AXPONA 2024

AXPONA, Day 1: A Brief Photo Essay

Mike Mettler  |  Apr 12, 2024

Behold Luxman’s PDA-191A turntable ( $12,495), which is fitted with the Luxman LMC-5 cartridge ($2,695), in action in the Prosperity room.

AXPONA Day 1 is officially in the books! We’ll have our first full in-depth report up in a day or so, so stay tuned. In the meantime, here are more than a few in-the-room photos to whet your analog whistle, including cool new gear from Luxman, Thorens, Vertere, SAT, and Manley. Details follow in each photo caption.

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Luxman head honcho John Pravel (a fellow Buffalonian!) shows the build strength of what goes into the PDA-191A table.

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One of the twelve Atlantic 75 LPs—all 180g and at 45pm—that were spun during a listening session in the Prosperity room as hosted by Acoustic Sounds’ Chad Kassem, with Luxman’s John Pravel as the DJ on the spot. My favorites tracks played during this 40-plus-minute session were by Mingus, Phil Collins, CSN, John Prine, and Yes. (More on all this in my followup report.)
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The Thorens TD 1600 turntable ($4,399), which was flanked by (off-camera, that is) the Musical Fidelity MX-Vynl phono preamp ($899) and M2Si integrated amp ($1,149).

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Stranger Things soundtrack blue swirl vinyl in hand, post-spinning. (Not my hands, BTW.)

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The Vertere SD-1 Super Groove turntable, on display in Acoustic Signature’s Schaumburg C listening room.

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SAT’s world-beating XD 1 record player system fitted with the CF1-09 tonearm ($307,500) and Lyra Atlas Landa cartridge ($13,195) showed off its pure playback prowess during a listening session in the Euphoria room that included demo tracks by Dave Brubeck Quartet, The Doors, Joan Armatrading, and Blood, Sweat & Tears.

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These are a few of my favorite things—some of the vinyl choices on display for SAT table/system demo purposes in the properly named Euphoria room.

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The just-cleaned Manley Oasis phono preamp, as ensconced in their Ear Gear Experience booth.

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COMMENTS
Glotz's picture
Submitted by Glotz on Mon, 2024-04-15 09:47

My personal favorite of design and form.

AXPONA was a lot fun this year and sunny & warm in the 70s's for 3 years in a row! For April in the Midwest, that is pure good luck.

Sorry I missed ya Mike! I had 3 newbies to the show I had to show around and two of them were visually impaired/blind. They loved the show and I made my preferences take a back seat this year. I am bummed I missed ya.

I hope everyone had a stellar time this year!

Mike Mettler's picture
Submitted by Mike Mettler on Mon, 2024-04-15 14:23
Truly a beauty, that SAT table, I tell ya ... sorry we didn't cross paths at the show either, Glotz, but it sounds like you were doing important shepherding work -- anyway, there will be a next time, as Joe Elliott would say...

As for this particular show, I should note that our multi-prong AXPONA coverage will be posting soonishly, including a turntable-oriented video post from Ken Micallef, in-depth reporting on a number of room and booth visits from Julie Mullins (likely in two parts), and a few deep-dive seen-and-heard posts of my own (some alluded to in the photo essay, and some not), so stay tuned...

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