The HiFi Five Episode 27: AXPONA 2026 Show Report

The HiFi Five Episode 27:  AXPONA 2026 Show Report with Jeff Dorgay, Erin Hardison, Lee Scoggins and Dave Solomon

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Stream is live. Welcome to the 27th episode of the Hi-Fi Five. This is a special episode, the Hi-Fi Five Exponent 2026 Show Report. So this is not on my new schedule of second and fourth Wednesday of the month. This is a special episode. The next episode will be April 22. Please like this video and kindly subscribe to the channel. Tonight's guest, Jeff Dorge, is the publisher and head content creator of Tone Audio Magazine, covering high-end audio and music and shows. Jeff has been over three decades as a writer in the audio and imaging industries. Aaron Hardison runs the popular YouTube channel, Erin's Audio Corner, where he objectively measures loudspeakers and reports subjective impressions. Lise Gopkins is supposed to be with us tonight. Hopefully he'll come up by shortly. David Solomon is vice president of business development and chief high-res music evangelist for COBAS in the US. I use Cobaz. We all love COBUS. Welcome, gentlemen. Welcome, sir.

SPEAKER_05 0:58

Glad to be here. Looks like we uh should shook Aaron off. It looks like it.

SPEAKER_04 1:05

Yeah, so I'll go ahead and say this up front.

SPEAKER_03 1:06

I've been having issues with the squares, it feels like we're on the partridge family, you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:13

I'll I'll warn you up front. I've been having issues with my hardware for the past week or two. So if I drop out, I'll have to drop out for real and then come right back in.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

But no problem. What did you think of the show generally? How did you feel about this exponent versus last year? Dave.

SPEAKER_05 1:27

Incredible. These guys, uh, they're doing such a great job. They're making everything look easy. Um, I found zero problem. The only problem was a problem that wasn't theirs. It was the uh the elevators were a bit of a challenge, but outside of that, exponent is just getting better and better. And I told the staff this uh year, I thought they uh they they mightily pulled ahead of every other show in the United States by a wide margin.

SPEAKER_03 1:58

Jeff, what do you think? Yeah, I agree with David. I I thought it was just everything was smooth. Um, I made it a point to take those steps because I need the steps, but yeah, it was great. And you know, honestly, I don't want you guys tell me what you think. I thought there was a higher percentage of rooms that had good to great sound this year as opposed to years past. I mean, I thought there there were really a lot of rooms that had very good sound, so Aaron, what's your what were your initial impressions?

SPEAKER_04 2:32

Uh, so the biggest surprise to me was Friday. It seemed like it was a lot busier this year than it was last year. Yeah, I don't know the stats, but I just know that pulling in the parking lot at 9 45, there was nowhere to park, and that was not the issue last year at all.

SPEAKER_05 2:47

And that's a huge parking lot. I mean, it's like the convention center parking lot's huge parking lot. Yeah, every day it was packed.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Yeah, I know it's a difficult to compare shows to shows, uh, but Jeff, how did you feel with the sound? Was it this show versus uh sounds at uh other shows you go to?

SPEAKER_03 3:07

Again, I thought the the amount of rooms that that I went in, I probably we were talking earlier, there's somewhere between 220, 240 rooms. I probably got in 50, maybe 60 rooms, and randomly the rooms that I was in, I you know, I didn't really, you know, didn't really hear any bad sound, but I mean I the the amount of rooms that were set up really well, I was very impressed with.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

So Aaron, how does this show compare to other shows that you go to across the country?

SPEAKER_04 3:39

Um, so I haven't been to another show other than Expona in three years. That was the Florida Audio Expo or International Audio Expo, and they've changed the name since then. So I can't really compare it if I'm being honest.

SPEAKER_05 3:52

David? Uh yeah, I go to almost every show in the United States. Um are you asking what how does this compare to the other shows? Yeah, if you're possible, if it's possible to generalize. It's just typically much more professional than most most of the other shows. Uh from a staff from a from the staff side side. Um, I mean, all the shows are fun. Uh Exponents are just huge, and they've got so many moving arms. Um, it's it's just a more complicated show. There's a lot more to do uh than most any other show that I know of, outside of something like Munich. Uh, but yeah, it it's it's it's hugely superior to every show in the United States, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Well, my sense is that it's very well run. The trains run on time, it's just a very well-managed show, it seems to me.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

Well, question number one.

SPEAKER_03 4:48

I'm sorry, it seems like Exponent is the only show that's actually run by a professional trade show company, which you know, like Munich, that's I think what makes the difference.

SPEAKER_05 4:58

You're probably right. That's a good uh that's a good observation. Everyone else is just um they're hobbyists. I think I think almost every single other show is is run by hobbyists. Well, Gary Gill does it professionally, no. Well, that star he kinda that is he really that that's what he does. I don't know. I I assume so. I could varily so. No, Gary's uh he's an audiophile. That's that's the way uh CAF, which is to me the second best show in the United States, still a pretty wide margin from uh from Expona, but that show is is amazing too, considering it started off with like 12 rooms, I think it was, and now it's you know it's gotten pretty darn big. I think it's the second largest show. And I think the second best run.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Question number three What were the most interesting component debuts? Aaron, you go first.

SPEAKER_04 5:54

Oh, I was like, I'm on the big screen now. Uh for me, the Dutch and Dutch 15C was ridiculous in the like in the best, most awesome, coolest way ever. Um, Saturday, I think it was either Friday or Saturday night, Friday night. We were sitting in there after the show and they were just cranking whatever and taking requests. So I had them play Rage Against the Machine for me. Uh self-titled out, self-titled album, and not the remaster, because the remaster is squished to death. And we had it about 15 feet away. I was holding the microphone on my phone, measuring the SPL, and I was at 100 decibels A-weighted. So you're you're not talking bass, you're talking upper mid-range, 100 decibels, 15 feet away. And that it was, oh my god. I was like, I gotta take these home with me. Um, Andrew's speakers I really like, but at these shows I rarely get to listen to speakers, and I don't make it a priority to listen to speakers. Usually what I do is I walk in, kind of get a feel for, yeah, this doesn't sound terrible and it's promising, so maybe I'll try to pursue reviewing it. Um, so with that said, I did listen to Andrew's speakers for a little bit, thought they sounded great. They look fantastic. Um, and then the Don Audio, I don't know, their confidence or contour 20A, the new active speakers that they have. The bass on those was ridiculous. So those are the ones that I was really, really most fond of. And then I heard a lot of other good ones too.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

David, what were your favorite debuts?

SPEAKER_05 7:14

Uh, didn't see a ton of debut, 10 of debuts. I did like the um the the new Cambridge uh active loudspeakers. In fact, I saw more more active loudspeakers at this show than I think I've ever seen at any show, and which to me is a good sh good sign. I I I really do uh like active speakers a lot. Um, and also I I would say also the Dutch and Dutch, I don't even know how they pressurized that space, but because they were literally in the middle of of the hotel lobby, basically, uh without any reinforcements. And they had just tons of bottom end to it. Have no idea how they did that, but that was a pretty cool review, too. I missed Andrew, which is terrible because he's a good friend. And we were just talking about it. There's like 240, 250 rooms uh between all of the flash DJ sessions and uh masterclasses I was doing. I I probably missed a good half of the half of the displays.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

Well, that Dutch and Dutch has two big rear-firing woofers. So that's how that I mean that would be a great uh like outdoor patio speaker.

SPEAKER_05 8:29

I would think so. I wonder what they would sound like in a real room, but they're active, right?

SPEAKER_04 8:34

Yep, yeah, so you're gonna be accordingly too.

SPEAKER_05 8:37

Yeah, that's yeah, I think you could probably uh uh tame them down for a regular area, but it was pretty impressive that they had them going so strong in that in that arena-like space and still sounded really good. They're they're really fun speakers.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

Jeff, what were your favorite debuts?

SPEAKER_03 8:57

Three for Dutch and Dutch, man. I I was working that I think we're gonna get those for review towards the end of the year, so I'm pretty anxious to get those here. But yeah, that was that was outstanding. Um, one of the biggest surprises, did anybody see those uh panels that Altec Lansing was doing? Yeah, I saw those last year. They were yeah, I didn't know. I thought they said it was new, so it is pretty new. That was pretty exciting. Um, that's the Ribbonacci, I think they call it. I don't know. It's a it's a magna pan type speaker. It's uh it's the same design as a magna pan, it's not an electrostatic, it's not uh speaking of electrostatic. The new big quad was was really nice, but again, bias explained. I'm a panel guy, so I kind of gravitated towards that. Um god, there's one other thing that I saw. Uh dyne audio also, but not the actives, their new little passive. Uh that that little that little wooden speaker that was about that big, those were pretty cool. Um, hmm. I'm trying to think of what else. Um, did you see the uh ATC EL50s? No, I you're like you, that's one of the rooms I didn't get to go see, but I'm another active fan. I like their powered speakers, they're really man.

SPEAKER_05 10:16

This thing looks like a million dollars. It's it's incredible. And I I gotta say, Aaron, you're you're right on with the the contour 20. I didn't even really think about that because I've already seen it uh um a few times, but that's that's one of the best designed active loudspeakers I've I've actually heard. I'm I'm very impressed with those guys.

SPEAKER_03 10:36

Yeah, well, everybody hates the active speakers because they can't sell a million dollars worth of cable with them.

SPEAKER_05 10:42

Yeah, it's not about selling though, it's about you know what makes sense. And to me, active speakers make just so much, they just make so much sense.

SPEAKER_03 10:53

Yeah, yeah. Well, well, if I could just interject for a second, one last thing with the active. I mean, I think we've talked about this a lot. Um, there I think there's a huge audience out there that loves high performance sound, but doesn't necessarily want to become an audiophile. And I think an active set of speakers is the perfect solution for that customer.

SPEAKER_05 11:16

Yeah, and I think you can actually become an audiophile with the right active speakers. I mean, there's some really, really high performance stuff out there. The Contour 20 or the Dutch and Dutch is just like we were talking about. There's uh there's a lot of really, really good active speakers out there. If you are more of a hobbyist, I would understand you would want that you you may want the need to swap out amplifiers or pre-amplifiers. But if you're like one and done, I'm going with that. I mean, if it were me TA buying a pair of speakers, one and done set, I'd go active all the way. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

I have a bunch of things I'm gonna talk about in the debate debut department. Angie Lisi in the avant-garde, and now that was great.

SPEAKER_03 11:59

Yeah, those were those were really bitching. Those were awesome.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

The um now she's uh distributing uh airtight because that's switched with uh Axis. Uh I'm familiar with the Trio G3s. I'm not talking about those. Those are kind of oddly pushed right up against the front wall and not much space there. But Angie was very excited to take me to the back room on the left for her new little, she referred them to as baby avant garde.$18,000 a pair. Speaking of active, the uh speaker is class D drives a built-in woofer, class A uh drives the uh horn, and all you need is a uh all-in-one box, you know, preamp, DAC, something or other. For$18,000. That thing sounded very good, I have to say. These are, I think this is Angie's smallest speaker. I thought the avant-garde thing was very good. Okay. I like woofage. I like big drivers, cones, subwoofers. Okay, but this Diaz in I see uh six pack of rails, can't go wrong with that. Diaz Invicta in the at one end of the um the ballroom hall. Did you see that monstrosity? Okay, 60 inch, 6,000 watts on board, subwoofer, I think it's$170,000. My question is other than to impress your friends and scare every dog in the neighborhood, how can a cone that big be resolving and textured? So I'm just not sure.

SPEAKER_03 13:25

It wasn't it wasn't and it didn't, but it looked really cool.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

It'd be a great YouTube prop. It looked really cool. Next item Western Electric, 100 E amps,$150,000, giant SET. A giant SET speaks my personal amplifier love language, 308B tube, uh driving those very interesting kind of weird cross between futuristic and Art Deco uh Western Electric uh speakers with the um wide mouth, wide dispersion tweeter and mid-range thing, and then then kind of internally firing woofers, very interesting design. Um, but my question on that giant SET why wrap a single-ended circuit into a balanced thing? Are they just trying to stay competitive with all of the solid state stuff, which is all balanced these days? Metaxis, very interesting speaker. Did you guys see this electrostatic speaker in Metaxis? So it's a kind of open ladder structure with sections of electrostatic panel vertically arrayed on each of the four sides of the structure. Pretty interesting thing, a little hard to understand how it sounded, but it was definitely a very kind of exotic Metaxa style thing. YG Titan in Nirvana C, uh, debut of the Titan. I've never honestly cared for YG. I've always found a little dry and clinical. To me, I think this sounded different. Uh uh, they were playing, Duncan and Matthew were playing um analog with an AMG turntable, and I thought it sounded more natural and more musical than I am used to from YG. Uh I would take the active subwoofer version and uh put on big boar push-pull tubes on the rest of it. Legacy, did you see those cool graffiti legacy speakers? They're regular legacies, but they got some artists to do custom graffiti on every speaker. There's a whole array of these things. Uh, each graffiti thing is unique. If you want to get your kid into audio, maybe you've got to use graffiti loudspeakers. Uh treble clef audio in Vinnie Rossi, I think, on the one of the higher floors. Very wacky-looking thing. Uh, it looked like a musical note, uh, a lot of unusual design elements, inward-firing woofers, but it had a warm natural sound. Uh von Schweigert Mercury, cool looking, uh more kind of lifestyle-looking floor standard. Uh it uniquely has uh, Gary Leeds has it with a an automotive style configurator. So you can pick your own front color, front panel, and side panels in like a Ferrari configurator thing to design a custom speaker. And it was a static display only, but if you have Steven Norber and Damon von Schwecker designing a speaker, I can virtually guarantee that thing's gonna sound good. Magico S7. I have always felt actually that the that the S series is probably my most favorite series of the Magico's. I actually generally prefer it over the uh M series. I remember when I visited Miles Astor in Manhattan, he had, I think, the S5 Mark II on all Conrad Johnson. I think that might have been the best Magico system I ever heard. So I I thought the series, this uh S-series debut sounded good. Martin Coltrane, Quintent Extreme at the other end of the ballroom hall, powered by the giant Goldman Amps. Sounded good, but I'm sorry, you will never get me to endorse$510,000 for a four-foot-tall speaker. Uh VTL Lohengrin Amplifier uh debuted here uh in the VTL Stenheim VPI room. Uh I there's no way to tell, this is just a totally subjective impression, but I have a feeling this new Lohengrin amplifier sounds more natural than my Siegfried 2's. Uh oh, and yeah, I heard the uh Andrew Jones uh field coil as well. I thought that was very interesting. I have liked personally every field coil I've ever heard. Songer, Wolf on Langa, classic audio. I just like field coil. It's a design that makes sense to me. My question for Andrew is why was only the mid-range tweeter field coiled? Why wasn't the woofer also a field coil design? And finally, audio research ref 20 preamp, pretty cool looking thing. Okay. Uh how much analog did you guys see? Jeff, um, what did you think? How much analog was there this year? You know, in the rooms I went in, not a ton.

SPEAKER_03 17:51

You know, I did not see a ton of analog. Most of the rooms that I crossed paths with had, you know, primarily digital. So um, yeah, I did not see a lot of records playing. So Dave, what did you notice?

SPEAKER_05 18:06

Uh about as usual, 25-30 percent, maybe.

unknown 18:12

Huh.

SPEAKER_04 18:12

Aaron? So out of the rooms I saw, it seemed like it was kind of 50-50. It seems like most of them were doing demos in analog and then digital, and they were switching back and forth.

SPEAKER_05 18:21

So a lot of them were like that, especially the higher end rooms.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Yeah. Uh interesting because for some reason I had the impression, I felt like more than half the rooms I went into had had vinyl or tape.

SPEAKER_03 18:32

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

We have different impressions. I I actually was going to say that I felt this show had more analog than I've seen in a show in two or three years. Aaron, while we've got you up, what were your five favorite exhibits? Cost no object.

SPEAKER_04 18:46

Oh, um, so I talked about the Dutch and Dutch 15C. Uh, I mentioned the Dyne Audio speakers, the Andrew Jones speakers. Um, Master Artistry is uh a company out of Memphis, and one of my friends actually works for them on design speakers. So obviously I'm biased, but I wanted to give them a shout-out because they make great stuff. Anytime I hear Rockport speakers, I'm always in love. Uh, I think they had the Atria 2 speakers in one of the rooms that was probably like a little less than ideal. Uh, but I still love the Rockport speakers. There was a company there, and I don't know how you pronounce it, it's A-U-E-R, our or or something like that. But you guys would remember it because it's I think it's the only room that had speakers where they went in probably a couple days before and they set up the like the lat wall or the slap walls for both rooms to display their speakers with. Um, it was wicked hot because all the vents are blocked, right? But that room had some very interesting stuff. I didn't get to hear anything. And then to round it out, I don't know if you guys got to go into the the demo, the mixing trailer that was in the expo hall, big black trailer. They that's where they demo, or I'm sorry, where they mix in Atmos and Stereo, but they work for like the Grammys and all sorts of other stuff. Yeah, so you could sit in the in the captain's chair and do stuff, like listen to things in real time. It was incredible, it was a great experience. So those are my more than five.

SPEAKER_05 20:09

David, what were your favorites? The Accora room always blows me away. The Accora Vac room. I think they had Kevin's new uh amplifiers on there. Uh that that uh that gear never seemed ceases to amaze me. And I was really pleased to see MBL was was back, uh, or I'm hoping it's back, but uh uh there was a really killer MBL system up top on the 15th floor, and I absolutely loved it. Uh Aaron, you had mentioned the uh Master Artist Audio, I think it is. I thought they were Burmisters. I walked in, there's this huge Burmistor amplifier, yeah, and I am absolutely totally floored. And I I thought they were Burmester speakers. I thought it was like a new Burmistor speaker. It kind of looks like that. And hey, listen, man, you don't have to be biased. Those speakers absolutely killed me, they were fantastic. Um, I did like the the new ATC L50. I thought that was a really, really good uh setup. The um the Gershman speakers, um I can't remember the Symphony, I think they're called, or something like that. Uh the ones with the detached mid-range and tweeter sounded better than I've ever heard them. Uh, and I think it's because they were you they were with the the with pass laps. And that just that that really makes those speakers sound great. And I did really like the uh along with you, Ron, I like the um Steinem room with the uh with the Nordo Nordost and um V VTL. Unbelievable sound of room. And in fact, you're absolutely Absolutely right. It did sound much more smooth than it did last year. I I did a a flash DJ there last year for about an hour. So I was really able to get a good feel for the system. And then I came back this time and did one for maybe an hour 15, hour 30. And I agree with you 100%. The VTL amplifiers, it wasn't just it wasn't just smoothness, it was uh grip. These things had a lot of grip that I did not notice last year, but all of those were great. The avant-garde, I thought they were kind of close to the wall, but I thought that system sounded awesome. Lots and lots of good systems. I think I came up with five or maybe more.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

Yeah, I corralled B and I tried to get her to tell me what she thinks she hears on the Lohan grin. And she basically said that uh she she thinks it's just somehow uh just a more natural, slightly more believable sound than my Zigfried 2. Yeah. Jeff, what were your favorites?

SPEAKER_03 23:01

Well, you can tell by the axe I'm wielding. The guys at Ooh Audio, their new speaker was very nice. Um there were some new Sonos Fobbers in Quintessence Room that I thought were um the best of the new Sonos Fobbers I've heard. I used to have um um God, it's falling out of my head. I had them for four years. I had um the big ones, the come on. I had the Strativarius, which was the last of the Franco Serblin designs. After Franco left, honestly, I kind of felt Sonos Faba really lost their way for a long time. And these new ones, whichever model that was in the Quintesses from the Arab 70k a pair, those those were very, very nice. Um, again, I like the big avant-garde, I like the horns. Um, good, good with I went it. Sounds like David and I went to a lot of the same rooms because I I like the YG2. Um I'm trying to think of what else. There was there was something, it's a small British company, they've been around for about 90 years, and they had these little tiny orange speakers that were a single driver speaker. Those were pretty bitching, and those were not crazy money. Um, hmm. I really liked uh I liked again highly biased because you know, uh the rel 556 pack that they had going in their room was not only sounded great, but was really integrated. I was amazed they they were able to make that work in such a small room. So yeah, that was good. And yeah, I'd say that's about you know, I again I kind of have a lot of overlap with you guys. It sounds like we did go to a lot, a lot of the same rooms, and you know, it's refreshing that we all drew pretty much the same conclusions, you know, because a lot of times when you see show reports and you get these best of best of show things and they're so different, um I think it's refreshing when a a bunch of different ears tend to hear the same thing that we agreed on what sounded really wonderful. So there you go.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

I like the uh Lyra. Uh Aaron, I agree with Aaron. I just always love Lyra. Uh I like the Lyra solution trans rotor room. That was an access room. Uh again, the YG Titan, which was with SIM Audio Amps. I don't know from them. Of course, you know, I would put big tubes on all that stuff. Uh the AMG turntable, the uh XVX Audio Research Domin Helix Room. I was there when they played uh Stairway to Heaven a little too loud, 103 dB. People rag on uh Wilson Audio. All I can tell you is you cannot go wrong with a Mark Dolman analog front end, all audio research tube electronics, and XVXs. If somebody says that room didn't sound good, they're just talking some partisan agenda, because I don't see how anybody could think that room didn't sound good. Uh uh Stenheim Ultim 2SX with VTLs in the Lohengrin, the VPI, uh same room David liked. Uh and oh a company, I guess it's been around a long time. I just never really focused on it. Joseph Audio was doing their Pearl Graphene Ultra with Doshi Electronics. I ran into Nick, that was nice. Oh, that's probably nice. Doshi Electronics for the Secora turntable. That room sounded wonderful. It's very natural, easygoing sound, musical. Um, I don't really know Joseph Audio, but I'm glad I walked into that room. That was a I thought that was a great sounding room.

SPEAKER_05 26:41

It's always consistent. He's he's been using uh Nick for a long time, and Joseph always gets great sound. And I gotta tell you, you're you're absolutely right. All actually, all of the Quintessence rooms sounded fantastic, but they always do. I can't believe I didn't uh I didn't have that as one of my five top rooms, but the big Wilson system was outrageous. It sounded fantastic, and so was the Son of Splobber room. It was they were both really, really good.

SPEAKER_03 27:09

I love that they quintessence was barely playing any audiophile music, they were playing a lot of different stuff, and I really appreciated that. I thought that was very cool.

SPEAKER_05 27:22

I'm hearing less and less of that stuff as as time goes on. I mean, you're gonna walk into the room that's playing Keith Don't Go, and I'm immediate a lot less uh uh continuous play of of anything these days. Um I'm hearing a lot of uh a lot of different music these days.

SPEAKER_04 27:50

Yeah, except for Big John.

SPEAKER_05 27:54

No, I just I tried I try to avoid those.

SPEAKER_04 27:57

I was like, we need to get Jim or like Big Bad Jim, you know, Leroy Brown, we gotta get somebody in there to beat up Big John.

SPEAKER_03 28:04

Hey, our bass tracks playlist that we put up on Instagram a couple days before the show got almost 200,000 views, and I walked into about seven or eight rooms that they were like, hey man, we were using that playlist. Now, Aaron, you're probably too young, but the other two, do you guys remember Jimmy Dean Chili? That was the song for Jimmy Dean Chili Saturday or Tuesday. I must have heard that Big John thing 50 times every Saturday when I was watching Scooby-Doo. And I was, you know, I was blown away that anybody gave a crap about that, you know. But here we are. No Big John here, no Big John zone, not at all.

SPEAKER_01 28:48

So I don't know who Big John is. We never know the guy's last name, and that is one of the most stupid songs I've ever heard. Whoever Big John is, I think somebody should put a bullet in him because I don't want to hear that song again. There you go.

SPEAKER_05 28:59

I'm quite sure he's still, yeah, I'm pretty sure he's dead. That's a very old song.

SPEAKER_04 29:04

Yeah. Well, there's that one and and the sound of silence. If I hear another song, I'm like, Jesus, can we stop? You know, like it's it's it's gotten to the point of Diana Kroll, you know. Like, no offense to people who love these songs, but when you go to these shows and and I'm dead serious, you literally could walk room to room and hear Big John. It was like it was just picking up where the other room left off.

SPEAKER_03 29:31

You've got a zillion albums at your disposal, there's no there's no reason for playing the same stuff all the time because now you can, you know, you can go to a show with a million albums.

SPEAKER_05 29:42

So it's a line in the sand in me these days. It's like I can walk in now and I I'll tell you if you've got a music lover or an engineer behind the the the demos. Uh the music lovers, which there are, I would say, more than they are anything else. There, these guys are mostly playing stuff that I'm going, wow, what is that? Wow, I've got a I've got to listen to that. But I find the guys that are just kind of stuck in the gear itself, not necessarily the music, those are the guys that have the 20-year-old playlists and they're sticking.

SPEAKER_03 30:20

You hear that thing at 157 in, there's that rim shot. It's like, forget it. Forget that, you know.

SPEAKER_04 30:28

I mean, as a reviewer, there's there's a cost for there's a need for both, right? But like if I'm going to a show and I'm demoing a speaker, if I'm want to buy a speaker, you know, like if I'm not tapping my foot to it, I'm probably not enjoying the speaker.

SPEAKER_01 30:42

Agreed. Question number six affordable systems. What can what did you see that you like that people can actually afford, David?

SPEAKER_05 30:51

Uh, I think the Cambridge Audio um powered speakers on the low end. And then once again, if you're dealing with active speakers, that's all you got to do on the high end, sort of of the low end. I would say the contour 20s, the uh dyne audio contour 20s. Any else? That is the high end of the low end. The low end and low end, I think, would be the Cambridge audio, and I thought those were they were awesome. Aaron?

SPEAKER_04 31:17

Yeah, I'll follow up and say the Cambridge audio speakers are so I've got the smaller one. I was telling these guys before the show started. I've got the smaller ones in for review right now, and I'm really impressed with them. So I'm even more looking forward to what the larger versions are going to do. Um, Kanto had their tuck, their new Tuck speakers, and I think they were like, I don't know, don't quote me on the price, but I'm gonna say 900 for a pair for the smaller ones, and maybe a thousand for a pair for the bigger ones, plus or minus, maybe a hundred bucks. Uh, so those are reasonably priced. And then Fozzie Audio had their two rooms there again, where they have all sorts of electronics and they have speakers as well.

SPEAKER_03 31:55

Anything else? Riga, Riga always has great stuff for not crazy money, and even on even on the low end of the high end, um, they just released their Osiris power amp and mercury pre-amp, and those both came in at 10.5. And Riga claims that was the most expensive component they could possibly make. And those things really, really compared favorably with you know, much more expensive stuff that I've reviewed. They're there and and exquisitely made too. Um, those are really nice. Agreed on the Cambridge. That was one of the budget rooms when um if anybody saw the TX and Advanced Paris stuff, that's some that's some pretty nice gear for not crazy money, you know. And it looks pretty cool too, you know. So I think that appealed to a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 32:49

Lee, happy you're joined us. Yeah, sorry for the mixed up one. Uh I got tied up.

SPEAKER_01 32:55

Lee Scoggins is formerly the CEO of Next Screen, which publishes the absolute sound, now a reviewer for positive feedback. Lee, I'm gonna come back to you, but for the moment, I'm just gonna uh stay on the script and give you my uh suggestions for affordable systems. Most affordable thing in the whole convention center might have been Dayton Audio, where you can get a speaker for$200, a DAC for$200, and an entire audio system for under$1,000, Dayton Audio. Uh there was a company I'd never heard of, Wathin or Wathan, that had an open baffle with a ribbon tweeter. I actually thought that sounded uh very good. Decibel Plus, a brand. Yeah, yes, they had some great stuff. Who's that? Decibel Plus. Yeah, um, that's a brand imported by Supreme Acoustic Systems that is made in France. It looked like very, very high quality wood, had a nice sound. Uh next one, Radiant Acoustics from Denmark. Did you see this guy's Radiant Acoustics? Yeah. Uh that's a Peter Lingorf, I don't know, Lingdorf consulted design. The model was a Clarity 66 for$10,000, has an air motion tweeter, dual mid-range woofer. I thought that thing sounded very nice. Were they using the purify drivers, Ron? Don't know. They are that that sounds familiar. Yeah, yeah. I think you said that.

SPEAKER_05 34:18

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, the the the woofer that looks like it's broken.

SPEAKER_04 34:22

Yeah, the melted cone one.

SPEAKER_05 34:24

Yeah, that it's like one of the most amazing drivers I've heard in years. That everything, every uh iteration of that driver I've heard sounds outrageously good.

SPEAKER_01 34:35

Well, I I'm not a small, I'm I'm not a um small speaker person. What the heck happened here? I'm not a small speaker person, uh, but a friend of mine that I went around the show with was is like small small speakers. And he uh took me to a bunch of rooms I would have never gone to, but I thought that Radiant Acoustics thing sounded very good. Uh finally, Volti Audio Lucera. That's a horn-loaded mid-range and tweeter, uh, horn loaded mid-range and tweeter, Cone Woofer,$10,000. I thought that sounded very good as well. Okay, Lee, let's bring you up to speed here. Tell us briefly what you thought of the show generally.

SPEAKER_00 35:16

I thought it was amazing. A lot of energy. Attendance seemed to be really high this year. Um, and I think the show had made some improvements. This sounds small, but they had colored signs up on what stairwells took you where. And the way that hotel's laid out, it's pretty confusing. So I think that they did a fairly spectacular job of um making the show a little more accessible in terms of directions. You know, you can wait on the elevators, but sometimes that takes a while. Just having better navigation and big signs up saying that this is the green staircase and that'll take you to the lobby. This is the red one, it won't take you to the lobby. Just small things like that made a big difference.

SPEAKER_01 35:57

What were your uh favorite component debuts?

SPEAKER_00 36:01

Definitely the ref 20. I'm a big audio research guy. That and the ref 7. Ref 7 was only on static display, as far as I know, but the ref 20 was really taking the uh sort of Accora Ideon, and also the ref 80X made its debut in a small room. I thought that system sounded great, but the ref 20 with the big Wilson XVX's in the quintessence room, that was one of my favorite rooms. So I think we heard the benefit of that with the ref 330s. I kind of feel like Valve's new engineering team is sort of responsible for both those products. So we're sort of seeing the fruits of the talent he's assembled at audio research. And uh it I think it just sounded great. Dynamics were there, deep wide sound stage and a glorious uh mid-range. It's hard to go wrong. And Ron, as you said, I think on on the what's best for him, you know, you you put a dome and turntable on the front end with a Wilson Venish arm and cartridge, or a DCS for S, it's kind of hard to go wrong.

SPEAKER_01 37:09

What were your favorite exhibits? Price no object.

SPEAKER_00 37:14

Price no object, I was really impressed with um with that Wilson room, obviously. Um the Rockport Lyras with the solution gear really blew me away. I was surprised just how supremely musical that was. I had gone into that room with some preconceived notions about solution gear, and uh I've always been a fan of rock ports. I've got a good friend here nearby that that has Orions and they're they're just spectacular. But to hear the Lyra's in a very clean system like that, and also that room had a lot of light, and it was just like a very friendly atmosphere. Uh that that kind of took my breath away. Uh the Joseph Audio room, as always, uh, sounds great with Nick Doshi's equipment. I think that's almost a must-have pairing if you go that route. And I like the EMM room with the Rado speakers. I wasn't sure how EMM and RATO would work together, but that that was definitely a highlight. Um, and even though it was sort of in the lobby and sort of all the way down the end of the hallway, um, the Martin Coltrain quintet, I forget what the full name is, Supremes, whatever it is, extremes, that with those ginormous, uber expensive Goldman tower amps, I guess, for lack of a better word, uh, that really impressed me too. I I thought I thought that sounded pretty good. Those are all, you know, crazy million-dollar plus systems. There's probably two million in the quintessence room. You know, it was all solution seven series with the Lyra uh Rockport speakers. So that was probably a couple million. Um, but but I guess we'll talk about affordable stuff later if we haven't already. I've got some ideas on that, but I I kind of felt like there was a lot at both ends of the scale that was real really interesting.

SPEAKER_01 38:58

You're okay for$510,000 for a four-foot tall Martin.

SPEAKER_00 39:04

I did think that was pretty rich. Um the build quality, the build quality looked very exceptional on it. I love the color, I love the design. Um half a million is a lot though.

SPEAKER_01 39:18

And I know it did have the expensive beryllium tweeters and the diamond crested this and that. So I know it is very expensive parts, but it's to me that's a bit of a bridge too far. Um, oh, I forgot to mention my I forgot to mention myself, Jeff Catalano's room. He was showing Cesaro Opus S E. Jeff always gets great sound. Yeah, literally every single show.

SPEAKER_00 39:37

Yeah, that was that's a favorite. He always brings some amazing albums that I haven't heard of and just sound wonderful. And you know, he had the TW acoustic table that that sounded great. A lot of the electronics I didn't recognize, but that's sort of Jeff's um it's sort of his ability to take newer brands or or less popular brands, I guess, in some level, and and get really musical sound. That was a favorite room of mine. Sorry, Ron.

SPEAKER_01 40:02

Well, I actually know his electronics. He's using Eliano, that's the Aliano uh very unusual design of uh voltage driven with tubes and current driven with solid state, kind of an unusual hybrid uh with the matching Aliano Creamp. Um, Lee, what did you find uh for affordable systems?

SPEAKER_00 40:22

I liked the um the pylon speakers at 8,000 a pair. I thought that sounded really good. I was really surprised at those. That's sort of a new brand that Mike Beverde's taken in. Uh that sounded really good to my ears. I don't know what price point they're at. I think they're more on the affordable side, but the Aureti speakers, if I'm pronouncing that right, with the benchmark gear. I heard that at Florida, and I thought it was really good here in Chicago. Um, and then of course the Chesky LC2s. I actually just received today the pair that was at Expona. I'm doing a review on those, and I'm running those with benchmark gear. They had it with shit audio gear. I thought that room sounded really good. I think Luca, you know, I actually I think you can kind of see them on the side of my screen possibly, but I think I think you know, Luca gets a lot of PR because his dad's David Chesky. But that's a very musical family. You know, Paloma's also talented uh as a singer, his daughter. But I I do think there's a lot of substance and sound to the LC2s, but I'm excited to have him here to sort of listen to him up close and sort of kick the tires a little bit, if you will.

SPEAKER_01 41:35

Aaron, did you review that Lucas speaker?

SPEAKER_04 41:38

Not the second one. I did the first version. What did you think of it?

SPEAKER_01 41:42

I didn't like it.

SPEAKER_04 41:47

Yeah, subjectively, out the gate. Um I could tell the left right were not properly matched, and I don't mean like they had to be paramatched, like you're paying 10,000 bucks for them, but there's a pretty big issue between the crossover on one versus the other. And I wound up going rounds and rounds with the Chesky Company about this. Um so yeah, I'll just leave it there. I was not I was not impressed, but I will say that Luca is a good dude to deal with. I'll I'll give him that. So I I don't know what the new ones sound like. My hope is that they would sound something like I like more, but I'm just one guy with just one guy's opinion.

SPEAKER_01 42:25

Fair enough. Any notable disappointments? Anything that you were surprised about that you didn't care for.

SPEAKER_02 42:36

Not really.

SPEAKER_03 42:37

Didn't get to enough room. Oh, like I said, only got to about 50 rooms. So I I did great. I didn't I didn't hear anything that was objectionable.

SPEAKER_00 42:46

Uh I I will say one thing, and this will not earn me any fans in the audio community. So like I've got to put a Kavlar vest on. I when I went to the Troubadour room, and and and there's probably no bigger fan of Andrew Jones than I am. I'm probably president of his fan club. I've known him for a while, going back to some very early Rocky Mountain shows and followed him from TAD to ELAC to MoFi. I felt like there was a lot of treble energy on the troubadours. Now, I don't know that they were the final production troubadours, and I don't know if it might have been the the records they were playing for me, but I I kind of had a disconnect between some of the comments on the room versus some of the treble energy I was hearing. It was a little too much for my taste, but I don't know that that's actually from the speaker, so I don't really I don't mean this as a criticism at all um uh of the speaker, but um I seem to be on the minority of this, so I might not might not should have brought this up as an example. But I I thought they'd be a little bit warmer sounding than they were, and maybe maybe it's my ears getting used to field coils. So that's sort of a new type of driver that I'm not very accustomed to. So it could be it could be me as well.

SPEAKER_01 44:07

I happen to stay in the Andrew Room, Andrew Jones demo room for uh St. James Infirmary, which I'm very familiar with, which he played on LP. And I'm pretty sensitive to brightnesside genius. I didn't hear anything untoward on that particular track, but um yeah, but that yeah, interesting, interesting observation. Uh any other things that uh people were not thrilled about. Okay. Question eight. Industry Intel.

SPEAKER_00 44:38

Can I just add one more thing?

SPEAKER_01 44:40

Of course.

SPEAKER_00 44:41

Yeah, um, the Borson room sounded great, but um, you know, one thing that I'm continuing to have a hard time wrapping my head around, just maybe because of the way that I look at speaker placement, um, and and the way Jim Smith taught me to do speaker placement. This ultra-wide separation of speakers that Lars and Michael seem to like, um, I think they take it too far. I think you if you if you pull them, we've had this sort of discussion on the Hoffman forum as well. If you pull them too far apart, I think you really give up some real uh substance in in the middle of the room. I I think you lose the center fill. And I definitely heard that uh again this year. Um that said, I think if you could put those speakers together, um they're very well designed. The base module is really, really cool technology. Um, but I I sort of wish sometimes when they when they do these exhibits, they would think more in terms of uh moving the speakers closer together. I think they're giving up uh some center fill there, and it it it bugs me, to be honest.

SPEAKER_01 45:50

Any interesting industry stuff you've heard?

SPEAKER_04 45:56

So, no for me, but I did want to mention, I didn't know where else to throw this. The I don't know if you guys are into headphones. I'm not, um, but I did go through the headphone area, and it was amazing how many people, and there's where your young audience is for anybody that's in the industry. Like, there's where your young audience is because the the amount of 20 to 30 somethings in there, and at least from what I saw, far, far exceeded any sort of ratios that would be comparable to that in the audiophile hi-fi type rooms.

SPEAKER_00 46:29

Yeah, Aaron, I totally agree. I think the energy, it's actually been like that the last few years at Exfona. Uh, I forget what they call it, ear gear or something like that. But yeah, yeah, there's always a lot of um a lot of energy and a lot of younger people that spend a good half day or full day there, and I think it's just great for the hobby. I think it's great for the industry. Uh, you know, I want more of it. Um, I'm I'm kind of sad that Ivana Manley sold her company. I'm happy for her for it, but not seeing her being able to talk to her, you know, once a year, uh, she usually attends those things. And um, the stuff that she was doing with her products was really interesting. Uh Cardis is there, you know, the usual suspects. Noble audio had a new set of high-end uh uh uh IEMs, but I I I didn't try them, but there was tremendous buzz. So I'm I'm totally with you on that, Aaron.

SPEAKER_01 47:24

I have some industry info. Uh I learned that MBL has parted ways with Jeremy Bryan, the longtime MBL distributor. It was interesting because the MBL 101 E Mark II room, uh in which David uh functioned as DJ for a while with great music, uh, was shown by George of Kiomi, not Jeremy. Jeremy was nowhere to be found. So that was interesting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:48

Oh, sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 47:49

Oh, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 47:50

No, I was just gonna say, yeah, that kind of that kind of bummed me out a little, but I I Jeremy's been such a staple of the shows that I've gone through the last 20 years. All of a sudden he's not there. It's it just seems weird. Um that said, I thought that room actually sounded really good. I don't know if it was the Kiomi audio cables that George makes, but it certainly sounded good to my ears. Even better than um some other shows I've heard the map.

SPEAKER_01 48:17

Next item. What was that way harsh Florida International Expo press release by Mike Bovard on April 1 about Bart Andier saying that Bart is no longer authorized to represent the show? That was a weirdly harsh press release. Does anybody know the backstory?

SPEAKER_05 48:36

I don't. I I heard from Bart, but uh he didn't really mention why they had split. He just said he was no longer with them. So sounded, you know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 48:52

I don't have much information, but Bart's been such a driving force of that show. And then, you know, one of my favorites in the industry, Sue Toscano and Denise. They've done such a great job putting on that show.

SPEAKER_05 49:07

It's kind of um I think they'll still be they'll they're still hanging out.

SPEAKER_00 49:13

I I I hope so. I hope I hope they they're still but it it almost sounds like um, you know, I can't say too much, but it almost sounds like uh both parties might want to put on their own Florida show, and I don't I just don't know how that will work. I don't yeah, I don't think it will work actually. And I I hope that that this doesn't come to um some kind of protracted legal battle or or you know, I just want there to be a strong Florida show. It's just so great to go down in February to 70 degree weather in Tampa. Um, I the only thing I will say is I think there were a number of people not real happy with the Brandon Hotel. I I squeaked a little bit about that myself, and I think I think the West Shore was such a great location because you were close to so many restaurants and it was a really quick flight from the airport and a really quick trip to restaurants. Brandon's a little bit out there in the suburbs. Um, the hotel's getting a little bit better every year, but it's still it doesn't feel like a quality place for people buying expensive stereo gear to to really hang out at. And the the food's very bad and and the service is terrible, so that doesn't help either. Um, so I think there was some there's been some discussion among people that it wish they wish it was a better hotel situation.

SPEAKER_01 50:38

I've heard that too, but two Florida shows is ridiculous. Just like when Bob Levy blew up the increasingly good Newport show. Uh that you know the the Emico does a good job with the Costa Mesa show, but it's never really recovered back to the days of 2016-2017 when the Newport show was you know a big deal and growing. So uh I can't imagine two Florida shows being a great outcome. No, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:02

Ron, I met you at that 2017 show, if I recall.

SPEAKER_01 51:07

So uh music segment. Does anybody have any music suggestions for us tonight?

SPEAKER_03 51:16

Gosh take. Hey, get those tape decks fired up. Jeff, tell us. Yeah, I I gotta take the shrink wrap off, man, this Saturday. But what is it? It's great. So and I I was talking to the the the recording the masters guys, and they they said that Rhino's committed to more tapes, but he wouldn't tell me anything. He said he said it was about 16 to 24 more titles. Wouldn't say all he said was he goes, you know, Rhino. He goes, you can probably guess what they are.

SPEAKER_01 51:49

So that was a little quick. What title did you show us? What was that album?

SPEAKER_03 51:53

The yes album. They just they just did a twofer. If you do the yes album, I think the tapes are 299 each. And if you pick up the yes album and the T-Rex album, I think it's like 550 for the pair. So I bought the pair, why not? Um, you know, not not crazy like the tape project tapes or you know, 600 tapes of um you know Norwegian flute music. Um, so it's actually music you want to hear. So yeah, so I'm curious to see what they'll come up with for the rest of the series.

SPEAKER_00 52:26

Yeah, Jeff, funny you should mention that. I just received today from Real to Real Haven the Andrea Pacelli tape that they've put together. Um, I don't know if y'all know Ryan O'Connor, he's a really good guy. He has a recording studio in Brooklyn and he's offering tapes, LPs, and I think digital files uh uh of some sort as well. But he he's recorded the Lumineers, and I think there might be a Lumineers tape coming. Um yeah, you can have that one. Well it depends on your taste, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 52:58

The Lumineers patented the millennial stomp, as we call it. So there you go. Yeah, you can have the Lumineers.

SPEAKER_00 53:07

Well, they you know what's amazing though is Ryan, I think he knew the recording engineer that Andrea Becelli used, and you know, he he and his wife were our big fundraisers for cancer. They they both had, I think, you know, some run-ins with that, and they actually convinced Andrea Bacelli, and uh there's there are a couple other musicians on the tapes. I just got it, so I don't recall their names. It's actually a really amazing sounding tape. So if you like Andrea Bacelli, and I don't think it's priced at quite at uh I'll have to double check on the pricing.

SPEAKER_03 53:40

I don't think it's quite at tape project or higher prices, but yeah, isn't Revox doing a few tapes that are like six, seven, eight, nine hundred dollars each?

SPEAKER_00 53:48

Yeah, I well they bought Horshhouse, so I I think uh Volcker Longa from Horseshouse has gone over and they've sort of subsumed his his catalog. So, you know, they've got the yellow tapes, and I think there are other things that that Volcker has done, and now he's just doing it under the Revox uh umbrella. Um, I haven't heard the new B77 deck though. Jeff, have you heard that by the way?

SPEAKER_03 54:11

Yeah, yeah, it's very nice. Very nice.

SPEAKER_00 54:15

I think it's got a whole new circuit in it. So I'm it's expensive, but I you know, I think you get full factory warranty and uh it fairly all new parts. So I I I think you know the taper.

SPEAKER_03 54:26

Yeah, and no reverb, no reverb a B77 for about seven or eight thousand bucks. So, you know, if you already have a B77, that's not a bad way to go either, you know. Again, knowing that the the factory guys did it, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:41

The the other music recommendation I'd throw out is is at least a little more successful. Uh A B Fawn has brought out a new Bud Shank album. And if y'all remember the Bud Shank album, which I think didn't initially sell as well, but it's spectacular jazz music. But it looked like it was a surfer album because it had it was the soundtrack to a surf film, but it's actually pretty great jazz. And there's a there's another Bud Shank that just came out and sort of debuted at Expona. And I've been listening to that, and that's you know, it's typical Impex, it's phenomenal, both performance and sound quality-wise, and you know, stellar packaging, of course. So I I guess I would throw that out there. Oh, and a third thing, uh, Chad Cassid came by the Quintessence room with the Big Wilsons, and he started playing a lot of his acoustic sounds 40th anniversary LPs, and those sounded wonderful. And I think you can actually get those on SACD uh as well, or they're playing that. So uh that that was you know, those were really good. We listened to Band and Street Choir by Van Morrison, but the thing that really blew me away was Trace Ombre's by Z Z Top uh on UHQR vinyl.

SPEAKER_03 55:57

Unbelievable, really, really I think it's hysterical that he's kind of aped that, even though that wasn't his thing to take.

SPEAKER_00 56:05

He kind of you know oh the UHQR designation, yeah. I'm kind of with you on that, Jeff.

SPEAKER_01 56:16

Jeff, have you had occasion to compare two tape decks by any chance? Have you ever compared the BC?

SPEAKER_03 56:22

Yeah, but nothing that makes sense, you know. I mean, nothing, nothing that would be valid. I mean, I I've compared a lot of like crappy tape decks. So nothing, nothing up to, I mean, I've I've got a like a basic Atari that's been rebuilt, but um the other stuff, I mean, I've got a couple of old TX, I've got a couple of old Revoxes, uh, I've got a Pioneer 707. So nothing, nothing I would consider audiophile quality. Any other music recommendations, gentlemen?

SPEAKER_05 56:52

Yeah, on the big band side, um what's the guy's name? Uh Kenichi Sonata has got an incredible new big band album. It's been about out about six months, and I think it's just called Big Band. It's a brown album. You can find it on Cobaz, but it's probably the smoothest um big band I think I've ever heard. Super, super dynamic, but nothing is like in that 3.5k area that just kills your ears. Um that's a that's a really good one. I like the new Joe Jackson. Um, have you guys heard that? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:30

That's really good.

SPEAKER_05 57:32

But it, I mean, if you like Joe Jackson, it honestly doesn't sound like he's progressed much since the 80s, but I like the sound and it's kind of the same kind of sound. And then a new one that are one that I didn't I haven't heard, but I heard it at the show, and I'm gonna be giving this one a big listen. Uh Nina Simone Baltimore. Are you guys familiar with that one? No, check it out, it sounds fantastic. So not only do you get, you know, Nina, but it's actually the production is is fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 58:05

Yeah, David, one of the rooms played the Take Five track. It might have been the the Quintessence room, uh, from the Kanichi album that you you mentioned. So I was just looking on iPhone and and on that album you you you referenced the big band, uh their version of Take Five is pretty spectacular, sound and performance-wise.

SPEAKER_05 58:27

The whole album is is is really really good.

SPEAKER_04 58:32

All right, I've I've got one. Y'all were talking about tapes earlier. So, like I've I've got a new, but it's old tape. So I don't know if we can see this or not. My daughter wants to see awesome, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 58:44

There we go. What kind of cassette deck do you have, dude? Huh? What kind of cassette deck do you have?

SPEAKER_04 58:50

Oh, it's just like a generic uh, it's like a JVC from the 80s, man.

SPEAKER_03 58:54

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_04 58:55

Yeah, no, it's it's like just the most generic thing. But my kid bought me this, I guess, at a thrift store for Christmas. So I I've got it here on the table, and I've got some other one that she gave me. Um, I will say, like, so the music that I listen to is just kind of all over the place, but I've gotten back into Natalie Merchant, right? Like a lover. Um, so 10,000 Maniacs. Uh just for anybody who isn't familiar with the track, uh, because the night, so it was an MTV live performance or unplugged performance. That is like such a great song. Uh so anyway, that's my two cents. That's all I've got.

SPEAKER_01 59:26

Uh fellow uh person audio Odin thinking of asking for recommendations about oh, here we go.

SPEAKER_00 59:34

Oh, I yeah, I've got something on the affordable, well, semi-affordable side if you're talking about active speakers, Ron.

SPEAKER_01 59:41

Yes, uh, so he's uh uh this audio Odin's asking any active speakers that stood out at the show.

SPEAKER_00 59:47

Yes. Um Avant Guard has brought out an$18,500 uh not really cheap, so you know, uh, but but it's an all-in-one with a a sort of a more basic version of the itron amplifiers, and you know, it's one of their horns. I think the thing sounded great. They had it in a little smaller room off the main room that had the avant-garde trios with I think airtight amps, and I thought it sounded really good. Trent was sort of manning the room, and we were playing tracks, and you know, you throw a DAC onto that, and you basically got your system.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:25

So I I completely agree. I completely agree. I talked about that baby avant-garde as well, that Angie Lisi was very excited about. Yep, I totally agree.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:34

And then the two others we had mentioned that were uh active were the Dyne Audio Contour 20s and the uh the little the little uh Cambridge Audio. I'm starting to see more and more active speakers. I I expect we'll see tons more in the future.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:52

Future fire, as John Darko would say, right, David?

SPEAKER_04 1:00:55

I see more just so from my side, because I don't really touch the the more expensive stuff. I think most of the things that I review in general are like five thousand dollars and below. Uh so if we're talking speakers, then I'm talking about a pair, right? A lot of the stuff that I am asked about by my audience is more in the vein of power speakers with HDMI inputs now. That's becoming a thing because a lot of people are looking for stuff for the bedroom for three to five hundred bucks a pair, maybe a little bit more, and then they want subwoofer output so they can add a subwoofer on to it as well.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:28

And that's a big step up from the crappy speakers that are in the average flat panel TV. Yeah, for sure. Huge, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:35

Yeah, I think has some offerings for that, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:39

They do.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:41

Yeah, so so Aaron, in that price range, what was your favorite one or two speakers that satisfy those conditions that you sent the so like David was talking about earlier, the Cambridge speakers, because I've already got hands-on experience with those in my house, and I I can't remember what the price is, but let's just say they're like 500 bucks a pair for the small one. Uh, and it maybe maybe 600, but I think 500 is right. I think those are good. And then the Canto speakers, they have some models that are really good. Uh, and I actually talked to them about there's one model that I've got a review coming up for that. I'm like, who the heck tuned this one? And who the heck tuned that one? This one is kind of shit, and this one's actually really good. So, like, what's going on here? Um, but yeah, Canto and and the Cambridge stuff, I think, are good options.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:23

Aaron, do you ever do you ever measure a speaker and the measurements are not spectacular, but you actually like the sound subjectively?

SPEAKER_04 1:02:31

Yeah, this is a slippery slope, right? So when you talk about the measurements, we got to look at everything, we can't look at just one thing, right? Um and Ron would kill me if I went on my whole tangent about talking about measurements.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:41

So uh no, in fact, I like the fact that you do both, that you're not measurements only, that it's measurements plus subjective listening.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:49

Right. So, so here's the thing, right? You can have we get caught up in this, and to me, it's it is people trying to oversimplify something that's not quite that simple. Um, most of the time when we talk about measurements from let's say like the old guard, we're thinking of just basic on axis frequency response, and that's it. So it's a hundred percent possible to have a speaker that has really good on access response and it still sounds like garbage. Uh, the smaller the room, the poorer the off-axis dispersion of that speaker, the worse that speaker is gonna sound in the room. So if you take a speaker that has really good on axis performance, but it has shit off-axis performance, and you take it to a field and listen to it, you're gonna be fine. As soon as you put it in a room with all the reflections from the sidewall bounces and stuff like that, all that off-axis response that's bad comes back into play with that on access sound, and then you get just a mess, right? That so you wind up with that. Um, the question is often asked have I heard a speaker that sounds good but measures bad? And I would say to that, you know, it depends on how you define measures bad. A lot of people will say it's got to be within plus or minus one decibel for an active speaker. That's plausible, that's easy to do. Uh, for a passive speaker, maybe under a thousand bucks, it's gonna be pretty dang hard. As you get further and further above a thousand bucks, it's gonna get easier, but then you're gonna have to give off, or you're gonna have to trade off the looks versus the actual performance. And so that's a separate thing, too, because you've got to look at this thing. So, do you want to spend$500 on something that sounds pretty good but also looks really good? Or do you want to spend a thousand bucks on something that sounds you know great but also looks great? You know, so those are the trade-offs you have to consider. Um, the the easy answer is no, not really. I haven't heard a speaker that measures like crap and sounds good, but then when you get into the minutiae of the thing, okay, well, how do you define measures good? Are we talking within a tolerance of plus or minus three decibels? And is it$500? And you say that's acceptable for the price that I'm paying. And then are you talking about where are the issues in the measurements? Is it somewhere that's going to be really problematic? Or is it somewhere that's ah, that's not a big deal. I can I can tame that with a little bit of EQ, right? So that's my my blitz.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:55

Our final segment. Any other final thoughts, uh, personal anecdotes, other things you wanted to report that you enjoyed of the show?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:05

I think that just something that maybe doesn't get talked out of talked about enough. Um there's a positive attitude that occurs. I mean, there's there's politics going on in the background, of course. Um, but that everybody was really happy. I think that audiophiles, as big a nerd as we are, when we realize there's this huge community in Chicago gathering every year to enjoy good sound and find the latest gear and look at the latest innovations, it's energizing. I'm I was really, I'm really it's sort of a dirty word in some circles, but I'm proud to be an audiophile. I think part of the pleasure of this trip is I was staying with one of my professional setup clients, Sharon, who's a customer of Mix at Quintessence, and we met a lot of mixed customers, and it was just great meeting fellow. Audiophiles and seeing old friends running into David and Ken Forsyth and Tiago and all the regulars of these shows. It's just I don't want to. I feel like sometimes the community, the energy from being part of that community gets downplayed a little bit. It's not all 80-year-old guys wearing uh white socks and their sandals. You know, that there's some really good people in the industry.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:27

Jeff, any personal thoughts? I'm the anti-audiophile guy, you know. One of my friends said, Hey, you want to come over on Sunday and listen to 12 power chords? I said, No, I'd rather get a colonoscopy, you know. Um, I'm a music guy, so you know, I have a great system. I have four great systems, but the systems always serve the music. So, you know, um, yeah, I'm I'm not the geeky audiophile, you know. I get stuff the way I want it, I get it set up, and that's the way it stays. You know, I'm I'm not always looking for the latest tweak or any of that. It's you know, I'm probably the opposite of that whole thing. I mean, I appreciate that because I think everybody gets their joy from a different part of it. I mean, some people really do listen like listening to 12 power chords, and if that's your thing, that's awesome, you know. But but it's not my thing. I'd rather I would rather hear the last 12 records you bought than the last four things you did to your system.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:29

So well, I I don't disagree with that, Jeff, but I I I have a feeling just knowing some of the gear that you have, that you're you're you are kind of an audiophile though, because you appreciate good sound quality. And when you listen to your music, yeah, the well, that's sort of the definition of audiophile. So I mean, I've a little bit of audio file in there.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:56

I don't want to get too far off topic here. Let me ask David Solomon if he had any personal thoughts about it.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:02

I just enjoyed the show. I really uh I do appreciate the uh the audiophiles or the music lovers presenting new music. I've got a little different role. You introduced me as uh uh VP of Bizdev. I'm no longer actually doing that. The only thing I'm doing now, because I've sort of semi-retired, so the only thing I'm doing now is playing music for people. I'm going out. That is my Walmart greeter job. Uh one hero dude. Basically, I'm going out just playing music. And the the thing that I enjoy the most, really, I mean, I really do enjoy the great systems, but it's it's the means, it's the means to the end. I enjoy the music more than anything. And uh, you know, when I get home, I don't know about you guys, but I've got a a probably uh 50-song playlist or so. And do you guys do Shazam when you're at the shows? That's my favorite part when I walk into a room and go, oh my god, I love this music, and I'll always Shazam it. So I haven't even started yet, but I've got maybe 50 tunes that I'm I'm ready to uh throw down on.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:13

Lots of music. Any personal thoughts for you at the show?

SPEAKER_04 1:09:16

Uh yeah, so I'll I'll echo Lee's comment about just the community. To me, that's the number one thing about going to a show. Um, and as you know, like a content creator, um, being able to interact with the community is is by far the coolest aspect to me. You know, we can all sit in solitude and listen to our music and stuff like that, and that's great, that's fine. But for me, getting out and talking to people about, hey, what are you excited about, or what have you listened to lately, or what have you tried lately? Um, that is really the fun part about this stuff. And then also just want to say that it was great getting to finally meet some uh some people that I've known for years online, but never actually gotten to see face to face. And getting out there, um, again, just meeting them. And then the last thing I'll say is this kind of gets into the the space of the internet, right? And people just being like sad, miserable people. Um you sometimes it's easy to have arguments with people online, and then when you see them in person, a lot of that facade kind of fades away, and you're able to tap into hey, we're both humans, we had a disagreement, but let's squash that and let's just be cool because we're here for audio at the end of the day. Like, this isn't life or death, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:28

So that's good too. Yeah, yeah. It's funny you say that, Aaron. Jeff and I have gotten into some arguments in the past on the Steve Hoffman forum. Remember those, Jeff?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:36

God, that was 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:38

Oh, I know, I know, but we I need to know y'all screen names because I'm on there too.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:42

Yeah, Jeff and I uh get along probably 10, 12 years.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:47

Uh yeah, it's been a while, but Jeff and I get along very well in person, or at least I think we do, maybe because we're talking about Porsches and BMWs. But uh, you know, it it is kind of interesting when you meet people in person, it's a whole there there could be a different persona, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:11:02

Yeah, especially when you tell them I'm from Alabama, we do stuff differently down there. They're like, oh yeah, my bad.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:10

I mean I really enjoyed the show myself. This was the first show in which I did very I did only one interview and got to walk around as a fun hobbyist. I spent a lot of time walking around with my friend Dale Stanton, who's one of the members of our Orange County Beverly Hills Audio Posse. I on Thursday night I had a very nice dinner with Jay Casaris and his wife. One of the highlights of the show for me, maybe the highlight, some little kid comes up to me while I'm on the line. I call the Maxville Pavel. Maxville Pavel comes up to me and says, I watch the show. So Max is the youngest high-fi fan. And he and his father are going to come over and listen to music with me in Beverly Hills uh sometime in May. I've already uh spoken with his dad.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:52

Cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:52

Uh I met and walked around for a couple of hours with Frank Doris. Frank Doris is truly OG from the Harry Pearson days. Yeah. Way, way back. I expect people typically who have been in the hobby for five decades, six decades to be crusty and cranky and dogmatic. Frank was the opposite. He was delightful, easygoing, um uh cheery, uh, just just really nice, open-minded, not dogmatic, delightful guy. We're gonna have him on the show. Yeah, we can play music too. Right. Yeah, yeah, guitar player. Really nice guy. Okay, thank you very much for joining, gentlemen, for this special episode of the High Five Five for Exponent 2026 report. The next show will be back to our regular schedule of the second and fourth Wednesday of every month. Next show is April 22nd. Thanks, everybody. Thanks, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:46

Thanks, man. Thanks. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:48

Hey, bye bye. Bye bye.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:51

Now what?