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

THREE – I was really anxious to hear this room, as there were going to be two world debuts, the new SUMMIT loudspeaker, the flagship of the new PEAKS series of entry-level YG Acoustics loudspeakers, and the launch of the new KRONOS Discovery RS Tonearm, that I reviewed last month. Knowing that I would get to see colleagues and buddies Bill Parish, of GTT Audio and Video, Dick Diamond, of YG Acoustics, and Joe and Greg Kubala, of Kubala-Sosna cables, only spurred my desire to get into Suite 1627.

To be honest, I am quite familiar with most of the gear that would be playing in this room, as I either own or have reviewed several of these components. LP transcription was done by the award-winning and superlative KRONOS Pro Turntable ($51,000) powered by the KRONOS SCPS 1 Power Supply ($15,000), sporting the brand new – this was the world premiere showing – of the KRONOS Discovery RS Tonearm ($24,000), fitted with a My Sonic Lab Platinum Signature MC Cartridge ($11,000). While I use an Etsuro Gold MC cartridge instead, the rest of this system, including this new Resonance Suppression pickup arm, is my current reference analog front-end system.

Ones and zeros were served up using a Roon Nucleus Plus ($2,558), an AURALiC Aries G2.1 Streamer ($5,700), and the superb Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC ($13,500).

Electronics included the Audionet PAM G2 Phono Amplifier ($10,100) powered by the Audionet Ampere Power Supply ($11,200), and the Audionet Humboldt Integrated Amplifier ($58,750) drove the YG Acoustics Summit Loudspeakers ($25,000) in their first-ever, world premiere showing.

Power distribution for all the electronics was managed by the Kubala•Sosna XPander ($5,400), while all cabling was from the Kubala•Sosna Sensation Series.

Now, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the new PEAKS series Summit loudspeakers, at $25,000, were just about the least expensive product in the entire set up... and I wasn't the only person in attendance that felt that move took some chutzpah, if you take my meaning.

DAMN, this new speaker from YG showed remarkably good balance and was capable of displaying teeming texture and exceptional tonal color. Listening to the 1995 Classic Records reissue of the 1960 RCA Shaded Dog version of Rimsky-Korsakoff's Scheherazade, by Reiner and the CSO, left me nearly stunned!

While I found the lowest octave to be just a bit light-ish given its single driver in this sized room, I was nonetheless almost left slack-jawed at its remarkably good pitch definition from the mid-bass on up into the upper treble. It more than convincingly portrayed the textures and vivid tone color of this full-scale Russian symphonic suite.

The system's ability to recreate accurate staging and realistically sized and placed imaging with this piece was more than simply good, it was exceptional, with information extending well outside the placement of the speakers, even with digital sources.

We did a head-to-head comparison of Dave Brubeck's 1959 classic, Time Out, using a 16/44 digital file and the 2002, Classic Records 200G LP. While the acoustic space on the same cut with LP was clearly both deeper and revealed more authentic body, the fact that this affordable little upstart Summit could portray all I had expected was remarkable. And this system's ability to render horns and piano so faithfully was remarkable.

Given the considerably higher system component price disparity to that of these new PEAKS Summit  loudspeakers, this showing must be seen as an absolutely triumphant reveal for the YG Acoustic PEAKS Summit in particular, and the PEAKS series in general. Bravo on a fine new beast from YG Acoustics, and to GTT for sharing this remarkable system with us.

TWO Also on the sixteenth floor, the Aster Presidential Suit was not only one of the best sounding surprises of this event, but it was hosted by a bunch of my dear friends and colleagues. Michael Vamos, of Audio Skies in LA, was leading the charge showing the remarkable Ideon Audio digital gear he had first introduced me to back in Rockville, last November at Capital Audio Fest, but there were two other good friends on hand, George Vatchnadze, (whom I mentioned concerning the MBL room earlier), and Serguei Timachev, the genius behind STEALTH Audio cables.

Interestingly enough, Michael and I, and two other colleagues, had been in the room sharing some exquisite whisky, and each other's company, until the wee hours of Sunday morning. Yet Michael was still willing to meet for an uninterrupted listening appointment before the show opened Sunday morning. George joined us as well, and the system was, well, sublimely moving.

The digital front end was the remarkable three-piece Ideon Audio stack from Greece that I had heard last winter in Rockville; the Absolute Stream ($19,900), the Absolute Time ($9,900), and the Absolute Epsilon DAC ($47,000).

Electronics were all from the JMF Audio of France, with the PRS 1.5 dual-mono preamplifier ($34,000) and the HQS 6002 dual-mono Power amp, using their OC3 power cable ($39,000). There was also a power line filter, the PCE 102, using the JMF Audio PC3 power cable ($16,000).

The loudspeakers were Laurence Dickie's Vivid Audio Giya G1S, or Spirit ($86,000/pr.), in a bold and beautiful red finish. I reviewed these remarkable speakers for The Absolute Sound just after their introduction in 2018.

All cabling was from STEALTH, including the Śakra V17 KE interconnects ($29,600 for a 6-meter XLR set), the Tantalus KE interconnects ($18,000 for a 1-meter XLR set), Dream V-18-T KE Loudspeaker cables ($15,500/1 meter pair), and the Dream V-18 UNI AC Cords ($6,800/1 meter).

As good as I had expected this system to sound, I was not prepared for the degree of clarity, transparency, and immediacy I was treated to. The system was exceptionally smooth and natural, and able to convey an amazing sense of the rhythm and timing of the event.

Violins sounded so visceral and genuine, offering more than merely gut on string, but revealing the all-to-often masked sonic contributions of the instrument's own wooden body. Piano was equally excellently represented, dynamic and tonality complex, replete with vivid color. There was a surprisingly visceral sense of the space of the recordings, as well as the body and bloom of the instruments.

With one choral piece – I believe it was a Bach chorale – this system's ability to reveal a greater, more recognizable individuality to each and every separate voice at the same time allowed for the much more convincing conviction that the massed voices were actually a composite made up of those clearly individual contributions, and not some blurred clump of voices, was unnerving.

Finally, the system presented an excellent sense of the realistic scaling of musical crescendos. The sonic envelope it created was so very convincing and authentic-sounding, so expressive and open, that one was left with an almost undeniable sense of thereness. Bloody well done, gentlemen!

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