any one going to Axpona ?

[C.A.P]

I will with a few others.. I heard from my contact at ML that the Neolith will make a showing.. As well as the new Force forward series
There will be many other high end manufactures as well as SELLING..
Chicago has good food and night life to:music:

 

[GW1800]

Yes I'm going for third year with my son. I hope ML does not use the same room they showed the Neolithic in two years ago the room was way too small. Hopefully they will share the same room as last year when they had the 15's. Not even sure how they got them in there. Wonder if they will have some of the new center channels on display?

That first year I heard about the new Aurender N10 talking to John Paul. Also after investigating all the DAC's ended up liking the Bricasti. Ended up purchasing both. Last year got a black box from SR that I'm real happy with. This year not really in the search for anything so it will be nice to just take each room in as it comes. I was going to wait until the show to upgrade my amps to the Bricasti M28's but ended up getting them a couple of months ago instead.

On another note from what I understand Axpona is becoming a much more important show as others are fading. RMAF and CES to name a few. It works for me as Axpona is about 2 1/2 hours away.

 

[C.A.P]

Yes I agree... CES has become to distant and manufactures have seen decline because of the personal shows like these.. I hope to see the Neolith in a good room.. What usually transpires is one manufacture finds a great recording and its the darling of the show and it helps us as its repeated through out rooms.. That being said with today's streaming its moot as its instant gratification.. Man I love having no CD to play anymore..

Not really shopping for new equipment asI am a clinical researcher and love the new(GOD KNOWS I LOVE THE NEW D'AGOSTINO MONO BLOCKS HAVING HEARD THEM A FEW TIMES) but $55k is only 1 k out of my budget !

Im in the market for power cords within reason.. I am open minded but will not spend 2k for a tone control after all its a 60hz romex line to it !

OH SH!T .....here we go ...

 

[GW1800]

I just checked 2016 they said more then 215 listening rooms and in 2017 more then 140 rooms. Nice increase with that many more maybe they had to add another floor or part of a floor. In TAS I saw that CES had one whole floor was missing from the previous year

 

[Gordon Gray]

Im in the market for power cords within reason.. I am open minded but will not spend 2k for a tone control after all its a 60hz romex line to it !

Chris,

A company called "Audio Art" has gotten some good praise on WBF. Not too pricey, good quality, 30 day money back.

What's your upper limit / $'s on PC's?

Gordon

PS: All of my Shunyata Research PC's (total 4) were under $1K except for one.

 

[GW1800]

A couple of Axpona updates that I know of. I called Liz, the manager for Axpona, and requested a Excel file so I could sort by room. She was going to send last week but did not get it so I called and left a message so hopefully this week. Also Aurender has a room all by itself this year which I thought was interesting.

 

[GW1800]

I created a file with what equipment is in each room, sorted by floor and inserted the hotel floor layouts before the listed rooms. Some may find this more handy then by vendor which is on the web site.

 

[Need4spdnb]

Neolith setup completed for the day. Will be using McIntosh/Aurender in conjunction with the speakers. C1100, Aurender A10 server, MPC1500, MC1.2kw amplifiers and Audioquest cabling. If I can figure out how to post pics I will get those up. Come visit in Rosemont 1.

 

[Need4spdnb]

Quick teaser pic

 

[Wildcat Rudy]

OK, I attended. I was only able to visit Friday and Saturday. When I saw the Neolith was being featured, I was glad to finally lay eyes (and ears) on them.

Until I heard the demo.

When I arrived there mid morning on Friday, they were absolutely BLARING "Great Gates of Kiev" through these. And I mean, painfully loud. The sound quality also had a very odd, harsh sheen to it, which I then realized I had also heard last year, in this same room, on essentially the same McIntosh system, with the Renaissance ESL 15a. I thought maybe that was the way these newer ML systems sounded. This same room also played the same, lame selections of music they forced on us the previous year. Needless to say, their behavior in this room drove me from it, and I never paid another visit. And the room was 2/3 vacant as well. They blew it. And Martin Logan deserves a better dealer than this.

Another room, however, had the Renaissance pair set up with Constellation electronics. This, my friends, is how I remember ML's speakers sounding. The highs that were harsh and grating in the Audio Video Interiors room was gone--the highs here were open, and clear, not exaggerated, none of the McIntosh harshness. The demo music was not obnoxious either, and it was nice to hear the Obsidian/Viper turntable combo in that room also. That was one sweet sounding setup. This from the same model (Renaissance) I heard last year. I did not realize how crippled the other dealer's demo was.

That Neolith demo was so poor that I've complained to Martin Logan about it.

There was another stat manufacturer there--Soltanus Acoustics. They were flat panels, but they sounded really nice, and the "beaming" issue was less noticeable than in other flat stats (or even Magnepans) that I've heard. Like the old CLS series, these are a full-range panel, playing down to about 40Hz. They are a company to keep an eye on. They have been around for 10 years (made in Serbia), but are just now entering the US market.

 

[sleepysurf]

I, too, attended, and agree fully with your assessment. The Neolith demo was horrible. I actually preferred the Impressions room over the Renaissance, as the latter, IMHO, were positioned a bit too close to the front wall. Overall, both new models outperformed the Neoliths. The Sanders stats also sounded wonderful. Unfortunately, I missed the Soltanus Acoustics room.

 

[GW1800]

I attended Axpona 2017 with two family members arriving late Thursday and left noon on Sunday. The show in general was great but I do agree with the above two opinions on the Neolith sound quality. I like the larger room this year compared to two years ago but it must be the electronics they were not working to produce great sound. I sat next to a reviewer and he was in and out pretty quick???? This time around I thought it was odd they had a Aurender A10 stuck in the middle (no less silver why not black?) instead of the Mac digital. I wonder what that was all about? I'm not saying that that was the issue as the A10 was in numerous rooms with other equipment and sounded great just odd for Mac to include that in an all Mac setup. I did like the optics of this setup it just looked cool and unlike others the music was fine but much to loud I totally agree. I also agree that the 15a's sounded really really good. Also other physical samples of speakers of the new lineup but no center channels??? I thought that CLX banner looked like an afterthought with physical samples of the others next to it.

Other news I thought the "Voice that is" room with new Tidal speakers was just fantastic! It had Tidal electronics except for Aurender N10 music server and Bricasti M1 DAC. The Wilson rooms were good but in my opinion came up short to Doug's room. Wonder what it would of sounded like with Bricasti M28's - I think even better. Also the Bricasti room sounded excellent. Other less expensive but really really good were the Kef LS 50 powered units what a nice set up for $2,200. Room correction , streaming all you need is space for the speakers and power the rest is all wireless. The new Mark Levinson 536 amp was in at least 4 rooms this year. I auditioned them with the Bricasti M28 and well they came up short. The sounded good but.......

We were extremely lucky which we never are with my son winning a set of custom ear buds by 64 Audio A12's at $2,000 and he also won a set of Elac $525 speakers. I won a set of speakers from Shinola - $1,500. I can't believe our luck!

Spent some time in the Ear room with an acquaintance that at least for me is an expert with head phones and ear buds. My wife was looking and ended up with a set of Zeus 14 Empire custom set and I just ordered the new Kann A&K. The buds take like 4 weeks I think she is going to be very happy.

Generally each year I go - this is my third - the crowd is younger and more woman. This is great news for our industry!!

I'm excited about the new venue for next year besides better parking there are a lot more larger rooms that I hope some of the bigger players will take advantage of. The current hotel the rooms definitely need an update and the one elevator has been a problem for three years now. I've stayed at the new one several times it a real nice upgrade all around. I'm a little concerned about room pricing but I hear they may have free parking. There is also talk about combining the Ear and Market which is not going over well with the vendors. I also meet with Liz, the coordinator of Axpona, with a few ideas.

1. After 6pm the only thing to do besides get supper is listen to the MBL room. This is great as they had their one step below the Extreme system but an hour or so is enough. Why don't the 4 media room play a movie would that not be great? They have all the equipment and probably spend the most time setting up why not show it off in a full movie??

2. Hours - Starting at 10am just seems crazy. I know I know alot of the booths have only one person some two but lets start at 9am. Again they are there and yes its a long day but especially with the show getting larger more time is needed. We talked about if not all rooms an extra hour maybe certain floors rotate starting at 9am during the weekend.

3. Music - would it not be nice to select one genre with your ticket from 3-5 genres of music that are color coded so that when in the room a presenter can quickly demo music for the majority?

4. Scavenger hunt - was nice I probably spent more time in most then I would of without it and in three of the rooms it was well worth my time. I honored them by staying in the room/table for some time I just did not want to ask to be stamped and then leave. I thought it was a good idea. The stamps they used sucked.

 

[theWB]

I attended on Saturday with 2 of my sons, I agree with everyone else's assessment on the Neoliths, my first time hearing them and it was a big disappointment, hope it was just they way they had them set up, I've heard the CLX paired with the McIntosh Monoblocks before and was blown away. Spent time in both the Renaissance and Expression rooms, the woofer panel integration is the most seamless I've ever heard from the Logans, Might be time for an upgrade. Dennis Chern from Martin Logan was in the Renaissance room, and as always, was entertaining and chose great musical selections.

Sanders speakers sounded great as always, Roger wasn't there and the gentleman demonstrating, reminded me of a used car salesman and he just kept playing 30 second snippets, we didn't stay long.

I too was a winner, I received an email today from Cambridge Audio that I was the winner of their CXN Streamer give away.

 

[C.A.P]

To my ears the 15 and 11 sounded bad . Way to bright and it was room as they were crammed in there.. The Neolith threw a huge stage almost to big .. At 80K Id be looking around before a spent my $ on them

The TAD room was realy nice with a easy to listen to monitor.. The New Serbian ESL Soltanus IIRC was detailed and nice.. Sanders had great bass and clean sweet spot. The Alnicho Salks were outstanding .. Magico and YG being a tad thin and bright to me

 

[Anjin]

http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/axpona-2017-loudspeakers-20k-and-up/

"MartinLogan was showing its $25k Renaissance ESL 15A hybrid ’stat (curvilinear ESL panel mated to two, powered, forward-firing 12” woofers in a separate sealed enclosure) driven by Constellation Audio Revelation Series electronics (Taurus Stereo power amp, Pictor preamp, Andromeda phonostage) and sourced by Continuum Audio Labs’ Obsidian turntable and Viper tonearm (reviewed in this issue) with Ortofon A95 cartridge (expertly set up by Michael Trei). All wiring was from MIT. In the past I’ve had serious reservations about many of ML’s hybrids, which haven’t sounded all that coherent to me (see the Neolith below for an example). Not here, folks. The ESL 15A was downright terrific—far and away the best sound I’d heard at AXPONA up to that point. Extremely natural on Taj Mahal’s vocals, not too thick in the power range (like the Liliums), not overly sibilant on the Pointer Sisters backup vocals, with well-defined, boomless, albeit somewhat limited-in-extension bass. I heard the same presentation on my Fine Young Cannibals LP—superb from bottom to top. The MLs might have been just a little less rich on Hammond organ than the Magicos S5s in the Synergistic room, but they had wonderful clarity and better than fair realism everywhere else."

"The less said about the $85k MartinLogan Neolith hybrid ’stat the better. Driven by McIntosh electronics it sounded very natural on voice and guitar but its cone bass was way overblown—ill-defined, boomy, and completely out-of-sync with its electrostatic mids and treble"`

IMO the Neolith were nothing short of spectacular at CES but I felt the bass was more cohesive with the 15A's and it was a contributing factor to buying a pair. Just goes to show public events are not the place to make proper assessments of gear, too many factors.

 

[Need4spdnb]

So, it sounds like everyone enjoyed the Neolith demo a lot.

There are a few things I would like to comment on and then I will leave it at that. The room is a bit difficult. Depending on where you sat/stood, the bass was either on point or semi boomy. They all cannot be perfect seats, so we played with the jumpers on the speakers to see what sounded best for the first few rows. The room was dual purposed to have 2 systems in it. If we did not have the Sonus setup, we could have done some things with treatments to help out. There aren't that many rooms that are dual purpose, so they have more room for treatments and such, we chose to show more gear.

Yes, the equipment was essentially the same. McIntosh doesn't change out models every year so we brought what we have. I would like to point out something that gets lost to attendees. Some of the exhibitors are A/V dealers (Us), some are manufacturers, and some of them are reps (displaying the products they rep). As a dealer, we do not get gear flown in just for the show. We dismantled our showroom to bring it to the show, so we used what we have on display. I would love to have the manufacturers fly in what we need for the show for demo, but that is not the case. We decided to try out an Aurender this year vs. the McIntosh MB100 because we did the McIntosh last year. It was a lot of the same demo material because we copied it from our hard drive to play through the Aurender. I wish we could stream Tidal and play anything, but we are limited to what demo material we have. Also, we as the dealer pay for the room. I hear every year people asking why McIntosh did or didn't do this, why didn't MartinLogan do that? It's because we are dealing with a slightly smaller budget than the manufacturers have. The show is a large expense, especially the larger rooms. I wish we had a larger budget to show everything everyone wants, but we have to limit things are we have to run a business as well.

We did have the new MartinLogan Illusion center channel on display with the other static speakers, so it may have been overlooked. It is truly a beast and a work of art.

Yes, the volume did get up there a few times. When people are asking to hear what the speakers can do, the volume gets a little loud. Was it played too loud at times, sure it was. Overall it was a fantastic show and we enjoy being a MartinLogan dealer, I'm sorry that it wasn't perfect, that is what the showroom demo is for. For as many times as I heard the demo was too loud, I heard just as many praises. It shows that everyone hears things differently and you cannot please everyone.

 

[Hocky]

From the front center, I thought that they sounded pretty good. Perhaps a bit bass heavy and a bit loud, but you don't buy a speaker like that if it can't shake the room and play loudly, right? Hah.

 

[GW1800]

So, it sounds like everyone enjoyed the Neolith demo a lot.

There are a few things I would like to comment on and then I will leave it at that. The room is a bit difficult. Depending on where you sat/stood, the bass was either on point or semi boomy. They all cannot be perfect seats, so we played with the jumpers on the speakers to see what sounded best for the first few rows. The room was dual purposed to have 2 systems in it. If we did not have the Sonus setup, we could have done some things with treatments to help out. There aren't that many rooms that are dual purpose, so they have more room for treatments and such, we chose to show more gear.

Yes, the equipment was essentially the same. McIntosh doesn't change out models every year so we brought what we have. I would like to point out something that gets lost to attendees. Some of the exhibitors are A/V dealers (Us), some are manufacturers, and some of them are reps (displaying the products they rep). As a dealer, we do not get gear flown in just for the show. We dismantled our showroom to bring it to the show, so we used what we have on display. I would love to have the manufacturers fly in what we need for the show for demo, but that is not the case. We decided to try out an Aurender this year vs. the McIntosh MB100 because we did the McIntosh last year. It was a lot of the same demo material because we copied it from our hard drive to play through the Aurender. I wish we could stream Tidal and play anything, but we are limited to what demo material we have. Also, we as the dealer pay for the room. I hear every year people asking why McIntosh did or didn't do this, why didn't MartinLogan do that? It's because we are dealing with a slightly smaller budget than the manufacturers have. The show is a large expense, especially the larger rooms. I wish we had a larger budget to show everything everyone wants, but we have to limit things are we have to run a business as well.

We did have the new MartinLogan Illusion center channel on display with the other static speakers, so it may have been overlooked. It is truly a beast and a work of art.

Yes, the volume did get up there a few times. When people are asking to hear what the speakers can do, the volume gets a little loud. Was it played too loud at times, sure it was. Overall it was a fantastic show and we enjoy being a MartinLogan dealer, I'm sorry that it wasn't perfect, that is what the showroom demo is for. For as many times as I heard the demo was too loud, I heard just as many praises. It shows that everyone hears things differently and you cannot please everyone.

You know I get the low budget and using what you have but that's not a good enough of an excuse in my opinion. The Wilson rooms and Tidal rooms sounded pretty good even the Paradigm room did. You are representing ML best and it was not the best these speakers could do. I'm thinking they are better but all that I have heard was tiny room two years ago and this one this year. Please do your home work at the new hotel and come up with a plan that is up to what the Neolith are capable of sonically.