Florida Audio Expo 2025

I’ve heard the new Oneiros speaker in three different rooms in New York City and thought I had their sound pegged. I was wrong.

With Oneiros designers Jerry Bloomfield and Graeme Bridge in the room for in-depth explanations, the system began with the mighty VPI Avenger Direct turntable, featuring a VPI Gimbal FatBoy tonearm mounted with a DS Audio Grand Master optical phono cartridge ($17,500). This fed into the new DS Audio TB-100 tube equalizer ($20,000) and a DS Audio Grand Master PH-001 phono cable ($2500), which in turn directed an Audio Research Reference 6SE line stage preamp ($22,500) to a pair of Audio Research Reference 330M monoblocks ($90,000/pair). These monoblocks powered the large, undulating, ready-to-ascend Oneiros Audio floor-standing speakers ($650,000/pair).

A DS Audio Ion-100 ionizer ($1750), something called the DS Audio Grand Master ES-001 Eccentricity Detection Stabilizer ($6000), and a DS Audio ST-50 stylus cleaner ($80) joined a full loom of AudioQuest Mythical Creatures cabling: Dragon XLR interconnects ($23,900/3m pair), Dragon RCA interconnects ($11,750/1.5m pr), two FireBird HC C19 power cords ($21,400/4m), Two Dragon HC C13 power cords ($10,800/2m), FireBird HC C13 power cord ($5900/2m), Hurricane HC C13 power cord ($3500/3m), and Dragon Bi-Wire Combo speaker cables ($74,200/10 ft pair)—the cables totaling the not insubstantial sum of $152,150.

At NYC’s Power Station for a press event unveiling, the Onerios sounded as tight as a nun’s habit and lacked dynamics, tonal splendor, and coherency. But by the second day of the Tampa show, I was floored by these bizarre-looking, Day of the Triffids like speakers’ ability to cast an immense soundstage with refined images, flowing action, and a resonant character that put me in mind of Trappist monks singing Gregorian chants while brewing peaty beer. More, please.