The Big Rooms At FLAX 2023
Florida International Audio Expo's large rooms.
Show Report By Steven R. Rochlin

  Wow! Yes, these are the main floor's large exhibit rooms, so they have the decisive advantage of having an abundance of physical space to properly integrate loudspeakers within a room. Every seasoned premium audio enthusiast knows that the loudspeakers, and their placement within the room, can make or break the quality of sound we hear. I'm happy to give a full gear listing... when the manufacturer provides it. As always, I ask each exhibit room to send me a gear listing via email and some do, others don't as a show is very busy. Allow me to reserve the right to add gear listing within my reports over time, as trying to remember each piece of gear over many rooms... my brain aint what it once was. With that said, here are the Big Rooms and my impressions of the sound heard.

Acora, VAC, Oracle, Aurender, LampizatOr And Cardas
My wife heather and I came back to this room a few times, as it was right off the dining area and so was easy to hear them during the day and night sessions too. My wife and I loved the sound, as it was fast, clean, and immensely musical. The Acora Acoustics VRC-1 floorstanding loudspeakers, as seen here in GT Pearl Granite, also were able to fill the very large room with deep bass, and the uppermost registers (high) were smooth and clean.

With a lineup that included VAC tube amps, Oracle turntable, Aurender, LampizatOr, and Cardas cables was a Best Of Show. Yeah yeah, usually these types of 'awards' are saved as 'teasers' for the very end of a report. My time is extremely limited, so right off the bat here's my first award for Best Sound At FLAX 2023.

Speakers: Acora Acoustics VRC-1 in GT Pearl Granite - $230,000 on up.

Electronics: VAC Statement 452 Amplifiers - $75,000 each
VAC Statement Line Stage - $80,000
VAC Statement Phono Stage - $80,000

Analog Sources: Oracle Delphi Reference w/Turbo MK2 PS - $13,920
Reed 1H 9.5" Tonearm - $3,750
Lyra Atlas Lambda - $11,995

Digital Sources: Aurender N30SA - Reference Digital Source Component - $25,000
Aurender MC20 - Rubidium Master Clock - $30,000
LampizatOr - Horizon DAC $50,000
Oracle CD 2000 MK IV - $13,920

Cables And Power: Cardas Clear Beyond Interconnect - $5050 for 1.5-meter pair
Cardas Clear Speaker - $5,275 for 2.5-meter pair
Cardas Clear Beyond Power - $2965 for 2-meter
Cardas Clear Digital Coax 75 Ohm - $800 for 1.5-meter
Cardas Cardas Nautilus - $1,200

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