The AXPONA 2023 Chronicles: Part 12
The one, and only, 1st Floor.
Audio Expo North America 2023 Show Report By Rick Becker

Audio Video Interiors of Chicago, B&W, And McIntosh
Stepping into the Imagination room just to the left there was another McIntosh rig driving B&W 802 D4 speakers ($28k). Audio Video Interiors of Chicago is on Illinois 83 in Oakbrook Terrace, west of Chicago, yet their banner proclaims Luxury AV Professionals. They seemed to be versed not only in high-end audio, but networks, home theater,  commercial AV, and control automation, both in design and installation. That's a lot of hats.

Music was streamed from an Aurender A15 server ($8400) to a McIntosh C2700 preamp ($8500). MC451 monoblock amplifiers ($28k) had plenty of power for the speakers. A McIntosh MPC1500 power conditioner was used here.

The current series of B&W speakers sound a good bit better than the previous series to me. The music gets out of the box more, now. Styling is decidedly contemporary. The selection of rock music playing when I visited didn't allow me to get a grip on how good this rig might have sounded. Both McIntosh and B&W have their diehard devotees and this room was more crowded than the previous room.

Cabling here was by Audioquest, another blue-chip brand. 1m Firebird XLR interconnects from the Aurender to the preamp were $7500. A 3-eterm pair from the preamp to the monoblocks was $15,500, so system design can have a significant impact on the overall cost. The speakers were bi-wired with 8' Thunderbird Zero speaker cables on mid and high frequency ($5700) and Thunderbird Bass cables for the low-frequency terminals ($4500). 1-, 2-, and 5-meter Hurricane power cords were $1495, $2700, and $5100. It is no coincidence that serious rigs all have serious money invested in good cables.

Saturday Audio Exchange, Bluesound, Lenbrook, NAD, PSB Speakers, And Pangea Audio
In past years the Innovation room was utilized by Saturday Audio Exchange as a store to sell off used equipment and by the time I got there the shelves and tables had been pretty well cherry-picked.

This year the seating was set up for listening to what were two separate rigs, but the room was pretty much empty, save for a speaker and a NAD banner for their M33 BluOS streaming DAC/amplifier. A handful of people were standing around, but it looked like I missed the real party.

Out in the hallway by the Innovation room, they had a table set up selling cables and accessories, but it had a distinct flea market flavor to it, as well as it distracted from the entrance to the Inspiration room that many people might have missed.

Saturday Audio Exchange, GoldenEar, And McIntosh
This small room was an entry-level display of two top brands — McIntosh and Golden Ear (speakers).

This was the USA premiere of the new T66 speaker with powered bass ($TBD). The BRX bookshelf/stand-mounted speaker ($1898) was on silent display. The photo doesn't reveal the deep red finish on the T66 speaker, but I suspect this was the same model I had seen on silent display in Montreal in March. It's a very attractive color and very rich looking.

The McIntosh electronics were the entry-level models including the MA352 200-Watt hybrid integrated amp ($7k), the MDA200 DAC ($4k), and the MCD350 CD Player (($5500). Also in use were a Lumin  u2Mini streamer ($2300), Audioquest Niagara 5000 power conditioner ($5900), and a Pangea Vulcan audio rack.

AudioQuest cables were used throughout including Pegasus XLR 1m interconnects ($1995), and Thunderbird Zero bi-wire combo speaker cables ($10k200, 8'). Power cords had a wide range from NRG-Y3 ($190) to Blizzard ($895), and even Hurricane High-Current ($2700), all at 2m length.

The setting of this room with the bookshelf and gear on silent display probably didn't do justice to the gear here. It was difficult to settle in and concentrate on the music, though one gentleman was certainly trying at the time I visited. With the reputation GoldenEar has, I expect this speaker will be very well reviewed in an appropriate setting. I liked that it had a broad base for stability.

Pushing through the glass doors that spanned the hallway, I entered the area of the main AXPONA entrance where the registration desks and the Schaumburg rooms flanked the ballroom which was host to the Ear Gear Experience and the seminars.

PS Audio
Starting with Schaumburg A at the front corner, I entered the PS Audio space where they had the rig set up on the diagonal of this nearly block-shaped room with its tall ceiling. (All the Schaumburg rooms were virtually identical in this respect.) The entire rig was PS Audio gear except for the cables, perhaps. I didn't see any product lists to help me out.

The FR30 speakers ($30k) were playing and it was immediately clear that they were sounding much better than I had heard them in Montreal last year where I felt obliged to not comment on them at all. A couple of things have changed since then. PS Audio has come out with their new DirectStream DAC Mk2 ($8k), and I believe the PerfectWave Transport ($7k) might be new since then too.

The Mk2 DAC is a big improvement that I have experienced firsthand in a close friend's system where he traded in his original PerfectWave DAC. He also found that switching fuses (the Synergistic Research Master fuse) makes an additional huge gain. Moreover, it is much easier to swap fuses in the Mk2 DAC and the Mk2 DAC now becomes functional in a matter of seconds, rather than having to reboot it after shutting it down, which took him about 15 minutes.

I also noticed the smaller AirLens on top of the stack, though it may have been a prototype, as there is no reference to it on their website. Below that was the PerfectWave BHK preamplifier (It's called the BHK Signature Preamplifier on their website, $7k), the PerfecWave SACD Transport ($7k), the PerfectWave DirectStream DAC Mk2 ($8k), and on the bottom was a DirectStream Power Plant 15 power regenerator that served the components above it.

Set back on identical top-lit pedestals were two Power Plant 20 ($10k ea) that each served a BHK Mono 600 power amplifier ($32,498/pr) — also a new model.

The FR30 speaker was putting out too much bass even in this large room and the bass was a bit muddied due to the set-up and the room dimensions. Other Schaumburg rooms were more successful in this regard. There was excellent transparency and focus through the midrange on up, though the treble was a bit aggressive to my ear.

Sitting atop a stack of handsome Stellar series components was the little Sprout 100 integrated amplifier that features a phono stage, DAC, and headphone amp and puts out 50 Wpc into 8 Ohms and doubles that into 4 Ohms. I had forgotten how small this versatile cute little guy was.

After hitting Schaumburg B, C, and D, I doubled back into the PS Audio room and caught them playing the FR20 speakers ($19k). Ah, we were much closer to the Goldilocks zone with the smaller speaker. With fewer woofers and passive radiators, and a non-adjustable tweeter, this speaker seemed more relaxed and I could settle in with the music with greater ease. Acoustically, it seemed another case of "Less is more" and like Bauhaus design, it is strictly a contemporary design if such things matter to you.

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