Axpona 2018 Show – Ayon Audio Lumenwhite – The Absolute Sound Report
AXPONA 2018
2018 AXPONA Show Report: Electronics
Axpona 2018 Show – Ayon Audio Lumenwhite – The Absolute Sound Report
A Renaissance
- The enormous, palatial Schaumberg Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center played host to this year’s fully resurrected Audio eXPO North America. Boasting over 165 listening rooms, with another 125 exhibits on site, and with attendance up 21% from 2017 (5718 unique visitors and 8134 tickets sold), this show has clearly announced its intent to be both the biggest and most important high-end audio show on the North American continent.Located in Schaumburg, Illinois, at I-90 and Meacham Rd., just a 15-minute commute from O’Hare International, this 500-room hotel has vast, sweeping entryways and enormous open spaces, including an atrium through the first 7 floors of the hotel. In this new venue, this show has become so sizeable that it simply cannot be adequately recounted over its three-day life cycle. And while there seemed to be a midbass emphasis plaguing the entire venue, save for the largest rooms, overall sonic performance was remarkably good.
- Categories: Solid-state power amplifiers, Tubed power amplifiers, Solid-state preamplifier, Tubed preamplifiers, Integrated amplifiers
Austria’s Ayon Audio introduced the Orthos XS monoblock power amplifiers ($28,000/pr.). This is Ayon’s third-generation KT150-based mono power amplifier, which offers true balanced or single-ended operation, and delivers 300 watts per channel in pure Class A pentode mode, with zero dB of negative feedback. All the gain stages and power stages were redesigned to achieve the shortest signal path and the most direct signal flow. Amazing Sound!