AXPONA 2025

AXISS Audio, led by president Cliff Duffey, made a bold showing at AXPONA 2025, with five rooms and as many product debuts.

In Room 1129, the company introduced the Air Tight ATC-6 line-stage preamplifier ($14,975) and the matching ATE-5 phono stage ($13,575). The ATE-5 offers native MM inputs with 40 dB of gain and MC support via an external step-up transformer, specifically the ATH-3S ($4475).

Room 1129 also featured an Air Tight Opus 1 MC cartridge ($15,975) mounted on a Reed 3P 10.5" Panzerholz tonearm ($7414), which in turn sat atop a Reed 3C friction-drive turntable ($27,975). The line- and phono-stage outputs fed a pair of Air Tight ATM-3211 monoblocks ($99,975/pair). An Eversolo DMP-A8 network streamer ($1980) handled streaming and D/A conversion, while Franco Serblin Ktêma floorstanders ($37,975/pair) completed the system.

Accessories included a TAOC CSR-3 equipment shelf ($4950), an Accuphase PS-550 Clean AC power supply ($11,975), and a selection of TARA Labs cables priced from $795 to $7200. Room treatments by Nihon Onkyo Engineering were plentiful, among them the Acoustic Grove System ST1 ($2795), FS1 ($2198), and MN1 ($995).

Air Tight president Yutaka “Jack” Miura’s demo of the Reed turntable yielded some of the show’s most memorable sound. One standout was a Linda Ronstadt track whose wide, precisely layered soundstage and beautifully articulated vocals drew listeners in. Then came Lou Reed—gritty, magnetic, and perfectly at home on a ’table that happened to share his name.

Overall, this AXISS system delivered impressive spatial focus and scale, making the music feel less like playback and more like a living, breathing performance.