Third Floor Fantasies Of Hi-Fi Audio Gear
The continuing journey traveling through AXPONA 2025.
Audio Expo North America (AXPONA) 2025 Show Report By Rick Becker 

378  Stereo Integrity
Stereo Integrity appears to be a micro-manufacturer making drivers, speakers, and an amplifier, and is also into car stereo. From their website, the floorstander speakers are priced at $3k, made to order. The massive 24" subwoofer was not playing. It was finished in black veneer but had "LOUD" written all over it. I didn't get a price for it, but rest assured, it will be far less than the massive GobelDivin Sovereign flagship subwoofer from Germany. The area code for Stereo Integrity indicates they are in Charlotte, NC.

382  AMPED, Acoustique Quality, ADCOM, Music Hall Audio, Pangea Audio, Record Doctor, And Wireworld
The AMPED room featured an assortment of affordable gear, including a slender Class D power amp that I hadn't noticed before. That was a Music Hall Audio turntable on the rack. The Acoustic Quality speakers have sounded reasonable for the price at numerous shows over the years. Cabling was by WireWorld, which manufactures cables in a wide price range.

384  Wireworld Cable Technology
WireWorld had their cables on silent display and earned my award for the Most Flashy Cable Shipping Container at the show. It is guaranteed to be inspected by TSA when you attempt to carry it onboard. David Salz has been doing his cable thing for a long time, so he must be doing something right. As I said above, they offer a wide spectrum of cables. While I have no experience with their cables, I've heard good buzz about their digital and Ethernet cables in particular.

388  Magnepan, Darwin Cables, And Rogue Audio Inc.
Magnepan and Rogue Audio teamed up to produce a very respectable, modestly priced system. The speaker was Magnepan's 1.7x ($5k) from the X Series, available through their dealers, or by sending in an older model to be upgraded at the factory with the more expensive and higher quality parts used in the X Series.

From the top down on the rack was the new Rogue RP-3 preamplifier ($3,495). Below that were the Eversolo DMP A-6 Streamer ($859) and Benchmark DAC 3B ($1995). On the next shelf was the Rogue Dragon, a hybrid tube power amp, and finally, the Rogue ST-100 Dark tube amp ($4,995) that puts out 90 Wpc.

The cabling by Darwin was also very reasonable with the Keystone 2 XLR interconnects ($495), Natural 2 XLR interconnects ($995), and Natural speaker wires ($1895). A quick guess brings the total to $20k, excluding the Dragon amp, which was a duplicate component.

Here's a closer look at the new Rogue RP-3 preamp ($3495) with both single-ended and balanced inputs, home theater input, processor loop, a fixed output, and balanced outputs. Made in Pennsylvania, if this is your price range, you need to check this out, because, as EveAnna (who recently sold Manley Labs) says, "Tubes Rule"!

390  Shunyata Research, Wadax, CH Precision, Harmonic Resolution Systems, And Magico
Shunyata put together a very fine-sounding room, but unlike some other cable companies, did not offer any cable comparison. I noted their use of cable risers, as you would expect, but it looks like they ran out of enough to keep the power cord coming from the wall off the floor.

The Magico A5 speaker, imported from China, sounded great here as it was being driven by a very fine system, plus the Shunyata cable loom.

Here again was a Wadax Studio Player Streaming DAC and Disc Player ($39.8k) as an all-in-one source and preamp on the top shelf of an HRS rack. Below were a couple of Shunyata power conditioners. I couldn't identify the unit on top of the larger Typhon. Their T30 version of the Typhon is good for 30A distribution if you have very high current amplifiers (and a 30A dedicated line, such as the 10Ga Audience Hidden Treasure in-wall cable). The Typhon T2 is good for 20A lines and is said to give a boost of instantaneous power to large power amps when needed. It can also be coupled to other Shunyata power conditioners for additional components.

The power amp was also a top-shelf item from CH Precision in Switzerland. I've heard Magico A series speakers numerous times, and I was even more impressed with the transparency, dynamics, and resolution from this system with the Typhon.

394  Saturday Audio Exchange, Anthem, AudioQuest, And Paradigm
In previous years, Saturday Audio Exchange has used a large room on the ground floor as a clearance center for what appeared to be used or demo equipment—cash or credit card, and carry. Here, they put together a tidy, coherent home theater presentation with a suite of Paradigm speakers that nailed visitors to their seats. I expect this will pay off better for them in the long run. As Enjoy The Music.com doesn't focus on home theater, I snapped a shot and called it a day. On Sunday, I would tackle the large rooms on the 2nd and 1st Floors.

I dropped down to the Exhibition Hall and located Theo Stack of Stack Audio, who had come from the UK to expose his isolation products to North America and meet with many of his customers. I started reviewing his products years ago when he was manufacturing upgrades for Linn LP12 turntables. These days, he is finding much more success with his effective and affordable Auva footers, which I have raved about in my LCH Audio B1610 Subwoofers / Stack Audio Auvo Isolators / Synergistic Research Vibratron review, found near the bottom of this multi-product review. Along with his cohort, we piled into my shooting brake to search for dinner, where we skipped a long wait by grabbing seats at the bar. We would meet up again late on Sunday, when I will tell you about his new turntable mat and record weight.

There's More AXPONA 2025 Show Coverage Coming
AXPONA is in the history books now, but I have more tales to tell in the final two installments, where I will cover the large rooms. It takes more than a couple of weeks to fully cover a show of this magnitude. I hope you will find the coming installments interesting.

---> Onward to Part 10 of Rick Becker's AXPONA 2025 show report.

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