Part 2: AXPONA 2025 Show Report 15th Floor
A fantastic voyage filled with musical fun.
AXPONA 2025 Show Report By Rick Becker

1521 Pass Labs, HiFi Rose, SolidSteel, And PureAudioProject
As famous as the Pass Laboratories brand is, I rarely get a chance to hear them at the Canadian shows or Capital Audiofest. They were present in three spaces at AXPONA this year. This combination was particularly impressive as it had great resolution, more so than I can recall from either Pass or PureAudioProject, whom I hear quite regularly. It wiped away the "warm and fuzzy" memory I had harbored for many years.

The loudspeaker was the Duet15 Voxativ AC-PiFe model with a premium Voxativ wide-band driver supplemented with a 15" woofer. The Duet 15 models are less efficient than most of the other PureAudioProject speakers and do best with more powerful amps. The Pass certainly qualifies. It also displayed the now optional black anodized finish for Pass amps. The source here was a HiFi Rose streamer on the middle shelf of the SolidSteel rack. The Pass XA-60.8 monoblocks were on Nttaudiolab platforms, a new brand to me.

The preamp in the rig (and in silver in an adjacent room) was the new Pass Labs Xs Pre 2, a three-box component with the power supply in the top chassis and the left and right signal stages in the separate lower chasses. This certainly made a major contribution to the improved resolution I heard from these speakers.

1522 Morel
Within the past six months, I had an inquiry about the sound quality of Morel speakers. This French company is well known for its drivers, but I had to confess I couldn't attest to their speakers. Here, we had the world premiere of the Sopran 634 model. The Sopran 634 features a 1.1" soft dome tweeter, 6" midrange (above), and a pair of 6" woofers below.

It's available in this walnut finish, a dark wenge finish, black, and white. The cabinet features curved rear corners, a sculpted wave on the side, a rear-firing port, and classy footers on a metal bottom plate with extenders. It was a viable alternative to the more established and common brands. There is a larger floorstander, a stand-mounted monitor, and a center speaker for those seeking a home theater ensemble.

1526 Bliss HiFi, Synergistic Research, Pure Fidelity, SolidSteel, T+A North America, Tri-Planar, And Vivid Audio
Bliss HiFi, a retailer from Minnetonka, MN, on the west side of Minneapolis, put together a fine rig from multiple sources and was running comparison tests of various Synergistic Research products, much the way Ted Denney does in his own room, just outside the Expo Hall on the first floor (which I'll get to, eventually). The host is seen re-attaching the ‘bells' of the Synergistic Vibratron, which I've reviewed and enjoyed for over a year. That's a Synergistic Black Box for controlling bass at his feet.

There were several other Synergistic products, including an Active Ground Block SX ($3k) on the lowest shelf of the SolidSteel HF-4 rack ($3,600), and a PowerCell 8 SX power conditioner ($4k) on the shelf above it. The Vivid Kaya 90 speakers ($31k) and the T+A R 2500 receiver with streamer, DAC, and phono ($20k) were resting on Synergistic Tranquility bases ($2500, ea.). Perlisten D12 subwoofers in white ($5k, ea) were tucked off into the corners. The cabling was by Synergistic Foundation XL series, and the speaker cables were on their speaker risers. On the top shelf was a Pure Fidelity turntable ($9k) with Tri-Planar U2 SE tonearm ($8.6k) fitted with a Pure Fidelity Stratos MC cartridge ($2k), and Synergistic Research FEQ Carbon ($2,300), a third-generation, two-channel acoustic field generator with a FEQ Carbon Tuning Module sitting on top of it.

It is illuminating to sit through a demonstration of the Synergistic products, as that will cut right through all the smoke & mirrors hesitancy you have about these tweaks. I'll have more to say about that when I cover the Synergistic room near the end of the report in a few weeks. This show report is a journey, not a destination.

1527 MBL North America AndKyomi Audio
Room 1527 is another long, narrow room on the sleeping floors. MBL treated us to a typical display of their 101E Mk II omni-directional speakers ($91k, pr.) driven by the huge 9011 monoblock amps ($64,100 ea.) in white. The C41 Network Player ($11,100), which includes a DAC, volume control, and streamer that plays all the major streaming services, was the front end of this rig. The C41 has earned several awards since it was introduced in North America at Capital Audiofest last fall, and the room itself was given a Best Rooms Award at that show. The MBL gear exudes luxury and entrances with its omni-directional presentation. It's an experience every audiophile should sample, even if this gear is eternally in their aspirational category.

1530 Grimm Audio, DeVore Fidelity, Harmonia Distribution, Fidelis Distribution, And Linkwitz Lab
This room listed more companies than I saw with a product in this rig. It had been a while since I've heard a Grimm speaker, and the LS1c speaker was mentioned with the SB1 motion feedback subwoofers, which must be concealed in the base. On the top shelf was a Dr. Feickert turntable. Below that was the new Grimm PW1 phono stage, and further down was the Grimm MU1 streamer. This small room sounded quite good, as I recall.

DeVore Fidelity and Linkwitz Audio were in other rooms at the show. I'll uncover them eventually.

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