It’s challenging—given all the variables involved—to get an accurate read on the sound of rooms at audio shows. Variables such as is the equipment new or broken-in, the day you hear the room (Friday, Saturday or Sunday), room size, seating position, number of people in the room and last but not least, musical selections. Luckily, exhibitors are more open to playing albums and music requests from reviewers at shows. Especially exhibitors that know me or are bored out of their brains by what they’ve been playing by the time I reach their room.
The following albums were selected for AXPONA 2025 including:
· Ali Akbar Khan: Master Musician of India, 45 rpm, Connoisseur Society
· Fink: Low Swing Sessions, 45 rpm LP and 15 ips tape, Low Swing Records
· Poulenc: Organ Symphony, Pretre (Cond) and Duruffle (Organ), EMI
· Reema: Memories Fade To Tape, Low Swing Records
· Amemiya: Summer Prayer, special 45 rpm edition, RCA Japan
· Soundtrack from They Live, Enigma Records
To begin with, just a disclaimer before launching into some quick thoughts, reflections and recollections about AXPONA 2025. The truth is the AXPONA audio show has grown into one of the biggest high-end shows in the world (possibly the second largest?). AXPONA is, thus, way too large for one individual, much less a magazine team, to cover! What follows, then, is just a quick recollection from the rooms I was able to reach but by no means is it an inclusive look at the whole show!
1. Attendance. Show organizers reported 10,910 people attended this year’s event; this represents a 5% increase in attendance from last year. This year’s show included 213 dedicated listening rooms.
My perception was that Friday was very busy, Saturday was moderately busy (but not as busy as last year) and Sunday was the typical Sunday. We’ll never know much attendance was affected by the show being on the Passover weekend. Dates for the show, unfortunately, are out of the organizer’s hands eg. they are locked into times for the convention center for years in advance.
We also don’t know how much attendance figures were buoyed by the addition of the car audio show. One clue is there seemed to be less attendees browsing and buying in the exhibit hall than last couple of years. Interesting, there seemed to be more couples and families attending this year’s AXPONA than past shows.
Lastly, there was lots of live music at this year’s show including the Kyle Asche Organ Quartet on Friday night, Patricia Barber on Saturday night, as well as Adam Czerwinski and his group performing Friday night in the Joseph, Doshi, Sikora and Cardas Audio room. This was the second JDS&C hosted this amazing trio in their room!
2. Products seen most around the show
Electronics: CH-Precision/PASS/D’Agostino
Speakers: Magico/Stenheim/Marten
Turntables: VPI/Well Tempered/Reed/AMG
Digital: WADAX/DCS/Lampizator/Taiko
Cables: Cardas/Nordost/Turnbull/Audioquest/Kubala-Sosna
3. There was one thing that stood out like a sore thumb in going from room to room and listening to my recordings. That was the presence or in so many rooms the complete absence of any sense of ambient recording space. Take for example, Poulenc’s Organ Symphony or Fink’s interpretation of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun.” Some rooms sounded dead as an anaechoic chamber whereas others gave you a real feeling of recording space and a sensation of life. Contributing a breath of life to the music. Clearly an area that clearly separated the men from the boys.
4. The growing trend of separating the speakers a football field apart in the large ballroom/meeting rooms. I’m not sure what the exhibitors were looking to achieve but it was simply unnatural sounding. The exaggerated width didn’t make large scale music sound any more lifelike (like being in an orchestra hall) and in case of smaller scale music it sounded silly. It was more like listening to a PA rather than audio system.
Conversely, I felt bad for companies like Burmester, Vandersteen, Monarch Audio and many others trying to shoehorn their audio systems into rooms that made college dorm rooms feel roomy. At least from when I went to school. Even Angie Lisi/American Sound trying to properly demonstrate the larger AvantGarde horn speakers. It’s becoming increasingly apparent that AXPONA is now out growing its current location. They certainly know that there’s money to be had as many exhibitors are asking (sure there’s a waiting list and no exhibitor is giving up their current digs) for the bigger ballroom/meeting rooms. But there’s probably no larger site around that can accommodate this size audio show. At least a site that is audio friendly. So growth comes with its downsides.
5. Source material at the show. Ugh. Streaming, more often than not, was the name of the game. Even the Vandersteen room had digital (long gone are the days of Richard’s analog only rooms!). The number of rooms with analog, sadly, seemed down from past shows. That was with the exceptions of analog stalwarts like Jeff Catalano of Highwater Sound (TW Acustics), George Counnas of Zesto Electronics (Feickert Audio), Bill Parrish of GTT Audio (Kronos), Luke and Bea Manley of Manley Electronics (who featured the new Grand Prix turntable), Nick Doshi, Jeff Joseph, Robert Sikora and Jeff Fox (Sikora turntables), Mike Fajen of Sierra Sound (AMG turntables) and Philip O’Hanlon of On A Higher Note (Benny Audio turntables) and a few others.
6. Auspicious AXPONA World/Show Equipment Debuts:
AFI Flat Duo Record Flattener and Relaxer (Musical Surroundings)
Albedo Audio Acclara SGS speakers (Supreme Audio Systems)
Audionet Schrödiner monoblock amplifiers (GTT Audio)
Audionet Mach linestage (GTT Audio)
Benny Audio Odyssey turntable (Supreme Audio Systems)
Clearaudio Diamond Jubilee cartridge (Musical Surroundings)
Connected Fidelity TT-Hub (Sierra Sound)
D’Agostino Momentum C2 preamplifier
D’Agostino Pendulum Integrated amplifier with DAC and phonostage
Grand Prix Audio Monaco 3 turntable (with Kuzma Saphir arm)
Magico M9 speakers
PS Audio SACD PMG Sig. Transport
PS Audio PMG Sig. Purestream DAC
Reed 3P Panzerholz tonearm wands (AXISS Audio)
Revox B77 Mk. III reel-to-reel tape machine (Reel to Reel Haven, USA)
Seismion Reactio Plus 2 platform (MIBS)
Soulution 717 monoblock amplifiers (AXISS Audio)
Tech Das Air Force 10 tonearm (The Audio Salon)
Tidal Audio Contriva G3 speakers
Tidal Audio AP1 speakers
Transrotor Argus FMD turntable (AXISS Audio)
Wilson-Benesch GMT One turntable (Fidelity Imports)
7. Auspicious AXPONA Show Reintroductions:
Koetsu cartridges (AXISS Audio)
8. Auspicious Demonstrations:
Shunyata grounding system
Seismon Reactio 2 under SAT turntable
Finally, a big shout out to the exhibitors who made the job of covering the show much easier by preparing a cheat sheet of products on display in their room (including indicating any new products)! And those technically inclined who gave me a QR code to scan that linked directly to information about the gear being shown!
The following albums were selected for AXPONA 2025 including:
· Ali Akbar Khan: Master Musician of India, 45 rpm, Connoisseur Society
· Fink: Low Swing Sessions, 45 rpm LP and 15 ips tape, Low Swing Records
· Poulenc: Organ Symphony, Pretre (Cond) and Duruffle (Organ), EMI
· Reema: Memories Fade To Tape, Low Swing Records
· Amemiya: Summer Prayer, special 45 rpm edition, RCA Japan
· Soundtrack from They Live, Enigma Records
To begin with, just a disclaimer before launching into some quick thoughts, reflections and recollections about AXPONA 2025. The truth is the AXPONA audio show has grown into one of the biggest high-end shows in the world (possibly the second largest?). AXPONA is, thus, way too large for one individual, much less a magazine team, to cover! What follows, then, is just a quick recollection from the rooms I was able to reach but by no means is it an inclusive look at the whole show!
1. Attendance. Show organizers reported 10,910 people attended this year’s event; this represents a 5% increase in attendance from last year. This year’s show included 213 dedicated listening rooms.
My perception was that Friday was very busy, Saturday was moderately busy (but not as busy as last year) and Sunday was the typical Sunday. We’ll never know much attendance was affected by the show being on the Passover weekend. Dates for the show, unfortunately, are out of the organizer’s hands eg. they are locked into times for the convention center for years in advance.
We also don’t know how much attendance figures were buoyed by the addition of the car audio show. One clue is there seemed to be less attendees browsing and buying in the exhibit hall than last couple of years. Interesting, there seemed to be more couples and families attending this year’s AXPONA than past shows.
Lastly, there was lots of live music at this year’s show including the Kyle Asche Organ Quartet on Friday night, Patricia Barber on Saturday night, as well as Adam Czerwinski and his group performing Friday night in the Joseph, Doshi, Sikora and Cardas Audio room. This was the second JDS&C hosted this amazing trio in their room!
2. Products seen most around the show
Electronics: CH-Precision/PASS/D’Agostino
Speakers: Magico/Stenheim/Marten
Turntables: VPI/Well Tempered/Reed/AMG
Digital: WADAX/DCS/Lampizator/Taiko
Cables: Cardas/Nordost/Turnbull/Audioquest/Kubala-Sosna
3. There was one thing that stood out like a sore thumb in going from room to room and listening to my recordings. That was the presence or in so many rooms the complete absence of any sense of ambient recording space. Take for example, Poulenc’s Organ Symphony or Fink’s interpretation of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun.” Some rooms sounded dead as an anaechoic chamber whereas others gave you a real feeling of recording space and a sensation of life. Contributing a breath of life to the music. Clearly an area that clearly separated the men from the boys.
4. The growing trend of separating the speakers a football field apart in the large ballroom/meeting rooms. I’m not sure what the exhibitors were looking to achieve but it was simply unnatural sounding. The exaggerated width didn’t make large scale music sound any more lifelike (like being in an orchestra hall) and in case of smaller scale music it sounded silly. It was more like listening to a PA rather than audio system.
Conversely, I felt bad for companies like Burmester, Vandersteen, Monarch Audio and many others trying to shoehorn their audio systems into rooms that made college dorm rooms feel roomy. At least from when I went to school. Even Angie Lisi/American Sound trying to properly demonstrate the larger AvantGarde horn speakers. It’s becoming increasingly apparent that AXPONA is now out growing its current location. They certainly know that there’s money to be had as many exhibitors are asking (sure there’s a waiting list and no exhibitor is giving up their current digs) for the bigger ballroom/meeting rooms. But there’s probably no larger site around that can accommodate this size audio show. At least a site that is audio friendly. So growth comes with its downsides.
5. Source material at the show. Ugh. Streaming, more often than not, was the name of the game. Even the Vandersteen room had digital (long gone are the days of Richard’s analog only rooms!). The number of rooms with analog, sadly, seemed down from past shows. That was with the exceptions of analog stalwarts like Jeff Catalano of Highwater Sound (TW Acustics), George Counnas of Zesto Electronics (Feickert Audio), Bill Parrish of GTT Audio (Kronos), Luke and Bea Manley of Manley Electronics (who featured the new Grand Prix turntable), Nick Doshi, Jeff Joseph, Robert Sikora and Jeff Fox (Sikora turntables), Mike Fajen of Sierra Sound (AMG turntables) and Philip O’Hanlon of On A Higher Note (Benny Audio turntables) and a few others.
6. Auspicious AXPONA World/Show Equipment Debuts:
AFI Flat Duo Record Flattener and Relaxer (Musical Surroundings)
Albedo Audio Acclara SGS speakers (Supreme Audio Systems)
Audionet Schrödiner monoblock amplifiers (GTT Audio)
Audionet Mach linestage (GTT Audio)
Benny Audio Odyssey turntable (Supreme Audio Systems)
Clearaudio Diamond Jubilee cartridge (Musical Surroundings)
Connected Fidelity TT-Hub (Sierra Sound)
D’Agostino Momentum C2 preamplifier
D’Agostino Pendulum Integrated amplifier with DAC and phonostage
Grand Prix Audio Monaco 3 turntable (with Kuzma Saphir arm)
Magico M9 speakers
PS Audio SACD PMG Sig. Transport
PS Audio PMG Sig. Purestream DAC
Reed 3P Panzerholz tonearm wands (AXISS Audio)
Revox B77 Mk. III reel-to-reel tape machine (Reel to Reel Haven, USA)
Seismion Reactio Plus 2 platform (MIBS)
Soulution 717 monoblock amplifiers (AXISS Audio)
Tech Das Air Force 10 tonearm (The Audio Salon)
Tidal Audio Contriva G3 speakers
Tidal Audio AP1 speakers
Transrotor Argus FMD turntable (AXISS Audio)
Wilson-Benesch GMT One turntable (Fidelity Imports)
7. Auspicious AXPONA Show Reintroductions:
Koetsu cartridges (AXISS Audio)
8. Auspicious Demonstrations:
Shunyata grounding system
Seismon Reactio 2 under SAT turntable
Finally, a big shout out to the exhibitors who made the job of covering the show much easier by preparing a cheat sheet of products on display in their room (including indicating any new products)! And those technically inclined who gave me a QR code to scan that linked directly to information about the gear being shown!
