Ye Olde Editor: a Fantasy. (Photograph by John Robinson; image processing by yours truly.)
AXPONA time again...
Another year, another AXPONA. The biggest high-end audio show in the USA had its latest iteration on April 11-13 at the Renaissance Schamburg Hotel in Schamburg, IL. According to the AXPONA management team, "10,000+ attendees and 700+ brands from 50+ countries gather[ed] to experience AXPONA" 2025. (The exact number of attendees was 10,910, a 5% growth over 2024.) There were over 200 rooms in play, as well as headphones, car audio, media sales, and live music. Analog, digital (including DSD256), turntables, reel-to-reel decks, tubes, solid-state (including the latest Class D and GANtube designs), dynamic, electrostatic, and planar designs...something for everyone was in play.
The Three Musketeers at AXPONA 2025! (Left to right): Kevin Hayes of VAC, me of Positive Feedback, and Mat Weisfeld of VPI, wielding his smartphone camera...
Yes, the Munich (soon to be Vienna) Show has notably larger attendance; ditto the Hong Kong show. And there are many regional shows every year, which service various locales. But AXPONA is by far the largest show in North America...if you (and I) go anywhere for high-end audio, it has to be to Chicago every year.
This year's show continued some trends that I've noticed over the past few years. More younger attendees; more women (and children); solid foot traffic; and a great diversity of products on display. This bodes well for the future of fine audio, despite those who prognosticate its imminent demise.
Personal fi and headphones, plus compact integrated components, high-resolution streaming, and home theater have all converged to extend and enrich the possibilities of the audio arts, to the blessing of us all. Many thanks to the AXPONA team for their hard work every year!
My AXPONA 2025 Audio Oasis! Awards...wuzzat?!
As usual, this is the time that I give my Audio Oasis! Awards. I've described what these represent repeatedly since I first instituted them back in 2006:
"As I have been doing for many years now at audio shows, my response to the good stuff is to issue my Positive Feedback Audio Oasis! Awards. What are they?
In 2017, I put it like this:
"'As always, my Audio Oasis! Awards are intended to recognize rooms at audio shows that are well above the run of the mill. Yes, we all know that shows are tough environments for fine audio…yes, we all know that it takes special skill and knowledge to put together synergistic matches in those settings. Some folks hit upon a really good combination by serendipity…but others get great results year in and year out.'
Very true, that. Some Audio Oasis! rooms are newcomers, but some others are highly experienced and expert campaigners, who know how to do an audio show room at a high level of quality. I strongly suggest that you pay attention to the AO! Rooms that show up, year in and year out…you can count on these vendors/manufacturers to know what's what, and to do the right thing for you and your listening room at home.
I've been doing the AO! awards for quite a while now. All the way back in PF issue 23, January/February of 2006 (HERE), in the aftermath of CES 2006, I put it this way:
'The result of this approach is a new [Positive Feedback] show honor, which I'm dubbing the 'Audio Oasis!' awards. This is my personal recognition of the rooms that, even under show conditions, really connected with me, and refreshed me in the midst of the tyrannous urgency of CES. If these systems can connect emotionally at CES, I reckon that you can count on them doing great things in your listening room at home. That's a good thing to know if you're looking for guideposts on your audio quest.
A word of warning for my readers: the "Audio Oasis!" awards should not be viewed as a variant of the nearly worn-out "best of show" recognitions that are all too common in audiodom. I did not see every room at CES and T.H.E. Show, and can have no idea of how what I didn't hear sounded like. Furthermore, there aren't nearly enough days at CES to do that properly in the first place, and its hotel-based environment is marginal, at best. "Best of Show" is only a legitimate designation if the listener: a) heard every room at CES/T.H.E. Show, and b) knows what he or she is talking about. Think of it as the combination of opportunity and sensibility. I don't think that these conditions are met very often; if they were, there would probably be fewer of such pronouncements. Enough said.'
So, that's the solid rock that my show reports and awards stand upon.'"
That's what I wrote, and wrote again these many years ago…and nothing has changed since then."
Amen. I hope that you get the picture all the way over here in 2025.
On to the Audio Oasis! Awards, which will be brief and to the point...
Audio Group Denmark/Next Level HiFi
Design Geniuses Michael Børresen (left) and Lars Christensen of Audio Group Denmark (AGD) in the main AGD room for an early morning press conference.
There were two rooms at AXPONA 2025 that to my ears clearly excelled.
This was one of them. In its main large room, the Audio Group Denmark (AGD) was showcasing room was showcasing a series of exciting new product releases. At the heart of this was a new reference in their reference M series loudspeakers, the exciting new Børresen M2.
The M2, shown here with the brand new (and very different!) Børresen Bass Module (a working name until the final christening is given...now that's new). AGD calls it "the sub that really isn't a sub." Given that the M2's only reach down to about 30Hz, these modules are spec'ed at 20Hz, which is much more like it for a person like me!
Full range. Full dynamics. Ultrasonic extension. Phase and time correctness.
Anyway, the combination of the two produced a most impressive presentation of the source music, and helped to really show what the AGD electronics were about.
A boatload of Aavik electronics from Audio Group Denmark
And there was a lot of AGD Aavik in evidence, with some new models in play. The R-880 Phono Stage was in evidence, paired with my old friend, the trusty-rusty Linn LP-12. But there was much more. The Aavik SD-880 Streaming DAC, C-880 Control Amp (preamp, we would say), and P-880 Power Amp were all strutting their stuff. Also there was their Ansuz D-TC3 series, with their Ethernet Switch and Mainz8 Power Distributor.
Unfortunately, AGD hasn't produced a reference SACD/CD player yet. Get with it, gents! (Or T+A is going to steal your lunch....)
And fair warning: this is all expensive gear.
The good news is that they have affordable entry-level gear/systems. Contact your AGD dealer for details.
But what stuff it was in this reference-level room. Transparent, highly detailed, and powerfully dynamic, the AGD system as presented was an amazing experience. If you have the budget, they have the transcendent experience for you.
GTT Audio/Audionet/Dejitter It/Kronos Audio/Kubala-Sosna Research/Master Fidelity/Mola Mola/True Life Audio (TLA)/Vivid Audio
In the category of no bloody surprise at all! was the GTT Audio main reference room.
Once again, Bill Parish and Dick Diamond of GTT Audio, Ewald Verkerk of Vivid Audio, Joe Kubala of Kubala-Sosna, Louis Desjardins of KRONOS, the good folks at Audionet, and DSD geniuses Dominique Brulhart and company from Master Fidelity put together a room wrapped around the truly amazing Vivid Audio Spirit Loudspeakers that brought powerful memories (wrapped around the extraordinary Moya M1 reference loudspeakers) of the first system ever that I dubbed as sui generis. (To see that, check my photo essay on the Moya M1 system from later last year over HERE.)
Ewald Verkerk of Vivid Audio and Mola Mola
Ewald. One of most unforgettable people that I know in high-end audio. Great sense of humor; very direct...always tells you what he thinks. Willing to take you on. Which is why I like him so much. He handles Vivid Audio and Mola Mola, which are top-notch brands. Bill Parish of GTT Audio sells an awful lot of these two lines, and no wonder.
Dick Diamond in a smaller room with a Vivid Kaya loudspeaker and True Life Audio (TLA)
Frankly, I don't think that there's much more that I can say about this collection of companies and products. This is a killer company with a killer line card!
In the GTT Audio/Kubala-Sosna room with Vivid Audio, True Life Audio (TLA), and Kubala-Sosna cables
I've already praised GTT Audio as highly as I've ever done with any distribution/dealer company. If you're in the market for the best, you really have to check out what Bill and companies are doing. And if you're at a show that they're doing, you simply must stop by and catch whatever they're done.
Bill Parish with the Audionet Mach monoblocks
You heard it here first...again. Listen up.
VAC/Acora Acoustics/Oracle Audio/Lyra
In the VAC/Acora Acoustics room...a sonic and visual knockout!
Over the past several years, I've followed the significant progress that Valerio Cora of Acora Acoustics has been making there. He's established a fascinating loudspeaker company. Eschewing woods, metals, and other types of exotica for carefully selected solid stone, polished and finished in exceptional beauty, and going with paper cones below and beryllium tweets, the clarity that I've been hearing...and especially at AXPONA 2025...was quite exceptional.
And on top of that, he was able to take over one of the great names in fine audio, Acoustic Research Corporation (ARC), and rescue it from oblivion
What what lovely loudspeakers! Each pair is unique, and no two alike, since each was precision cut out of glorious natural stone. (Thank you, Lord!)
Kevin Hayes of VAC: a portrait
Acora Acoustics was showing with a very longtime audio friend of mine, Kevin Hayes of VAC.
It would be highly redundant to detail the quality of VAC; Kevin's brilliance there is universally known. I'll go so far as to say that I have never been in a room with VAC in it that didn't please me.
VAC reference gear being fed by an Oracle Acoustics turntable and Lyra cartridge. Ambrosia.
...in conjunction with the remarkable...and remarkably beautiful...Acora Acoustics VRC-1 Loudspeakers. Killer, regardless of source music!
But this combination...glass and stone, no less...has really sat me up in my E-in-C's chair. You'd think that powering rock-based speakers would be a ponderous thing. You'd think that glass would be pushed to the shattering point in getting the attention of speakers and crossover sitting in rock. (Rock music!)
I did...you likely might...and we'd be wrong.
The synergy in the VAC/Acora Acoustics room was so noticeable, and so pleasing to me that the result was inevitable. We really need to explore this combination more deeply at Positive Feedback...
Joseph Audio/Cardas Audio/Doshi Audio/J. Sikora Turntables
Jeff Joseph: a portrait
Jeff Joseph is one of the most mellow people that I know in high-end audio. He is also one heckuva gifted loudspeaker designer. Year in, year out, every time I hear his room I'm pulled in for a listening session.
No, no satchel of "reference recordings." I just listen to whatever he's enjoying. And it's always good.
His Pearl Graphene Loudspeakers, in tandem with Cardas cabling, Doshi Electronics, J.Sikora turntable, and Benz cartridge, was always highly musical to my ears. Your mileage may vary, but I was quite pleased with the overall system synergy here.
A striking system visually, as well...
The Doshi electronics really impressed me with their clear and effortless sound.
J.Sikora's breathtaking turntable
I was not particularly familiar with J.Sikora, but this beauty was producing very fine sound. The Benz MC was obviously happy with its home here...the results spoke for themselves.
Oh yes. Definitely a winner here!
Focal-Naim/Avid HiFi/Musical Fidelity/Vicoustic
Caramba! Focal-Naim America surround sound this time around, and no prisoners taken!
The Focal-Naim America team, left to right: Nicolas Debard, Wendy Knowles, and Chris Shaw
This time around, Focal-Naim America really made a commitment to surround sound/home theater. Instead of doing reference stereo with the latest Utopias, they set up a complete multi-channel demo of their Utopia Cinema lineup.
The combination of high-resolution 4K video and a prodigious 7.4.4 multi-channel rig with LCR, Sub, and Atmos in place, had the joint really jumping! (I would have loved to hear DSD 5.1 on a rig like this, but home theater forces PCM on us...alas.) Deep bass...slammin' dynamics...nice extension in the upper frequencies. Just the sort of audio virtues that I would expect in a home theater system. Not many stodgy old-white-dude audiophiles were in evidence while I was there; this was the sort of experience that would be more appealing to the younger/more dynamic 'philes.
Of course, you'd have to have a really big room and big budget to contemplate this one.
But, if you do...
The line to get into the Utopia Cinema room was impressively long...there was definitely a serious desire on the part of audiophiles to experience this. I could hardly blame them; this room was seriously seductive.
No further contemplation needed. An obvious Audio Oasis! Award winner!
Synergistic Research/Scott Walker Audio/Magico/McIntosh Laboratory
Ted Denney of Synergistic Research with his reference SRX PowerCell: a moment
And then...there's Tornado Ted! He who stirs the high-end pot more than anyone I know—and I've known Ted since he dropped by to visit me at Positive Feedback in 1993.
Synergistic Research is a company whose product line(s) reflect Ted's developing understanding of the interrelationship of signal and field, a concept that he has pursued passionately over the years, and especially recently. His latest products were on display at AXPONA 2025, where he demonstrated the latest breakthroughs. His usual A/B/A (with SR/without SR/with SR) presentation was quite persuasive, as always. And since we've been running one generation after another of his products here at Positive Feedback Central...for many years now...I can hear that each step forward really is a step forward.
The SR reference system turned out to be bloody impressive, yet again.
The demo system was one of the best that I heard at AXPONA 2025. Excellent bass, organic midrange, and nicely extended highs, all resting on the SR base of enhancements. Killer transparency! My king of all other audio virtues. But even more intriguing is the fact that Ted is making a breakthrough in his thinking and designs about the central importance of field in truly understanding what fine audio is all about. He's been talking about Unified Energy Field (UEF) for years, but he's in the midst of releasing a whole new generation of products that will show the centrality of field to what is happening with audio signal transmission.
Ted and I are going to try to meet later in the year for the delivery and setup of a number of key components here at PF Central.
Given what I heard at AXPONA 2025 already, I can hardly wait...!
Meanwhile, one of my Audio Oasis! Awards goes to Ted and SR for a phenomenal room.
Of course.
Nordost/dCS/Grand Prix Audio/Kuzma/Stenheim Loudspeakers/VTL
Meredith Gabor of Nordost making a presentation in the Nordost/etc. room
This room had some real heavy hitters in action. I haven't had a chance to try Nordost in our listening rooms here at PF Central, but every one of the times that I've heard their cables in various rooms at shows, I have been impressed.
Naturally, system synergies will vary from room to room and from one component set to another, but I've never been disappointed in Nordost.
I can say that the combination in this room worked nicely this year. dCS is a reference standard, Kuzma is well known for its turntables, VTL is a longtime powerhouse of tubed kit, and Stenheim has emerged as a contender in the (crowded) world of audiophile loudspeakers. More specifically, their room featured Stenheim Reference Ultime Two SX speakers, bi-amped with two VTL amplifiers per speaker. Nordost cables were used throughout the system, along with a Kuzma, a VTL phono-preamp, preamp and power supply, and a DCS streaming/DAC/up-scaler.
I have only seen dCS at shows...no direct connection with them. Likewise with Kuzma and VTL. Nevertheless, this room was impressive, and certainly rated one of my Audio Oasis! Awards. Done!
T+A North America
In the T+A room...
T+A is a German company whose designs I have a special regard for. I reviewed their 3100 HV SACD/DAC/Preamp a while back (HERE), reporting myself to be knocked out by the precision, transparency, elegance, and mass with both SACDs and streaming sources.
T+A's big M 40 HV reference monoblock hybrid amps provided enormous power to the Solitaire S 540 Loudspeakers, which is only to be expected since they were built for one another. Very fine sound...the detail and dynamics are exceptional.
The T+A PDT 3100 HV SACD/CD Player (top), and the PSD 3100 HV Preamp/Streaming DAC
No need to say more, having expressed my real pleasure with T+A in the past. World-class German audio engineering, without a doubt.
Time for another Audio Oasis! Award.
Pro Audio/Analog Audio Design/Cabasse/Lateral Audio Stands/Lumin/Meze Audio/Playback Designs/Puritan Audio Labs/Revox/TEAC
Ah, the glories of reel-to-reel...and look! There's my old friend a Playback Designs IPS-3 integrated amp with DAC!
It was very pleasant seeing my RTR audiobud Brian Tucker of Pro Audio in Chicago. I've known Brian for a number of years now, mainly through my man Andreas Koch of Playback Designs. (That explains the IPS-3 Integrated with DAC in the photograph above.)
I know the sound of his source RTR, the Analog Audio Devices TP-1000, which I consider to be the first truly new, built-new-from- the-group-up RTR, in many years. My long-delayed review is mostly done...has been for many weeks now...and so you'll get to hear at length about my thoughts on the TP-1000.
The sound in this room was superior. I am not familiar with Puritan Audio and Lateral Stands, but they certainly seemed to be complimentary, at the least to the TP-1000 and the IPS-3, which I know quite well.
Brian Tucker of Pro Audio, while the TP-1000 does its thing....
Yet another very fine room, with gorgeous RTR analog sound filling the room. It's addictive.
Heaven!
And another 2025 Audio Oasis! Award winner.
ModWright/Alta Audio
In the ModWright room...
I have a long-time relationship with Dan Wright and ModWright Instruments, another Pacific Northwest audio company. During these years, I have had many opportunities to hear the progression of Dan's understanding of fine audio. Tubes, tube mods for SACD players, hybrids, and even some solid state along the way. His Analog Bridge is a really important product for those doing digital/streaming...that kiss of tube magic!
Dan Wright of ModWright (left) and Eric Lee of Alta Audio
Over the years ModWright has gotten better and better, bringing a kiss of tubes to everything he designs...even if it's hybrid or solid-state. And the synergy in this room between ModWright and the Alta Audio speakers made for some special listening. Detailed, clear, with excellent imaging and soundstaging, but never cold. It was a real pleasure to spend time in this room
It was always musical, which is one of my highest compliments.
I do not grind these reflections out; I spend quite a lot of time in reflecting upon them. (You can tell by the delay in getting everything done and published.)
But there was no doubt in my mind.
And so, Dan Wright and Eric Lee receive another of my 2025 AXPONA Audio Oasis! Awards...rightly given!
Done!
MBL North America/Kyomi Audio
Jeremy Bryan, President and CEO of MBL North America
Jeremy is another audiobud that I've known for many years now. He's been with MBL as their North American executive for many years now. He's been out to Positive Feedback Central a couple of times, and we've had the MBL Radialstrahler 101 system out here on two different occasions for extended listens. Back in 2018, I spent a while with Jeremy and MBL's CEO, Jürgen Reis, in the MBL room, and did so again in 2024.
Yes, you could say I know MBL, its people, its projects, and its sonic virtues very well.
MBL's strengths are well known. Naturally there is the omnidirectional presentation of the music that really does envelope you in a soundspace, and not just a soundstage. Within that, the playback is quick, detailed, transparent...not metallic sounding at all.
At AXPONA 2025, I heard the 101 reference system once again, and once again found myself sitting with an old friend. Crystal clear Transparency, lightning-like quickness, an ease of dynamics, and that enfolding soundspace that I know and love so very much. The synergy of MBL's highly focused design philosophy, worked out over many years, was quite evident once more.
Even with streaming digital that wasn't DSD (for shame, Jeremy! DSD256 could have been so much better!), the music really did a number on me.
So, within moments of entering the MBL room, I knew that MBL was going to receive another of my 2025 AXPONA Audio Oasis! Awards.
"So let it be written; so let it be done."
Kubala-Sosna/Grimm Audio/Mola Mola/Vivid Audio
In Joe Kubala's room with a bevy of really great gear
The Kubala-Sosna et al. room was truly noteworthy. In a space that was somewhat smaller, Joe and company were getting incredible results with their combination of K-S Elation! and Realization cables plus Expander, Vivid Audio Giya G3 S2 Loudspeakers, TLA TSI-300 Integrated Amp, Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC, Grimm Audio MU1 Roon Core/Streamer, and Dejitterit Switch X Ethernet Switch. What extraordinary sound! Organic in synergy; always musical in presentation
GTT Audio's Dick Diamond in this Kubala-Sosna et al. room...a good man in a very fine space.
So, once again, there was no doubt in my mind that K-S and company were highly worthy of one of my 2025 AXPONA Audio Oasis! Awards. I could have stayed here for quite a while.
But let's get to it...
American Sound of Canada/Analog Relax/Avantgarde/Glanz/Phasemation/Rethm
Angie Lisi of American Sound of Canada
Finally, there was my time spent in Angie's American Sound room. I met her several years ago at the Pacific Audio Fest, and enjoyed getting to know her and her lines. She has a strong proclivity for tubes and high-efficiency horns, which explains what I experienced in her room. Not for the first time, either; over the years that I've known her, Angie is pretty consistent with her preferred systems.
Once again, big Avantgardes were in Angie's large room. These were driven by Phasemation MA 2000 tube amps at about 10 Watts per channel of pure Class A. But with the Avantgardes @ 107dB/W/M efficiency, all was quite well.
Low-powered SETs and horns have been a natural blend for around 100 years now. But in our own times...the true "Golden Age of Audio"...earlier horn nastiness has been greatly tamed, and the traditional massive dynamics and transparency come through without the stereotypical gross honkiness/nasality of horns. Thus, it has become more and more of a pleasure to hear the best of contemporary high-end horns. Angie's room certainly gave me that seductive feeling, even under show conditions.
My Audio Oasis! Awards are about feeling, soul, and passion. Any room that draws me in, and tempts me to sit down and spend more than a bit of time listening, is a candidate, and a likely recipient.
"Likely" became "sure" as I listened to some very nice vinyl in Angie's room.
Done!
