Live performance at Joseph Audio room. These guys were great. The drummer and sax player stood out as pretty freaking amazing. Loud? Yes, sharp or fatiguing? No. Live is the best. Some systems got close but most were way off.
Only had one day at Axpona, saw and heard a lot, but these stood out by far:
ZMF Bokeh Open Back - Really appealed to me, this will be my next HP purchase. Zach and Kevin were a pleasure to meet with and were very helpful. Heard it with the Geshelli Amp and my Chord Mojo2, which was a great combo, until I decide on my first tube amp.
Sparkos Op Amps - Spent some really fun time here with their awesome staff learning about op amps. Andrew Sparkos is so intriguing and fun to talk with. They had Geshelli amps and DACs here too, do you see a pattern yet?
Geshelli Labs - The great reviews are all true. If you have been on the fence and you are at Axpona today, walk dont run to the 12th floor to see their gear. They have several rooms but one whole room is their DACs and amps for headphones with lots of ZMFs to demo. I bought the new AK4499 DAC in black aluminum at the show and took it home. They also had some demos to sell. I connected it to my Node X and the sound difference was stunning! I listend to all my favorite songs for 2 hours and it was like re-discovering all my favs. I only made one mistake: I should have bought the new amp! Fixing that right now by ordering one online.
Also special thanks to Audio Technica for the demo of the Narukami and their great headphones. This was an amazing experience with a 20 minute closed door listening session where I was lost in the music. So soothing and relaxing. Great soundstage.
Apologies for the amateur photos and rookie descriptions. Just lucky I remembered to even get photos as there is so much to see and hear! Looking forward to So Cal CanJam.
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