AXPONA 2017 Show Report -- Audio Expo North America
AXPONA Show Report Part 2 By Steven R. Rochlin

  KEF's Johan Coorg acted as a music conductor as he demonstrated the many different speakers on active display. From KEF's newly released all-singing, all-dancing, LS50 Wireless monitors to their outstanding Reference 1 bookshelf speakers were at AXPONA 2017. Always enjoy my time within the KEF room and here was no exception. Johan has the crowd wanting more music, and he delivered!

Seen above is KEF's highly rated Blade 2 floorstanding speakers, with the pic below being their ultra-high-end Reference 1 bookshelf units on stand. Always enjoy my time at KEF during shows, and Johan Coorg is a gentleman and showman who always entertains his audience.

Intelligent Audio Products, formerly known as Planter Speakers that i reviewwed their Flagstone a few years back, was making very good quality sound for what essentially disappears as a planter on your patio or deck. They had a new thin and tall model (next to their representative), whose model name seems to have missed my writing pad, yet i do recall they sounded nice.

Entering the Merrill Audio, German Physiks and VPI room was a killer sounding setup using German Physiks Borderland Mk. IV ($36,500/pair), Merrill Audio Veritas monoblocks ($12,000/pair), Merrill Audio Christine Reference preamplifier ($12,400) and Merrill Audio Jens phono stage ($15,449). Enjoy the Music.com just published our review of the Christine Reference preamplifier plus we have reviewed German Physics' Unlimited MKII speakers too!

Analog was supplied by VPI's Reference Avenger with magnetic drive ( $23,000), JMW 12" 3D printed tonearm ($1500) plus their new Fat Boy tonearm made an appearance too (pic above)! Cartridge was Lyra Delcos ($1995), and for digital playback Aurender N10 with 8 TB drive ($8500, we reviewed the Aurender N100H caching network streamer plus X725 USB DAC / amp in 2016. EMM Labs DAc2x ($15,500) and Studer 810 reel-to-reel was also put to good use. The gear was on a very hefty Solid-Teck Rack of Silence ($3195). My listening notes say this room had top-to-bottom coherency and threw a wonderfully wide and deep soundscape. Considering the very high caliber of the gear, it sounded close to what i expected, which was a high watermark. This was easily one of the Best Sounds At AXPONA 2017 that delivered one of the most enveloping soundscapes. 

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