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 

Connection Room
Quintessence Audio, Accuphase, Audio Research, Clearaudio, Critical Mass, dCS, DS Audio, Fyne Audio, Kubala-Sosna, Innuos, And Sonus Faber
Sliding into the final Quintessence room, I found the Sonus faber Stradivari speakers ($50k) driven by Audio Research Corporation Ref. 10 Preamp ($42k), Ref. 10 phono preamp ($42k), and Ref. 330 monoblocks ($90k).

I've heard the Stradivari floorstanding loudspeaker numerous times while reporting for Enjoy the Music.com over the years, and this was probably the most successful implementation. With their broad baffle, they seem to be sensitive to placement and need a larger room. The amplifier will heavily influence the sound, as we all know, but more so here than with other speakers. The Audio Research brings more transparency, resolution, and inner detail than I've heard on other occasions. The speaker, how else can you say it, is beautiful with the angled bookmatched veneer and transparent lacquer. The use of the marble slab beneath the speaker was also elegant.

Audio Research seems to be making a strong comeback under the guidance of Val Cora, also of Acora Acoustics. The Critical Mass Maxuum-Ultra amp stands seem to have a combination of vibration-absorbing footer with a spike connecting to the floor—the best of both worlds?

The turntable was the new Clearaudio Master Jubilee, including Unity tonearm ($60k). It was fitted with a Clearaudio Goldfinger Statement MC cartridge ($17.5k) on the right side tonearm used with the Audio Research phono stage. Also seen above was another DS Audio ION-001 ionizer, a special record weight that corrects for eccentric holes in LPs, a black Reliable UberLight ($429), and a periphery ring on the LP.

A DS Audio Grand Master EX cartridge ($22.5k) was on the back arm. The new DS Audio TB-100 tube equalizer ($20k) was used with the DS optical cartridge.

The digital source was an Innuos Zenith NG ($18.9k) with Innuos PhoenixNet ($4,349), streaming to dCS Vivaldi Apex streaming DAC ($46.5k) with Vivaldi Clock ($22,950) and Vivaldi Upsampler ($30.5k). A loom of Kubla-Sosna Realization cables ($164.3k) was used, along with Critical Mass Systems Maxuum-Ultra racks and amp stands ($50.5k).

Imagination Room
AXISS Audio, Accuphase, Gauder Akustic, Nihon Onkyo Engineering, Tara Labs, And Yukiseimitsu Audio
Axiss Audio is a distributor with bases in Nashville, TN, and Gardena, CA, that carries an assortment of very high-quality brands, and they put together a very notable room this year. Seen here were the Gauder Akustik Elargo three-way speakers ($47k) driven by Accuphase A-300 Class A monoblocks ($25k) on stands off the sides of the racks. Accuphase also used the C-3900 Reference preamp ($36k), DP-770 CD / SACD / DAC player($26k), and DG-68 Digital Room Correction ($19k), along with the world premiere of the C-57 Phono Stage ($14k).

The handsome rack and amp stands were from Beaudioful, a custom Studio Multiplex rack system ($10k). Art Dudley would have loved their bunny logo. The natural wood sound diffusers in front of the rig and tall black ones at the rear were from Nihon Onkyo Engineering. Cabling was primarily TARA Labs, with grounding cables from Telos.

The black Telos units were the Tai Chi Yin/Yang Monster Power Station ($92k) (X2?) and Grounding Noise Reducer V5.1 Plus ($8k) in the lower right side of the tall rack.

The Yukiseimitsu Audio turntable ($32k) came to my attention a year or two ago, and I have yet to see one in action and listen to it. An AP-01 Accessory Bundle is an additional $4k. It appeared to be fitted with a pair of Glanz tonearms. MH-1000S was listed at $9k, and MH-9BT was listed at $5k. A Shelter Harmony Panzerholz MC cartridge was listed at $4,900, but I'm not sure that was what was on the one tonearm. With the fishline drive belt, periphery ring, open architecture, tall bearing with a warning at the bottom reading "Don't Touch the Central Magnet", this is a very interesting turntable. Hopefully, it will be properly set up and operational at a show in the future.

It was a pleasure to meet Dr. Roland Gauder again, and I had to share with Enjoy the Music.com enthusiasts that I thought this rig outperformed the Axiss room on the 16th Floor, where his larger speaker was driven by Solution amplification. Maybe it was the room correction here? Or maybe the room upstairs was just too small?

In the hall outside the Imagination Room was a rack full of Accuphase electronics that included the new E-3000 integrated amplifier ($9k) with ports for plug-in phono stage and DAC. This was the world premiere of this entry-level integrated, and it was said to be a relative bargain. Next to the rack was the Franco Serblin Accordo Goldberg monitor from Italy that I would also love to hear sometime. Being in the hallway, this fine speaker was on silent display.

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