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Ye Olde Editor at work at AXPONA 2023, in ink outline (photograph by Bill Parish; image processing by Robinson) The years of the plague… It’s no feat of insight to say that the coming of COVID during 2020, 2021, and 2022 was a time that hit high-end audio shows with significant force. One after another,... Read More »

Greg Weaver checking out...Greg Weaver! AXPONA 2023 was as stirring a success as portended! Here is a link to my promotional episode highlighting the then upcoming 2023 Audio eXPo North America event. https://youtu.be/39Xda-_nCao Now that it is in the books, I can't believe how many of you stopped me in the halls to say hello... Read More »

A small crowd murmurs and looks on as two sturdy men in navy company polos and slacks gingerly lift, rock, and place a pair of nineteen thousand dollar futuristic gleaming pearl white speakers into optimal audio positioning while their CEO, Paul McGowan, is off to the side chatting with a prospective buyer. Although the weather... Read More »

What a wonderful weekend at AXPONA 2023! The weather was quite lovely for this time of the year in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs—sunny and in the 70s and 80s. There was a certain sense of excitement and energy in the air, even beyond last year's 2022 event as 2021 was cancelled to due to... Read More »

During my show experience at FLAX, I basically live-posted capsules on Facebook from notable rooms I visited each day, saving my full coverage for after the weekend was over. Little did I know when I posted from the Focal Naim America room that I was opening a tempest in a teapot! At the point I... Read More »

Mobile Fidelity featuring Andrew Jones A couple of weeks prior to FLAX, I got an email press release from Mobile Fidelity alerting me that speaker designer extraordinaire Andrew Jones would be present in Tampa, giving talks about his new MoFi SourcePoint 10 loudspeaker. "Great!" I thought, "I'll definitely need to check that out!" Yeah, me... Read More »

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... Read More »

2023 marked my third consecutive trip to the Florida Audio Expo (or FLAX as it seems to have been shortened to), and the experience was hands down the best yet! In terms of vendors, the show was completely sold out, which is great, but also a mixed blessing of sorts. There was so much more... Read More »

The TAD Reference One Experience lets US audiophiles hear TAD's lineup together for the first time. TAD Labs (TAD stands for Technical Audio Devices) is a Japanese high-end audio company that's working to establish higher product visibility in the US audiophile market through the efforts of PAD HiFi (Pro Audio Design), their exclusive US distributor.... Read More »

Audiofest! Things are opening and people are going out to events finally, and one of those events is the Capital Audiofest. If you're not familiar with the event, it's a show in Rockville Maryland where individual dealers and a few manufacturers book rooms in a hotel in order to demonstrate their products. The rooms are... Read More »

People queuing up for registration Trade Show Hall This year's AES show was a bit unusual. The number of exhibitors was down to perhaps a quarter of what it normally is, and the number of papers was similarly reduced. This was made worse by a number of vendors and presenters who had been scheduled to... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor contemplating... Tiberias, Sea of Galilee, Israel, 2022. (Photograph by John Robinson; image processing by Ye Olde himself.) We're in the final stretch! Some of the best rooms I've saved for last...and here they are. Daedalus Audio/VAC/Lampizator/WyWires In the Daedalus/VAC/LampizatOr/WyWires room…delicious! Going into this space was a reminder of why I always enjoy... Read More »

Onwards to Part the Third of my Pacific Audio Fest 2022 Photo Essay and Audio Oasis! Awards report... Genesis/Merrill Audio In the Genesis/Merrill Audio space It's hard to know what to say about Gary Koh's good-sized Genesis room, featuring Merrill Wettasinghe's very special next-generation (MX) amplification from Merrill Audio. There was so much really unique... Read More »

Ye Olde Editor with some very fine coffee. Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2015. (Photograph by Lila Ritsema.) Time to continue my Pacific Audio Fest 2022 Audio Oasis! Awards. Part the Second, then...onwards! Parasound/Innuos/Marantz/Dr. Feickert/Norstone/Straight Wire/KEF Here's an eyeful of an earful of a fine-sounding room… The Parasound/Innuos/KEF/etc. room featured some designs from companies that I knew…JC... Read More »

Robinson reflecting… (portrait by John Robinson; image processing by Ye Olde Editor) Prologue… At long last, after 2.5 years of pandemic interruption and scheduling conflicts, I was finally able to get to an audio show…and not a moment too soon. The Pacific Audio Fest was held from July 29-31 in SeaTac, WA, at the Hilton... Read More »

Continuing on with our coverage of the Pacific Audio Fest. Songer Audio, Whammerdyne. Images below. Simply stunning products. Clearly "not another black box with a knob" thing. Plus, for another single-driver room, it sounded rather good. Beautiful. Ansuz, Aavik, Børresen, a second room. Images below. Peter Hansen with Alan Kafton doing his best to not... Read More »

Continuing our coverage of the Pacific Audio Fest. Please keep in mind that at any show you are not listening to a speaker, amp, or whatever... but a system in a hotel room playing whatever music that is playing at the time. Whether something you like or don't, something well recorded or not. So yeah.... Read More »

Continuing on with our coverage of the Pacific Audio Fest. ModWright, Seattle Hi-Fi, SME, Revel, Cardas Audio. Images below. Pictured below is Dan's new Analog Bridge. It adds a tube quality to any solid-state device. As always, we had a great time catching up with Kristin Vittitoe and Dan Wright. Daedalus Audio, LampizatOr, WyWires, VAC.... Read More »

The inaugural Pacific Audio Fest, July 29 - 30, 2022, in Seattle, Washington was a lot of fun. For many attendees it was the first time out among audio friends since 2019. A good time was had by all, and there seemed to be a fair amount of foot traffic. Dave and I managed to... Read More »