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With previous episodes “216,” from March 2nd, and “218,” from last week, March 16th, I’ve shared some of my experiences with, and taken you on several room visits, at the 2025 Florida International Audio Fest. Today, we’ll dive into the highlights of my Top Five Rooms at the 2025 show. For clarity, all system pricing information is provided in today’s Description section.

First, we start with Room 451, sponsored by Ball Audio Distribution And System Solutions (or, BADASS for short!), and Margules Audio. Then on to Brandon 2, sponsored by Supreme Acoustic Systems, followed by a visit to Salon 1, sponsored by Next Level HiFi, then we move next door to Salon 3, sponsored by Clarisys Audio, and finally, a visit to the Palm Room, sponsored by the Valve Amplification Company, Acora Acoustics, and Scott Walker Audio. Ready, set, go!

This week finds us midway through the most hectic time of the year for me, spring show season. With Florida and Southwest behind us – and with plenty of coverage of the Southwest Audio Fest to follow here soon – but with AXPONA and High-End Munich still to come, I find myself almost overwhelmed by the sheer volume of my workload.

With the additional challenges of this season, combined with the enduring popularity and remarkably enthusiastic reception that my after-hours curated LP sessions continue to enjoy at shows, today I revisit a seemingly incongruent topic. Many audio hobbyists seem to believe that audiophiles are people who listen to gear, while music lovers aren’t as demanding and simply choose to revel in the music, regardless of the gear used, and that the two are somehow necessarily disparate objectives. Let’s dive in…

It’s hard to believe that this was just the second Southwest Audio Fest… The attitudes, the spirit, the overall upbeat and enthusiastic tenor of this sophomore event were so positive, so fun, and so engaging, that I’m even more convinced than I was after the premier show that with proper marketing and sensible management, the Southwest Audio Fest has the potential to become a premier event on the annual show circuit.

That said, in this episode you get an idea of eight amazing performances I heard during my time at the remarkable venue that hosts this up-and-coming event, in Dallas, the Hilton Anatole. Are you ready? Here we go…

In episode 216, from March 2nd, I shared my overall impressions of the sixth Florida International Audio Expo, from the new venue, the Sheraton Tampa Brandon Hotel, to how I perceived the event, and highlighted my impressions of the importance of a very affordable, and overachieving, monitor, developed and presented by nepo baby Lucca Chesky.

All things considered, it was both an ambitious and very enjoyable event, with some exceptionally well-done presentations from many exhibitors and manufacturers. Today, I’ll share some of the more impressive accomplishments there. As always, all equipment pricing detail is presented in today’s Description section.

If you saw my coverage of last March’s inaugural Southwest Audio Fest, held at the beautiful Hilton Anatol in Dallas, you’ll recall that this freshman event earned near-universal acclaim from the members of the press. This new event was lauded as showing remarkable potential to become one of the premiere events on the American show circuit.

While I have been trying to go to this show for several years now, thwarted repeatedly by bad weather conditions canceling my flights and making it impractical to reschedule, or last year, with a scheduling conflict for a surgical procedure, I finally made it for the 2025 edition of this event.

Many of you will recall that I had the opportunity to be the first to listen to, and report on, the $280,000-a-pair Børresen M3 loudspeakers here at the channel, with Episodes “E140: First Listen: Børresen M3 Loudspeaker,” in September of 2023, and “E158: World Premiere-The Børresen M3 Loudspeaker,” from January of 2024.

If you’ve been following my “Second Space” series of episodes, which are explorations of considerably more affordable products than those that I more typically cover, like those that are integrated into my own Hyper-Audio reference system, you will know that I’ve recently spent some time covering the amazing work being done by Audience, of San Marcos, California.

Today will feature the last episode covering my four-day visit to GTT Audio in Long Valley, NJ, two weeks ago, and will focus on one of the most significant, engaging, and important analog products I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing, the KRONOS Discovery Phonostage.

In this week’s episode, Bill Parish and I discuss the introduction of the latest products to join the Audionet Scientist Series of electronics, the Mach linestage and the Schrödinger monoblock amplifiers. These products may represent the most important product introduction in Audionet’s nearly three-and-a-half-decade history.

Today Bill Parish and I discuss the relevant takeaways, and perhaps the deeper significance of what my latest extended stay at GTT and listen to the production release of the KRONOS Perpetual Turntable may have to offer.

Today we Have a look at what is coming over the first months, and on into the year 2025.

Today we take a look at the results of what I am calling the Fosi Audio V3/SparkoS Labs SS3602 “Full Monty.” The V3s, pimped out with a pair of the SS3602s in the two “significant” OpAmp locations, likely used to drive each half of the differential input for the V3s tiny Class-D amplifier chip, the Texas Instruments TPA3116D2, provide some exhilarating performance.

This week, we’ll explore the advantages that come with implementing a full loom of cabling comprised of the same series of products from a single manufacturer. Specifically, we will take a closer look at the benefits I’ve realized with the installation of a loom of the entry-level series of OHNO cables, including interconnects and speaker cables, and non-captured AC cords, the forte F3 powerChords, from Audience.

Today I introduce you to the exceptional performance and remarkable value that the moderately priced Mobile Fidelity MasterPhono Phonostage represents. This exceptional and versatile phono preamplifier is the latest creation from the mind of colleague and friend, Peter Madnick, with over 45 years as a prolific industry designer, leading to something on the order of... Read More »

oday, I share my impressions of the sonic improvements enjoyed by the overachieving, über affordable Fosi V3 monoblock amplifiers after replacing the stock Texas Instrument NE5532 IC Op-Amps on their boards with a pair of the SparkoS Labs SS3602 Discreet Dual Op-Amps. In early November, with one of my “Second Space” episodes, “E199, The Amazing,... Read More »

For three decades now, David MacPherson, the managing partner of Studio Electric, has been building remarkable sounding and relatively affordable loudspeakers. One of his underlying goals as a designer has been to create loudspeakers that, not only he would choose to own, but that fall into his own budgetary choices for such products. I first... Read More »

Today I present my final room evaluation from this past November’s Capital Audiofest 2024. We will visit room 832, BADASS, or Ball Audio Distribution And System Solutions, run by Bruce Ball. We’ll meet Julian Margules, of Margules Audio of Mexico, and Anke Patt, of Viablue cables and accessories of Germany…

Today we visit, and get a quick listen to, the GTT Audio room on the seventh floor at the 2024 Capital Audiofest. I’ve had viewers – and readers – ask why the GTT Audio room, and several others, always seem to make my show reports. Well, the answer is absurdly simple. Bill and his partners... Read More »