AXISS AUDIO
The first thing one notices when walking into the AXISS AUDIO room is the craftsmanship, the exquisite attention to detail inherent in, literally, every piece of equipment much like the technically sophisticated Yukiseimitsu Audio turntable below, as explained by AXISS’s new owner Cliff Duffey. [Please do forgive my “Mmmms” and “Hmmms,” as I was not quite the quiet videographer.]
The AXISS AUDIO systems were set upon a double-wide rack and several amp stands by Beaudioful and, price wise, the ensemble was a bit north of $750k.
The Soulution system featured the Transrotor Strato Nero turntable w/TR9 Arm ($21,500), the Airtight Opus One phono cartridge ($17,500), the Soulution 760 DAC w/LEEDH ($76,000), the Soulution 725 preamplifier w/phono ($65,000), the Soulution 511 monoblock amplifiers ($83,500), as tethered to the Gauder Akustic DARC 200 speakers ($149,000) with Guader Akustic Clearwater speaker cables ($5,750). A cool $432,650 price tag in case you were wondering (or quickly adding).
The Accuphase system featured the Transrotor Strato Nero turntable w/TR9 Arm ($21,500), the Airtight Opus One phono cartridge ($17,500), the Accuphase DC1000 DAC ($34,000), the Accuphase C-2900 preamplifier w/phono ($39,000), Accuphase A-300 monoblock amplifiers ($65,000) in their North American debut, as tethered to the Gauder Akustic DARC 200 speakers ($149,000) with Guader Akustic Clearwater speaker cables ($5,750). And in this case, a cool $346,150 price tag in case you were wondering (or, again, adding).
The sound? As I look to my notes the first word in big, bold letters is “Preternatural” or rather extraordinary. In general, when a system is in such a big room and with a relatively short amount of time to, well, ‘tune things,’ things can go south very quickly and stay there. That, however, was not the case in the AXISS AUDIO room (see Preternatural) where industrially designed beauty met, well, engagingly beautiful music and they were quite the couple, I must say.
I’d asked if the track “The Secret Love Song” from Delfayo Marsalis’ album, The Last Southern Gentlemen might be played and indeed it was. My notes reflect, “As the music plays, a natural/organic ease of presentation, that drops one’s shoulders, settles one’s brow, and brings a sense of relaxed intimacy. Few systems of any price can call this measure of a presentation forward so deftly, so beautifully, on a track of which I am very familiar. The soundstage is deep, focused, the players widely spaced and nicely layered across it and tone/timbre and texture are superb.” And, again, this was in a large showroom! In truth, there was only one other large showroom that brought magic to bear in its presentation of the music.
One must, of course, also thanks Dr. Roland Gauder for his Gauder Akustic DARC 200 speakers which sang beautifully conveying the bits and bytes and analog streams to all in attendance or, most certainly, me.
Bravo to Cliff Duffey and AXISS AUDIO’s for a well-executed and an eminently musical North American debut.