but for roughly $1k out the door - WOW. I’ll be recommending it to the kiddos who ask me.

As usual, I got home and pulled my speakers out from the wall from where the Mrs made me put them. Seems every year the price of matching the sound of my modest DIY system gets more and more expensive. Yeah, my mid bass is a smidge tubby but it’s much less of a sin than most of what I heard for the price of a nice sports car.

 

[Old Guy8]

The Elac room with the larger $2500/pr Adante AS-61 bookshelfs did sound pretty good, but bass was missing, IMO. The designer said the next step up was a floorstander which just added two more of same woofer, but not deeper base.
The current cost of two channel speakers that can produce fairly low bass seems to be north of $5000 pair from what I heard.

 

[GordonW]

Thank you!!! I hope you can do that at AXPONA also. Many of us appreciate that sort of thing. I'll stop in and say "hello."

That has been a pet peeve of mine at some of the exhibitors--the music. If I never have to hear that flippin' "No Sanctuary" song ever again in my life, I would be very thankful. (That is one tune that will make me get up and leave a room, and there are others!) I remember last year, @DC and I were discussing some of the music we heard...and not all of it was well thought out! (Even the sequencing is critical IMHO--one room, that shall remain nameless, was pretty much running the same demo sequence for the past two years, with jarring changes between songs.)

I'll be carrying my usual USB thumb drive with a few demo tunes on it, in the rare event I can listen to something in a particular room later in the day.

Just playing in the Von Schweikert/VAC Room (Euphoria Ballroom)- Fleetwood Mac, "Rumours" from a 45RPM reissue LP. Frankly, I've never heard Fleetwood Mac ANYTHING sound THAT good anywhere before, ever. The drums were just about perfect, and the vocals were amazing too.

They played the first half of the album- now playing some Roger Waters (Amused to Death, "It's a Miracle")- and will go back to Fleetwood Mac (the other side of "Rumours") as soon as the Roger Waters is finished. "Sara" coming up. I'm looking forward to it!

Regards,
Gordon.

 

[DC]

A few thoughts after day two:
- Yes, I agree with what seemed like bright treble in numerous rooms. My theory is, judging from the prevailing attendance demographic of aging white guys (pretty soon me, too), that there's been some collective attempt to compensate for age-related treble hearing loss and an effort to help make a system seem more detailed and resolving by superimposing an inverse EQ curve. Eh? Plausible? Maybe?

Other thoughts:
- No real test-song du jour, though "No Sancuary Here" might get honorable mention. Only heard "Hotel California" twice, @olson_jr
- Learned about some of the engineering that goes in to Shunyata conditioners. Good stuff!
- Really like the stuff at Bandwidth Audio - Good stuff!
- Heard two instances of "Wow, this is so bad something must be wrong" in different rooms. Notes taken and future caution to be heeded. (Yikes.)
- The new production Technics turntables are very impressive machines.
- Overall, rooms that made at least a modicum of effort with regard to treatments (even if they weren't pretty) had fewer problems and tended to sound overall better than empty, untreated rooms, regardless of the quality of gear/system. (A notable exception is Volti, who sounded great in an untreated room.)

More to come, probably, and some pics. Just got a call to go upstairs with my glass for a Balvinie tasting, so I depart.

 

[DC]

Some pics from Saturday:

 

[Wildcat]

Just playing in the Von Schweikert/VAC Room (Euphoria Ballroom)- Fleetwood Mac, "Rumours" from a 45RPM reissue LP. Frankly, I've never heard Fleetwood Mac ANYTHING sound THAT good anywhere before, ever. The drums were just about perfect, and the vocals were amazing too.

That room had a really nice sound, Gordon! I'm hoping to pay a visit before I leave tomorrow. I'll try not to take out any of the spotlights next time.

I've totally burned out on Rumours over the years (our local classic rock radio killed it), but that 45 RPM reissue is the only one I can listen to anymore. All of that bass was there on the tapes (especially on "Dreams"). Very nice presentation of that album!

Just to riff on what @DC says, though, not only is some of the demo music overkilled (that Louis Armstrong 45 RPM 12" single was in heavy rotation in a few rooms, and I'm already tired of hearing it), some of it does not lend itself well to demos. Now, hearing classic rock on the massive Avantgarde horns was an experience (part of Pink Floyd's The Wall was playing a couple of times, and they kicked out "Bonzo's Montreux" by Led Zep quite well--talk about the ultimate party speakers!), but otherwise, some (but not all) of those older multi-tracked studio recordings really don't reveal much for me.

Give me a nice recent acoustic performance, or some classical that is simply mic'ed where I can pinpoint the sections and the instruments. Or like in the Von Schweikert room, I arrived to (I think) the Poulenc Organ Concerto...perfect! (And those speakers rendered that pipe organ bass easily.) One room had a 45 RPM pressing of Dream with Dean (Martin) which also presented itself nicely--simple instrumentation, and Dino crooning next to the invisible fireplace in the room. What I hear very little of? Big band. A well-recorded Stan Kenton album would be a welcome change.

Overall, this year I did hear a lot more variety in music, which I am glad for! It has been a great show this year!