May 2, 2018 by Michael

GTT Audio & Video – Axpona 2018

Second day and I think this is the first room that had a stable, deep soundstage and realistic imaging, good separation, harmonic accuracy, enjoyability etc.. They were playing (classic) jazz, which I love but it is easy to reproduce; the dynamics seemed reasonable w/r to what is expected by most people with speakers like this [hedging my description a little for you horn, open baffle, or efficient speaker enthusiasts]. I think most people would consider this room a clear success though for me personally it was cold-sounding, lacking some harmonic content and engaging decay and subtleties – but that was the sound that was unusually prevalent at this show(!). In that sense then, this was the best price-no-object system* I will hear until the third day when we get to the Von Schweikert / VAC room, where the VAC electronics introduce some slightly more realistic warmth, albeit with their own issues.

*leaving our room out of the competition. Seriously, our sound, and goals for our sound, are quite a bit different than these other systems.