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

ModWright Instruments, EgglestonWorks, Wolf Audio System/House of Sound, WyWires, Stillpoints, And VPI Industries
Report By Steven R. Rochlin

  Daniel Wright of ModWright Instruments is one of the truly bright lights within high-end audio. Cautiously calm, casually cool, and super smart! ModWright's KWH 225i vacuum tube integrated amplifier ($8495) combines the solid-state output stage of the company's Reference KWA 150SE amp with the controls and integration of their KWI 200. A few tweaks here, replacing the SS preamp circuit with a Class A tube design there, and you get 225 Watts of perfectly powerful amp-power.

VPI's HW-40 turntable ($15,000) features their phat Fatboy Anniversary Tonearm, a direct drive motor, and Nordost Reference Wire. There's a new VTA base for adjusting arm height 'on-the-fly' too. VPI's Shyla cartridge ($1200), named after Mat Weisfeld's daughter, is included (the cartridge that is, as there's a serious upcharge of a kazillion Bitcoin for buying Mat's precious jewel of a daughter ;-) ). For phono stage duties ModWright's PH 9.0 ($2900, MM/MC) two box vacuum tube unit with on-the-fly MC loading, mono/stereo, adjustable gain, plus external power supply was used. Wait, all that for only $2900? Am changing the company's owner's name to "Dan The Madman!"

Speaking of speakers, EgglestonWorks OSO floorstanders ($11,995 per pair) made their global debut here at the Florida Audio Expo 2020. T+A's MP 3100 HV DAC ($21,000) handled digital duties with Wolf Audio's servers. Their Alpha 3 SX ($9895) is a DAC and streamer that easily handles Roon, Qobuz, Tidal, Deezer and more. You get 2TB of silent solid-state storage (expandable up to 12TB!).

A plethora of WyWires hooked it all up including Platinum Speaker cables ($2999 a pair), Silver Series power cords ($499), and much more. Stillpoints ESS Rack kept all the gear solidly placed ($22,000), with Aperture Acoustic Panels ($800 each) helping make the room sound sweet.

PHEW! With all that said, how did the room sound? My handy dandy listening notes say "Smooth, nice, glorious highs too! Deep bass, without being overpowering. Natural sounding vocals, with breath and ease. All day listenable."

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