AXPONA 2022: Back To Business
Audio Expo North America 2022 Show Report
Show Report By Greg Weaver

  Also in that space, in fact, right next door in Utopia C, was Wynn Audio, an Ontario, Canada-based operation run by Wynn Wong. His room, as usual, was a treat to sit down in and spend some time listening. And, as I hadn't spoken with Wynn over the three years since the last AXPONA, it was very nice to catch up with him.

Frontend components featured the French-built Kalista DreamPlay X CD Transport ($68,800), and the Métronome AQWO CD Player ($20,000), which was used as the DAC in this system. LP playback came at the pleasure of the all-Swiss-built Thales Compact II Turntable ($15,530), using the Thales Simplicity II Tonearm ($9,450), and fitted with the X-Quisite FIRE cartridge ($11,140). The phonostage was from Karan Acoustics of the Netherlands, the Ph Reference Phonostage ($27,000).

The Karan Acoustics LINEa Preamplifier ($41,000), and the Karan Acoustics POWERa Monoblocks ($106,000/pr.) drove the superb Vimberg Mino D Loudspeakers ($58,000/pr.) in a brilliant luminescent green finish. Germany's Tidal founder and CEO, Jörn Janczak, launched the Vimberg line of loudspeakers in 2018, a brand that, while still expensive in absolute terms, would attempt to deliver that Tidal sound quality while being considerably more affordable.

Grounding and AC concerns were addressed by the Swiss-made Entreq Olympus Hero Ground Box ($18,000), while all cabling came from the Crystal Art Series, including Monet, Van Gogh, and Da Vinci series.

Besides the apparent eye-candy effect, this system with alive with musical shimmer and detail, while maintaining a fine sense of body and a splendid timbral balance. The resultant musical tapestry presented very vivid and solid textures and offered a wide and full soundstage. I did find the system just a tad lean in the bottom octave, but this may have been due to this very large space, approximately 450 square feet.

Closer to the north end of that same space, in the smaller Epiphany room which featured the Scaena Iso-Linear Array Loudspeakers, I ran into longtime friends and colleagues, Sunny Umrao with Scaena and Silversmith Audio's own retired Navy Commander, Jeffry Smith.

It is no secret that I've been a fan of the Scaena magic act right from the start, going back to their roots, which is when and how I first met Sunny. The digital source in this room was the four-box dCS Vivaldi system, including the CD/SACD Transport ($49,000), the Upsampler ($25,000), the DAC ($46,500), and the Master Clock ($19,500). Amplification was provided by the Luminance MA-1 amplifier ($70,000).

The striking looking Scaena Model 3.1 system is essentially a multi-driver, quasi-point source array system comprised of the left and right symmetrically imaged towers, each sporting twelve midrange drivers to the inside, and seven ribbon tweeters to the outside, of each column. Each midrange driver is mounted in its own small, seamless, leak-proof, inert, enclosure, manufactured of a special ceramic compound. There are no parallel walls, no "standing waves", and the design is folded, creating a quasi "Helmholtz Resonator" that traps the harmful back waves transforming them into harmless heat.

Bass and sub-sonics are reproduced by the matching left and right eighteen-inch woofer modules, feed by an outboard electronic crossover, and driven by its own separate power amplifier. Each woofer is housed in its own machined, highly inert, cylindrical, enclosure, internally braced and shaped to minimize standing wave reinforcement. Though the system is typically $75,000 in one of its standard color offerings, this 3.1 system as shown at AXPONA was $90,000 in its special Mother of Pearl finish.

All cabling was from Silversmith Audio, including the game-changing Silversmith Fidelium Speaker cables ($1,195/8-foot pr!), and Palladium interconnects (these are out of production, but the three-foot pair started at $4,000/pr.). It may be pertinent to some to note that while this room has not earned a spot in my show reports over recent years, that the most significant change made to the system this year was the move to Jeffrey Smith's Silversmith cabling throughout. As I've said for decades, cables are components.

These sexy Scaena 3.1s, as driven in this room, pulled an utter and complete disappearing act! They have a nearly unparallel ability to recreate the space and specificity of instrument's locations and sizes throughout a soundstage, and to generate a convincingly, get-up-and-walk-around-through-it holographic image, recording permitted. On the QSound spectacular Amused to Death by Roger Waters, their effect was simply magical.

This system was liquid sounding, with great tone color, especially from the lower mids on up, and blisteringly fast. This seemingly near-effortless response speed allowed for accurate scaling, showing off some stellar dynamics. Piano, guitar, and drums – especially Jeff Porcaro's tom rolls from "It's a Miracle" from Amused to Death - were recreated with both refined pitch definition and some serious impact! My biggest complaint was that the system seemed to give up some of that definition, speed, and timbral authenticity in the lowest regions, like in the lowest octave and a half or so.

The Alexander Suite on sixteen was home to the systems from American Sound of Canada, owned and operated by my longtime friend, Angie Lisi. Angie doesn't play around with her big systems, and this suite was no exception.

However, she did change things up a bit this year, showing the new Avantgarde Trio G3 speakers with their fully active, built-in iTone amplification ($91,000 for the speakers, and $38,000 for the fully active amplification system). Then, to drive this systems power home, she had set up a pair of the single Spacehorn woofer bins ($65,000/pr.) atop a pair of the Twin Spacehorn woofers ($88,000/pr.)!

Digital was delivered to this amazing and beautiful horn system using the three-piece dCS Vivaldi Apex DAC ($60,000), Vivaldi Upsampler ($32,000), and Vivaldi Clock ($25,000). The linestage was Kevin Hayes' Valve Amplification Company Statement Preamplifier ($80,000).

Transparent cables were used throughout (~$80,000), and the equipment rested on HRS SXR stand and platforms (~$30,000).

While I don't typically gravitate toward horns, the Avantgarde Trio's have often hit the mark for me that so many other horns miss. This year, using the Vivaldi three-piece stack and the Statement valved linestage, things hit an entirely new plateau for me. As you might expect from such an exquisitely executed approach, the system offered exceptional scaling and dynamics.

I was almost embarrassed to request Hugh Masekela's "Stimela (The Coal Train)," from his 1994 masterpiece Hope, when she asked, but there is something to be said about hearing the same track over nearly three decades on so MANY different systems, that I spoke up with no shame. I'm glad I did.

Without question, this system delivered the most coherent and textured sound I've heard from a horn system. The growl in Hugh's voice displayed his gravel-like texture and its smoothness at once. This system's immediacy and unwavering ability to portray texture and skin tone, of horn valving and dynamics, was simply exceptional. My hat is off to you, Angie. Thanks for sharing!

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