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On Friday, I entered a Schaumburg hotel room that, it's safe to say, looked like no other at AXPONA. The first thing tipping me off that this would be special was that exhibitor Tony Crocker (shown above), the man behind Swan Song Audio, greeted me with a good-natured "Hello! Come to see the freakshow?"

Once inside, it was hard not to be impressed. Make that amazed. Delighted. In front of me stood a pair of loudspeakers that looked like honest-to-god rockets. I don't mean they were vaguely cigar-shaped and pointy. I mean that right there arose (if you will) two 3D-printed…

The Western Electric room at AXPONA 2026 (room 464) is one of those rooms that make you feel you have traveled in time the moment you see it.

Charles Whitener, tube expert and Western Electric CEO, was in the room, among the company's newest creations: the WE 203C CD player ($12,000), 91E preamplifier ($8000), 100E monoblock amplifiers ($150,000/pair), and A2 speakers ($140,000/pair). Absolutely stunning in construction, scale—and specifications!—were the new 100E…

Oftentimes, when I see a piece of equipment that is highly stylized in form, I expect that function will not be up to par. Listening to Treble Clef Audio's TCA-M Signature active speaker ($103,900/pair) in room 1505 at AXPONA 2026 proved me wrong.

Shaped like a musical note, this Treble Clef Audio speaker (shown below) incorporates a host of cutting-edge technology: The transducer includes a folded dipole air velocity bass system—producing bass that radiates to the front and back eliminating sidewall reflections, linear-phase DSP crossovers, three integrated Pascal Class-D…

Playing a wild, assaultive Afro Cuban track, the Axiss Audio USA system in room 1628 at AXPONA 2026 practically shook the walls. Though the room didn't do the bass response any favors, the soundstage was well scaled, and imaging was strong, though at times a mite diffuse.

But this system also made me forget my critical listening hat and simply pulse, rock, and sway my old joints 'til they grew warm enough to resurrect the…

A (FULL RANGE):

Audiovector R8 Arreté: $78,800/pair includes Freedom Grounding Cables
Optional grounding cable adds $3850. (Vol.44 No.9 WWW)

Bang & Olufsen Beolab 90: $211,800/pair ★
(Vol.40 No.1 WWW)

Bowers & Wilkins 801 D4 Signature: $60,000/pair
(Vol.47 No.3 WWW)

Dutch & Dutch 8c: $14,950/pair (stands necessary) ★
(Vol.42 No.8, Vol.43 No.4 WWW)

Dynaudio Confidence 30: $24,000/pair
(Vol.44 No.8 WWW)

EgglestonWorks Viginti: $46,998/pair ★
(Vol.41 No.6 WWW)

Estelon Forza: $186,…

A:

Ampsandsound Red October SE: $14,000
Ampsandsound Red October XL SE: $18,000
See Headphones and Headphone Accessories. (Vol.47 No.11 WWW)

Anthem STR Integrated: $4999.99 ★ $$$
Anthem's solid state STR integrated amp offers 200Wpc (into 8 ohms) of class-AB power, along with seven analog inputs—one balanced, four single-ended, and two phono (one MM, one MC). It also offers a 32-bit/192kHz D/A processor with six digital inputs—four S/PDIF (two RCA, two TosLink), one AES3 (XLR), and one USB. A subwoofer output is provided,…

A+:

ampsandsound Bigger Ben: $5600
See “Integrated Amplifiers.”

Audeze LCD-5: $4500
The open-back LCD-5 is the successor to Audeze’s well-regarded LCD-4 and, like its predecessor, uses planar-magnetic drive units, which feature proprietary, single-sided Fluxor neodymium N50 magnet arrays and a voice-coil concept called Parallel Uniforce. The idea is to vary the width of the conductor to match, or counter, variations in the magnetic flux to achieve uniform force across the membrane. The 90mm diaphragm is just 0.5 microns…

Analysis Plus Silver Apex Interconnects: $1219.99 (1m pair)
The Analysis Plus Silver Apex uses as its conductor an oxygen-free copper "stabilizing strand" covered with pure silver, in an arrangement the manufacturer describes, somewhat elliptically (haw) as "a hollow oval cable inside a hollow oval cable inside a hollow oval cable," said to be double shielded and thus quiet. And MF found it to be so: In his words, the Silver Apex is "highly recommended!" (Vol.42 No.5)

Audio Art Cable IC-3 Classic: $140/1m pair (RCAs), $160/1m pair (XLRs)
The IC-3—available…

AC Nexus Advanced Power Distribution & Ground Enhancement System: $20,000
Steve McCormack, once the proprietor of The Mod Squad, is the man who introduced the concept of accessory isolation feet—his Tiptoes were aluminum cones with flat tops and sharply pointed feet. Now he's brought to market this passive AC-power filter, whose Panzerholz enclosure contains two fist-sized silver-conductor capacitors from Duelund. The IEC AC inlet is a Bocchino Audio Marriner10 and the AC outlets are four Furutech Nano Crystal Formula duplexes. Four Cardas ground posts of…

A:

JL Audio CR-1: $3500
The CR-1 crossover has continuously variable high- and low-pass filters built around two banks of precision Linkwitz-Riley filters that can be set for 12 or 24dB/octave via. Front panel switch. Upon encountering the CR-1, LG "wondered where it had been all [his] life;" he's been using it ever since. "It's beautifully made, sonically transparent, performs a critical role in the optimal setup of subwoofrs, and has ergonomic bypass and mute functions that let you immediately hear the sonic iprovements of good bass management…