Florida Audio Expo 2022 - Show Report Part 1

We had an amazing time this year at the Florida Audio Expo. It was awesome to get to see old friends again and make new ones! Each year, we have such a good time getting to know all of you and the music you love. To that end, we'd like to thank all of you for exposing us to a plethora of amazing new bands, musicians, and songs.

On that note, we're excited to share something with all of you. We had the opportunity to spend a little hands-on time with a working pre-production Mytek Empire Streamer. The experience has left us all increasingly excited for its upcoming launch. While we won't comment too much on how it sounds, given that it's not quite production ready yet, our time with the product in its current state left us with no doubts that you'll be as impressed with it as we were. It is a beautiful state of the art all-in-one wireless music streamer.

Alongside our entire lineup of solid-state class A amplifiers, we had an awesome selection of headphones and DACs as well, including the:

• Auris Audio Euterpe serving as the DAC to our HeadAmp GS-X Mini powering the Audeze LCD-2 Classic.
• Chord Hugo TT2 serving as the DAC to our HeadAmp GS-X MK2, HeadAmp Gilmore Lite mk2, GS-X Mini as amplifier options for the: Focal Clear MG, HIFIMAN Susvara, Dan Clark Audio Stealth, Dan Clark Audio Aeon 2 Closed and HIFIMAN HE-R10D headphones.

For electrostatic headphones, we had two systems running, including the:

• NAIM Uniti Atom Music Player with the HeadAmp Blue Hawaii SE & STAX SRM-T8000 driving the STAX SR-009S and brand new STAX SR-X9000 Flagship Electrostatic Open Back Headphone.
• Mytek Liberty DAC II with our Blue Hawaii SE and Audeze CRBN with that very same system running in the Mytek Room alongside the STAX SR-007 MK2 on Sunday.

We would like to take a moment to thank Mytek president and founder, Michal Jurewicz, for hosting our Blue Hawaii SE and for lending us his time and letting us listen to the Mytek Manhattan II DAC with our Blue Hawaii SE and the SR-X9000 system!

We also introduced a few new products into our lineup, including the:

• Bricasti Design M3 configured with the built-in differential headphone amp, direct stream network card, and the remote control, which was sourced from a vintage Linn digital CD-transport. We also featured the Audeze LCD-5 headphones and the brand new Abyss Diana TC from Abyss Headphones.
• Mytek also provided a sample of their brand new Liberty DAC II and Mytek Liberty THX AAA™ Headphone Amp with an iFi ZEN Stream for direct streaming into the DAC, all of which paired wonderfully with the Abyss AB-1266 Phi TC
• RAAL-Requisite also provided a sample of their upcoming PDT-1a tube amp for dynamic and planar-magnetic headphones. We and our guests loved how it sounded with the Sennheiser HD800S and Meze Elite, and we're excited to have it in stock and ready to ship soon.

We certainly hope that all of you enjoyed the show as much as we did. Please be sure to share your impressions of anything and everything that you heard with us here on the official Florida Audio Expo Head-Fi Impressions Thread!