The AXPONA 2023 Chronicles: Part 4
The 12th floor was filled with glorious sounds.
Audio Expo North America 2023 Show Report By Rick Becker

Fidelity Imports
Somehow, the last of Fidelity Imports' rooms got separated from the pack, further down the hall. When I looked at the speakers and then the equipment list, I couldn't believe the price. The Acoustic Energy AE 520 floor standers are designed and voiced in the UK, but at $5k, surely, they must be built in China. The three-way design features a carbon fiber dome tweeter with a waveguide and carbon fiber midranges. There is a midrange above and below the tweeter as well as three woofers further down. It was shown in the American walnut finish but is also available in gloss white and gloss black. It looked and sounded very impressive for $5k. The 500 series is their flagship series.

The Cyrus electronics included a preamp from their Classic series ($3799), a power amplifier from their newer X series ($1799), and a new Stream XR streamer that is too new to have a price. The power amp puts out 100 Watts into 6 Ohms and is switchable to mono with 181 Watts into 6 Ohms. These are compact components and stack neatly in a vertical stack on a Cyrus rack, but also look impressive when laid out side-by-side on a shelf. At Capital Audiofest the Cyrus electronics drove a Diptyque electrostatic very nicely, so don't underestimate this brand because of their compact size.

The streamer in the upper right corner of the rack is a prototype and will be roughly $3k. It will work with BluOS and will be Roon Ready. Variable outputs will allow it to feed directly into a power amplifier.

The NEO rack shown throughout the Fidelity Imports rooms was shown in an alternate black finish with silver hardware.

I particularly liked their use of downward firing table lamps on the floor to keep the room light low, yet give ample illumination to move about in the room. It gave this modestly priced room a very swank look.

Audioquest, Ultra Fidelis, Vandersteen Audio, Audio Research, Harmonic Resolution Systems (HRS), Lyra Analog, And Sierra Sound
This room seems to have been pulled together by Ultra Fidelis, a retailer up in Wauwatosa, WI, who carries Audioquest, Vandersteen, Audio Research, AMG, and many other fine brands. In researching Wauwatosa, a western suburb of Milwaukee, I came across the town's theme song on YouTube.

The HRS racks were filled with an Audio Research phono stage and preamp and an Aurender N30SA two-box, State-Of-The-Art Dual-Chassis Digital Output Network Transport with an HRS anti-vibration block on top of the lower unit.

The speakers were the Vandersteen Kento Carbon with a carbon tweeter and a carbon/balsa core midrange driver, both of which have trickled down from higher models. The pistonic, side-firing 9" woofers, covered by the black slanted grille that adds such distinction to the design, are specially built for Vandersteen. The Kento is powered by the Vandersteen M5-HPA (high pass amplifier) monoblocks ($19,800) that are tailored to the speaker, putting out 150 Watts into 8 Ohms, 300 into 4 Ohms. The Kento was shown in wood veneer but is also available in painted finishes. An Audioquest Niagara 5000 power conditioner sat between the amps and speakers.

I caught the final moment of "Tennessee Stud" (played by Doc Watson?) coming from an LP on the AMG Giro Mk II ($11,500, standard) with the cross-hatched upgraded plinth, from Germany. It was fitted with an AMG tonearm, but the record weight looked like an HRS. AMG is distributed by Sierra Sound, in case you were wondering what Sierra Sound was all about. Judging from the final moment of "Tennessee Stud" as we close in on the Triple Crown, I have to say this was a very fine-sounding rig. Not only was the speaker appropriately sized for the room, but so was the volume, revealing the pure, natural sound of the rig.

I had a chat with Richard Vandersteen who is coming out with this Audio Control Center that goes way beyond most preamps. Most intriguing was its ability to increase the spatiality of monaural recordings.

The remote control for the L5-ACC not only has tone controls but also three presets that you can tailor to your favorite music genres. You also have the option for mono and phase control at your fingertips.

Richard also shared how the company is well-positioned with his adult children taking critical roles that fit their talents. That's good to hear as this is certainly one of the finest US companies in the high-end.

Premium Audio Company
"Who?" you might ask. Well, I didn't know the name either, but it is an umbrella company founded in 2020 that is comprised of three subsidiaries which include the brands Klipsch, Jamo, Mirage, ProMedia, Magnat, Heco, Mac Audio, Onkyo, Pioneer, Pioneer Elite, Integra, Teac, and Esoteric. Premium Audio Company is itself a wholly-owned subsidiary of VOXX International. So, like in the ocean, the big fish eat the little fish.

While many of the PAC companies are considered mid-fi or home theater brands, Klipsch is a brand that also travels with the big brands in the high end. What was shown here was a pair of almost all-in-one monitors with dials on the top that tipped them toward the "Lifestyle" category. The larger "the Nines" in wood tone is $1500 and the slightly smaller "the Sevens" are in black .

The rear dial of the Sevens seemed to be a source selection knob and the forward dial was more likely a volume control. Very clever and very useful if you lose the remote. There is a remote, isn't there?

Ah, here's the remote! Along with a huge port, phono inputs, a switch between phono and line, a subwoofer output, and both optical and USB Audio digital inputs. And let's not forget the ground post for your turntable and an HDMI input with ARC for your TV sound.

ampsandsound, Acora Acoustics, And Mimic-Audio
Ampsandsound put together a fine-sounding rig to show off their new Arch Monoblock amps ($50k), which I might not have mentioned, except they can also play with KT88 and 6550 tubes to avoid using Russian power tubes. KT88s delivering 65 Watts per channel should be plenty to drive the Acora QRC speakers ($28k) in this room. I've raved about Acora speakers since they were first introduced.

A $30k TW Acoustic Raven LS-3 turntable with a solid copper platter and Raven 10.5 tonearm is an excellent, well-known turntable. Surprisingly, it was listed with a Charisma Audio Signature 2 cartridge, a new flagship for this under-the-mainstream-radar company. Bernard Li, who designs the cartridges is an analog master with a strong sense of creating high-value products. (I use two of his cartridges as well as his Musiko turntable, for full disclosure.)

The digital front end was in the same price league with SW1X DAC IV Special ($40k) along with an SW1X USB to Coax converter ($2,250). This is a company I will have to keep an ear open for in the future as I don't recall seeing it before. Power was sourced through an Isotek V5 Aquarius conditioner ($3k) and cabling was Cardas Clear Beyond, which is favored by Val Cora for his own Acora Acoustics presentations. 

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