AXPONA 2019 Show Report -- Audio Expo North America
AXPONA 2019 Coverage By Rick Becker -- Part 7

Second Floor Large Rooms
While it was tempting to stick my foot into the Expo Hall, I doubled back to the stairs leading to the 2nd floor. Back in the corner near the top of the stairs in the Serenity room hosted by Next Level HiFi was a now familiar combination of Borresen Acoustics speakers driven by Aavik Acoustics electronics linked with Ansuz Acoustics cables and power conditioning. The rig was along the long wall with the speakers spread wide and angled in toward the two rows of chairs that were filled with people refusing to leave. As you might guess, or remember this drill, this was another of the Best Rooms at the show, exhibiting transparency that is positively mesmerizing. The speaker was the brand new Borresen 05 ($120k).

Outside, I ran into Michael Borresen who graciously shared the technological approach he is taking with this new line. My still photo of him was a disaster but my video, which was only meant for taking notes, came out fairly decent, so you may see a YouTube if I can figure out how to post it. It is fascinating material based largely on removing iron from the dynamic drivers of his speakers. I'll leave it at that, for now. The end result speaks for itself when you hear the music, which is not to ignore the contribution of the Aavik and Ansuz gear which Borresen also had a hand in developing.

While it appears that these are three different companies, they are really developed by the same set of people. This is a very winning combination. It appears they were using the C-300 preamp (w/DAC) and a pair of Class A M-300 monoblocks with a Naim CD player as a transport. Interestingly, their preamp only has RCA inputs, though outputs are both single ended and balanced, as are the inputs of the power amps. Also seen here was a rack that I admired in a previous room in the hotel. At the next show I expect to see the new high-tech rack from Ansuz that was probably just introduced at Munich. (It appears on the Ansuz website.)

Next door in the Prosperity room hosted by Audio Video Interiors of Chicago, who also had a room back on the 3rd floor, we had another Bowers & Wilkins / McIntosh combination wired with AudioQuest. This time it was the 802 Diamond speaker ($22k) in the Rosenut wood veneer driven by MC611 monoblocks (600 Watts each) with a C1100 tube preamp and controller and an Aurender streamer. It was a totally different sound than what I had just heard in the previous room, illustrating the value of attending shows if you're planning on spending this kind of money on audio equipment.

Around the corner in the Epiphany room were the gorgeous Scaena loudspeakers with their expensive real mother of pearl paint on the line source dynamic drivers that cover the 100Hz to 5kHz range. The planar ribbon drivers beside them take over for the higher frequencies. The 18" subwoofer seen to the rear handles the base. Dating back to 2007, the Scaena has endured and reached iconic status on the basis of its outstanding sound as well as it original design and beauty. Custom colors on a piece of this stature are obviously available. The design comes in three heights to accommodate different size rooms with 12, 15 or 18 midrange units. I had a brief chat with Sunny Umrao of Scaena, whom I've meet on a couple of occasions, but I didn't get a price or pay much attention to the system here.

Mostly, I became frustrated trying to take a photo of the mother of pearl finish by people who kept opening the door and spoiling the light for me. The basic version of the Scaena with a pair of subs started out at $54k back when it was introduced, so factor in the effects of quantitative easing over the last decade and the mother of pearl finish, then make your best guess. More than a decade later, these are still great loudspeakers.

Next along the wide hall was the Euphonia room which was nearly three times the size of the previous three rooms (as were all the remaining rooms here on the 2^nd floor). Speakers are the eye-catchers in this rarefied league and the towering Von Schweikert Ultra 11 speaker ($295k) is no exception. The bank of four VAC Statement 450iQ monoblocks ($120/pr) took the presentation to a higher level, especially when you consider the four subwoofer drivers are powered internally. I remember fondly Albert Von Schweikert's attempt to fill a ballroom at a New York show back in the 1990s, and while this room is not quite as large, it is clear evidence of the progress the entire industry has made in the past two decades. While Albert has since retired, I've had a nice chat with his son, Damon, both at RMAF and briefly here at AXPONA, and it seems the acorn has not fallen far from the oak. It is heartwarming to witness the successful generational transition of such a fine company.

Audiophiles have long eschewed the use of tone controls, but first speaker designers and more recently with digital room correction, engineers are bringing it all back home. The bi-polar controls on the back of the Ultra 11 speaker are far more complex that the single rear-firing tweeter control on the VR-4 speaker that put Von Schweikert on the map in the early 2000s. The use of such rear-firing drivers, embodied in what they call their Rear Ambient Retrieval System, helped create a more three-dimensional presentation and took advantage of the fact that the room is often the most important component of a system. The listening experience here (with the eyes closed) definitely conveyed the impression that the room was big.

Likewise, Kevin Hayes has brought his Valve Amplification Company (VAC) a long way since that time, especially with his iQ circuitry that almost literally gives his tube amps a brain. Time and again I've heard great sounding rigs driven with his preamps and amps.

The control center and front ends of the system were impressively arranged on a wall of Critical Mass Maxxum racks that totaled $73,800. I may be late to the party, but in the past few years I've come to appreciate that serious equipment racks deserve to be treated as an important component of high end rigs. Judging from the price, this model from Critical Mass would seem to be at or near the top of that category. Included here were the VAC statement phono preamp ($80k) and line stage ($80k). The turntable was the TechDAS Air Force One ($162k) with a Graham Engineering Phantom Elite tonearm ($12,900) and a TechDAS TDC-01 cartridge ($12k). The digital front end was from Esoteric with their Grandioso P1 transport ($38k) feeding two monoblock Grandioso D1 DACs ($38k/pr) which has become something of a trend in Europe recently. Esoteric also supplied their Grandioso G1 master clock ($26k) and N-01 network player ($20k).

An Aurender N10 music server ($8500) was also in play here. MasterBuilt Ultra cables, the house brand of Von Schweikert, were used throughout and given the distances involved in this large room, their cost must not have been trivial. The equipment totaled about $1,110,000 and you could easily add 10% to 20% for the cables, I would imagine. Those who own yachts, private jets, winning race horses, companies that sponsor major league race cars and the like, and who also have a great appreciation of music will be intrigued by what they heard in this room, for sure. The rest of us just kind of listened in awe. The equipment here was sponsored by The Audio Company out of Marietta, Georgia, and we will see lower priced versions from these manufacturers further down the hall.

Utopia A featured the Legacy Audio suite, which was a little smaller than Euphonia room just visited, but featured four systems to which a lot more people could relate. They ranged in price from a little more than $9k to over $50k, exclusive of the streaming devices... usually a PC, or in one case an OPPO BDP-93 player. Bill Dudleston was busy talking with potential customers and being photographed with fans but fortunately his daughter, Victoria, stepped up and gave me some help with their new amplifier. Seen here were the Focus SE speakers ($11,725) in Rosewood finish but they are available in 10 finishes. They were powered by Legacy's Powerbloc2 Class D stereo amplifier ($1800) capable of putting out 650 Wpc into the 4 Ohm speaker. The other unit on the pedestal is their Wavelet DAC / Preamp / Crossover / Correction unit at $4950.

The new amp was the Powerbloc4 ($2950) with four channels of 650 Watts @ 4 Ohms for bi-amp'ing, surround sound or running a second set of speakers in another room. A 7/8-channel version is in the works for surround sound application. With time running short, I didn't spend a lot of time here, but this rig with the Focus SE sounded quite respectable for a basic system price of $18,475.

Cabling was by Douglas Connection, a name that was new to me. I'll also mention that Legacy ran with tube amplification from Raven Audio at RMAF last fall, so the Focus SE, with 4 Ohm impedance and 95.4dB/W/m sensitivity, should play well with good tube amplification if that's your bent. I'm told their high value solid state amps are designed to run with tube preamps if you need more power. Unfortunately, both here and at RMAF, I've caught their room on a tight timetable and I really should pay more attention to their offerings. It seems like very high value gear. And did I mention they are celebrating their 25th Anniversary this year?

---> Next Page.