Ken Micallef

AXPONA 2025

Refined and Ready: Audio Mirror, Cube Audio, and Taiko Add Shine

Ken Micallef May 01, 2025

Refined Audio’s room 688 featured an almost entirely new system, with the exception of Dave Slagle’s familiar EM/IA gear. (Slagle, co-founder of EM/IA and a specialist in transformer-based designs, is known for his minimalist, high-purity audio components.)

AXPONA 2025

Volti Leads, Innuos Feeds, Mojo and Cary Hold the Line

Ken Micallef May 01, 2025

For me, Volti Audio systems from Greg Roberts have become perennial standouts at audio shows. Their purity, vivid dynamics, and—perhaps most important—their rich, natural tone create an immersive presentation in which all types of music truly swing and sing.

AXPONA 2025

Technics Spins, Weiss Decodes, Fern & Roby Delivers—with Network Acoustics, ModWright, and Black Cat

Ken Micallef May 01, 2025

At this year’s AXPONA, Christopher Hildebrand of Fern & Roby introduced a new system that combined striking design with serious analog and digital performance.

AXPONA 2025

Sasquatch Stomps, Black Pearl Shines: Ampsandsound Presents a System Featuring OJAS, ANK, and Denon

Ken Micallef Apr 28, 2025

Justin Weber of Ampsandsound greeted AXPONA with the world premieres of two products hand-built in his Aliso Viejo, California, factory: the Black Pearl XL SE 300B amplifier and the horn-loaded Sasquatch three-way speakers.

AXPONA 2025

Hornucopia: True Source Audio Distribution and G.I.P. Laboratory Go All In

Ken Micallef Apr 28, 2025

Steve Mishoe of True Source Audio Distribution originally introduced me to Shindo Laboratory and DeVore Fidelity—brands that shaped my listening sensibility and critical framework. His colleague Steve Cohen often assists with system setup and calibration. In fact, he helps with every review I write for Stereophile, fine-tuning gear and speaker placement and acting as a sounding board.

AXPONA 2025

Treehaus, DaVa, and Iconoclast: Wood You Believe This System?

Ken Micallef Apr 28, 2025

Treehaus: The name conjures bark and birdsong, but its products are pure Klangbildvergrößerungsmaschinen*. Rich Pinto of Treehaus Audiolab creates gear that fuses sonic beauty with sculptural woodwork and the control of a practiced hand. All circuitry and internal construction are the work of Radu Tarta, a designer known for his meticulous builds.

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.

AXPONA 2025

Tone Imports and Pitch Perfect Audio: Beyond Muskrat Love

Ken Micallef Apr 27, 2025

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.

AXPONA 2025

Well Pleased AV, QLN, Vinnie Rossi, Merason, Innuos, GigaWatt, SGR: No Vinyl, No Problem

Ken Micallef Apr 27, 2025

Mark Sossa of Virginia-based distributor Well Pleased AV brought a sweet lineup to Chicago, including the world-premiere Merason Mountain DAC ($20,000).

AXPONA 2025

Three Rooms, Three Systems, Zero Dull Moments: American Sound Distribution Grimm, Wadax, Avantgarde, Phasemation, Perpetuum Ebner, Rethm

Ken Micallef Apr 26, 2025

Angie Lisi of American Sound Distribution exhibited several systems in multiple spaces. Room 1620 showcased gear from Grimm Audio, Wadax, Analog Relax, Avantgarde, Phasemation, and Rethm; Room 1642 offered a more compact setup focused on the latter three brands.