The Only Complete Coverage Of Cutting-Edge Audio At AXPONA 2025
Rick's first floor coverage features top-level audiophile gear & innovations!
Audio Expo North America (AXPONA) 2025 Show Report By Rick Becker 

  Everybody enters on the 1st Floor here at the AXPONA 2025 high-end audio / audiophile show (and for this report). That's where we all register, including the press and exhibitors. That's where you can take the escalator up to the front desk of the hotel, or the elevators up to the 16th Floor. I cover shows from the top down to keep my photos and notes in order. This also means by the time I write about the 1st Floor, everybody else's coverage is old news, and the show in Munich is also history. My coverage isn't news or journalism so much as it is documentary.

It digs into the corners looking for details and insights that might lead a reader to make the next move on their audiophile journey, not on impulse, but from a base of greater knowledge of what's available, what the experts have achieved, and by raising the question "What if...?"

It's Sunday, April 13th Afternoon At AXPONA 2025 Audiophile Show
It's Sunday afternoon as I descend the stairway to the 1st Floor to begin Enjoy the Music.com's extensive show coverage and walk past the idle hi-fi show registration desk toward the escalator and the medium-size rooms tucked in behind it. These rooms are appropriately sized (if not appropriately shaped) for larger systems, though not as large as the 2nd Floor rooms in the Conference Center. It is not uncommon to find several of the Best Rooms at the show there.

Knowledge Room
Quintessence Audio, Clearaudio, Critical Mass, Dan D'Agostino, dCS, Innuos, Stromtank, Transparent Audio, And Wilson Audio
Quintessence Audio is perhaps the largest high end dealer in the Chicago area, situated east of Schaumburg, and due north of Chicago. Only Evanston stands between it and Lake Michigan. They typically occupy three rooms in this alcove behind the escalator and set up a rig in the vestibule as well, always featuring top brands.

In the Knowledge Room, Wilson Audio's XVX speakers ($387k), which sit below the flagship WAMM Master Chronosonic ($$$$--don't ask), were driven by Dan D'Agostino Relentless preamp ($149.5k), Momentum HD phono stage ($32.5k), and Relentless M800 monoblocks ($195.5). The digital front end featured dCS Vivaldi Apex DAC ($46.5k), Vivaldi Clock ($21k), and Vivaldi Upsampler ($27k), a $94.5k bundle, fed from an Innuos Statement NG with PhoenixNet ($29,349). The cable loom was from Transparent's Opus and XL lines, as it usually is with Wilson speakers. The cables totaled $201k. The racks and amp stands were from Critical Mass' Olympus line and totaled $105k.

I didn't like what I heard here. Either the room was too small for the rig, or the new Stromtank S6000 battery supply ($82.5k) wasn't giving the music enough life (less likely), or the music wasn't revealing the strengths of the system. Perhaps they should have switched rooms with Jeff Joseph in the Conference Center to match the rigs better with the size of the room. I've heard these brands before, where they ranked among the best rooms. This particular combination of gear and room size just didn't work for me. The sound quality was not at all proportionate to the price.

The Clearaudio statement turntable ($300k) with the linear tracking tonearm, fitted with the new Clearaudio Diamond Jubilee MC cartridge ($29k), gets a pass, as it wasn't used during my brief visit. Note the weighted pendulum hanging in the center of the stand, and the control buttons built into the stand.

Perfection Room
Quintessence Audio, Boulder, Clearaudio, Critical Mass, dCS, Hana, Innuos, Transparent Audio, And Wilson Audio
The next Quintessence room was a very different story. Apparently, many others felt the same way, as the room lists had all been taken, and Quintessence didn't have the foresight to nail one to the wall for people to photograph. Or possibly the gear was more affordable and appealed to more people. I found it far more enjoyable than the previous room, especially with the sound quality being more proportionate to the price.

The relatively new Wilson WATT/Puppy speaker was driven by Boulder's new 1151 monoblocks, 1110 preamplifier, and 1108 phono stage. The turntable was a Clearaudio Reference Jubilee with what looked like a Hana Umami Red cartridge on the tonearm. In the shadows, I also noted a DS Audio ION-001 ionizer, designed to eliminate static from the surface of the LP. The digital front end on the bottom shelf was from dCS.

The racks were Critical Mass Systems Ultra-Q series, their 3rd tier, and the cable loom was again from Transparent, though probably a more affordable series.

On a side table, perhaps in the hallway, I spotted a Boulder 812 preamp with its headphone inputs exposed that are normally hidden behind a covering plate. It was sitting atop the matching 861 stereo power amp. The headphones in the photo tell us these are not huge components.

By the entrance to the Connection Room, a table was filled with industry awards given to Quintessence Audio by its various suppliers. Obviously, they are a very highly valued dealer.

Also on display here was an AFI (Audio Fidelity Improvement) Flat.Duo record flattener/relaxer. The poster gives you a better idea of what it is about than my photo of the component itself. This is an alternative for those not wanting the additional ritual of using a periphery ring on their warped LPs.

The record flattener was right next to one of two rigs Quintessence had set up in the large vestibule. With lots of people standing around in that area, I failed to notice it. Dynaudio's new Contour Legacy speakers ($14k), which I believe I heard sounding good at the Montreal show, were driven by Dan D'Agostino's new Pendulum integrated amp ($18k), which includes a phono stage and a DAC. The front end was the new Al Dimeola turntable ($4,900) from Clearaudio. (That's Al as in Alan.) Clearaudio also had their new Smart Double Matrix two-sided record cleaning machine ($3,500) on display. I wish I had seen (and heard) that rcm in action.

The larger Quintessence system in the vestibule was hard to miss. It featured Fyne Audio's Vintage Fifteen speaker ($40k) driven by an Audio Research LS2 preamp ($8,450) and S200 stereo power amp ($12,950), which are a lot more reasonably priced than we've come to expect from Audio Research. I also noticed the optional Fyne Vintage SuperTrax omni-directional super-tweeter atop the Fyne Fifteen. Even with my vintage hearing, I've experienced an improvement with super tweeters in the past. As spacious as this vestibule is, it is not an optimal listening environment with people milling about and engaged in conversation. I've frequently heard Fyne speakers at the Canadian shows and been impressed with them, though results vary with the amplification and the room setup. I love their styles, which range from classic to contemporary, and the fit and finish. Their high sensitivity opens the door to use with tube amps, a mainstay in my playbook.

The front end included a Clearaudio Concept Signature turntable ($5k), which is available in four plinth trims, fitted with a Hana Umami Blue cartridge ($2,500) and a dCS Linea DAC ($29k) for digital music. The little black box on top of the Linea DAC was the Linea Headphone Amp with XLR and 4-pin balanced inputs on the front. The cables were a more affordable loom from Transparent ($12,400), and the Critical Mass Systems rack was the entry-level Gateway model ($6,500).

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