Greg Weaver's 2025 Florida International Audio Expo Show Report
The sixth sensational sounding event in Tampa.
FIAE 2025 Show Coverage By Greg Weaver

Room 355 – Perfect8 Technologies
I have been a fan of Jonas Räntilä's unique Swedish Perfect8 glass-enclosure loudspeakers since I first met him and heard the Point Mk II Evolution loudspeaker at CES 2013. The system was one of my Best of Show award winners that January, and I have followed his work closely ever since.

All the Perfect8 loudspeakers use a unique glass enclosure structure, something called SSG (Super Silent Glass), to take advantage of three of its remarkable properties: its stiffness, its density, and its neutral reflectivity. Perfect8 claims these enclosures are free of vibrations and cavity resonances in the air volume throughout the bandwidth of the bass and midrange drivers, resulting in unparalleled purity and precision of sound. Jonas often demonstrates this by placing a clear bottle of water on top of one while cranking the volume.

The use of custom drivers throughout, and the technique of directly coupling the magnetic structures of the woofers, back-to-back, allows the virtual elimination of vibration transfer to the cabinet. There is a lot more going on here, and for those interested, I suggest a visit to their website.

Sources:
Laptop USB, no price given
Thrax Maximinus DAC, $38,500

Electronics:
Ypsilon Phaeton integrated, $25,000

Loudspeakers:
Perfect8 Cube-T, $62,500

Ancillaries And Cables:
Perfect8 speaker interconnects and power cords, no price given

This system really delivered – and in just about every category. These unique loudspeakers, with their omni-polar radiation pattern, delivered exceptional dynamics and superb extension, while presenting remarkable musical resolution, captivating presence, and an unquestionably truthful timbre.

With classical piano, the tonal color and texture were convincingly rich and vibrant, and musical involvement was eerily honest, bordering on downright revelatory. The ability it showed while rendering piano was wonderful, from its shimmer and sparkle to its body and texture. Jonas and I have been talking about a review and his appearance for a "Tech Talk," on my YouTube channel sometime this summer.

Brandon 3 - Joseph Audio, Doshi Audio, Berkeley Audio Design, And Cardas Audio
These two partners, Jeff Joseph and Nick Doshi, NEVER fail to pull off an amazing performance at every show where they exhibit together. While the Aurender/Berkeley Designs digital front end was no slouch, hearing tapes on their modified Studer A810, using the Doshi Evolution Series Tape Preamp was magical.

Sources:
Studer A810 with extended response heads, $ NFS
Aurender N30SA Media Server, 8TB, $ 25,000
Berkeley Audio Design Alpha USB 2, $ 2,495
Berkeley Audio Design Reference 3 DAC, $ 28,000

Electronics:
Doshi Evolution Series Tape Preamplifier, $ 22,000 
Doshi Evolution Series Line Preamplifier, $ 22,000

Doshi Evolution Series Mono Bloc Amplifiers, $ 45,000/pair

Loudspeakers:
Joseph Audio Pearl Graphene Ultra, $ 52,000/pair

Ancillaries And Cables
Cardas Audio Clear Beyond Cables

Nick offered to play some Muddy Waters for me, from the classic Chess release, Folk Singer. How could I say no?

Dynamics were ridiculously well rendered, fast and explosive, presenting with excellent scaling. The system offered remarkably nuanced detail, splendid transparency, with an organic and natural delivery. Outstanding job, gents.

Brandon 4 – Gershman Acoustics
While I've known the Gershman's, both Eli, Gershman Acoustics' chief engineer and designer and his wife, Ofra, who handles the business side of the company, I have come to both expect – and respect – the successful balance that the simplicity of their presentations at each show that they attend affords. This Florida Expo was no exception.

Using either a laptop to serve files to an overachieving all-in-one Esoteric network player or spinning vinyl on a VPI Avenger Direct turntable, each source fed a VAC Master Preamplifier with an included phono stage. The Master Preamp output fed a pair of VAC's incredible Master 300 iQ Musicbloc  amps, and all cabling was Clear Beyond series from Cardas. While the slighter, but every bit as accomplished, 30^th Anniversary Grand Avant Garde was occasionally dropped into play over the weekend, the focus in Brandon 4 was on their 30th Anniversary Black Swan.

One of the highlights of the Black Swan is its implementation of a system that helps to prevent the interaction of the drive units within the cabinet. Their design incorporates two entirely separate enclosures, one above the other. As a result, each loudspeaker includes a woofer enclosure and a separate A-shaped enclosure suspended above it, straddling the woofer cabinet, accommodating the midrange and tweeter.

This is a methodology he has christened SSAS, for the patent-pending Separate Sub Alignment System, and the design allows for the isolation he was after and a perfect time-alignment with the mid and high-frequency drivers above.

Sources:
VPI Avenger Direct, $36,000
Esoteric N-01XD Streamer/DAC, $22,000

Electronics:
VPI Voyager Phonostage, $2,499
VAC Master Preamp with Phono Stage, $42,000
VAC Master 300 iQ Musicbloc  amplifiers, $42,00 each
   One pair used in mono configuration, $84,000 total

Loudspeakers:
30th Anniversary Black Swan, $95,000/pair
30th Anniversary Grand Avant Garde, $17,000/pair

Ancillaries And Cables:
Cardas Clear Beyond Cables

This system presents with a level of engagement, a combination of detail and warmth, that is captivating. The Black Swan's ability to dive deep into the lowest registers (the spec sheet claims 18 Hz as the lowest frequency it can reproduce!), delivered the musical event with remarkable pitch definition and afforded an added level of spatial corporality that many other loudspeakers, even in this price range, simply cannot match. The Gershman exhibit at any show is well worth your time... Trust me.

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