At AXPONA 2025, Jonathan Halpern of Tone Imports and Matt Rotunda of Pitch Perfect Audio teamed up in room 2025. Very au courant. I first met Halpern and speaker designer John DeVore years ago, when both worked at Steve Mishoe’s In Living Stereo, a high-end store in New York. Their careers have long intersected—and so has their gear.
The duo’s analog front end featured a MusiKraft moving-coil cartridge—misread by my editor as “Muskrat”; happily, its performance was anything but furry. The cart ($2950–$3650) was mounted to the tonearm of a JC Verdier La Platine magnetic-bearing turntable ($14,000), with a Fonolab QVATTVOR Classic step-up transformer ($3995) feeding a Shindo Monbrison tube preamplifier ($12,900). Amplification came courtesy of a Leben CS600X integrated amplifier ($8995), driving Revival Audio Atalante 5 loudspeakers ($5395/pair, stands $495). A Box Furniture HD3S Heritage rack ($5000) supported the system’s electronics, while a Shindo Mr. T power distributor ($2990) handled AC duties.
Not playing, but very much present: a Sugden IA-4 Class-A integrated ($6995), a Shindo Cortese 300B SET amplifier ($15,000), and a Leben RS-28CX tube preamp ($7995).
The sound in room 2025 lived up to my high expectations: rich in tone, generous in weight and scale, with the unforced musicality that has become a Shindo–Revival–Leben signature.
Not playing, but very much present: a Sugden IA-4 Class-A integrated ($6995), a Shindo Cortese 300B SET amplifier ($15,000), and a Leben RS-28CX tube preamp ($7995).
