Florida International Audio Expo 2024 - Tampa, USA

Details

Written by: Jason Thorpe

Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2024

Created: 18 February 2024

I took a seat in one of the Playback Distribution rooms (the company had several), with the intent of listening to the flagship Krypton3X speakers from Amphion. “Anyone here seen Barbie?” asked Rob Standley, president and cofounder of Playback.

Read more …

Details

Written by: Jason Thorpe

Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2024

Created: 18 February 2024

It was the kind of serendipity I couldn’t ignore. The room next to mine was hosted by American Sound of Canada, a Canadian distributor with a bricks-and-mortar presence just outside of Toronto, which is where I live.

Read more …

Details

Written by: Jason Thorpe

Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2024

Created: 18 February 2024

The day before I departed for the Florida International Audio Expo, I received an email from Wynn Wong of Wynn Audio, the North American distributor of a whole bunch of tasty brands, asking me how I was making out with the Thales TTT-Compact II turntable (review forthcoming on SoundStage! Ultra). “Are you attending the Florida show?” Wynn asked as an aside.

Read more …

Details

Written by: Doug Schneider

Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2024

Created: 18 February 2024

Last November, I wrote about the Estelon Aura loudspeaker on SoundStage! Hi-Fi in my “System One” column. In that article, I described how I purchased some Tönnen Sound acoustic panels from Amazon to help tame some reflections in my living room. I also created a video on our YouTube channel about the Tönnen panels and two other panel-type products—smaller hexagonal- and square-shaped felt-type absorbers—that I’d also bought from Amazon.

Read more …

Details

Written by: Jason Thorpe

Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2024

Created: 18 February 2024

Sometimes you just luck out. I’d sat for a while listening to the TAD Laboratories Reference system, and it was a packed house, as you’d expect on a Saturday afternoon at an audio show. I sighed to myself and figured I’d nip back up to my room and grab my laptop so I could come back down and sit, listen, and write, as is my wont. It works well at shows, I find, to sit still in a chair and write about the room, rather than gather details and then write it up later in my room or at the bar over a light Yankee beer.

Read more …

Details

Written by: Jason Thorpe

Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2024

Created: 17 February 2024

Any room that plays Henry Mancini’s main theme from The Pink Panther soundtrack at absurdly loud levels deserves coverage in this here publication.

Read more …

Details

Written by: Jason Thorpe

Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2024

Created: 17 February 2024

A speaker, by necessity, becomes a part of the room in which it’s installed. If that speaker is relegated to a listening room, and if the owner really doesn’t care about the appearance, a well-designed driver complement in a rectangular MDF box will do just fine.

Read more …

Details

Written by: Doug Schneider

Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2024

Created: 17 February 2024

I have an issue taking a ridiculously priced product seriously if there’s not a credible explanation of why it costs as much as it does—or unless it delivers sound that catapults me to Mars. There are several such components on the market that fail this test, and the Børresen Acoustics M1 two-way standmount loudspeaker is one of them.

Read more …

Details

Written by: Jason Thorpe

Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2024

Created: 17 February 2024

I arrived at the Embassy Suites hotel in Tampa on Thursday night after a two-hour tarmac delay due to snow and the attendant de-icing. I barely had time to slam down a beer in the lounge before it was time for dinner hosted by the organizers of the Florida International Audio Expo. Seated next to me in the restaurant was the affable Jason Motoyama, lead preamp tech for Pass Labs, and we had a great time chatting about music. Our mutual love of Mike Patton of Mr. Bungle and Faith No More bridged the generational gap that might otherwise have loomed large between us.

Read more …

Details

Written by: Jason Thorpe

Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2024

Created: 16 February 2024

While eating breakfast at the buffet in the Radisson Blu Sobieski hotel at the Audio Video Show in Warsaw, I tend to sit in roughly the same quadrant each day and from year to year. This section is usually occupied by representatives of several manufacturers—notably Kostas Metaxas and the chaps from Falcon Acoustics.

Read more …

Details

Written by: Doug Schneider

Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2024

Created: 16 February 2024

Until now, SVS’s largest and most expensive speaker has been the Ultra Tower, a three-way, five-driver design that stands 45.6″ tall and sells for $2600 per pair (all prices in USD). That model remains in SVS’s line, but the new Ultra Evolution Pinnacle is now the flagship, and it ups the game significantly. This Pinnacle is the first model of SVS’s brand-new Ultra line, with other new models to be announced soon.

Read more …