Florida Audio Expo 2020 Show Report
Florida Audio Expo 2020 Show In Tampa, Florida.

Bryston And Audeze Rooms Plus Nagra Audio Too
With little info to go on...
Report By Steven R. Rochlin

  Sometimes you forget to take notes, or your smartly ask the exhibitor(s) to help by e-mailing you a gear list. Alas, sometimes when covering rooms things simply 'fall apart'. No worries, as these things happen from time to time. Bryston had their typical solid-state gear, while Audeze has truly amazing Nagra Audio gear with their extra-special planar magnetic headphones!

Below you can see Audeze had their cans being driven by the impressive Benchmark Media HPA4 headamp. A great unit with solid build quality, and at very reasonable pricing of $2999. The THX AAA technology inside reduces harmonic, intermodulation, and crossover distortion by 20 to 40 dB! There's also a patented feed-forward topology to null conventional distortion and noise mechanisms, resulting in "the world's most linear amplifier" says the company. 

Notice those sweet Steampunk LCD-3 planar magnetic headphones? These are the world's most photographed pair of headphones (with a dramatic pause like Jeremy Clarkson)... in the world. And yes, their mine :)

And as impressive as Benchmark Media Systems gear is, the Nagra setup totally and completely blew that system away! Sure it costs a bit more, ok a bit more than a bit, yet if you want to hear the very best from your personal audio experience there is no substitute, as you're missing out on what truly is possible by not using Nagra Audio gear imho. Imagine the sound of Nagra's Classic PSU mated with their Tube DAC to drive Audeze headphones. Ahhhh yes, heaven!

Here's the deal, as Nagra Audio's Tube DAC is of course Hi-Res Audio rwady for Hi-Res Music, yet it is soooo much more! This is a true no-compromise digital-to-analog converter for files up to 384kHz PCM and DSD 4x. According to the company, "Following the path to high definition sound laid down by the world-acclaimed HD DAC, we wanted to offer the latest sampling frequencies and resolution. We took the opportunity of extending the HD DAC X project with a whole new digital interface and converter to update and upgrade the HD DAC. The new digital core is built on the experience gained from the HD DAC. The design features an entirely new converter as well as a new USB interface. The result is highly impressive and also a major improvement in every format, even regular red-book CD through S/PDIF, for instance."

And for those lusting to hear every single set of Audeze cans using perhaps the world's best headamp, well then you reeeeeally should have attended the Florida Audio Expo 2020. See that pic above? Am just sayin'  :)

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