Classic Audio Loudspeakers with Atma-Sphere in the Cypress ballroom
John Wolff's Classic Audio Loudspeakers has been exhibiting in the cavernous Cypress ballroom for several years running now, and it's definitely a must-hear at every FLAX show. The amplifiers and preamps were from Atma-Sphere, and cables were provided by Purist Audio Designs. John always brings his Technics SP-10 turntable, which is fitted with a Tri-Planar tonearm, and there are always a couple of open reel decks on hand. This may be the only room at the show where you'll only hear analog source material!
John Wolff's room is strictly analog, usually with a couple of open reel decks and a Technics SP 10 table.
As I entered the Cypress ballroom, an open reel deck was playing some live Roy Orbison, probably from Black and White Night. While it didn't display the usual over-the-top scale of image that I've come to expect from the Classic Audio room, it was nonetheless probably the best sound I've ever heard Roy Orbison in. As the tape ended, John Wolff then put on an LP of electronica that I've never heard before—and the room suddenly came alive and rocked like no other room at the show. That's the funny thing; you take one look at John and you'd expect to hear the Roy Orbison track, or perhaps some other stale classical dinosaur. At generally every show, I've made a discovery of new music in John's room that often rocked my world!
John can reach into his album racks and pull out a surprisingly diverse range of requests for showgoers.
John then put on an LP of Kraftwerk's Tour de France—no one asked for it, he just pulled it out from one of his record shelves. As the music began, John reached over to the Atma-Sphere preamp and gave the knob a slight twist—and the massive room was suddenly energized beyond belief. I sat there motionless, thinking "If I could only win the lottery," and then "Holy crap, I'd have to build a really big out-building to house the system, and it'd have to be at least the size of this barn!" As the record ended, John asked for any requests, and I said that more Kraftwerk was great with me—he flipped the album and I stayed for the duration.
This room is a clear reminder of how great analog sources can still sound with great equipment!
As much as I love great digital, and the convenience it offers along with great sound—it's rooms like this that keep me from selling my turntable and getting rid of all my vinyl. I don't know what cartridge John uses, but that Technics SP-10 and the Tri-Planar arm produce a sound with so few analog artifacts and with such dynamics and clarity, it's literally beyond belief! If you're ever going to a show where Classic Audio Loudspeakers is exhibiting, do yourself a favor, it's not to be missed!
Gershmann Acoustics with Valve Amplification Company and Cardas Audio
I generally always make a point to get to the Gershmann Acoustics room, not only because of the typically great sound of their system, but also because they're such very nice people! This year, they partnered with Valve Amplification Company (VAC), featuring amps and preamp stacks from their Master line; that's an impressive step up in the electronics from previous shows where I've heard these loudspeakers. All cables were from Cardas Audio. This was a digital only system featuring a server/streamer from Wolf Audio and a DAC from EMM Labs, with Roon providing the library management.
Ofra Gershmann tells showgoers about the evolution of the Grand Avant Garde loudspeaker.
Gershmann again this year exhibited the Grand Avant Garde loudspeaker, which Ofra Gershmann told everyone in the room has been in production now for thirty years—though of course with continual improvements and refinements. These floorstanding speakers present a fairly small footprint, but don't let their compact size fool you! The angled front panel projects the midrange and tweeter information in such a manner that belies their relatively short stature. That helps create an exceptionally lifelike stereo image, with soundstaging that's both wide and deep. And the Grand Avant Garde's go much lower than you would expect, with in-room response specified down to 20Hz. There's a tuned vent into the loudspeaker's base that helps create a pressure differential that produces the speaker's incredibly deep bass, especially considering it's coming from an 8-inch woofer. I've heard everything in this room from chamber music to jazz vocals and even Metallica, and the Gershmann loudspeakers always manage to pull it off!
Geshelli Labs
Geshelli Labs exhibited at FLAX for a second year following the big splash they made at last year's show. Geshelli is a family-owned company; they manufacture headphone amps and DACs in their facility in Florida, and every member of the extended family handles an aspect of production. And business has been good for them; so good, in fact, they can barely meet the demand for their products, which are currently backordered pretty much throughout the line. Geno Geshelli and his wife Sherri spearhead the operation; their enthusiasm for their business and product line is almost contagious. If anyone out there is living the American audio dream, it's the Geshelli's!
Geshelli's amazing selection of headphone amps and DACs were everywhere!
This year Geshelli upgraded to two rooms at the show, and those rooms employ the most colorful and intense lighting schemes at the entire show. The first room featured all their headphone amp and DAC products, which come in a shockingly diverse range of exterior finishes and colors. Some of the case designs are off-the-charts crazy good, featuring industrial-looking aluminum exteriors with almost neon lighting and faceplates. Others have exotic, carved wood finishes that are essentially works of art and are almost psychedelic in appearance.
Geno Geshelli tells attendees not to expect anything but blues or rock during the new amp demo.
The second room showcased a new stereo integrated amp Geshelli recently developed, and Geno has a hard time concealing his passion for the project. A high-current, class AB design, the amp outputs about 75 wpc, features really cool UV meters, and also has a built-in phono stage. Ahead of a demo, Geno let the room know that Geshelli embraces a rock and roll ethos (surprise!), so everything he'd play on the new amp would be in that vein. Geno had the room set up with a pair of Klipsch floorstanding loudspeakers and a sub; when he launched a couple of tracks from blues guitar slinger Samantha Fish, the room really started rocking! The amp produced a bold, big sound that made Samantha Fish come alive as though she were actually in the room, and sounds very promising—I'll definitely keep my eye on this one!
Fidelity Imports
I was a big fan of dealer Tenacious Sound's two rooms at last year's FLAX, and was disappointed to see in the pre-show information that they wouldn't be exhibiting this year. I follow owner Shayne Tenace on social media; we've actually kept in touch over the last year with IM's, etc. I recently relocated to the Charleston, SC area, and Shayne has also made public his plans to move to the same town (Summerville/North Charleston) and build or open a new high-end dealership nearby. That said, if you follow Shayne, he pushes himself physically to stay in shape with a rigorous weight lifting regimen, and suffered a serious injury last year that's probably put the move to Carolina on the back burner at least until he's 100 percent. Yes I was disappointed he wouldn't be in Tampa, but not totally surprised by the turn of events.
Shayne Tenace was back in action at FLAX!
So imagine my complete surprise when I walked into the Fidelity Imports' Q Acoustics room to find Shayne there very alive and well and seemingly nearly recovered! Shayne told me that he was assisting with the Q Acoustics room at the show—Fidelity Imports is the distributor he works with to secure many of the equipment brands he represents in his dealerships. I actually counted seven(!) rooms at FLAX where Fidelity Imports was showing equipment, and as good as Shayne's room was, it was only just a smattering of their offerings.
The Unison Research amp was a perfect match for the Concept 300 loudspeakers.
The Q Acoustics/FLAX room I visited featured their Concept 300 standmount loudspeaker, amplification from Unison Research, and cables provided by Audioquest. The digital sound was courtesy of Innuos using their Zen Mini system, and racks were from NEO High End. The Concept 300 loudspeakers offered a HUGE sound, with nearly unbelievable power and dynamics coming from a relatively smallish standmount. And their bass response plumbed the depths of the room—it was pretty difficult to believe that a sub wasn't tucked away in some corner or the room! Shayne pushed the fact that the system on display in the room clocked in at right around $10k—how could you go wrong getting this great level of sound quality at that very low price point? I couldn't argue with that, the sound was indeed exceptional!
The Perlisten loudspeakers and subs sounded magnificent!
The Fidelity Imports room next door featured a mostly Perlisten system, featuring their R5M standmount loudspeaker with Perlisten RSLR-HGB speaker stands and a pair of Perlisten R210s subwoofers. An Audia Flight FLS10 integrated amplifier provided the muscle, and cables were sourced from AudioQuest. Racks were from NEO High End, and an Innuos Zenith Streamer provided the digital source. The Perlisten speaker system sounded pretty fabulous, even though it doesn't use the beryllium drivers that I felt really separated and lifted those loudspeakers over the baseline offerings at last year's show. The sound was fluid and impactful, probably in no small part due to the excellent Audia Flight amp.
The Dyptique DP 107's were unique among the loudspeaker designs I saw over the weekend.
Just down the hall was another Fidelity Imports room, and this one featured a really cool looking pair of loudspeakers that turned out to be the Dyptique DP 107, which is an Isodynamic dipole loudspeaker. Which in overly simplified terms is kind of a planar magnetic on steroids. The room's complement of electronics was all Cyrus (including the rack), and digital streaming was provided by an Innuos Zen system. Power conditioning was from Titan Audio and all cables were sourced from QED. Being a Maggie/planar disciple for 30+ years, I was absolutely intrigued by the DP 107, which projected an impressively scaled stereo image with the kind of image height you typically only get from a much taller panel speaker. Very cool sound that I'd love to hear more of, and very surprising to me that the Cyrus mono amps were able to drive them so effectively.
Everyone in the room was totally jazzed by the Acoustic Energy system.
The Fidelity Imports room that featured the Acoustic Energy AE 520 loudspeakers came as a real surprise to me; I'd heard the AE speakers in the past, but they didn't impress me nearly as much as this setup did. Perhaps it was the complement of all Soul Note electronics, featuring their A-1 integrated amp, the D-1 DAC, and the E-1 phono preamp. The analog source was a Michel Tecnodec table with a T-3 tonearm, and an Innuos Zen Mini system provided the digital streaming to the Soul Note DAC (the digital source was all that was made available for listening while I was there). Cables were from QED, AC conditioning was from Titan Audio, and the rack was from NEO. I think everyone in the room was just as impressed as I was with the sound coming from the smallish AE 520's, because they kept hanging around, asking for more music, just as I did!
MC AudioTech with Modwright and VPI
Mark Conte's MC AudioTech loudspeakers have always been a study in contrasts for me in years gone by; with certain source material, and at relatively sane levels, the sound of his iconic Forty-10 loudspeaker has always been really sublime. But push them too hard, and it kind of falls apart for me. This year, he showed a new loudspeaker at FLAX, the TL-12 (it actually debuted at the Capital Audiofest last fall), which clocks in at a lower price point than the Forty-10 and provided a really compelling listening experience. With none of the negatives I might have previously attributed to his designs, which pretty much blew me away!
Mark Conte fills in attendees on the finer points of his new TL-12 loudspeakers.
Electronics were all sourced from Modwright, including the 150 Signature amplifier, LS 300 preamp, and PH 150 phono stage. The analog source was a VPI Prime Signature Table with a Shyla cartridge, and the digital front end featured a Wolf Alpha 3 server playing into a Weiss DAC 501. Cables were provided by Audience AV. I had the opportunity to hear selections from both the analog and digital sources, and it was outstanding all around. Well done!
Triangle Art
The Triangle Art room featured an all-Triangle Art complement of electronics, loudspeakers, turntables and cartridges, and all power conditioning and cables. Everything in this room was massively overbuilt; from the M100 tube monoblock amps to their Master Reference turntable—heck, even the entry level Maestro table that was on static display was ridiculously robust. The Metis horn loudspeakers were impressive and dynamic, and the strictly analog sound was some of the best at the show. Very impressive!
As with everything else in their room, the Triangle turntables were massively overbuilt!
Black Ice Audio with Zu Audio and Dr. Feickert
Going into the show, I had no context for Black Ice Audio, but when I walked into their room and saw the selection of tube amplifiers and the new Zu Union 6 loudspeakers on display, I was definitely intrigued! The room system included a baseline Black Ice Fusion F22 amplifier, as well as the heavily upgraded Fusion F22 Reference amp. A Black Ice "Foz" SSX Sound Stage Enhancer was also present, along with an F159 phono stage, and the system featured their own in-house produced Pure interconnects. Of course, there's the aforementioned Zu Union 6 loudspeakers, which were accompanied by an Undertone 2 subwoofer that Zu also supplied for the show. Speaker cables were also from Zu, the Mission LC. The turntable was a Dr. Feickert Analog Volare, and there was a digital streaming source/DAC of unknown origin present in the room.
The Black Ice amps allowed the Zu Unions to really sing in the room.
Having owned Zu loudspeakers for years, I was really pumped to hear the new Unions, which did not disappoint! After talking to Jerred Dunkerson and Jaime Demarco of Black Ice, I soon came to realize that Black Ice is actually the evolution of the Jolida brand—I had no idea! As I entered the room, a bunch of guys were gathered around listening to "Great Gig In The Sky" from Pink Floyd's Dark Side LP—the sound was so good, they insisted on hearing it again! They then played some digital selections, and as I talked further with Jerred and Jaime, they switched the setup from the baseline F22 amp to the Reference, which is more robustly built and included a selection of exotic NOS tubes from GE and Mullard (the stock amps come equipped with current production tubes, typically from Russia). Wow! The sound climbed to an entirely different level, and while I'm sure the NOS tubes played a huge part, the improvement in the transition wasn't subtle. These guys definitely have it together, and paired with Zu loudspeakers the sound was about as close to tube perfection as it gets! Jaime, a Zu Omen Dirty Weekend owner, essentially cold-called Sean Casey at Zu, who gladly agreed to supply the speakers, sub, and cables for the show! Check these guys and their designs out, you'll be glad you did!
Stay tuned for additional room coverage!
All photos by the author
