Part 1: AXPONA 2025 Show Report 16th Floor
My in-depth Audio Expo North American 2025 show report begins....
AXPONA Show Report By Rick Becker

1628   AXISS Audio
Beaudioful, Nihon Onkyo Engineering, Transrotor,
Gauder Akustik, Solution, And Tara Labs

1632 Aster Suite   AXXISS Audio
Gauder Akustik, Solution, Telos, Beaudioful,
Nihon Onkyo Engineering, Tara Labs, And Transrotor)
When you see a turntable, the stature of this Transrotor Artus FMD, you know the rig is expensive. The table with two arms was $219k. The two cartridges, including a DS Master EX Optical cartridge, added more than $42k to the turntable. The Solution electronics included premieres of the 717 Reference monoblocks ($110k each) and 701+ monoblocks ($130/pr.). And the Gauder Akustik DARC 250 Reference speakers were $250k.

Things that I thought might be closer to my price range included the beautiful Beaudioful custom four-shelf rack ($20k), but I was wrong. The Telos items included their Monster Power Station ($50k), which made my Synergistic Research PowerCell 14 seem patently middle-class. Also from Telos were the Earth Grounding Monster ($40k) and Monster Active (power) Cables ($28k, ea.), which made me wonder if the prices have already been adjusted for Trump's tariffs. Importantly, this was another manufacturer that seriously addressed the issue of grounding an entire system with an external grounding device. I'll bring this up again when I visit the Synergistic Research room near the end of my report.

As effective as they might be for sound dispersion, I couldn't help but fear a lawsuit from the wooden dowel structures in front of the speakers. I don't recall the music sounding as remarkable as a room with Gauder Akustik speakers on the ground floor at a much more accessible price. I'll get to that room much later.

1633   Linn
There was no music playing in this room while the host explained a new monitor to a guest. There appeared to be an unusual port or rear-firing driver above the binding posts. Over the past year, I've heard Linn speakers sounding vastly improved over ones heard just a few years ago.

1641   Next Level HiFi, Focal, And Naim Audio
The fourth Next Level HiFi room was an outlier from the all-Audio Group Denmark rooms in that it featured attractive Focal stand-mounted monitors driven by compact Naim electronics seen on the top shelf of the rack. Below them were Ansuz A3 power units, and the rig was wired with Ansuz cables.

That's A Wrap For Part 1 AXPONA 2025 Show Report
As you can see, I'm moving quickly with minimal AXPONA 2025 coverage this year as Enjoy the Music.com has multiple reviewers also reporting on this audiophile show. Part 2 will be along in several more days as I divert my attention back to the Montreal report in an attempt to keep both balls in the air.  Keep checking back as I work my way through the entire show.

---> Onward to Part 2 of Rick Becker's AXPONA 2025 show report.

---> Back to the AXPONA 2025 show report homepage.