AXPONA 2022 Show Report
Final Update Featuring The First Floor
Audio Expo North America 2022 Show Report
Show Report By Rick Becker

Record Fair, Expo Hall & Café

  It was now the latter part of Sunday afternoon. There were not a lot of folks drifting around and even some of the sponsors seemed to have fled some of the booths, probably to explore some of the active rooms at the show. The SOTA table here was well labeled with pricing, so that would answer most people's first question.

Bryan Taylor of The Gramophone, Inc. from Edmonton, Canada imports Audia Flight from Italy and had an entry-level FL3S integrated amp ($3895) and CD Three S CD player ($3395) on display. A top-loading SACD player will be coming out in July.

The hard-traveling minimalist recording engineer and producer, Todd Garfinkle of MA Recordings was seeing some action at his table late in the day.

The banner at Isonic ultrasonic cleaners looks so refreshing I can't resist taking a photo every time I see it.

Pro-ject is coming out with this new X8 turntable ($2800, w/arm and MM cartridge) with a ceramic bearing with magnetic support to reduce the effective mass on the bearing and reduce noise. It features a machined aluminum platter with a felt mat. Underneath are special footers with Sorbothane and aluminum. The wiring for the cartridge is single-ended, but you can change it to balanced output if you are using an MC cartridge.

They also have a new, fully balanced phono stage ($800) with push-button adjustments for input, loading, gain, and subsonic filter right on the front, as well as a knob for fully adjustable impedance when using MC cartridges. Robert Bruce kindly walked me through the nuances here.

Radial Audio was displaying their Stealth One straight-line tracking tonearm on a Linn LP12 turntable. The arm swivels horizontally away from the spindle to allow you to change the LP. It also has a unique way to attach the arm to the plinth.

Direct Audio was a new (to me) vendor of LPs. And I noticed the familiar Butcher Block Acoustics space off in the distance.

Keith Richardson of Darlington Labs in Boston left his card with the relatively affordable SU-7 step-up transformer and MP-7 phono stage that has received critical acclaim from users on the internet.

Great Plains Audio had a driver and crossover on display for people looking to overhaul their vintage Altec speakers.

Delmark Records has been around a long time in Chicago and that Junior Wells Hoodoo Man Blues record of theirs takes me back to the Newport Folk Festival in 1968 when I heard Junior Wells and Buddy Guy thrill the crowd.

It must be nice to live in a big town with an audiophile society.

This would be the new Keith Monks record-cleaning machine for Gen Z. Prices for these new Prodigy models range from $1095 to $1995.

And this would be the son of Keith, Jonathan Monks.

And the competition from Charles Kirmuss of Kirmuss Audio.

This stopped me in my tracks. It is a bowed PolyFlex Diffuser from A/V Room Service, Ltd. The product is just the curved clear plastic that affixes on two opposite sides to create a curved surface for the diffusion of sound (not absorption.) You mount it vertically or horizontally depending on how you want to reflect the sound. They offer several different room treatments and materials that might be of interest, particularly if you are building a dedicated listening room.

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