Greg Weaver's Best Of FIAE 2025 Blue Note Awards
The very best stereo systems at the FIAE 2025 high-end audiophile show.
Florida International Audio Expo 2025 Show Coverage By Greg Weaver

Salon 3 – Clarisys Audio
This system was, well, insanely expensive, with a retail price of over two million dollars! As such, you might imagine just how its reception by show-goers and manufacturers alike may be seen to be a polarizing experience.

Seeing the enormous, six-panel, Clarisys Audio Atrium system is almost overwhelming. But, listening to the exceptional sonic amalgam they achieve with the use of their three uniquely fabricated proprietary ribbon driver panels, with a discrete subwoofer, midbass, and treble panel per channel, each one housed in cabinets crafted from premium materials, that are engineered for stability and acoustic neutrality, is a nearly unparalleled experience.

The musical result was staggering. Though there were some fine analog sources in the system, including a flagship VPI Vanquish turntable setup, which used the VAC Statement Phonostage, and a vintage Studer A810 open reel deck, I never got to hear either of them during any of my visits. I only had the opportunity to hear the results they produced using the Pink Faun Streamer / MSB Cascade DAC to regenerate digital files.

All sources were directed to the VAC Statement Linestage and then sent on to four of the new VAC Statement 455iQ Musicbloc amplifiers – more detail on these dynamos in the VAC room coverage next. Everything was hitched together using the Hydra Reference series of cabling from Signal Projects. And just for grins, a visit to the Clarisys site reveals that the bandwidth for the Atrium speakers is listed as 13 Hz to more than 35 kHz!

Sources:
VPI Vanquish Turntable, $104,000
Studer A810, No price given
Pink Faun 2.16 Dual Ultra Streamer / USB bridge V2 microcontroller, $71,875
MSB Cascade DAC (ProUSB Module), $95,000

Electronics:
VAC Statement Phonostage, Obsidian Edition, $82,000
VAC Statement Line Stage, Obsidian Edition, $82,000
VAC 455iQ Monoblocks (x4)

Loudspeakers:
Clarisys Audio Atrium Loudspeakers (Accuphase Active Crossovers), $785,000/per set

Ancillaries And Cables:
GL-iNet Beryl AX WiFi Repeater / 5 Port Switch, No price given
Ictra Designs KEO Racks, $30,000
Signal Projects - Hydra series cabling, No price given

I support my two local symphonies, in part to enjoy the remarkable beauty of live, unamplified music. But it also allows me to routinely calibrate my hearing so that I may be able to make the most accurate assessments as to the authenticity, faithfulness, and accuracy of the sound created by the electro-mechanical playback systems I am routinely asked to evaluate.

While I can understand why some would simply scoff at, or shake their heads at the remarkable excess and expense of such a system, it presented one of the most precise, dynamic, and corporally believable, or credible, musical tapestries that I've ever heard under show conditions. Very impressive, indeed!

Palm – VAC, Acora Acoustics, And Scott Walker Audio
The large primary section of the Palm Room, just beyond the entryway from the narrow foyer-esque area that runs the length of the main space, housed a system quite similar to the one that VAC and Acora Acoustics had put together in the Potomac room at last November's Capital Audiofest, but with a few differences. First – and foremost – this system featured the world premiere of the new VAC Statement 455 iQ Musicbloc  amplifiers.

This newest member of the Statement line enjoys a return to the more classic, horizontal chassis configuration, much more along the lines of the original 450 iQ, and the more recently introduced Master 300 iQ, and away from the remarkable vertical architecture departure enjoyed by both the original 450I iQ integrated amplifier, and the 452 iQ Musicbloc s.

While interviewing Kevin Hayes, founder, president, and designer at the Valve Amplification Company, at the VAC factory in Sarasota the Tuesday after this show, the Maestro shared that while that vertical architecture first used with the 450I, influencing the single-chassis 452 iQs, offered many native advantages such as the length of the ground runs and gravity-based damping of the valves themselves, the horizontal configuration affords him the advantage of having more real estate to work with, allowing for more even weight distribution, implementing changes to the power supply, and the addressing of the magnetic interactions among components, and perhaps as many as a dozen other minor, yet synergistic, revisions to his designs. And DAMN, what a payoff.

LP transcription for this event was handled by the VPI Avenger Direct Statement, using their 3-D printed 12" Fat Boy tonearm, fitted with the overachieving Hana Umami Red MC cartridge. Digital files were rendered using an Aurender streamer and a flagship Abendrot Colt DAC.

Electronics featured both the VAC Statement Phonostage and Linestage, feeding a pair of the advanced VAC Statement 455 iQ Musicbloc  amps, in mono configuration, to drive the flagship Acora Acoustics VRC loudspeakers finished in the extremely limited and vibrant Sunset Fire granite. The VRC is the flagship loudspeaker from Acora Acoustics founder and designer, Valerio R. Cora, and perhaps not so coincidentally has taken his initials as its name.

As a three-way, bass-reflex design, the VRC uses a one-and-a-quarter inch Beryllium tweeter, flanked above and below by a pair of four-and-a-half-inch midranges near the top of its truncated pyramidic enclosures, with a pair of twelve-inch woofers located centrally near the lower section of the front baffle.

Sources:
VPI Avenger Direct Statement Turntable, $50,000
VPI Fat Boy Gimbal 12-3D tonearm, $3,900
VPI Vanquish Stand, $45,000
Hana Umami Red MC phono cartridge, $4,000
Aurender N30SA Streamer, $25,000
Abendrot Colt DAC, $53,000

Electronics
VAC Statement Phono Stage, $82,000
VAC Statement Line Stage, $82,000
VAC Statement 455 iQ amplifier (World Debut), $82,000 ea.
  - Two used, in mono configuration - $144,000 total

Loudspeakers
Acora VRC, Sunset Fire finish UPGRADE, $318,000/pair
 - In the standard finish, $218,000/pair

Ancillaries And Cables:
Acora racks, $7,500
Cardas Beyond Clear cables throughout - $120,000

Most of my time listening in this room was with LP play, specifically during the nearly four hours of my after-hours curated LP session held Saturday night. That event not only enjoyed a remarkably good and enthusiastic turnout, but I was honored to see that the audience included many of my colleagues and friends, including industry luminaries like Frank Doris and Michael Fremer. Not only were these folks good enough to attend the event, but most chose to stay for the duration. And in fact, Michael was kind enough to share a test pressing he had with him of what may become a two LP 45 RPM UHQR pressing of The Who's, "Who's Next." As I am fond of saying, that pressing "did NOT suck!" Thanks for sharing, Michael! And thanks to everyone who found the time to attend and make the event such a success....

But this state-of-the-art system, in this setup, driven by this VPI front end and the remarkable new VAC 455 iQ Musicbloc  amps, was delivering on an even more refined, more highly engaging level than the superb performance I had enjoyed in Rockville last November.

The system presented with an enhanced degree of texture, rendered with very liquid, luxuriant tonality. Overall, its ability to project the foundation, the drive and power, of whatever music I played, was not only exceptionally well represented, but it was downright infectious.

Both the air and space of the musical tapestry the system portrayed when playing tracks like "The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys," from the Traffic LP of the same name, or "Walk Away Rene," from the 1983 10" EP from Rickie Lee Jones, A Girl at Her Volcano, were recreated in a manner much more convincingly ethereally, more corporally, than I have heard from previous presentations by these partners. This system almost seemed to breathe, to more clearly and effortlessly uncover and represent the presence of each recording, recreating microdynamic events with remarkable specificity and elevated nuance.

The exceptional performance turned in by this system was utterly magical and was simply the most vibrant and vital they have delivered at any event I've had the honor of attending. Bravo Kevin, Val, Mat, and Scott!

And So It Goes...
In all, this edition of the Florida International Audio Fest 2025 show proved to be a complete success, on virtually every level. Held in a large and well-laid out venue, and small enough to allow attendees to experience the entire event, but big enough to draw some magical, world-class performing systems, this show must be seen as the unqualified success that it was.

My thanks to Bart Andeer, Sue Toscano, and everyone responsible for delivering such an enjoyable first experience during my inaugural experience of this annual Floridian exhibition. I only wish I'd made it to one of them sooner! Will I see you there next year?

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