Axpona 2019 Schaumburg IL

verb

stevep wrote: »

I wish it wasn't so hot in the rooms. Some of these systems required time to tell if you would find them tiring living with them.

It was nice to meet some people that have only been words on a screen and give them a voice.

Good to meet you Steve! And your better half!

F1nut

Clipdat wrote: »

These High Fidelity Cables RCAs are 69k.

A bit more info, http://www.highfidelitycables.com/technology.html

Those cables would cause more than a few heads at AK to explode.

marvda1

For those of you that were on the fence about scansonic speakers, take the plunge, they are well worth it.

joecoulson

verb wrote: »

So while at Axpona, @joecoulson and I were talking, among other things, music genres. Little did I know, that sneaky guy, he ordered a CD that he thought I would like. Got home today and it was sitting on the front porch!

Rufus Du Sol is rocking in Verb's office! Thank you very much Joe! And, BTW, I love it!

My pleasure Dave. Glad you like it.

indyhawg

Clipdat wrote: »

This was my favorite room at the show.

The system sounded really good in the sweet spot.

Clipdat

pitdogg2 wrote: »

I heard both last year these have an intoxicating sweet spot.

"Intoxicating" is a great word to describe it. I literally felt like I was on a musical high for 90 minutes.

pitdogg2

F1nut wrote: »

Clipdat wrote: »

These High Fidelity Cables RCAs are 69k.

Those cables would cause more than a few heads at AK to explode.

Id pay to see that lol

gudnoyez

I left at 4 on the way out I run into Mario with a Elac Phono Pre in his hands he won it in the Elac room so the last person I said goodbye to was Mario and he was grinning ear to ear with that Prize.

joecoulson

That’s great!! Congrats to him

msg

Those of you who are home from the show now, is music ruined for you, or were there enough crappy rooms there that you are still able to enjoy your current gearsets?

gudnoyez

Me and Marvin won Parasound shirts, unfortunately they only had mediums left so they are sending ours to us.

gudnoyez

My three favorite rooms
Skips room sounded great a lot of people seemed pretty impressed and I was one of them.
Jim Salks room
The Parasound room.

pitdogg2

Man lucky you twice shirts and able to get into the Parasound room. That room was so packed yesterday.

erniejade

Clipdat wrote: »

Can't believe there's only an hour of show left. I need more time!

Agreed. Even with a 3 day pass, its very hard to see it all.

Derf

Thank you guys for all the pics and comments. It’s been fun living vicariously through your adventures!

joecoulson

msg wrote: »

Those of you who are home from the show now, is music ruined for you, or were there enough crappy rooms there that you are still able to enjoy your current gearsets?

Because there were so many sucky rooms (more than half for my luck of the draw) it gave me a renewed appreciation for my own system. Listening to it now with tracks heard at the show.

msg

Has anyone heard from Drew? Last I read he was seen climbing into one of the Scaena gear travel cases.

gudnoyez

pitdogg2 wrote: »

Man lucky you twice shirts and able to get into the Parasound room. That room was so packed yesterday.

Yeah the Parasound room was busy everytime I went by it so this afternoon I waited to get in and spent quite sometime in there a great sounding room packed for a reason.

pitdogg2

gudnoyez wrote: »

I left at 4 on the way out I run into Mario with a Elac Phono Pre in his hands he won it in the Elac room so the last person I said goodbye to was Mario and he was grinning ear to ear with that Prize.

I like Mario he is a hoot! Great guy couldn't happen to a better person.

verb

msg wrote: »

Those of you who are home from the show now, is music ruined for you, or were there enough crappy rooms there that you are still able to enjoy your current gearsets?

Not at all! It really exposed me to what’s out there! Lots of very cool stuff! A lot out of my league! Kinda like when you go to an auto show and see the Bugatti or other exotic, nice to look at dream!

lightman1

Dang it! Mario is good people. Had a blast with him last year.
A tip o' the hat to Drew and all the pics. Steve... We gotta catch up next time I'm back in Iowa. Glad to know your truck floats on the river where the streets used to be...

msg

verb wrote: »

msg wrote: »

Those of you who are home from the show now, is music ruined for you, or were there enough crappy rooms there that you are still able to enjoy your current gearsets?

Not at all! It really exposed me to what’s out there! Lots of very cool stuff! A lot out of my league! Kinda like when you go to an auto show and see the Bugatti or other exotic, nice to look at dream!

Dave, that's exactly what I was thinking. Except that instead of just getting to look at the cars, being at AXPONA could be kind of like taking an enthusiastic ride in one of those cars. But anyway, good to hear there's no feeling dumpy. I have to credit some of that at least to all the obsession, knowledge share, and experience here. So strange to hear about the crappy rooms at an event like that from some of those names, but cool to hear how the guys homed in on it pretty quickly. Says a lot for what we learn here, I think?

nooshinjohn

When I go to one of these shows, I first do some intense listening of my own rig, then I compare those impressions with what I hear at the show. So far I have not come away impressed enough to see a need to spend more coin, but I do identify areas I can tweak...

Clipdat

msg wrote: »

Has anyone heard from Drew? Last I read he was seen climbing into one of the Scaena gear travel cases.

The owner was great, and played some great music.

We stayed until past show closing listening to songs. He said he would normally have played music for us for another hour or two, if it wasnt for the snowy weather.

Clipdat

msg wrote: »

So strange to hear about the crappy rooms at an event like that from some of those names, but cool to hear how the guys homed in on it pretty quickly. Says a lot for what we learn here, I think?

It kinda feels weird describing a room's sound as "crappy", but with as much competition as there was, if your room didnt do something unique or fantastic, it was forgettable.

It was very easy to tell within 10-20 seconds of being in a room if the sound "grabbed" you or not. If not, no reason to stay.

When you hear what your body and mind interpret as "good sound", it's almost a subconscious desire to stay put.

It happened to us today in rooms like these: Martin Logan & Benchmark, Destination Audio & Modwright, Volti Audio & Border Patrol, Sonner Audio & Luxman (30wpc pure class A - lovely!), Bayz Audio, Skip/AudioThesis, and of course Scaena.

When it happens it's a great feeling!

Clipdat

I forgot to mention in my earlier "audio celebrity sightings" post, that on Thursday night I got to meet and have a 20 minute conversation with Sean from ZeroFidelity. Best YouTube audio reviews, in my opinion. I literally have zero desire to watch other people's reviews after watching his.

He has an uncanny ability to coherently describe in great detail the subtle nuances and details about a product, while doing it into a camera. He makes it look easy and it's anything but.

Was insightful to talk to him about the hobby and about reviewing products. I had hoped to run into him again at the show but didn't see him all weekend.

But still, I very much enjoyed meeting him.

Clipdat

On Saturday outside the Magico & Classe room, I struck up a conversation with Jim Crowley. I asked about Sound United and found out that Jim is a 25 year long employee of Polk Audio.

I briefly discussed our beloved forum, and it's current moderator-less state. I explained how it's much more than just another audio forum, rather that we are more like a family. We talked about how Kenneth did a great job and had recently retired and how we're in need of a replacement.

He assured me that there are no plans to shut down the forum. He informed me that he will reach out to the appropriate department in regards to a potential replacement moderator. He handed me his business card and invited me to follow up.

When I get back in front of a real keyboard, I will email Jim and discuss the forum and related concerns like moderation, Polk Audio customer service presence to provide support for the lifestyle products, and other general topics relevant to the continued health of Club Polk.

BlueFox

There is no need for a moderator.

Clipdat

BlueFox wrote: »

There is no need for a moderator.

Thank you for your thoughts on the situation. However, I politely disagree.

At the very least, a moderator is needed to remove spam posts. And also, ideally, to enforce egregious and obvious violations of the forum's rules and guidelines.

Forum moderators can also serve to prevent rules violations before they occur, and also defuse tense situations or arguments.

I've been posting on forums for over 20 years and in my experience, good moderators are a positive thing.

nooshinjohn

A good mod would have things running so well they could be a ghost. The problem we have had with moderators is on occasion, they became a part of the problem rather than simply stay in the background.