Audio Advice Live

Large, powered, wireless party speakers have been around for some time, but 2023 marked the first year I truly took notice. I recently reviewed a Sony party speaker, and this year seems to indeed be the year of the party speaker. At Audio Advice Live in Raleigh, North Carolina, I entered a room in the Sheraton and instead of the typical two-channel high-end system or home theater setups, what I found was a dance floor just waiting for a party to get started. This included disco lights, a DJ rig, and a pair of full-size JBL Partybox 710 speakers handling the PA duties.

I attended two separate Macintosh demos at Audio Advice Live 2023. They were strikingly different. One was the classic two-channel demo, in this case using new Macintosh equipment that has the classic build quality and aesthetic. The highlight of that demo? Trying to figure out the mysteries of tube sound.

But the other demo also got my attention because it is automotive. The Jeep Grand Wagoneer McIntosh demo—held in front of the hotel—featured an in-cabin entertainment system that is about as over-the-top as any OEM system I've seen or heard in a motor vehicle.

JVC is renowned for the quality of its D-ILA projectors. They offer some of the highest native contrast that you'll see in a projector that doesn't cost as much as a house. And in this show demo, the company pulled off its usual spectacular exhibition of its projectors' capabilities. In this case, the range-topping DLA-NZ9 ($26,000) took care of business with its 3000-lumen output that filled the screen with convincing HDR.

Meanwhile, GoldenEar is known for its high-performance home theater-friendly speakers, many of which feature integrated subwoofers. All of the company's speaker designs use AMT (folded-ribbon) tweeters.

The Audio Advice Live home entertainment show that ended Sunday in Raleigh, North Carolina was a resounding success as a showcase for some of the most compelling AV technologies of our time. Many of the event’s biggest moments were documented by S&V editor Mark Henninger. Today we focus on KEF, Klipsch, and Sony. Let’s take a look…

Audio Advice Live is off and running at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Raleigh, NC.