AXPONA 22 Was Amazing

[SomeGeoffGuy]

Did anyone else make it? I was thrilled to see the place absolutely PACKED with people. There were a lot more good rooms than bad rooms, but here is my high level summary:

Best Rooms:
- Focal (of course) but not even with their big dogs, with the Maestro's (running from their top of the line Naim power setup). It was easily the best of show.
- Krell and their new 400 watt x 2 (into 8 ohm) Class A amp running into a pair of Estelon Forza. Engineer claimed it was 2 ohm stable at 1600 watts. I believe it after hearing the demo.
- Elac debuting some small but amazing sounding Concerto S507 speakers running seven drivers per.
- Klipsch bringing those giant Jubulee speakers. Like listening to history.
- Hearing the Wilson WAMM serial #1, fully restored and sounding incredible. Great story in that room.
- Watching Michael Fremer set up a cartridge is a treat. My first but hopefully not last time seeing this.

Biggest disappointments:
- Dynaudio room - they had one of the biggest rooms in the best location but their setup just sounded flat. Maybe they shouldn't have been set up next to Focal!
- B&W had the 801D4 set up in a tiny hotel room! What a waste. On top of that there was a giant line just to get in there. Didn't even bother to wait. A local Chicago dealer had the 802D4 set up in a decent room and they sounded incredible.
- Paradigm - Room by Saturday Audio Exchange. They had some of the new Founder series Speakers. I tried to get in there, but for some reason the guy running the room decided he would be a DJ and spent more demo time talking than playing music. This actually jammed up the room and I never got a good listen. I am happy to know the background behind the recording you are playing, but maybe put it on a flier and just play it.

All in all, so glad to get out and just do normal things again.

-Geoff