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There were no surprises in the two adjacent MBL rooms jointly presented with Kyomi Audio. Sitting in the sweet spot before the big system, spaciousness and transparency were superb on an older modern instrument recording of Bach's Concerto for Oboe and other instruments. Ditto for Dolly Parton's adorable "Love is Like a Butterfly," which sounded simply and utterly beautiful.

VANA CEO Roy Feldstein worked a room at AXPONA, no bells and whistles, no crazy demos or static displays. Roy simply plays the kind of solid gear that he excels in distributing, including European Audio Team (EAT), Kyomi Audio, Grimm Audio, Atlas Cables, Ferrum, Jorma and Marten loudspeakers, and Rekkord turntables.

A classic American brand, as flag-waving as the Fourth of the July, with an impressive history as a US industrial giant, all ears perk up when new JBL product is announced. Today's declaration brought to you by AXPONA: the new JBL 4329P Studio Monitor ($4500/pair).

As I continue work on a follow-up review of the Next-Gen Power Supply Upgrade to the Innuos Statement music server and streamer ($21,700), Innuos has released its new Pulsar Network music player + USB reclocker ($6899). A stripped-down version of the flagship Statement, the Pulsar lacks both a ripper and internal storage. What it boasts instead is over 130,000µF of Mundorf capacitors, a large high-end inductor, and an audio-grade, 300VA toroidal transformer. The Pulsar favors its optimized USB output with reclocking over its non-dedicated USB, and lacks S/PDIF and AES/EBU outputs.

Several surprises awaited in the AXPONA room sponsored by Gary Leeds's Hear This, North American distributor of WestminsterLab, and Von Schweikert Audio in association with Lampizator, NA and Small Green Computer. (Bonus points if you can read that out loud on one breath.) First was the "hard launch" of equipment from WestminsterLab: the Rei monoblock ($32,900/pair), which despite the title is not recommended for summer hikes in Yosemite, and Quest balanced preamplifier with full carbon-fiber component shielding upgrade ($25,100, or $22,900 in basic configuration). Next were the speakers—not the usual behemoths usually transported to shows by Von Schweikert Audio, but rather their smaller Endeavor SE ($27,000/pair plus eight Critical Mass Systems footers that cost $650 each).

Last summer, when I went shopping for a pair of standmount speakers for a bedroom, I settled on Monitor Audio Bronze 100s. They ticked the boxes: musical to a T, natural-sounding, not too incisive or fatiguing, and a pretty damn good value at around $700/pair. I dug 'em, and still do.

At AXPONA, the British company demonstrated what happened when it gave its designers license to develop a top-of-the-line floorstander. Fifty years of both incremental improvements and great leaps forward have culminated in the $13,900/pair Monitor Audio 200 3G.

In the Ocean Audio room in which Finley Audio, Les Davis Audio, Small Green Computer, Serhan Swift loudspeakers, and Boulder Audio joined forces, my attention was first drawn to Serhan Swift of Sydney, Australia. In 2013, after nearly four decades of producing loudspeakers, Brad Serhan teamed up with Morris Swift of Oneaudio. As a follow-up to their active DSP Active loudspeaker, the men have created the mu2 Mk II passive loudspeaker ($7950/pair).