AXPONA 2019 Show Report -- Audio Expo North America

AXPONA 2019: Monstrous Fun in the Windy City
All I can say is, we enjoyed the music!
AXPONA 2019 Show Report By Greg Weaver

   I got to The Audio Company/VAC/Von Schweikert Audio room about 8:30 with Leif Swanson (Chief Designer at VSA) and Gordon Waters (of The Audio Company), and after a quick listening test indicated to me that we needed a minor adjustment to VTA, the party got started. While we started off slowly (the free Shelby Lynne concert was still going strong), we ended up with a pretty full room before 10:00 or so.

Now, I wont wax on and on about the superb sonics this magnificent system recreates; I've done so several times here at Enjoy The Music, with both my Capital Audiofest 2017 and AXPONA 2018 reports, as well as in show coverage for other journals. Please feel free to view those blow by blow descriptions of the sound of this magnificent system. Rather, I want to share the level of enjoyment, of engagement, and the enormously powerful emotional experiences unleashed during that session in front of this sublimely musical and majestic system. And, not just in my own words, but in the words of those who came by and took the time to write about what they heard....

One last point. My last stop the afternoon before the session had been by the Mobile Fidelity rooms, 330 and 334, wherein I had the great pleasure of talking with Shawn Britton, their senior Mastering Engineer, and Jonathan Derda, National Sales and Marketing Manager at MoFi Distribution. Jon was kind enough to loan me a double LP 45 RPM test pressings of Dire Straits 1978 eponymous album for my session. This was going to be a treat!

Early into the session, listening to the chillingly powerfully expressiveness of David Bowie's vocals from Cat People (Putting Out Fire), the 12" UK 45 RPM single, brought a round of rousing vocalizations and applause as it finished.

As I introduced and queued the Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57 "Appassionata," with Ikuyo Kamiya, playing a Bösendorfer Imperial, recorded live from the hall directly to the master, a young lady stepped up to me and asked if she might occupy my seat for that track. I was only too happy to grant her request. When the piece finished, I heard the gasps and sighs of amazement from nearly everybody in the room. It was only as the young woman got up from that special seat that I noticed that her face was drenched from tears; she had wept through the entire performance. Her only words as she walked by were, "When it's right, it's right!"

A special treat, Mobile Fidelity 45 RPM LP test pressings of Dire Straits 1978 eponymous album.

I played both the title cut, and "Lenny," from the just-released Mobile Fidelity Ultra Disc 1 Step pressing of Stevie Ray Vaughn's, Texas Flood. In this instance, not only was the applause thunderous on its conclusion, but no less than three people admitted to ordering the LP from their phones while it was playing.

Two other reviewers/friends were in attendance, and both go out of their way to attend my late-night sessions. The first one had this to say in his show report, "A spin of an audiophile reissue of Traffic's 1971 album, The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys was the most stupefyingly fantastic twelve minutes I've ever spent listening to recorded music." The other, who actually skipped the live music event in favor of my LP session, simply said, "I spent four hours there Saturday night. It was sessionsational. It was mesmerizing." He also specifically referred to the Dire Straits playback, suggesting again that the sonics were sensational, and urging everyone to preorder their copy immediately.

As indicated, I closed our evening by playing side one of the 1978 classic Dire Straits, which is on my list of Rock & Roll's "Perfect Sides."  In this case, we played both sides A and B of this 45 RPM remaster test pressing. It was literally epic! It was so powerful and moving that a colleague and manufacturer who had been there all evening rather vigorously suggested that we needed to hear "Six Blade Knife" again.

Most of the listeners were smitten by the near lifelike sonics and hung out to the very end. To be honest, I was thrilled to see so many people having so much fun listening to some of the best rock music ever recorded, playing some of the best sounding pressings I've been able to uncover. Though announced as running from 9PM to 12AM, we were all so rapt and engaged that we ran well past our scheduled quitting time of Midnight. It was almost 1:30AM when we finished listening, and just about 3AM when we were wound down enough to head back to our rooms.

As we were winding down, and the listeners were slowly ebbing out of the room (no one really wanted to leave), three of them offered some version of, "This was the most amazing listening session I've ever attended," as they filed out past me.

On the way back to my room, I spotted some posts that had shown up on Facebook during and immediately following the session, one saying, "After "Show" hours listening marathon w Greg Weaver spinning his stax of wax! ...a thrilling private event, I'll not soon forget!" and another, "The quality of vinyl and uncolored sweetness, dynamics and realism was breathtaking."

A closer view of the Von Schweikert Audio Ultra 11s with the Valve Amplification Company's Statement 450i monoblocks.

Then there were the posts that soon showed up on the forums, like these that appeared on What's Best forum. "Greg Weaver's Saturday night music standup event was nothing short of amazing. I did not realize that I sat in place for six hours listening to many records I know quite well, so I thought, and left at 3AM absolutely elated. Great music, amazing sound, great standup. Bravo Greg, VSA, VAC, MB, and TAC."

And this one, "As I have mentioned elsewhere on WBF, Greg Weavers annual Saturday night six hour AXPONA play session was other worldly because of the sound and the amazing recordings that Greg brought. Even some of the most stoic manufacturers were up dancing and playing air guitar. One of the best sessions I have experienced and every bit the match for Iverson'/s Force Fields and in the area of bass and sound stage way better. Bravo to all involved and special thanks to Greg for his audio standup."

Making a statement, the Von Schweikert Audio Ultra 11s and two pair of Valve Amplification Company's Statement 450i monoblocks.

This one appeared at Hi Fi Heaven, "And my preference for "Best in Show" was not a close race. The larger VAC/Van Schweikert system set up in the (aptly-named) Euphoria room by The Audio Company from Marietta, GA took my breath away... This system had the largest – widest and deepest – soundstage I've ever heard. I've had the privilege to hear large bands and orchestras while standing on the proscenium and from every spot on the stage and from nearly every seat in the house. This was the first time I could "hear" the entire Chicago Symphony Orchestra (for instance) as though I were actually there in front of them. Every instrument was present and, in its place, its player performing his or her part just as they practiced, rehearsed, and were recorded... And the dynamics were enormous, yet nimble... And there was no question about clarity and resolution. This system was operating on a higher level than that. It was a given... And the timbre was accurate. Correct. Right."

From the Audiogon forum, "The two large VAC/Von Schweikert Audio rooms were a pleasure to see, I just sat a while, I don't remember how long, it sounded so real."

Lastly, an Instagram post. "Guys as a chief mastering engineer I have to agree 100%. Their line (VSA) of speakers absolutely disappear when listening, the highs are very resolving but without the fatiguing brightness of lesser designs. I sat and listened to some Norah Jones, Steely Dan, Brian Culbertson, and the Eagles... The mid-range had Norah Jones personally singing to me, her vocals sounded very sensual and real. Someone really put a lot of time into the design of even the bass drivers and tuning because the low end has absolutely zero overhang or bloating to the sound. Brian Culbertson's album – it's on tonight – played out flawlessly! Good job guys I was very very impressed! I'm a fan ?." Ok, no point beating a dead horse... I'm sure you get the point.

In closing, let me simply say that these two massive systems, sponsored by The Audio Company, represent the most authentically musical playback experiences I've yet had in front of any audio system/s. I'm talking about the magic they are capable of producing, to foster the utter and inexplicable suspension of disbelief that only occurs when all the conditions are right, when that perfect storm of electronics, speakers, cabling, software, and room set up, all align. Those most miraculous and infrequent of times when you are permitted to completely forget that what you are listening to is a recreation, a reconstructed sonic event.

When you are so completely transfixed by an entirely fabricated deception that you are unaware that the time and space of the event unfolding before you are merely auditory illusions generated by a complex reconstruction engine, a conglomeration of electro-mechanical devices. It can be a transforming occurrence, transporting you through time and space to witness the sensations, feelings, and emotions that the artist/s in play worked so hard to convey, an experience that the production crew and recording engineers toiled to so accurately capture. That was our Saturday night at AXPONA 2019.

All I can say is, we Enjoyed the Music!

Till next time, dear readers.

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