AXPONA 2025

Steve Daniels's Sound Organisation showcased components from Rega Research, Chord Electronics, and ProAc—renowned British manufacturers known for their competitively priced, high-quality designs—and drew attention with several debut products.

The Rega Planar 3 RS Edition turntable ($1795) features a new aluminum-skin HPL laminate, resulting in the stiffest plinth yet for the Planar 3 series. According to the Sound Organisation website, the RS Edition includes a custom-matched Neo MK2 PSU, with “each motor-vibration circuit hand-tuned to each individual motor.” The low-noise 24V motor drives the subplatter via Rega's Reference EBLT drive belt, ensuring precise speed control.

The handmade Rega RB330 tonearm is fitted with Rega’s new ND5 moving-magnet cartridge. I reviewed the ND5 with great enthusiasm on AnalogPlanet.com.

A Rega Aria MKIII phono stage ($1695) was paired with pre-production prototypes of Rega's upcoming Mercury preamplifier and Solis power amplifier, with pricing yet to be announced.

The Mercury preamplifier boasts fully discrete, symmetrical circuitry in its core signal path, a discrete headphone amplifier, a DAC with S/PDIF and USB inputs, a full-color IPS display, standby mode, and a custom-designed, backlit remote handset.

The Solis power amplifier delivers 168W per channel into 8 ohms, featuring fully symmetrical circuitry, balanced inputs, standby mode, and protection against short circuits and thermal overload.

Chord Electronics introduced the Suzi ULTIMA-tech modular amplifier ($5275), delivering 30W per channel. According to the Sound Organisation, the Suzi integrates directly with the new Suzi Pre preamplifier ($2995), Hugo 2 DAC ($2175), and 2go streamer ($1500). Configurations include an analog pre/power amplifier (Suzi Pre with Suzi), a DAC/amplifier (Suzi with Hugo 2), or a streaming amplifier (Suzi with Hugo 2 and 2go). The Suzi also functions as a standalone amplifier.

ProAc’s K3 speakers ($19,000/pair), part of the company’s K Series, feature two custom-designed 6.5" Kevlar-cone drivers flanking a centrally positioned ribbon tweeter.

Chord supplied a range of cables, including the Signature XL speaker cable ($1776/pair), Signature Tuned ARAY RCA interconnect ($1290/pair), Signature Tuned ARAY power cord ($1520), Signature Digital Super ARAY USB cable ($1584), Sarum T Digital Super ARAY USB cable ($2570), Sarum T Digital Super ARAY BNC cable ($2570), Epic power cable ($1050), and Epic DC cable ($420). Prices vary depending on length.

Like the Rega ND5 cartridge that knocked me out, this Rega-based system was a notch above anything I’ve heard at shows from the British brand. My notes read, “full-bore attack, rich tone, full-range drama, extremely deep-toned rendition of drums and bass.”