The AXPONA 2023 Chronicles: Introduction
A mix of both younger and older attendees... plus a Chicago riot.
Audio Expo North America 2023 Show Report By Rick Becker

  Another item was the motor for the dynamic drivers. They use Titanium for the voice coils because it has very low inductance.

For the driver basket, they went to the extreme of Laser Additive Manufacturing to create the strongest, most resonant-free basket out of Zirconium because... well, it sounds better to them.

The rig was comprised of Ansuz cables, power distributors, streaming accessories and resonance control devices, and Aavik electronics with their distinctive red LED lettering.

At the end of the show, tell, and listening session, someone called for a group photo and the members of the Audio Group Denmark went arm-over-shoulder, looking like the front line of a rugby team.

While the others dispersed, I hung around to take a couple more photos of the decidedly Danish speakers. Not only did they look intentional in function, but also intentional in form. And the sound? Very tight from top to bottom, very high resolution, yet never crosses the line into irritation. It could be as tiring as your choice of music — they played a lot of music I would call "techno," but if your selection is more romantic or relaxing, the speaker will probably lean that way, too. At $280k, you will likely require an audition with the music of your choosing.

At the invitation of Ken Stevens of CAT (Convergent Audio Technology), I drifted down the large 2nd floor hallway to Nirvana C where Ken and the owner of Essential Sound Products were doing final tweaking of the prototype power cords he was using. Coming from two listening sessions with world-class solid-state components to this room with world-class tube amplifiers was revelatory, but working on only a handful of hours of sleep in my car in the early morning hours, I retired early to get started at the opening hour on Friday morning. I'll get back to the CAT room in a few weeks when I cover the entire 2nd floor.

The Plan
So, here's the plan for my AXPONA Chronicles this year. I'll start on the 16th Floor and work my way down, which is my usual approach. Each floor will be written up as a separate Part (1, 2, 3, etc), meaning there will be 12 Parts to the report, plus a wrap-up with some final thoughts plus my nomination of a bunch of Best Rooms for 2023. This structure will allow you to correlate my coverage of the floors with the Exhibitor List on the AXPONA's website.

With 200 rooms at the show this year, I will not be writing comments about each room, but with 644 photos in my file, I will likely have at least a photo from most of them. This will take weeks to complete, so have patience and keep dropping by to see the latest updates. The good news is, unlike last year, I don't seem to have come down with a bad cold or some such. I hope you're well, too.

---> Onward to the next part of Rick Becker's extensive AXPONA 2023 show coverage.

---> Back to main AXPONA 2023 show report page.