AXPONA 2024 Sight And Sounds

April 19th, 2024
By: Carlin "Rick" Smith

The AXPONA 2024 show has come to end and I was there Friday.  Weather was beautiful and show seemed to have great attendance and vibe this year.  Below are some pictures and there are many others out there from various sources.

It is always great to catch up with so many from the various vendors, distributors face to face.  There was a lot of positive energy.

New Magico A5 Speakers

Components being used in Magico Room

More from Magico room

Wadax equipment with new Nordost QB10 Reference Power Distribution

Quite large speakers with that setup

Italian Riviera Mono blocks sounded great and was my first experience with them

Vinnie Rossi with Nordost cabling using the legendary Western Electric tubes on the input stage

Vinnie was in room himself and this stuff sounded and looked great - the integrated model was across the hall

Always found Linkwitz looks strange but its all about the sound

Self powered with excellent source!

The Vinnie Rossie Integrated Amplifier

Mini ELAC speakers - all metal construction - can be used for self defense in a pinch

Kimber Kable room with two PAS amplifiers and a switch board using two different lines of cables.  Oddly, I felt the lower price line (PBJ?) sounded better than the Carbon line.

Rotel Michi components with Sonus Faber speakers - fit and finish on the speakers is just excellent.

A better picture of just the Sonus Faber speakers

Clarisys Audio speakers - I was commenting to my colleague how I watched the videos from Suncoast Audio talking about Clarisys and they were sitting just in front of me and overheard - got a chuckle from all of us

The smaller Nordost room with various products in use

Speakers in the smaller Nordost room

Excellent sounding room with Aurender N20 plus Chord DAC, pre-amplifier and amplifier

I have heard these speakers several times but I thought this was the best they sounded with the combination of electronics used

Somewhat dark picture of same gear

Another view of the very uniquely designed speakers

John DeVore himself demonstrating some of his latest speakers and equipment including an unreleased amplifier project

The new Aurender AP20 Integrated Streamer/DAC/Amplififer connected to Wilson speakers.  This product was shown a year ago in pre-production form but is now available via dealers

A close up view of the new Aurender AP20

Tannoy speakers

Another room using Chord electronics

Small speakers but good fidelity

Close up of some Clarisys speakers using Hegel electronics

Good view of the Hegel electronics

Room full of tube based components with TIDAL speakers

Another view of the components

Bel Canto Black System with Cardas Audio cabling

YG speakers in the Bel Canto room

Selection of MSB components - DACs, Digital Director, and Amplifiers.  MSB will unveil a new reference DAC in Munich in May.

Yours truly with Steve Guttenberg - aka the "Audiophiliac" - Steve is a super nice guy to talk with.

Updated version of the Joseph Audio Pearl Graphene - now "reference" with new drivers and updated crossover.  This room sounded spectacular as about every Jeff Joseph room does.

Some of the electronics in the Joseph Audio room including an Aurender N30SA digital source

More from Joseph Audio room including Doshi and Berkley Audio equipment

Rather large EMMLabs amplifier

Part of the room from the distributor Audioshield

Larger Clarisys speakers - sounded great filled an extremely larger first floor space

Among the candidates for more most unique speaker design

Focal had a very large room with the back half a mini-stage with Grande Utopia speakers - massive sound and big audience

A new color of the Sopra 2 speakers - beautiful and unique color

Classic Dynaudio design

In this case a picture just doesn't do justice to just how massive this Gryphon Audio amplifier is up close

Larger Nordost room with very similar equipment from 2023.  A reviewer from The Absolute Sound (I think) was in room at that time and garnering plenty of attention.

Plenty of tweeters and drivers in this two cabinet speaker design

Some HiFi Rose components which are exclusively distributed by MoFi distribution.

B&W 801 D4 Signature speakers in the blue finish.  This room was somewhat dark and I almost thought this was just the black finish of the non-signatures.  Seemed much darker in person versus pictures.  I never feel this dealer does justice with these speakers with the material used and other components chosen.  This year two subwoofers were deployed and not very well crafted into the sound.

B&W 801 D4 Signature speakers in the other burled wood finish

Sonus Faber Stradivari speakers with McIntosh electronics

New Moon North Collection components including the 891 Network Streamer/Preamplififer and 861 Amplifier

Closer view the 861 amplifier which is a total redesign over the previous 860 V2 amplifier.

Boulder amplifiers and Sonus Faber speakers