AXPONA 2025

I heard people at the show, including Stereophile writers, were talking about the Ø Audio room—though when I say they were talking about it, I don’t mean that they were saying the company’s name, since no one knew how to do that. I looked it up. Ø is a letter in Norwegian and Danish that comes after the end of our alphabet, after Æ and before Å. If you want to know how to pronounce it, I'll provide a link to a pronunciation guide. You'll notice that the pronunciation in Danish and Norwegian is quite different—though the pronunciation I heard from Norwegian Jonathan Cook to me sounded more like Danish.

Jonathan Cook may not sound like a Viking's name (not that I'm any kind of expert), but in person, the young Ø Audio cofounder surely looks the part—Viking or lumberjack or cross-country skier, something Norwegian. Which is to say he's towering and broad, and he told me that the ax he was wearing (you read that right, though it was more of a hatchet, really) had earned him a visit from security. Cook told me that his company likes to do things differently, and that they wanted to make horn speakers that have the virtues of horn speakers without sounding like horn speakers.

The Icon 12 is a two-way with a "Quad Vertex Sound Field Constant Directivity" horn with a 3.4" carbon-fiber–diaphragm driver over a woofer described as "12-inch Ultra-Linear Long Stroke Extended Range." The brochure also talks about the feet: Precision-milled aluminum outriggers. Sensitivity is specified as 92dB (no specific units provided), frequency range 28Hz–20kHz, and nominal impedance 8 ohms. The weight is 55kg, or 121lb; for a speaker with such impact (see below) it isn't large, at less than 44" tall. It's available in piano black or piano walnut finishes.

The price of a pair of Icon 12s is $23,400. There's a version with a 15" woofer called the Verdande; the larger speaker comes in a custom flight case and weighs 100kg. I don't know how much it costs.

The Icon 12s were set up along the long axis of a small room, spread wide. Consequently, the two rows of four listening seats were quite close. On an audiophile vocal track, the center image was as tangible and fleshy as you would wish, and the soundstage extended beyond the front wall.

These speakers, though, are all about dynamic impact, or at least they were with the music I heard. They snap with enough sharp intensity to startle, and the bass they put out is the kind you feel pressing your chest. The Icon 12s played loud without annoyance—that is, without seeming loud.

Some credit for this fine performance must go to the rest of the system. Amplification was provided by a Boulder 1162 stereo power amplifier ($45,000). The preamp was Boulder, too: the 1110 ($24,000). The source was digital: an Innuos Zenith mk3 server ($6300) sending its data to a dCS Rossini APEX DAC ($32,800) with its companion Master Clock ($11,500). Cabling was unspecified AudioQuest.

Watch our exclusive interview with Ø Audio cofounder Jonathan Cook.