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 

1226   Tone Imports
Tone Imports presented a room that would have pulled on the heartstrings and ear lobes of Art Dudley, if he were still with us.

With the gear present here, this should have been an outstanding room, but it fell short of a similarly equipped room I had just heard in Montreal.

The speaker was the Revival Audio Atalante 5 from France that I raved about in the Montreal report. The reason it fell short here was the absence of the extra cost stands, thus putting the tweeter at belly-button height when seated. The workmanship and sound quality were outstanding at Montreal and should have been here, too. Think of this as a poor (or wise) man's Harbeth 40.5 in a more elegant cabinet without all those screwheads showing. At under $6k with the stands, this is a very high-value speaker, suitable for even larger rooms where it can be given room to breathe.

The turntable was the J.C. Verdier La Platine with a magnetic bearing ($14k), fitted with an EMT nla (non-linear-arm). Note the nifty lamp, if you've got the shelf space.

The black component in the upper left cubby was the Monbrison preamp with phono stage from Shindo Laboratory in Japan. Beneath it was the Leben HiFi CS600X tube integrated amp, also from Japan, and to its right was the Sudgen Audio IA4 integrated amp, the flagship integrated from this company in England. The solid-state Sudgen puts out 33 Wpc in Class A. This was the amp used successfully at Montreal.

1229  Rhythm Distribution, Marten, Engstrom, Garrard, And Jorma
This was a very cool rig with very expensive Engstrom tube amplifiers ($180k) driving Marten Parker Trio Diamond speakers ($40k). You can find the dark grey Engstrom components in the list above. Very nice music in this room.

It has been many years since I've seen or heard an Engstrom amp, which is known for its protective glass chassis.

Another treat here was this Garrard 301 transcription turntable with an SME M2 tonearm ($37.9k) for the idler-driven crowd. While it is very handsome, check out the Jean Nantais custom rebuilds, seen every year at the Canadian shows, if you're looking for an eye-catching table.

1230   Rhythm Distribution, Marten, Goldmund, Garrard, And Jorma
With the Marten Mingus speakers in this room more than twice the price of Marten speakers in the previous room, the Goldmund electronics kept the price under control (versus the Engstrom). This is top-shelf gear from Switzerland, so it is still very expensive. Only the most subtle detail keeps this style from being void of design.

The Marten speaker was very finely finished, but I would have chosen a dark grey or blackish stain for the solid wood caps. A lot is going on with the chrome footers, piano gloss black cabinet, the textured drivers, and the wood on top. It needs to be drawn together with smoke-chrome footers and a dark stain on top. The Marten footers are designed by IsoAcoustics, who also makes them in a smoke chrome finish, so it should easily be doable.

And another Garrard 301 turntable — this one even more expensive. The Jorma cables were on the expensive end of the scale, as you would expect in a rig of this stature, totaling more than $660k. Jorma cables are used internally in the Marten speakers.

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