It's at a new place this year.  A small convention center/hotel in the Chicago burbs.  El presidente and I will be in attendance.  I am hoping it is more conducive to good sound than the old hotel.

I haven't spent any time with the vendor list but will check out some of the usual suspects.  I think PS Audio will have a bigger presence.

I'll try to type up some notes on the stuff I think was interesting.

Dudes ... please check out:

1. ESS Labs - Expo Hall - hopefully they will have their 98dB @ 6 ohms with a 12″ Woofer and the HEIL AMT1 Tweeter.  Been wanting to get feedback on these guys as they check off a lot of boxes for low watt tube guys!

2. Line Magnetic - Rm 630.

3. Linear Tube Audio - Room 606, 654, 696.

4. Pure Audio Project - Room 725, 729.  They may have their new Horn1  OB's (which I heard were a step up from the entry level Voxativ drivers), but also may be showing a pair of Voxativ Field Coil Drivers.

5. Tekton Design Room 730 - maybe they'll have on of his new designs such as the Double Impacts.

That's all I can think of for now ... would like to hear your impressions on these guys.

Anyone attending might be interested in checking out room 622, Alta Audio (speakers).  Frank VanAlstine will be doing the electronics and will be debuting his new amp, the SET400, a 225 wpc mosfet design that is ZKit60's big brother.


Dan

Lin, they are great amps that sound REALLY nice.  The amp seems to offer a nice sound when you first hear it and then gets better and better the more you listen to it.  More than a few people have noticed this...very nice at first and then really spectacular after listening to it for a few weeks.

The only person we've run into so far that doesn't like it much is the guy who was doing a competing design...he lost.


Dan

Well, how was it?

You summed up my thoughts pretty well. The stuff we figured we'd like, we did. And I was looking forward to hearing PS Audio's BHK amps and the like, but I didn't see that anywhere. There were some big speakers that I thought looked and sounded pretty amazing, but didn't even bother asking the price. It was nice meeting Glen from GIK Acoustics finally, and seeing my friend Jeff of JTR Speakers. I pretty much enjoyed all the home theater setups we saw, but then that's kind of my thing. I do hope to get up to JTRs warehouse in Wisconsin and borrow some of the those speakers he offered to let me try on the Zen amp.








We really liked these speakers - they had great speed/PRaT. I forgot to photograph the info page on them since it was really busy in that room.





I was pleased to see more diffusers used in the rooms - it's about friggen time!!

The rooms were holding back a few of the better sounding equipment. I kinda stopped taking photos after this as I was getting tired.

Eric,

Thanks for posting your pictures and impressions.  The beautiful wood multi-driver speakers are from Daedalus Audio (Lou Hinkley).  Lou's speakers are really nice, especially his new Apollo models - built from solid hardwoods, 96.5 dB efficiency, with extremely well designed crossovers. His speakers have great tone and produce an immersive 3D soundstage with the right sources.  Lou is a superb craftsman, a musician, and a super nice guy.  

Like you, I have a preference for single driver speakers.  That said, I think Lou's Apollo's paired with a ZMA would be a fantastic combination - musical heaven.  Lou often demonstrates his speakers with Modwright's (Dan Wright's) outstanding electronics at audio shows.  I know they'll be at the Captial Audio Fest in November this year for any East Coaster's interested in a listening session.

HK  

I did not see Omega and Zu and I stayed for two hours after you guys left.

I found one room I liked better than Deadalus later in the day.  I have to look at my schedule to recall the name.  Those were the $120K speakers.

I'm still deeply disappointed you didn't pick it up.

Hey, I sent you a text with a picture of your headrest.  Did you get it?

Yes on the headrest, I've just been a bit under the weather the past couple days and forgot to respond. I'm excited to try it out, thanks!  

Also, get into the 21st century and get Messenger so you can send full messages and stop texting like a savage.  

Have you checked out what happened to the OTL Steve posted?? Our discussion at Axpona started a fire!  

Quote:


If memory serves me correctly, the Daedalus Apollo's and Apollo 11's (MTM configuration for mids and tweeters) run about $21K - $25K depending on configuration.  It's a lot to spend, but a lot less than $125,000.

HK

Well I am just one opinion here.  I want there to be a holy grail of single drivers and I held out hope that Voxativ was it.  In hearing two different configurations over this year and last I have just not come away feeling that way.

PAP was in 2 rooms.  One had a voxativ, maybe 5" driver.  It could be that I am listening to a configuration now at home that is relatively warm but didn't like what I heard and thought it sounded shrill.  I think Eric shared the same opinion.

And the horn in the other room sounded too warm.

I did have an interesting conversation in the expo.  There was a guy from Vancouver with a booth that had some single drivers in some acrylic OBs.  He wasn't playing them.  I think it was more for display.

Anyway, I asked him about the drivers and he said that they were made by a company that split off from Voxativ.  He said the idea guys went to this company and the sound of their drivers was way better than Voxativ.  I think the sales and marketing focused guys kept going at Voxativ.  That's why you have heard of voxativ and not the split off company.  Anyway, I'll see if I can dig out his card.  Those drivers might be worth a listen.

Yeah, if you can post that info that'd be great.

I know that the original company that Voxativ based their drivers on was from AER who also make their drivers in house in Germany, they are also the drivers used in RL Acoustics LamHorn 1.8 which can supposedly do 20 - 20 with a single AER driver with specs of 16 ohms @ 102.5dB (got to hear these someday).

Image from AER

https://hometheaterreview.com/random-thoughts-and-observations-from-axpona-2018/...

Thanks for the list!  I'll have to check those out when I get home tonight!


I got some time with the OTL and BadWolf last night - we chatted about everything from tube amps to metallurgy to quantum memory and how it all relates. I really enjoyed listening to the OTL again - We're definitely going to have to follow up with a CDApS meet soon!