AXPONA 2025

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AXPONA 2025
A Baltic-Kiwi Alliance Pays Off: Silent Pound, Perreaux, Aurender, Titan Audio, Life Audio, and Solid Tech
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Apr 23, 2025  | 
I’d heard Lithuania’s Silent Pound speakers paired with New Zealand’s Perreaux amplification at several audio shows in Warsaw. This year at AXPONA, the two companies brought that same transcontinental partnership to Illinois. It was my first encounter with Silent Pound’s flagship Challenger II floorstanders ($32,500–$36,150/pair, depending on finish), and they didn’t disappoint. The system also included Perreaux’s 300ix integrated amplifier ($9995), fronted by an Aurender A15 server/streamer/DAC ($8400). Cabling from Life Audio and Titan Audio, plus a Solid Tech Radius Solo 3 rack, completed the setup.
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AXPONA 2025
A Room With a Vu: TriangleArt Spins Gold
Ken Micallef  |  Apr 22, 2025  | 
Tom Vu founded TriangleArt in 1999, and he’s not about to let up now.
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AXPONA 2025
A Royal Showing: Monarch Distribution Impresses with B.audio, SME, and Chario
Ken Micallef  |  May 02, 2025  | 
Jon Baker, co-founder of Monarch Systems Distribution in Englewood, Colorado, assembled a striking system built around B.audio electronics from France, a British-made SME turntable, and Italian Chario loudspeakers.
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AXPONA 2025
Audia Flight and Wilson Benesch Pair Up: Utopia or Close Enough
Jason Victor Serinus  |  May 10, 2025  | 
No fewer than five Stereophilers visited Fidelity Imports’ Utopia-D room during AXPONA 2025. I focused on the Audia Flight Strumento No.8 monoblocks ($34,999/each) that had joined forces with Audia Flight’s Strumento No.1 EVO preamplifier ($29,995), an FLS 20 SACD player/streamer ($21,999), and a Flight Phono ($6999).
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AXPONA 2025
Audio Note UK: Where Techno Glows and Carmen Whispers
Ken Micallef  |  Apr 28, 2025  | 
Charlotte de Witte’s Sanctum, my current techno obsession, was already spinning when I stepped into the Audio Note UK room. Sales exec Adrian Ford-Crush stood nearby; across the room, founder Peter Qvortrup — the company’s resident iconoclast — paged through Kate Crawford’s Atlas of AI, a scathing look at the environmental and ethical costs of artificial intelligence. But then the music took over, as it always does in this room.
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AXPONA 2025
AXISS Audio Introduces the Accuphase E-3000 Integrated
Jason Victor Serinus  |  May 11, 2025  | 
In front of a passive hallway display in the lobby of the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center, Mark Henninger and I caught up with TJ Goldsby, AXISS Audio's vice president of sales and dealer relations, and Takaya Inokuma, senior management director, Accuphase Laboratory. Together, we chatted about the first showing of the brand-new, entry-level Accuphase E-3000 integrated amplifier ($8975). Accuphase's new class-AB integrated outputs 100Wpc into 8 ohms.

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AXPONA 2025
AXISS Audio, Soulution Amplification, Telos Power Gear, Acoustic Grove Treatments: Beauty, Brawn, and Billie
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Apr 17, 2025  | 
Before I heard the new Soulution 717 monoblocks ($109,975 each), I spoke with Cyrill Hammer, Soulution’s CEO and Chief Designer, and Cliff Duffey, President of AXISS Audio. The conversation was illuminating. The listening? Something else entirely.

Watch our exclusive video interview with Cyrill Hammer and Cliff Duffey.

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AXPONA 2025
Axiss, Accuphase, Yukiseimitsu, Gauder, and a Room That Made Me Want to Spend My Nest Egg
Ken Micallef  |  Apr 22, 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.
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AXPONA 2025
AXPONA Prepares to Open
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Apr 10, 2025  | 
The largest and most important audio show in the United States, AXPONA, is poised to open in the greater Chicago area’s sprawling Schaumburg Renaissance Hotel & Convention Center. Well before the three-day show opens on Friday, April 11 at 10am, you can expect scores of eager attendees lining up at the long registration desk in the Convention Center lobby.
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AXPONA 2025
Back in the Groove: Koetsu Returns to Vinyl’s Front Lines
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Apr 15, 2025  | 
Arturo Manzano, long a fan of Koetsu phono cartridges, has reassembled Koetsu’s original team of artisans to return the legendary brand to the international market.
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AXPONA 2025
Bandwidth Audio, Tannoy, VPI: Rugged Tubes from the Lone Star State
Ken Micallef  |  May 06, 2025  | 
Texas-based Bandwidth Audio brought a suite of handsome, industrial-style, tube-based amplifiers to AXPONA. Consumers can buy direct from the manufacturer.
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AXPONA 2025
Better Sound Through Buttons: Vandersteen Launches the L5-ACC Control Center
Jason Victor Serinus  |  May 02, 2025  | 
Once again, my time in the Vandersteen room provided copious pleasure. Plus, it came in two installments: listening time in the inner sanctum, and chat time with Richard Vandersteen and Brad O’Toole in the entrance chamber. If that sounds rather exotic for a two-room hotel suite, you needed to be there.
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AXPONA 2025
Brama Drama: Vinnie Rossi and Rockport Bring the Thunder Along With Innuos, Mola Mola, Stillpoints, and AudioQuest
Jason Victor Serinus  |  May 05, 2025  | 
It had been too long since I’d heard Vinnie Rossi’s gear, so I was pleased to encounter the brand’s Brama Gen2 preamplifier ($38,995), Brama Gen2 monoblocks ($59,995/pair), and Rossi himself. The system also featured Rockport Technologies’ new Lynx loudspeakers ($78,000/pair in Satin Titanium Metallic) and the Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC ($13,500). I was curious to hear how it all came together sonically.
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AXPONA 2025
Børresen M2s: Highs Without a Ceiling
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Apr 15, 2025  | 
At an early-morning breakfast, Michael Børresen, co-founder and chief designer of Audio Group Denmark, unveiled the Børresen M2 loudspeakers ($190,000/pair) and their companion Bass Modules (price to be announced). Also shown for the first time in North America was the Aavik R-880 phono preamplifier ($70,000), designed to work with DS Audio optical cartridges. The R-880 enables users to adjust high cut, low cut, and absolute phase on the fly.
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AXPONA 2025
DeVore Fidelity, Leben, Well Tempered Lab, Box Furniture: Vinyl, Intention, and the Art of the Demo
Ken Micallef  |  Apr 18, 2025  | 
John DeVore brings more than music to his rooms: he brings thoughtfulness, a sense of discovery, and superbly curated recordings.
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