by Kevin OBrien on May 3, 2014
AXPONA 2014 - YFS SHOW REPORT
We love coming to Chicago because we always know we're in for some great food and some really friendly people. This trip reinforced this for us yet again. Thanks Windy City. The second AXPONA event took place (we're not counting the past 20 years) here in Rosemont, IL and it was an even better show this year than last year. This was mainly due to the new location and hotel if you ask us. We could have used some better room signs but that's a small gripe. We felt the rooms were a little tough to tame but we run into that no matter which show we travel to.
Check out our 2014 AXPONA equipment list below. This should give our readers some idea as to what we were showing this year. Unfortunately, a list won't do the room justice....
We'd like to thank Spencer, Jonathan, Robert, and Steven from The Absolute Sound for their hard work and killer reviews. We'd also like to thank Jason Victor Serinus from Stereophile as well as Scot Hull from Part-Time Audiophile. We don't want to forget all the other reviewers from the other publications as well. Thanks guys! We'd also like to thank Steve from AXPONA for stopping by our room to chat and listen. We couldn't pull this off without your help so thank you!
Here are some pics from our room. They don't do it justice but this is all we have for you unfortunately. The room sounded MUCH better than it looked which is saying a lot. We did get a considerable amount of compliments from folks on how good our room looked. Thanks everyone...
The weather was a bit cold and the wind did not disappoint. We were counting on this but what we were not counting on was how well we were able to manipulate the sound of our room. This was helped by Bryan from GIK Acoustics. Thanks Bryan for bringing the acoustic treatment by our room. It was VERY helpful for tweaking and getting that last bit of performance from our crappy hotel room. This is what we deal with at every venue but the square rooms and thin walls were especially tough on us this year.
Below we are showing a pic of our YFS static display. The modified YFS Mac Mini is sitting to the left, an Android tablet displaying our YFS website in the middle, and our remote control for this show, our MacBook Pro, to the right. Yes, we were controlling our Windows 7/ 8 based YFS HD.Ref-3 via our MacBook Pro. That threw some folks for a loop.
Overall, we felt our sound was top notch and apparently the reviewers and show-goers agreed as well. We kept hearing praise from folks from all sorts of various backgrounds. The one constant was that the Endeavor Audio E-3 speaker system was not being out-shined by any of the components in the room. This naturally also included the Constellation Audio gear. Every component complimented one another nicely and nothing stood out. It's great when all our gear plays nicely with one another.
Finally, we'd like to thank you, the readers, for taking the time to read. Nobody has time to read anymore. Video seems to be the easier way to do things but we think it never hurts to take the time to sit down and read books, magazines, web blogs, etc. As tech keeps advancing, it feels like if we can't get our info spoon fed to us in 30 seconds, we just don't have the time. Let's all remember to sit back, relax, and take a break from the busy world every now and again to enjoy the music.
-YFS Design Team