AXPONA 2018 - The Recap
This year at AXPONA, Paragon had two main listening rooms - Imagination and Innovation.
Imagination System: The Imagination room highlighted Wilson Audio's Sasha 2 Loudspeakers driven by a new Stereo Amplifier by Doshi Audio. Digital and analog both made a strong showing, with a dCS Rossini stack, Brinkmann Balance turntable, Doshi V3.0 tapestage, and Studer 810 reel-to-reel tape player. Cabling and power conditioning was provided by Transparent Audio, and racking was courtesy of Harmonic Resolution Systems (HRS).
Paragon Imagination Reviews:
"A system wins here, one of Paragon Sight and Sound’s rooms featuring Wilson Audio Sasha 2s, Doshi Audio electronics, dCS Rossini DAC and Master Clock, Brinkmann Balance turntable...and Transparent Reference cables. An oasis of musical calm anytime I stuck my head in the door." -Andrew Quint, The Absolute Sound, "AXPONA 2018 Show Report: Best Sound (Cost No Object)"
"Nick Doshi created a headphone amplifier for his own use for location recording that turned out so well that he decided to make more. The Doshi headphone amp ($3795 MSRP) employs custom-made Sowter output transformers coupled with high-voltage drive circuitry to provide maximum power into three impedance load ranges. With a discrete differential volume control that uses the same relays as the Doshi preamplifier, and an amplifier section that has three separate regulators per channel in addition to direct coupling from input to output, this could be a new and more inexpensive way to add that special Doshi sound to your system." -Steven Stone, The Absolute Sound, "2018 AXPONA Show Report: Digital and Personal Electronics (Most Significant Product)"
"Paragon Sight and Sound has a history of great sounding rooms that sport Wilson Audio + Doshi Audio. This year was no different. Doshi Audio was debuting their new Doshi Audio v3.0 Stereo Amplifier driving a pair of Wilson Audio Sasha-2 speakers. Sure you can spend more on Wilson Alexia or Alexx, but the Doshi room demonstrates the potential of the smaller Sasha-2 loud speaker. The room sported a huge sound stage and a tube sound that you just couldn’t not enjoy. Lee Scoggins and I didn’t want to leave. Nick Doshi of Doshi Audio and Josh Clark of Transparent Audio were playing DJ, rotating through the variety of sources...But the star of the show was reel-to-reel tape. Nick Doshi has a secret weapon, he bypasses all the electronics in the reel to reel deck and drives the signal to his Doshi Audio v3.0 Tape Stage. I’ve been trying to delay any investment in tape in my listening room, but listening to reels with Doshi made me feel like I was missing out on some music. It made me re-think going too crazy with modifying a used reel to reel tape machine and instead double down on a tape stage that can really open up what’s hiding on that magnetic tape!" -Mohammed Samji, PartTimeAudiophile.com, "AXPONA 2018: Wilson and friends – 4 rooms, 4 delicious flavours…"
Innovation System: The Innovation room placed Wilson Audio Alexandria XLF Loudspeakers front and center, driven by Dan D'Agostino's Momentum Monoblock Amplifiers. Also featured were the Momentum Preamplifier, Momentum Phonostage, Clearaudio Master Innovation Turntable, dCS Vivaldi stack, power conditioning and cabling by Transparent Audio, and racking by Harmonic Resolution Systems (HRS).
Paragon Innovation Reviews:
"This room had a meaty, sinewy sound in the mids, and bottom end, that seem to enjoy showing off a bit of wall-flexing dynamic speed, and bass extension. With that muscle came sophistication though – this wasn’t brawn without brains – as the upper mids, and treble seemed to hold sway with air, delicacy, and transparency to the recorded space as decay off piano notes had beautiful spatial bloom." -Rafe Arnott, PartTimeAudiophile.com, "AXPONA 2018: Sunday Morning Coming Down"
"Its been a few years since I’ve listened to the Wilson Audio Alexandria XLF. It brought us to our knees a few years ago at RMAF. It was the start of a Wilson sound that I’ve been in love with and the reason I originally purchased the Wilson Audio Alexia Series-1. I had forgotten the potency. Maybe it was Dan D’Agostino’s Momentum Pre-amplifier and M400 Monoblock amplifiers that have been kicking it up at the gym with lots of muscle to make music." -Mohammed Samji, PartTimeAudiophile.com, "AXPONA 2018: Wilson and friends – 4 rooms, 4 delicious flavours…"
