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Though the Gauder Akustik speakers were dark red and the Accuphase amps were goldish chrome, the super large-scale system in Axiss Audio's Imagination room at AXPONA 2026 played vocalist Alma Naidi's plaintive "Just a Word" with the intimacy, tone, and drama it fully deserved. If a massive system like this one can mine musical details, spatial cues, and intensity…

I was unfortunately short on time on the final day of AXPONA 2026, but Axiss Audio's endgame system in the Aster room tweaked all possibilities and parameters—especially its glorious, double-punch analog front end. In the above clip, Cliff Duffey tells us more about it all.

Bonus coverage! As soon as we walked into the Harmonia Distribution room at Montreal Audiofest 2026, this system's sound grabbed both my attention and that of my colleague, Ken Micallef. A horn speaker with a 12" woofer, the Ø Audio Icon 12 projected an energy field that brimmed with room-flooding musical information—not aggressively so; just densely, almost…

Subtitled "Trixies Concoctions Menu," the insert conjures the theme of the 13-track song cycle that comprises Trixies, whose storyline traces several scenes set in and around a fictional nightclub. The most telling line on the lyrics sheet reads, simply, "Difford & Tilbrook: The Mixologists / Since 1973."

Difford &Tilbrook are, of course, Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook…

We loved this analog-based setup in one of retailer Filtronique Son-or's rooms at Montreal Audiofest 2026—not too complicated setup-wise but packing a powerful sonic punch that defied analysis because it was so well-blended, coherent, and right-sounding.

The system's source consisted of a polished aluminum Transrotor MAX turntable (shown above, $5450 without tonearm, though it can accommodate two), fitted with a Sorane SA-1.2 tonearm ($2000) and Dynavector DV 20 XL cartridge ($1200). Downstream components included a Moonriver 404 Reference integrated amplifier ($6400) and…

Leland Leard, Chief Business Development Officer of ATC importer/distributor Lone Mountain, opened the company's demo of ATC's EL50 Anniversary loudspeakers at AXPONA 2026 with a smart selection of soul, funk, and pop. This wide swath of music quickly exposed the ATC EL50 speakers' microdynamic shading, natural scale, and impressively flat frequency…

What Buchardt Audio did at Montreal Audiofest 2026 proved it. Their system at AXPONA 2026 proved it again.

What you get here is rare: eclectic components brilliantly matched and conceived with real imagination, all executed without apology. Call it Next-Fi if you want to label it, but this setup delivered everything old-school audiophiles demand: deep, authoritative bass…

Though I was unable to put in an extended listening session with the G.I.P. Laboratory setup at AXPONA 2026, I know this system quite well, since I've heard it many times at In Living Stereo in New York. (That's some serious history.) That said, the G.I.P. system delivered one of the best rooms at the show, featuring exceptional speed and atmospheric…

Bonus coverage continues onward! Confession time: I'd never heard of brands like Jean Maurer (from Switzerland) or Riviera (from Italy), and I'd barely even been aware of Montreal Audiofest 2026 exhibitor mono/stéréo—but that's because it's a brand-new store in Montreal.

The owner, however, is a longtime acquaintance of mine: Danny Labrecque,…

In the mornings we arrived in Vilnius, the Lithuanian city where my mother had grown up. Everything there looked different. Back in Moscow, we lived in one of…