AXPONA 2025

There's nothing like a new turntable to set my pulse racing. So when I first saw the thread-drive, magnetic-bearing Yukiseimitsu Audio AP-01 ($31,975) at last year's AXPONA, my jaw dropped, my scalp tingled, and my ears pricked up. It's back this year in its new EM edition—still sleek, still strange.

TJ Goldsby, vice president of sales and dealer relations at Axiss Distribution Inc., brought a rig so striking I nearly tripped over myself trying to get closer.

The system included the Yukiseimitsu Audio AP-01EM turntable, paired with the world-premiere AP-01 Accessory Bundle ($4000). Mounted on the 'table were two tonearms: a Glanz MH-1000S ($8975) and MH-98T ($4975), one equipped with an Accuphase AC-6 MC cartridge ($6975), the other with a Shelter Harmony Panzerholz MC ($4900). The Accuphase C-57 phono stage (a world debut, priced at $13,975) handled analog signals, while an Accuphase DP-770 CD/SACD player and DAC ($25,975) did digital duty. An Eversolo DMP-A8 music streamer ($1980) was also in the mix.

Amplification included an Accuphase C-3900 reference preamplifier ($35,975) feeding a pair of Accuphase A-300 class-A monoblock amplifiers ($24,975/each). The world-premiere Accuphase E-3000 stereo integrated amplifier ($8975) was on silent display.

Gauder Akustik presented its Elargo 200 three-way loudspeakers ($46,975/pair) and DARC 100 three-way loudspeakers ($85,975/pair; not demoed). Gauder Arcona 60 speakers ($8975/pair) and Arcona 100s ($14,975/pair) were also in the room.

Accessories included the North-American debut of the Telos Tai Chi Yin/Yang Monster Power Station ($92,000) and Grounding Noise Reducer V5.1 Plus ($8000). Nihon Onkyo Engineering’s Acoustic Grove System treatments—modular wooden diffusers that resemble stacked kindling—were used throughout the room, with prices ranging from $995 to $3195.

The electronics were connected with cables from Tara Labs and Telos. Multiple Tara wires carried the signal: Zero LX phono RCA cables ($1925), the Muse XLR interconnects ($9342/1.5m), Prime M digital coax ($275/1.5m), and the Muse AC power cords ($4200–$5800). Telos supplied the North American debut of its Quantum Active Cables ($3200) and RCA and XLR Ground Cables ($500).

When I returned to the Imagination room—after I'd been briefly blocked by an in-progress interview—I finally got to hear the system in action. It delivered a massive, multidimensional soundstage, refined pinpoint imaging, and a natural sense of flow. A vinyl version of Alan Parsons's The Turn of a Friendly Card impressed mostly for the system's ability to replicate the sticky tone and generally plastic sound of this 1980 prog-rock conundrum.

But the system truly came alive when the Beatles Abbey Road hit the platter. Ringo's bass drum and Paul's bass guitar were beautifully resolved, rich, and complex in all their EMI glory. "Come Together" unfolded like a widescreen epic: George Harrison's creamy guitar, Macca's resonant Rhodes, and Lennon's bracing rhythm guitar practically overwhelmed me with their grandeur. It was less like listening and more like stepping into the recording—the stage unfolding with surreal clarity and impossible scale. It was as if there were no stereo equipment, no hotel, no earth, only the Beatles playing for the cosmos. A religious experience, minus the guilt.