AXPONA 2019 Show Report -- Audio Expo North America
AXPONA 2019 Coverage By Rick Becker -- Part 4

  In 608 Innuos was featuring their Statement server priced from $13,750 to $15,150 depending on how many terabytes you need with your solid-state drive. Innuos was also next door in 610 along with Nagra (electronics), Transparent Audio (cables), Vicoustic room treatments and YG Acoustics speakers.

Triangle Art squeezed a lot of gear into a small room with ease, simply by employing a smaller loudspeaker, the Angel City Audio (ACA) Seraphim Prime with custom paint ($25,000 per pair) to be exact. There was a 30% off price on the smaller Maestro turntable on the left and the large monoblocks looked to be mono versions of the TA 260S seen on the banner. This gear is expensive, but it is also almost always one of the Best Rooms at the show... and it doesn't matter whether it is with their tube or solid-state gear.

Sonner Audio out of Merrimack, NH, was another new speaker manufacturer for me. They make two series and the Legato Unum monitor with matching stand ($4750/$750) comes from the more affordable line. Music was processed through an AMR DAC ($5k) and amplified with a Luxman L-590AX II Class A solid-state integrated ($8995) putting out 30 Wpc. Make that 30 good Watts. Cabling was by Nordost and Kimber. Music here was very, very nice coming from a system totaling under $20k. Fit and finish of the speakers was first class. All Sonner speakers come with interchangeable faceplates that do not cover the drivers. They even had a request from a dealer in Texas for a Texas themed faceplate. Your assignment is to identify which town is not actually in Texas.

At Audioengine they had the larger A2+ monitors playing at the time. The amp is in the left speaker and they run the signal over to the right monitor with a cable and Tidal sounded pretty good. But be careful — Instant karma's gonna get you! (Room 622)

Charlie Schnyder runs Stereo Haven in rural southern Illinois by appointment only, which is a good thing since he is 4 hours from Chicago, northwest from Nashville and east of Kansas City. You wouldn't want to show up unannounced and have to find him somewhere in a cornfield. If you live out that way, he is probably your only local dealer for Leben amps, DeVore Fidelity speakers and Well-Tempered turntables — all of which were on display in Room 630 to save you a trip. It was like he took a page right out of the Montreal show where John DeVore, himself, sometimes shows up with nearly this exact combination, right down to the Box Furniture four-shelf rack ($3250). The 0/93 Orangutan speaker ($8400) was driven by the Leben 600 integrated amp ($6495).

The Well-Tempered Lab Amadeus GT 254 ($8250) was a considerably more evolved version than I had seen many years ago — also a good bit more expensive. The floating golf ball arm suspension is revised and the dual-plinth is now multi-layered high-density plywood beneath the metal top plate and above the metal bottom plate. The plater itself looks totally revised. Only the broad plinth and long thin tubular tonearm look familiar. Time has obviously marched on. I wasn't familiar with the particular rock music playing at the time, so I'll pass on commenting on the sound here.

In the larger 634 room Gamut presented their monitor on a matching stand that exhibited the company's high degree of style and quality. Acoustically, it sounded very fine, too, with upbeat jazz from the Bill Evans Trio playing. Aurender's flagship A30 caching server/streamer with MQA decoding was at the front end and a Gamut stereo solid state was driving the speakers. The large silver footers under the Aurender gear were the new Pneupod NP-2 heavy-duty pneumatic isolation footers from Pneuance Audio ($1050/3, $1395/4). They also introduced a new Pneupad series of platforms ($495/$649) to accommodate the Pneupod feet if you don't wish to use them directly under your components.

That Wraps Up The 6th Floor
I'll begin Part 5 with a mystery room down on the 5th floor. I suspect I'm about half-way through my coverage of AXPONA at this point, so keep checking in over the next week or two. I've got floors 5, 4 and 3 in the Atrium of the hotel, and then floors 2 and 1 with the big rooms. Lots of exciting gear and rooms lie ahead.

---> Onward to AXPONA 2019 show report by Rick Becker part 5.

---> Back to main AXPONA 2019 show report page.