If anyone is interested, I will post a few highlights (for me) of the AXPONA audio show in Chicago. My fourth consecutive year in attendance with my audio buddy Dave, we were there for the full three days this time. Previously, we had viewed two days once and a single day twice. We still didn’t hear everything, but were able to catch almost everything of interest to us and heard some great live music. I will split this into two parts; skip to the second if you are only interested in the rooms.
My purchases were mostly music CDs. Four more MA Recordings titles and a TBM (Three Blind Mice) XRCD from right across the aisle at Elusive Disc. The TBM is from 1976, The Big Four by George Kawaguchi’s Big Four group. A really nice Jazz outfit. George was a drummer and his solos are worth the wait. Not the usual Rock or strictly Jazz solos.
The other CDs were bought from musicians at their performances. A number of concerts are sponsored by exhibitors at the show. This year we had to miss the Friday night show by the Akiko Tsuruga Jazz Trio, a B3 artist. I was at another hotel that night and was too tired to drive again safely. Dave did not want to audition my ancient stick shift Jetta TDI in Chicago at night, so we missed it. Saturday night a cable company who had entered the guitar cable market, Morrow Audio, brought in Larry Mitchell. He played solo with his “band” represented electronically. He plays his songs with a dose of reverb and sometimes tremolo and doesn’t really need a band. He was so much fun to listen to and he was very funny as well. The venue was a good sized meeting room which served hot lunches during the day. We were the sober ones in the room, as the Morrow Audio promoter had a bar there and handed out free drink tickets – and kept handing them out, despite the publicity saying there would be free drink tickets for the first 60 arrivals. I didn’t feel like a drink and Dave is an AA. Larry’s music was plenty entertaining without drug help, no problem. I purchased Mitchell’s newest CD, The Traveler. I like to support live music and musicians directly by attending and buying their music directly from them when possible. Since he is a one man operation he got the whole fifteen dollars and I got to feel good about it.
From there it was across the hall, literally, to the theater, a good room with theater seating and decent acoustics. We approached the entrance and saw signs about tickets. Crap! We had forgotten about tickets, which were available free from the sponsors of the event but we forgot to pick them up at the exhibits. A nice girl was standing at the entrance, held out tickets for us and welcomed us to the concert. Only a few famous appearances at this show have ever charged admission (Patricia Barber was one). Buy an admission to AXPONA and you won’t be paying to see anything, be it music or demonstrations.
This was the featured concert, Chicago Blues Night. The Noah Wotherspoon Band opened and Lurrie Bell’s Chicago Blues Band finished. Chad of Acoustic Sounds (original and remastered vinyl and CDs – they do a lot of the remastered titles for other companies as well) put it on and introduced it. I had not heard of Wotherspoon before but he was every bit as spectacularly good as Bell and his band. I purchased Noah’s latest CD as I left.
Sunday afternoon was the “Student Day Concert” – students get reduced admission on the last day – presenting Catfight. Not the wimpy recorded duo, rather a (proudly) cover band from Chicago, like most cover bands unrecorded. Catfight was the most fun show I have seen from a band in a long, long time. A female five piece covering Eighties songs mostly not known to me. In my world the Eighties started with The Pretenders in 1979 and ended when Bikini Kill started in 1991. I missed the hit radio fare the whole decade. In any case, from their six foot (plus?) singer who was buff and very active to all the accomplished musicians, this is a first class outfit. Meaning as good as anyone making more money than they do. If you like bands who try to entertain you in both musical and non musical ways, see Catfight. Like all Sunday afternoon concerts at AXPONA, attendance was very poor. The theater had been full for the Blues concert but was maybe 5 percent this show. A couple of years ago we were half of the four people that stuck it out to the second set of the Neil Alger Trio, a World class Jazz group. I told the Catfight bass player not to feel bad; that’s how the Sunday concerts roll there. They played their hearts out anyway.
My non music purchases were limited to two venders at the Ear Gear Expo, the big room stuffed with private and portable listening companies. Firstly, Comply, the people who sell memory foam tips for IEMs. Unless you actually feel comfortable wearing the three flange tips that the best IEM providers offer, just use Comply tips like everyone else does. Their Professional Series tips are the most hifi and cost LESS than their other lines. Nice thing about buying at shows, no shipping. And half off a second package. Lots of vendors have one version or another of a show price.
I am taking a chance on the other purchase, a CALYX PaT. The US distributor was there and offered a show price of $75. Sold everywhere else for $99. It is a TINY DAC/amp for phones and players that uses OTG technology to extract the digital signal from the player and offers upgraded sound. While working for Android, it was designed with iOS in mind but Apple has never made an OTG cable or adapter for the IPod Touch. I am gambling that the one device I know of, a third party piece sold in Australia, will work. If this is Greek to you, On The Go wiring for audio is similar if not identical to what docks have. Power/sync cables do not do this. I use IPod Touch players (with Rhapsody) for all my portable listening and their amplification is considered their weak spot. People like to gripe about the DAC in them too, but I imagine it is probably fine. IMO they do offer the most convenient streaming experience out there, so I stick with them. The CALYX PaT can put out 800mV so it can power efficient headphones too. It does sound great. The unit draws power from the player but usually no more than the player’s own amp would use. If the cable doesn’t work for me I can sell the CALYX to any iPhone user who listens to music on it.