AXPON (Audio Expo North America)

[Coytee]

http://www.axpona.com/

They had their show in Jacksonville this weekend. I totally forgot about it until today. Mosied downtown to peruse through it.

Of everything, I've got to say, the big room (ballroom) with the planar speakers (this first picture) was probably the most impressive of all however, there was little doubt that for 25% of the price one could have created a freaking KILLER Heritage/Jubilee setup.

This was setup as a 5 way system. Five of the panels all the way around. Becuase of my forgetting, I only got a picture of the center and right speakers.

I asked how much the set cost (electronics included) and it was over $400K

I think their preamp alone was something like $30K (something on the electronics side of the room that was playing)

Sounded VERY nice for what it did. One thing I found interesting is you could see, actually SEE the clear mylar (or whatever they're made of) panels moving. I thought they were midrange panels, but he said they were the bass panels. On the right speaker, they are the right section of the speaker. You could EASILY see them moving during transients.

As good as it sounded (and it did sound VERY transparent), I've got to think that there wasn't a whole lot of gas left in them less he risked damaging them.

I don't know that though....speculation on my part.

[Coytee]

I thought this was cute. Turns out the dealer is from Georgia however, he was sharing the room with his cousin who's got an audio store in St. Augustine which is about 30 miles away.

Seems the guy in St. Augustine is also a Klipsch dealer. Says he carries the Heritage line however, mainly sells Herey's because of size.

[Coytee]

I didn't ask prices on everything nor did I take pictures of everything. I THINK I went into every room however, being Sunday, some may have left.

Many of these things were underwhelming

[Coytee]

On above picture, the speaker is vertical and looks like the corner of the room! I just noticed that.

Now, THESE sounded nice. A little thin as though they were more midrange. I guess I happen to like a nice foundation to my music. Always loved a pipe organ.

These did however, sound nice. I wanted SO bad to walk up and take them apart to see how they work. I'm bad about that.... I love to explore like that. I don't think they would have appreciated it though.

[Coytee]

I didn't get a chance to hear these as they had something playing on the other end of the room.

The big ones were interseting. FOUR woofers, one behind the other. Open baffle as I understand. He said if you put your ear between the two drivers, they can crank it up to like 100 db's and you won't hear a thing becuase of the cancellation.

[Coytee]

Ok, I've got to admit, I thought these were the coolest amps. Said they are located in Columbus Ohio and make them locally. All the machine work is done local and they are 100% U.S. made

I think Wardsweb needs a pair of these [Y]

[Coytee]

These were interesting. I wasn't captivated by their sound, just the idea of how they were made. You can add to them and stack more modules on them as I understand. Finish was pretty... I said it looked like they were mother of pearl and he said they were.

[Coytee]

Meh... walked in...looked, decided to take a picture and walked out

Just took it for variety. I actually chose to not take some pictures because some of them were so... well.... never mind.

[Coytee]

Some open baffles.

Had a nice sound. The midrange looks like it's mounted in the front baffle but in reality, there is a vertical piece of wood in the back that it's mounted to. The hole in the baffle is just that, a hole that the driver is peeking through. He said it was so that the vibrations caused by the midrange would not be picked up by the woofer.

I let it go at face value however, that struck me as bass-ackwards since I would expect the woofer to put out more vibrations than the midrange.

Regardless, he had a long weekend and I'm sure was very tired. Was a very nice guy.

[Thaddeus Smith]

very cool pics and details. it makes me wonder though - am I a speaker bigot? i know there are plenty of great speaker options out there, but i really have no desire to spend my time on anything other than klipsch (even with the idea of unlimited budget). does that make me narrow-minded, speaker-racist, etc?

[Coytee]

These were cool. Reminded me of some DuVal Planets I once had. Turns out the amps and everything are located in the bass portion of the stand. He said they are perfect for an Ipod or something like that.

He slung a chair about 3 feet in front of them and invited me to sit down. I sat and that near field was very good. Frankly, I felt it sounded better as I was standing (better center image for me) but, it still sounded better sitting 3' in front of them sitting rather than the 12' I was standing when he first turned them on.

His comment is they are good for doing internet downloads and you want to first, take a high rez sample of the song....."these will let you know if the song is up to quality"

Or some paraphrase of that.

[Coytee]

Given that I don't have any more vinyl, I walked past many vinyl setups....finally, feeling that I was ignoring love for you guys, I took this picture.

The cartridge....what did he describe it as.... not a laser. Maybe something about a tension?

Edit: I think he called it a strain gauge.

The cartridge has a sensor in it that as the stylus moves, it pushes/pulls some tension wires that interact and do something.... and that in turn does some magic...and before you know it, Marie Osmond is singing before you!

[Coytee]

I ignored many of the smaller speakers.

There was one room I walked into.... frankly, I felt a little weird.

Host was standing there. A spectator was sitting, facing the dresser (remember, this is in a hotel room)

The host had little speakers, NOT these, but about the size of these on the dresser. There was a stand behind the subject with two more. So, it was a surround system of speakers about this big.

The host had a pair of headphones sitting on the guy in the chair as though they were doing a bona-fide hearing test. I heard NUMEROUS "beep" "beep" "beep" as test tones were playing.

The host then said to the guy in the chair that he could now take the headphones off.

This is when I got bored and left the room.

For all I know, I walked into the Martian's room and the host was secretly scrambling peoples brains, converting them into zombies.

I don't know....it was just a very weird feeling I had walking into that room.

Anyways, point being, I didn't waste too much time & fake interest in little tiny speakers like this. These were however, in the hallway as I was leaving so I pulled the camera out & zapped them as I walked by.

[Coytee]

These might have competed with the most interesting spatial sounds HOWEVER, as they were playing the recording, they were also discussing the recording itself.

I don't know anything about it. I heard them saying something like "yeah, hear this guitar? (which was coming from 90 degrees to my sitting position), it was recorded with negative left phase"

or something goofy like that.

What I inferred is when the recording was done, they did some positive/negative massaging of the signals to cancel the guitar out of the front left speaker and maybe focus it more on the right one.

Maybe they fed some negative photons to it...I don't know. It WAS an interesting recording though as the two speakers were in the front and one of the guitars was not quite 90 degrees to my right.

[Coytee]

End of pictures.

Overall, I've got to say that it was an interesting experience. Most of what I heard was nice "audiophile" music. Some guitars, some piano, some banjos, just very nice, mild music.

One room (no pictures) was a big ballroom and used some B&W speakers with Andrew Bocelli playing piano (??) if not him, looked like him however, it was a 3-d movie and I didn't have the glasses on so it was out of focus []

For the thousands and thousands and THOUSANDS of dollars of equipment I heard, I get that the rooms sucked. I could hear it in one room to the point I almost made a comment to the host saying it's too bad the room has that standing sound blubbering up your bass.

I decided to just not say anything about anything.

I will say.... some of the stuff sounded very nice. I could live with the HT planer system but for, the lack of dynamics (when compared to what we're accustomed to)

Of all.... I still shake my head and marvel at the cost/performance we get out of our goodies.

[Coytee]

does that make me narrow-minded, speaker-racist, etc?

Probably but since you carry the same card most others here carry.... you will be tried by a jury of your peers and found to be innocent.

[Y]

Signed,

VP of East Coast Bigots, Divison II

[Brac]

Very Cool, Thanks for posting.

[Quiet_Hollow]

Nice thread...a great pictures! [Y] Too bad you didn't get to hear those Legacy Whispers fired up; would've enjoyed reading your impresions of those beasts. [H]

[Coytee]

Too bad you didn't get to hear those Legacy Whispers fired up

Frankly, I wanted to however, there was an ongoing at the other end of the same room. I finally decided it might be an auditon for purchase as one of the guys was absolutely DOTING over those folks.

Of all the rooms, I stayed in this one near the longest (maybe second longest). I was trying to talk/visit and give that other stuff time to finish so we could turn them on.

Be it as it may, I finally left and on the way out forgot about it.

[:$]

[vnzbd]

I walked through the show on Friday, pretty cool to see and hear most of it. I also went two years ago, I would say it was a larger show then.

The Legacy Audio display wowed me 2 years ago but did not move me this year. I believe they ran different amps before, maybe part of the issue. On the other end of the room were smaller speakers run by an Oppo dvd and Emotiva pre and amp. I was so disapointed in the sound of that setup. I currently run the same Oppo and Emo amp and I am very satisfied at home.

The Kef Blades were on display, around 30k for a pair. Wow. They(along with everyone else was playing SRV, a favorite of mine and great to hear the same music played on the systems for comparison). I was able to set front row center and the guitar seemed so large. Normally you can close your eyes and pin point exactly where it is, in this case you could but instead of pointing to a small spot, maybe a five foot spot. Clean and detailed.

The next room was a set of Eggleston(?) speakers. A lot of sound for smaller speakers. He only wanted to playback at louder volumes which made me think something to hide at lower playback levels. He let me play a track off of a Morphine disc, sounded great to me, not music for everyone in the room though!

The MBL setup looks like something from the NASA program. Soundstage was in front, behind, center and L/R of the speakers, Impressive.

The YG setup was the most detailed for me. My guess was $200k+ in the room. Very impressive but maybe to sterile.

Tyler Acoustics was there with a set of D20s driven by a Rouge amp. A much more economical room and very much to my liking. Again I was allowed(encouraged) to play some Morphine, 5 tracks at that! Awesome mid bass presence at lower volumes, very crankable, no apparent listening fatuige.

All in all, I certainly enjoyed myself and would recomend anyone visting such a show. At the end of the day some incredible sights and sounds, and a deeper appreciation for the home system!