Florida Audio Expo 2025

Keith Haas and Rob Standley of Playback Distribution, PMC loudspeakers, and a gaggle of men in suits from Esoteric brought a big, banging, no-holds-barred system to Tampa.

An Esoteric T1 Turntable ($80,000), mounted with an Ortofon MC Diamond Cartridge ($9999), fed an Esoteric E1 Phono Preamplifier ($46,000). An Esoteric K1X SE SACD Player ($38,000) handled incoming digital, with an Esoteric PS1 Power Supply ($16,000), Esoteric N1T Network Transport ($28,000), and an Esoteric G1X Master Clock ($27,000).

Amplification featured an Esoteric C1X Preamplifier ($22,500) feeding Esoteric M1X Mono Amplifiers ($35,500/each) driving the PMC Fenestria Floorstanding Speakers ($99,999/pair).

Esprit cables and conditioning included Eureka XLR Interconnects ($12,699/1.2m), Eureka USB ($6199/1.5m) and Ethernet ($8499/1.5m) cables, Eureka Speaker Cables ($14,999/3m), Eureka power cords, and a Volta S power strip.

Quadrasphire SVT ($550/tier) and SVTL ($650/tier) racks held the works.

Whether spinning Eva Cassidy on vinyl, or streaming pianist Martha Argerich, or drummer Charly Antolini, this massive system offered excellent imaging and an incredibly huge soundstage, as well as less demonstrative traits like nuance, subtlety, and diaphanous tonality. It sounded absolutely pretty at times.

In this video, Julie Mullins walks us through the system.