Anyone here going Florida International Audio Expo Feb 20-22 in Tampa Florida?

treitz3 · January 11

I just booked my flight and hotel reservations. If anyone here is going, let's meet up. This will be my first time at this one.

Tom

HzTweaker · January 13

So far doesn't look like it.

Are you thinking about going? If so is there a specific product/manufacture that peaks your interest or would you be going just in general?

treitz3 · January 14

Oh, I am going. I'd like to finally meet the man who gave me such joy along my audio journey...and it's not Bob Carver. I have already met him (and his lovely wife) and can already call him on speed dial.

BTW, he's getting rather old...y'all may need to start praying for him in advance. (secretly for now)

Tom

HzTweaker · January 14

Nice! Report back with lots of pictures and thoughts.

treitz3 · January 14

I gotta be honest...

This is not an event I plan on reporting on. I am going there strictly for MY enjoyment and experience. If I end up commenting on something? Consider it a bonus for those that don't attend.

Tom

HzTweaker · January 14

Copy that.

pitdogg2 · January 14

Might have to reach out to @Mikey081057, he lives in Tampa. I've got his digits if you need them.

treitz3 · February 23

Well, admittedly, I missed the post to contact @Mikey081057. If you were there, I sincerely apologize. My bad.

That said, I went and had a F'n BLAST!

This show was much more, "Corporate", if you will compared to the Lone Star Audio Fest. The show was probably 6 times larger as well, not including the car audio show going on at the same time, right outside of the hotel. I never made it out there.

I was able to FINALLY meet Jonny. For those who don't know, he is the owner and designer of my favorite cables. I am sure that many of you are familiar with my ramblings about said cables. It's not like I haven't mentioned them before....Also met many industry insiders, ambassadors, manufacturers and folks I never expected to meet.

It was a completely different experience than the LSAF that I have been privy too multiple times.

We started at floor 4 and worked our way down.

There were many major players in the high end audio scene, along with many players that you never heard of and also many low cost players that were there to show off their gear. To make a very long story short? Floors 2 through 4 were child's play, with the exception of one speaker company.

They were not a full range speaker, but I knew, walking in that this was gonna be something special. They did not disappoint.

We obviously listened to the floor standers. They were thin, not too deep and stood about a half a foot above belly button in height. This setup stole the show on floors 2-4. Given the width of the room and the depth (probably 17x30 to 35), they COMPLETELY filled the room with such wonderful sound....and you could tell as soon as you walked into the room, even though it was filled with people every time we walked in. After all of the sub-par systems I had heard up until this point? It was truly a breath of fresh air to hear something worthy of listening too. It ended up being quite the treat too. We came back to this room 3x, even though we were in a hurry to move on to the next. Every time, it did not disappoint.

If you have not ever heard of this speaker company before? I would recommend to check them out. They punch WAY above what they have to bring to the table. You think they wouldn't bring jack ****? You would be wrong. That said, let me remind you again that they are not a full range speaker. But for what they offer? I could live with it comfortably. I was very impressed. Keep an eye on this company.

That said, how about some photos of some of the other rigs...

Cont'd...

treitz3 · February 23

^^^ I will tell you about these later. VERY interesting product! Did I mention "VERY"?

^^^ Not a system, but the ceiling was pretty phat. It looked better in person.

So, this was a brief snapshot of the limited photos I took at the...

I'll cover the lower floor later. This is just a teaser.

Tom

treitz3 · February 23

This was nice. Anyone recognize her? She appears on albums.....some might say that they are sought after.

Tom

treitz3 · February 23

Surprisingly good sound. The issue was that the REL room above had the dreaded "boom" that resonated beyond belief, so nobody could really get a true taste of the speakers. Still, with the obnoxious boom coming from the REL room above, it provided some damned fine sound. Great sound stage and acoustics (that were not masked from the room above).

The show was weird. We walked through the inside car audio marketplace and the cat I was with wanted to actually speak to where we could hear each other, so we walked down this obscure hallway. We took a right, then a left and stumbled upon this room that we both didn't even knew existed. I recognized the speaker from photos, so we went in and listened.

Yes, it had some things that I did not prefer, some things that really impressed and even the obnoxious sound coming from the REL room above? I walked away impressed. I would like to hear them again, in a more refined environment.

Tom

skipshot12 · February 24

Awesome, thanks for the pics and review.

bcwsrt · February 24

Can’t wait to hear what the Star Trek-looking thingies are …

treitz3 · February 24

bcwsrt wrote: »

Can’t wait to hear what the Star Trek-looking thingies are …

https://estelon.com/speaker/forza/

They are almost as tall as I am. Pics don't really do it justice. In person, they look fantastic. Kind of like a work of art.

Tom

Viking64 · February 24

I thought "Star Trek" was a reference to those pendants (?) that say "LOEWE" and "Klipsch".

treitz3 · February 24

Oh, those? Those are sweet. If I find the time tonight, I'll fill you all in.

Tom

treitz3 · February 24

So, that's the T-10 Bespoke headset. Probably the world's most unique and intriguing set of ear buds. I was lucky enough to have a full demo from Bear Clark the first night I showed up after hours at the bar. I'll say one thing, Bear is a funny as they come. We laughed both nights we were at the bar. He's just a freakin' TRIP!

Anyhoo, it has noise cancelling that drops noise around you significantly. So, he put the earbuds into my ear (I barely noticed they were in there) and he dropped it down some. Then some more, and even though the bar was extremely loud, I could barely hear anything when it was set to zero. This is partly thanks to a silicone slider he put on that is specially fitted to your ear canal. It brought the noise from the bar down to an estimated 35dB, which is pretty quiet, especially considering my surroundings.

Then he played some music. When the music started, I no longer heard anything from the bar, just the music. The separation was outstanding and the bass was actually pretty daggum good. Better than I ever expected. The level of detail these things put out was surprising. Even the smallest hint of sounds came through with ease. Like listening to a rather refined hi-fi rig. Not bad at all.

He told me so much about all of the features this thing does and I'll be honest, it does more than I remember. The technology that is in these things is unheard of. You can take a call by nodding your head up or down, not answer a call by shaking your head left to right. The earbuds outer side supports touch, double touch, touch and hold, swipe forward, swipe rearward, swipe and hold forward, swipe and hold rearward, toggle forward, toggle rearward, toggle and hold (both directions), all gestures (for each ear) independently assignable in-app.

Everything about these things are totally and completely customizable. Just scroll through the gallery and you will see some examples. I am not kidding about everything being customizable either. He had about 25 examples of these things with him and everyone of them were the same shape, but they were all completely different. From Blue ray skin to alligator skin to diamonds, emeralds, 3D metal shapes, 3D family crests, literally anything you want? They can make. The only limits are your wallet and your imagination.

They will hold a charge for something like 9 hours and if you place the buds back in the charger for 5 minutes, it is charged again for another 4.5 hours. If memory serves, you can take it hiking and listen for 45 hours without ever having to plug it back into a power source.

This is not for most people. This is for the discerning customer who is into very unique, luxury items and high fidelity music. They range from anywhere between 3K to 120K. The pricier ones have been sold to some to sports figures, princes and foreign leaders. Snoop Dog even has one. It's definitely for a niche market, but believe it or not? I am actually considering getting one down the road. It would be great for mowing the lawn, privacy and great tunes while on an airplane, camping, bike riding, listening to music while at work or simply enjoying some great music right next to your wife while she is watching her chick flicks. She won't hear you and you will definitely not hear her or the chick flick.

If you are worried about hearing traffic, an ambulance or a car horn when riding your bike, the noise cancelling feature is also fully customizable. You can adjust it for a good balance between hearing outside noises and music. Or you can just turn off the noise cancelling feature.

This was hands down, the most unique thing I saw at the show and I honestly never even knew they existed. Not only that, I made a good friend with Bear. We closed the bar both nights, along with Jonny from Snake River Audio, who already bought one. Bear sold 7 at the show, and he still had a day to go (I had to leave Sunday morning, so I could get back to work today). If anyone ever goes to a show and wants to meet a character, walk on up and introduce yourself. He's not pushy and his sense of humor is top notch. This T-10 Bespoke will definitely impress you. I am still in awe at all the things this can do.

And then their is the fine detail and quality, that one would only see in fine jewelry and watches. The detail is extremely impressive. Everything about these things are impressive.

Anyhoo, that's what the Star Trek-looking thingies are.

Tom

treitz3 · March 1

So, on the lower floor were some rather heavy hitters and I ran out of time to hear them all. The hours of the show kinda bit. They opened at 10 and most of the rooms closed at 6. I was only there for one day and had other things I wanted to accomplish while the show was going on. Meeting people and talking with the industry insiders, while they were available.

I met Fred Ainsley, the US and Canadian distributor/ambassador for LampizatOr. He is such a nice guy! We spoke about certain things I cannot discuss on the public front, and also talked about our respective systems, as well as noise. I listened to the system they had (below) featuring Gershman / Pass Labs / LampizatOr. Great sound! At that level of DAC, the subtleties were nice. I was surprised to see that they were utilizing a rather inexpensive network bridge that is all the rage over at the WBF. Something that I am interested in adapting in my system as well in the future.

Photo courtesy of the What's Best Forum. (I did not have the time to take a picture myself)

I was completely disappointed in the Clarisys Audio room (below). These were supposedly better than the Dunlavy's and all panel speakers before them. I would argue that this is complete BS. They were underwhelming. So much so, that I didn't spend more than one song with them, waited for the next song, thinking it was just that track, then moved along, as they were honestly a waste of my time. They seemed to offer one note bass, the highs were thwarted and they offered none of the magic that others have mentioned elsewhere on other forums. This is a prefect example of GG's famous phrase around here. "There is no replacement for displacement".

I forget which system this was (below), but they did incorporate the Ansuz A/C line conditioner (last photo in the photos directly below this). It was okay, nothing stellar. I think that maybe they should have presented this system in a smaller room, as they needed to play it louder than the system was optimized for IMO/IME.

Here is another shot of the upstream gear of the Estelon room. I would have loved to hear the record player while I was there, but as mentioned before, time was limited. Their digital sounded nice and I did not recognize the amplifier. She was a beast though (as you can see in the photo below)

Okay, I was expecting to hear great things from this system (below). I think that this was on floor 2. Yes, the Margules room sounded better to these ears than this system. Esoteric definitely has a house sound. This was apparent to me, as I have the Esoteric P-02 transport, that I was gonna get rid of, until I tweaked some things. It took me almost 6 months of experimenting, but I am now happy with the sound. Thing is, it shoudn't take 6 months of experimenting to get great sound. Anyhoo, back to the system.

It appears as if all of the upstream gear from the speakers was all Esoteric. One would think that this system would have wooed me into loving it, but alas, it did not impress. All that money, just for an "okay" system? It wasn't my cup of tea and the house sound was overwhelming.

Cont'd...

treitz3 · March 21

Okay, now for my personal pick for best sound at the show. Gentlemen, the Acora MRC-3.

https://acoraacoustics.com/mrc-3-product-page/ more info can be found here, on Scott Walker's site >>> https://scottwalkeraudio.com/store/acora-acoustics-mrc-3/?srsltid=AfmBOoo504xktWA__25YgEN6T-w07UDVTgliCu9seIeXxCUTLr2P3jNs

For those that made it to last year's SWAF, they were featured there as well. As a reminder, here is a shot of that room (below)

Anyhoo, back to the best sound at the show (for me). The Acora MRC-3 is a relatively smaller speaker than mine and are also smaller than many floor standers offered. They stand only 47" tall, with only a 14.5" width. One would think that a non-full range speaker couldn't hit it out of the park by themselves, but they delivered in spades.

Please allow me to digress. These were probably in the worst room available at the show. There were 3 systems in that same room. It was kind of like a "lobby" before one went into the big Acora room. The dimensions of this room were a chopped up probably 80'x17' room, that the back wall would go from 10' to 17' back from time to time for the entrances into this room. The back walls were sheet rock and the opposite side of the wall was half sheet rock, up to about 4', then it was all glass, up to the drop ceiling. Definitely not the best acoustical environment....and the other two systems were constantly playing while this system was playing as well. There were no acoustical treatments in sight.

THAT should give you an indication of how well these speakers performed. They definitely caught the attention of these ears. Below is a shot of the front end equipment. (sorry in advance for the very blurry photo)

If I am not mistaken, it consisted of an Aurender A1000 streamer and all VAC gear with tube amplification. A very simple system, but with sound that commanded the room. It was very refined, cohesive, palpable, detailed without being obnoxious and images were spot on. Even with the other systems playing in the room at the same time.

I will say this. This little system with these Acora MRC-3 speakers were the first time I have been at an audio show to where I felt like straying away from Tyler Acoustics speakers. As many of you know, I have the TOTL Tyler Acoustics Woodmere speakers and while they might not compete with speakers that go into the stratosphere in cost? I have been nothing but pleased with them ever since I picked them up and installed them into the listening room. These were the speakers that replaced my highly modified/custom Tyler Acoustics Linbrook's (documented elsewhere in the forum)

They were that impressive. Not by a profound night and day difference, but I was extremely impressed by what I heard. The sound was tight, authoritative, refined and just a pleasure to sit and listen too. On or off axis. Yes, even with other systems playing in the same room, at the same time....as well as people left and right talking away, as if no one was listening critically.

This is NOT a full range speaker. It only digs down to 32Hz, but to be honest? Even as picky as I am when it comes to audio, I could live with the sound it offered for the rest of my life, even without filling out the rest of the frequency spectrum. If you ever have a chance to audition these specific speakers, I would encourage you to give them a fair shot. They are definitely worthy of consideration. As stated before, these were my personal pick for best sound at the show.

One of the things that struck me on the looks and build (not even considering the sound) is that the cabinets are made of granite. They have 4 types/colors to choose from and I persoanlly am in love with the Eramosa, which is a SO. But even the standard Grigio Carnico (pictured above) looked fantastic in person. I personally believe that the solidity of the granite helps with reducing or eliminating any sort of cabinet flex. This, in turn, helps to make the sound very tight across the frequencies, leading to a superior sound. The difference is very noticeable to these ears. It's not just a subtle difference.

This system was located just outside of the Big Acora room. (seen below)

I will say this about the big Acora room. They weren't quite as refined as the smaller brothers aforementioned, but if I had an 85'x40' room that I wanted to fill every damned bit of it with authoritative sound? These would be the ticket. They could easily provide full range sound in a small theater without breaking a sweat.

I will say this. the cart they had playing in the big Acora room sounded mighty fine. (photo below)

Anyhoo, this concludes the things I wanted to say about the show. The next show that I may attend may be the Pacific Audio Fest for reasons I am not privy to disclose at the moment. Stay tuned...

Tom

billbillw · March 21

Interesting...I am curious on the cabinet construction though. I do not understand how a cabinet made of granite slabs could only weigh 180 lbs. They must have some composite with a thin layer of rock bonded to a more common construction material. Granite can also ring at certain frequencies, so a bonded two (or more) material construction would eliminate that.

VR3 · March 21

Right? 1 sq ft of 3cm granite is 21 pounds

treitz3 · March 21

I report, you decide.

Gentlemen, I do not care about spec's, pounds and the like. I report on the sound.

Admittedly, I saw the shipping pounds and was a little bit taken aback. That didn't sound right. It is what it is. That said, the speakers did not disappoint. AT ALL.

If you want to get into the nitty gritty of pounds, please contact the manufacturer of said speakers. What I am reporting is that these speakers presented the best of the show. Honestly, No other pair of speakers came close to what these did. Paired with a sub (or what I have with subs?)

Awe. chit son!!!!

Tom

billbillw · March 21

I wasn't questioning the sound you heard. I was just surprised the weight wasn't heavier. I did a little more digging and the MRC line is actually made from varieties of marble. MRC is short for Marble Resonance Control.
A lot of information here: https://www.soundstageultra.com/index.php/equipment-menu/1284-acora-acoustics-mrc-2-loudspeaker
The price is lower at other dealers like Fidelis in New Hampshire.
Close up photos look like the thickness of the marble is probably somewhere between 1-2cm so I guess calculated something between 1-1.5 cubic foot of rock and marble is around 160 lbs/cu ft, so it works out.

treitz3 · March 21

The one thing I have always been consistent of? Not getting into measurements. I'll leave that up to those that care.

All I care about is the end result as to what hits these ears. In this case? It was the best of the show.

Tom

billbillw · March 21

I'm an engineer, so measurements are just a way to confirm claims. Without showing cross section of cabinet builds, I was just curious how the weight of stone would be so close to heavily constructed wood/mdf/hdf cabinets. My SS9 were 150lbs.
A few calcs and I can understand better that a solid stone cabinet is possible in that size and weight.

bcwsrt · March 21

Y’all are thinkin’ too hard on a Saturday morning! 😳

treitz3 · March 21

Jesus.....please do not go upon spec's.

Go on sound. That's all that matters.

Tom

audioluvr · March 22

treitz3 wrote: »

I gotta be honest...

This is not an event I plan on reporting on...

Uh huh. Sure. Actually I'm glad you did because some of us who are stuck at home can see pretty pictures!

treitz3 · March 22

Well, I guess I should have said that it initially wasn't part of the plan. I flew into town after the show had closed for the day, woke up the next day and enjoyed what I could, then flew back out the next morning.

I honestly didn't think I would had the time to do any reporting. I damned sure didn't while I was there. But you know me, I am not shy about posting my impressions when it comes to audio.

The hours the show was open was somewhat ridiculous. If memory serves me correctly, they opened up at 10 and closed at 6. Not much time to do things. LSAF opened earlier (I think) and you didn't need a VIP pass to enjoy the after hours listening sessions. It was so much more relaxing at LSAF. I don't even know if they are still doing that show anymore. They moved it out of Dallas, to Houston and from what I heard, attendance dropped off significantly.

Rumor has it that the Florida show may not be doing it again either. The hotel choice was pretty bad, if you ask me. Being so far away from the airport didn't help the situation either....but I heard it was the only hotel in town that could accommodate everyone. Heck, even the show rates for the hotel was close to 450 per night. Ouch. It wasn't that swanky.

I hate I missed the SWAF's first year last year, but **it happens. Maybe one of these years I'll bring my arse down there.

I'm just glad that I was able to meet Jonny, with Snake River Audio. Him and I have become good friends over the past 3 years and it was nice to have conversations with him that were in person, and not just over the phone. Plus, I met Bear. What a character!

Tom

Anyone here going Florida International Audio Expo Feb 20-22 in Tampa Florida?

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