Southwest Audio Fest 2025

[Ron Resnick]

Please enjoy my interview with Sam Whitt and Don Sachs of Spatial Audio Lab!

 

[DDgtt]

Southwest Audio Fest - Supra HiFi/GTT Audio room.

 

[Philb7777]

Southwest Audio Fest - Supra HiFi/GTT Audio room.

Great room. Vivid or Audionet seem to always sound good together or separately.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Please enjoy my interview at Southwest Audio Fest 2025 with Gary Leeds of Hear This for Rockna Audio and WestminsterLab. Gary introduces the Rockna Audio Wavedream Reference Signature DAC, discusses the complementary nature of Rockna with the Hear This portfolio of brands, reveals upcoming Rockna components and updates us on his involvement with Von Schweikert Audio.

 

[Synaxis]

Please enjoy my interview at Southwest Audio Fest 2025 with Gary Leeds of Hear This for Rockna Audio and WestminsterLab. Gary introduces the Rockna Audio Wavedream Reference Signature DAC, discusses the complementary nature of Rockna with the Hear This portfolio of brands, reveals upcoming Rockna components and updates us on his involvement with Von Schweikert Audio.

Nice job, Ron. Every time I saw you there you were working hard!

 

[Ron Resnick]

Nice job, Ron. Every time I saw you there you were working hard!

Thank you very much, Mike!

 

[Ron Resnick]

Please enjoy my interview with Florián Wiegand, Founder of Clarisys Audio! Florian discusses the structural, component and sonic improvements to the new generation of Clarisys loudspeakers, and previews upcoming new speaker designs.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Please enjoy my video tour of Southwest Audio Fest 2025!

Please kindly "like" the video and subscribe to the WhatsBestForum YouTube channel!

 

[Ron Resnick]

At Southwest Audio Fest 2025 Ron Resnick interviews Valerio Cora, Founder and CEO of Acora Acoustics, and Kevin Hayes, Founder and President of Valve Amplification Company. Val discusses the design of the flagship VRC and the debut of the small MRB-1. Kevin explains the innovations in the new flagship Statement 455 iQ and the new Signature 202 iQ. Kevin also discusses KT88 and 6SN7 tubes.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Please enjoy my interview at Southwest Audio Fest 2025 with Daniel Wright, CEO of ModWright Instruments. Dan discusses the design philosophies of his pre-amplifiers and amplifiers, shows us his KWA99 amplifier and LS99 pre-amplifier, introduces the brand new KWA300 amplifier, reveals an upcoming tube-based optical decoder for DS Audio cartridges and explains why he declined to produce a tape repro stage.

 

[Steve williams]

Southwest Audio Fest 2025 Highlights - The Absolute Sound

Southwest Audio Fest 2025 Highlights - Tom Martin and Jason Methfessel return from this year's Southwest Audio Fest with a list of some of the most compelling products and rooms they experienced at the show. Listen in to see what's new!

www.theabsolutesound.com

 

[Ron Resnick]

Please enjoy my interview at Southwest Audio Fest 2025 with Amedeo Schembri, Founder and Designer at Viva Audio. Amedeo debuts the new Verticale loudspeaker, explains details of the design and discusses future Viva Audio products.

 

[gleeds]

Keith, I'm sorry I missed you at the show. The venue was excellent. Even though the traffic was light, Damon and I felt there were quite a few people with serious interest in comparing products and spending some time listening—no speed dating through 220 rooms like at Axpona.

The hospitality of everyone in Dallas was warm and welcoming. I can see why you're enjoying your new home there. Let me know if you're coming to Axpona.

Will be interesting if this becomes the new Axpona. I’ll be there

th, sorry to have mised

 

[Ron Resnick]

At Southwest Audio Fest 2025 Ron Resnick interviews Valerio Cora, Founder and CEO of Acora Acoustics, and Kevin Hayes, Founder and President of Valve Amplification Company. Val discusses the design of the flagship VRC and the debut of the small MRB-1. Kevin explains the innovations in the new flagship Statement 455 iQ and the new Signature 202 iQ. Kevin also discusses KT88 and 6SN7 tubes.

The most interesting thing to me in the interview with Kevin is that he has designed the new flagship amplifier truly to optimize both the balanced input and the single-ended input. He says that six different circuit elements get switched to optimize single-ended operation.

I personally believe that, as a first step anyway, one should maintain the native circuit topology of the amplifier. If one starts with an SET amplifier I don't see the reason for running a full range signal into a balancing transformer just to have a balanced output. Kevin's new amplifier is consistent with this philosophy.