Part 2: SWAF 2025 Highlights From The Large Rooms And Marketplace
Southwest Audio Fest 2025 high-end audio / audiophile show was a resounding success!
Southwest Audio Fest 2025 Show Report By Michael Harkins

  Within part one of this SWAF 2025 report, I visited many rooms on the top three floors of the event. They were good-sized hotel rooms that were spaced out so that adjacent rooms didn't contaminate the sound in any given room. Within this Part 2 Southwest Audio Fest report for Enjoy the Music.com, we explore a sampling of the larger rooms found on the first two floors of the Hilton Anatole Dallas, the lobby level, and the mezzanine level. Because of a large staircase adjoining the lobby level, it was easy to move between the two levels without tying up an elevator. And, in fact, there wasn't a lot of elevator congestion on any of the floors, which was nice to see.

The Lobby And Mezzanine Levels
Starting at the lobby level, the marketplace was the center of attraction. But I first went to several of the named rooms at the lobby level and then on to the mezzanine.

Carpenter Ballroom   Acora Acoustics And VAC
The first room I visited on Saturday was the Carpenter Ballroom, and the first thing that I heard was the Acora Acoustics MRB-1 standard loudspeakers which sell for $7,990 per pair (base price). Acora's speakers are all made of stone materials, and these are made of marble. I would have sworn I was listening to the Goliath-sized VRC loudspeakers weighing over 400 pounds each. But no, the tiny MRB-1s at just over a foot in height were effectively energizing the spacious ballroom. They were powered by a 230 Watts per channel VAC Statement 455 iQ amplifier (world debut - $82,000) and I was able to hear some amazing sound on those small loudspeakers. Low frequencies go all the way down to 37 Hertz (flat) according to designer Val Cora.

He played organ, vocal, and choir music on this small pair of speakers (Cantique de Noel by Marianne Mllnas, Alf Linder, Oscar's Motet Choir, and Torten Nilsson), and that made me a believer. Yes, I was impressed. Playing the larger speaker, Acora VRC ($218,000 – standard price) in that same room produced noticeably more fundamental bass. But need I mention, they are a tad more expensive. These small speakers are priced in a range that while expensive, can be an excellent value proposition. Note that the speakers in the room and many of the models made by Acora are upgradable to higher levels of stone for significant cost increases. For example, a pair of MRB-1 speakers in Eramosa marble finish goes for $2,500 more per pair.

Stemmons Ballroom   Infigo And Illusio
In the Stemmons Ballroom, I witnessed Infigo electronics powering Illusio Audio Amara loudspeakers ($55,000). Unfortunately, although I liked the sound of these large speakers in the acoustically unappealing Stemmons ballroom, Illusio's literature was elusive. It appears to be a compression horn supplemented with large dual bass drivers in an appealing blonde wood cabinet.

The sound had a broad center stage. As I moved around this room and despite the prominent slap echo, the speakers produced a good stereo effect in many parts of the room. Infigo Audio's electronics used in this room were the IS-1 Quad Core streamer ($6,250), Audio Method 4 DAC ($43,750), Audio Method 3 Mono Block Amp ($68,750/pair), Sonofinity model 2019 Subwoofers ($28,000).

Batik Room   Audio Group Denmark
Audio Group Denmark's Batik room at Mezzanine level had poor lighting, you could barely see anything beyond the large on-screen visual projection on one end of this large room. With their brands consisting of Ansuz, Aavik, BØrresen, and Axxess. The brands are makers of power and noise reduction devices, audio electronics (amps, preamps, DACs, streamers, etc.), loudspeakers, and integrated home entertainment, respectively. The loudspeakers on display were BØrresen's new D1 standmount model ($55,000), which was slightly smaller than the top-of-the-line standmount model, the M1 ($100,000). Notice in the photo, that the new D1s are at far left and right.

The new D1 speaker model filled the room with pleasant sounds. Although I'm not a huge Bob Dylan fan, I thought his vocals as well as the multiple well-dispersed guitar and harmonica sounds came across with a very natural sound on his recording of "Man in the Long Black Coat". Dean Lewis's "Half a Man" came across as slightly bright, but the simple piano and bass arrangement along with sparse vocals provided a litmus test of the combined qualities of speaker and electronics – very enjoyable.

Cardinal Room   Supreme Acoustic Systems (Distributor)
In the Cardinal room, Supreme Acoustic Systems demonstrated some fine Italian-made audio gear. Catching my ear immediately was a live recording of "When the Saints Go Marching In" sung by a large choir.

It was sound that truly brought that choir into the room. The sound source was the BennyAudio Immersion turntable ($18,040) with Etsuru Urushi Cobalt cartridge ($5,000) at the center of the room. A pair of Western Electric 97A Mono Blocks ($125,000) drove Albedo Acclara SGS Diamond loudspeakers ($82,230).

The BennyAudio Immersion turntable has a unique isolation system with a central spike at the turntable's center of gravity (see photo). There are dampening feet at the four corners of the turntable allowing for excellent isolation. This unique design may be worth exploring if a turntable in this price range is within your budget.

Edelweiss Room   Viva Audio, High End By Oz, United Home Audio, And Cake Audio
Many appreciate the pleasant detailed low-noise sound of taped music. The Edelweiss room featured a United Home Audio Ultima Apollo Tape Deck with an outboard power supply priced at $55,000. This was a debut for the Viva Audio Verticale ($125,000) floorstanding loudspeakers at the show. They are three-way speakers with a separately powered low-frequency section, making it really a four-way speaker since there are three crossover frequencies. They have a sensitivity of 98dB/W/m into a 6-Ohm load suggesting that a lower-powered amp could successfully drive them.

The separately powered low-frequency section used the following cables and interconnects: Synergistic Research SRX power cable ($10,000), SRX RCA cable ($13,000), and SRX Speaker cable ($30,000). The room included several high-quality audio components such as Viva Audio's Linea preamp ($34,500), Solista Power amp ($31,500), and Numerico DAC ($27,500).

So how did it sound? I was unable to make a meaningful evaluation since the tape playing was full of electronica — nothing I could use to make a good evaluation. But I will say it filled the room well and sounded great for that sort of music. I'm sure Vivaldi would sound good on it too, but it was futile to wait for that to come on the tape playlist.

---> Next Page.