![]() Speaker-maker Ocean Way teamed up with electronics manufacturer AGD to create some of the most beautiful sound I heard at the show. With the A8 Janszen proved just how well it can work. This is the future for Millennial systems: powered speakers with analog and digital inputs, driven by a smartphone. Needless to say, with the A8’s ’stat panel handling everything above the bass, transients were exemplary. On streaming Tidal, the sound was amazingly full and easy-going. So, the speakers cost $12,750, and the entire system cost $12,850. Turns out the active speakers were being driven by a $100 Bluetooth receiver and David’s phone. Where was the equipment-laden rack? But David Janszen was holding a smartphone, and wonderful-sounding music was coming out of his Valentina A8’s. I walked into this room and saw nothing but a pair of speakers. The more I listened to this system, the more I appreciated its balanced mix of attributes, especially its ability to illuminate separate musical lines. The simplest way to get started is to add a Bluetooth streamer (Bluesound makes some excellent units), and you’re set. The concept is: You plunk down $25k for the Image1 and you get a virtually-complete system, including speakers, DAC, power amp, DSP room correction-even cables. ![]() You’ll find an accounting of those we each encountered after our system choices.Įikon is the brainchild of Martin-Logan’s Gayle Sanders. There were quite a few products that, if not making a world debut, were being heard for the first time at a U.S. To our surprise, exhibitors used the show as more than merely an opportunity to cop a tan. ![]() Given that FLAX isn’t a national or international stage, we weren’t expecting many new product introductions. Below you’ll find the ten best-sounding rooms each of us heard in our respective category. We then decided-not entirely seriously-to call the two system categories “Inspirational” and “Aspirational.” Please understand that we are not maintaining that a system costing under $30k is a “budget” system or is necessarily compromised in any musically meaningful way we just needed some strategy for apportioning listening responsibilities. That and solid construction no doubt accounted for the generally good sound.īecause of the systems-oriented approach, we decided to deviate from the TAS norm of splitting up show coverage based on equipment categories and, instead, divvied up rooms according to the price of their systems, choosing $30,000 as the (admittedly arbitrary) dividing line. This greatly reduced the usual sonic bleed-through. The hotel did its part, too, spreading the 65 rooms over eleven floors in order to avoid placing exhibitors in adjacent rooms. Instead, an audio professional-a dealer-had made considered choices based on experience to put together a system that, hopefully, would show off all the products in a room to their best advantage. Thus, at most of the Tampa show’s rooms the synergy of a combination of loudspeakers, electronics, sources, cabling, and the rest wasn’t a matter of happenstance or convenience. But many of the rooms were administered by retailers, both Floridian and out-of-state, and those spaces were organized around systems, rather than specific products. To be sure, there was a good representation of the brands that any committed audiophile would want to encounter-over 160 were listed in the show guide. Indeed, after the head count passed 3000, those in charge stopped registering visitors for fear the Fire Marshall might get wind of the number!Īlthough all audio shows involve a collaboration between manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, the structure of FLAX reflected the growing trend away from national events, which focus on manufacturers, to regional shows that are dealer oriented. Like last year, admission was free to consumers, although in 2021 the cost will be $10 per day or $25 for the entire show.īoth exhibitors and the show’s organizers felt that this year’s turnout handily exceeded the 2019 crowd. The show ran from February 7th to 9th at the Embassy Suites Tampa Airport Westshore. By all accounts, the show’s inaugural outing was an unqualified success, so TAS sent the two of us to cover the 2020 event. Last year saw the emergence of a brand-new regional audio show, the Florida Audio Expo (or FLAX, as some have taken to calling it).
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