AXPONA 2025 Highlights, Must-See Audiophile Innovations, And Top High-End Audio Trends
12th And 14th Floors: Schaumburg's annual high-end audio event for USA audiophiles.
Audio Expo North America (AXPONA) 2025 Show Report By Rick Becker 

1415   Jolida Audio
I totally didn't recognize the new look presented by Jolida here.

The JD 90 amp was playing at the time.

1416   CH Precision Sarl
The blue Magico loudspeaker was driven by CH Precision gear with Nordost power conditioning and cabling.

1420   Treehaus Audiolab, DaVa, SME Ltd, Iconoclast Cable, miniDSP, And Soul Note
The Treehaus Audiolab room is always an eye and ear opener. Using rebuilt Rullit drivers from Europe, Rich Pinto excels with his master woodworking and artistic skills. The electronics are all from Treehaus, too, and sometimes overlooked in the presence of the captivating speakers.

Rich is one of the foremost creative young designers in the high-end. I've reviewed his speaker and heard numerous variations on the theme at shows over the years. His work rates an audience beyond the high end, as proven by coverage of his work in The Robb Report.

New at this show was his two-chassis phono stage. Notice the exquisite wood he selected. The metal panels are specially treated to give them a unique texture, which is part of his brand.

Rich is more than willing to do custom designs using a variety of wood. I've visited the websites of his wood suppliers in New England, and he has a huge variety of material available.

1421  Linkwitz.audio
The room was creatively backlighted, but not so for my camera. I've raved about the Linkwitz presentation at numerous shows before and reviewed their active system. Two of the three boxes on the floor house multiple amplifiers and a crossover for each speaker. They also do custom work with multiple materials, as you can see on their website. Frank Brenner tells me they do a healthy volume selling the speaker in kit form, too.

1427   Vinni Rossi, Rockport Technologies, And AudioQuest
Being softly backlit by the front window covered by a light scrim, the Vinnie Rossi/Rockport/AudioQuest room had an elegant but slightly surreal look to it. This was the same Vinnie Rossi preamp and monoblock configuration I had heard at Montreal with Vimberg speakers. (Brama Gen2 Preamp, $39k, Brama Gen2 Monoblocks, $60k/pr.) An Innuos ZENith Next-Gen w/ Phoenix USB Lite and 2 TB SSD streamer ($20.7k) was off to the right side on the counter in the previous photo, along with a Mola Mola DAC ($13.5k). Also of interest here was a superb SGR rack with rounded shelves and interesting inserts of either polished stone or high-gloss wood. (I couldn't tell which.) The rounded elements of the rack blended harmoniously with the round and rounded lines of the Rossi chassis — a perfect combination.

The Rockport Technologies Lynx ($78k) in satin titanium metallic finish is somewhere in the middle of the Rockport speaker line and was sounding very good. I wish this rig had been in as large a room as Wynn Audio had at Montreal. The room matters. Nonetheless, this was a very rewarding stop at the show.

AudioQuest supported the power and cables with a Niagara 5000 power conditioner ($5.9k), and a variety of cabling that was on the expensive side, but none more expensive than the Firebird ZERO speaker cables ($18.1k). A PowerQuest G8 power bar at $100 caught my eye on the room list.

Also on the list was Stillpoints Aperture II sound panels ($960/ea) that I see on occasion at shows, used on side walls at the point of first reflection. I think they found their way to the next room.

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