AXPONA 2024 REPORT PART 3

AXPONA is a huge show, in the final part of our AXPONA 2024 Report, we take you around the lower hotel room floors, from floor 7 down to 3.

Floor 7

AUDIO THESIS

Very nice, Rosso Fiorentino speakers with Norma and Turnbull Audio.

BELLESON AND HOLM AUDIO

Belleson were showing their new Brilliance phonostage, with an Acoustic Signature Verona NEO turntable, Ortofon Verismo cartridge, VAC Renaissance MKV pre and Signature 202 iQ Musicbloc amp along with the Clarisys Minuet speakers…really rather nice indeed.

GERSHMAN ACOUSTICS

Always great to see the Gershmans, they make lovely speakers and put a great system together. At AXPONA 2024 they had the Gershman 30th Anniversary Grand Avante Garde ($18,000) with a VPI Prime Signature turntable, Cardas Clear Beyond cables, and Pass Labs INT250 amp and XP17 phonostage.

HOLM AUDIO

In this room Holm had Nordost, Triangle Anniversary Magellan speakers, Electrocompaniet, and Lumin. I walked in midway through a Nordost demo, but it was great to see the Electrocompaniet AW800M power amp in the system, being used in stereo mode as we do here at HiFi PiG towers, it really is a beast of an amp whether you go for one, as they did here, or as monoblocks, like we reviewed here.

AMERICAN AUDIO & VIDEO

AA&V’s room was being run by the British team from Cyrus and it was cool to see that they had the HiFi PiG slipmat, that we gave them at Bristol, proudly on display on the new Cyrus TTP turntable. They had Cyrus XR components paired with Spendor speakers, a fab combination, with a Pangea Audio Vulcan rack. We also got to see a very hush-hush new product that we aren’t allowed to talk about but which promises to be a very interesting product for Cyrus.

HOLM AUDIO

In this room Holm had the reliable combo of NAD, Bluesound, and DALI, and it was great to see the UK’s Lateral Audio Stands with their racks in here along with Puritan Audio’s power products.

SOURCE SYSTEMS

Soundgenic, Fi-Data, Mathew Bond Audio, and DeVore Fidelity O/Baby speakers… also Lateral and Puritan were playing important supporting roles in this room, along with a whole lot of Lumin.

LUMIN

More Lumin Next door, again, Puritan and Lateral Audio Stands and Magico speakers this time.

AGD PRODUCTIONS

A whole lot of glow from the AGD Gallium Nitride electronics, paired with Rosso Fiorentino speakers.

HOLM AUDIO

Sonner Audio speakers with Ayre Acoustics and Margules electronics in this Holm Audio room, very nice combination and gret to see Sunni from Sonner too. The new speakers are the Allegro MKII and come with their custom stand. Nice looking and sounding standmoount.  

AMERICAN AUDIO & VIDEO

This AA&V room featured Audiolab 9000 series electronics, Mission 770 speakers, and a Dual CS 429 turntable.

KMD ENGINEERING CO

The very distinctive looking Orchestalls Le Clavier, full-range speaker system in this room. Every speaker in this alignment is movable and so this makes Le Clavier a bit of a tweaker’s dream. The speakers have more than an air of a certain Swiss audio brand, but I think that’s as much to do with these being a series of boxes as anything. The HiFi Rose amp you see below always splits opinion, but also proves very popular whenever we post pics on social media for it.

AV LUXURY GROUP

More distinctive seakers in this room, from Bayz Audio and partnered with Chord Electronics. I sat for a good while in this room and was surprised at the performance of these speakers in this room. I have heard them a handful of times at shows and never really understood why some folk raved about them, however, at AXPONA 2024 they sang very nice ly with the accompanying Chord Electronics.

AV LUXURY GROUP

In this room they had brought Raidho and the new Scansonic Q series of speakers, along with Margules electronics, with Lateral Audio Stands once again. Good room this and I could have stayed much longer, but time was getting on and with one of us working from the top floors and the other from the bottom (with us hoping to meet in the middle before the show closed) a few minutes was all I could spare, sadly.

HARMAN INTERNATIONAL

JBL Synthesis speakers with the new JBL electronics range.

HARMAN INTERNATIONAL

The new ARCAM Radia series electronics (very keen pricing) paired with Revel speakers.

REFINED AUDIO

Cube Audio Mini Nenuphar speakers with Pass Labs, including Nelson Pass’ new First Watt SIT- 4 10-watt solid state amp, and Silversmith Audio. I love Cube speakers and, whilst I don’t think I could live with widebanders permanently, there is something about them that captivates me every time I get to sit in front of a pair.

Floor 6

VINYL SOUNDS

Vinyl Sounds brought Wharfedale Elysian 4 floorstanders, paired with HiFi Rose’s opinion dividing RA180 Reference integrated amp and HiFi Rose RS150B Reference streamer, MoFi Masterdeck turntable with the Master Phono and UltraGold cartridge, HiFi Racks rack and IsoTek power conditioning. A real world system that sounded good in this smaller room, but would cope with a bigger one.

HSU RESEARCH

Dr Hsu is all about the bass with his subwoofer systems, focused on engineering and giving customers great VFM.

LINN

Linn is a completely professional outfit when it comes to shows, and it shows. Their rooms are always well set up, sound great, and are run by friendly, engaged and welcoming people…who know their stuff. You could ask the ins and outs of the latest DAC or PSU upgrades from Linn and get a helpful and interesting answer from any of the team. However, they don’t bore you with tech, you will be made an honorary Scot and get to listen to some really great music that you probably wouldn’t hear elsewhere.

The Linn system for AXPONA 2024 was the Klimax DSM ref streamer/pre/DAC, the new Klimaw Solo 800 monoblocks, Linn 360 speakers (passive with active bass model), and the Linn Sondek LP12-50 50th anniversary limited edition with Radikal PSU. The LP12 is the one designed with Jony Ive.

MACO

The next room was one I (Lin) had been looking forward to since I ran the news about the loudspeaker brand MACO and their new Macaria speakers, (you can find out more here).

I was not disappointed, this was one of my favourite rooms of the show, for both the sound and the set up of the room, it was really well done. The combination of the open baffle MACO Macaria speakers with the Trafomatic EOS+ amp and Lara pre was just beautiful, I sat and listened to ‘Lost without you’ by Freya Ridings, a gorgeous song which really left me quite emotional, true musical connection, which is really what we all got into this for, isn’t it?

The MACO Macaria system also included Viablue cabling, Grimm Audio MU2 source and Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC (a popular digital combo at this show), Keces power treatment, Melyn Labs rack and Tonnen Sound room treatment.

Deborah Anne also gets a mention for the best disco boots of the show!

JAMIE AUDIO

A nice sounding room, the full system appeared to be Jamie Audio, who seem to be a pretty new brand.

HEGEL

Hegel were using Clarisys speakers like last year, and it is a great combination. Hegel were showing the H600 reference integrated amplifier and Viking Cd player, which we had a sneak peek at last time at AXPONA. Distributed in the UK by Auden Distribution (Bill from Auden was at the show) Hegel seems to be proving a very popular brand everywhere they are represented.

MARTIN LOGAN

I (Lin) walked in hear thinking ‘AV room’ and then realised no screen, and they were playing Daft Punk (Touch, from RAM). The room featued Martin Logan’s Motion XT range and in association with Ascend AV, they had set up a 7.2.2 Dolby Atmos room. It was a fantastic experience of full immersion in music. Great sounding and non of that ‘biggest suuuuuubs in the wooooorld’ thing you often get in AV type set ups. Interestingly, Martin Logan are distributed in the UK by PMC speakers who are at the forefront of Dolby Atmos for music.

THE SOUND ORGANISATION

The Sound Organisation are known for distributing mainly British HiFi brands in the USA. In this room they had Chord Electronics, Chord Company cables, ProAc and Rega.

This lovely little system, perfect for the room, featured the reference Rega NAIA Turntable, Reference Aura MC Phono Stage. Chord Electronics ULTIMA Integrated Amp, and ProAc Tablette Ten Signature speakers. Plus Chord Co EpicX cables and GroundARAY and PowerARAY products.

RHYTHM DISTRIBUTION

Goldmund of Switzerland in this room with the active and wireless speaker system, Asteria. Obviously very expensive, but a very nice minimal system. Over $122k with the Lumin streamer, Goldmund HUB, and power conditioning, so not crazy when you consider it’s a full system for that.

RHYTHM DISTRIBUTION

Garrard, Tannoy, and Goldmund in this room. A Garrard 301 Advanced TT with SME Series 5 arm, Ortofon MC Series Diamond cartridge, and Golmund Mimesis PH3.8 NEXTGEN phonstage. Goldmund Telos 690 amp, making its debut with Tannoy Stirling III LX SE speakers and SuperTweeter GR. Lumin and AudioQuest are also in the system which came in over $180k.

DEVORE FIDELITY

Always lovely to see John DeVore, we had all spent plenty of time catching up and enjoying that other hobby that is popular with audiophiles, watches, at the annual watch club AXPONA meet-up. In his room he was showcasing the new Orangutan Bronze, which is an incredibly beautiful speaker. We listened to old 78s from the 1940s and had a very chilled-out ‘non audiophile ‘ time.

The O/Bronze spezkers (standard edition finish, the version here was a special anniversary edition) will be $30,000. The system also featured an EMT turntable and amplification from Mola Mola and Komuro Amplifier Company.

AURENDER

Aurender were showing their AP20 all-in-one music server with Wilson Sabrina X speakers and Shunyata cables. Nice, simple and sounded great.

TONE IMPORTS

A fab sounding system in here with Revival Audio Atalante speakers, Sugden, Dynavector, and Leben. Wired with Tellurium Q Ultra Black II and Black Diamond cables.

STEREO HAVEN

Nice sounding simple system with JMR speakers, Well Tempered Labs turntable, and Lejonklou amp and phonostage.

STUDIO ELECTRIC

Studio Electric speakers with Benchmark electronics.

TRIANGLE ART

Mad turntables in a bling finish….this room looked incredible!

Floor 5

ANTI CABLES

Atma-Sphere amps, Clayton Shaw Acoustic labs speakers (this model are $3,000 a pair) LTA DAC, Innuos Zen MkIII server, Anti Cables cables.

PARTS EXPRESS AND DAYTON AUDIO

AMG AND AESTHETIX

A selection of very nice looking AMG turntables, Benz cartridges, Aesthetix amplification, Vandersteen speakers and Cardas cables made this a really lovely sounding room.

CAMBRIDGE AUDIO

A very cool room and simple system from Cambridge Audio, showcasing the new $1199 Cambridge Audio CXA81 Mk II Integrated Stereo Amplifier.

ROTEL, MAGNEPAN AND REL

The three brands worked well together in this room.

AMPANDSOUND , AURALIC, SME

CINETEC

Cinetec were showcasing the new Alta Audio speakers and centre channel, with Arcam.

CINETEC

Modwright Instrument’s KW99 amplifiers, plus the rest of the electronics in this Cinetec system, with Alta Audio and Clarus. Daniel at Modwright knows a thing or two about amplifier design and these Alta Audio speakers are a very nice pairing.

SB ACOUSTICS

The speakers pictured, SB Acoustics Gema, come as a kit for $2,000…pretty impressive sound.

MADISOUND

More for the DIY fans.

DARTZEEL AND LAUFER TEKNIK

The crazy Note speakers in this room, that I heard last year, still sounding fantastic, a fun room to mess with your mind.

FERN & ROBY

All in the details with Fern & Roby, Weiss Engineering, and Black Cat Cable. The new Fern & Roby AMP No2 amplifier is a thing of beauty with its wood finish and aged brass accents. Check out that lovely remote too. Gorgeous gear and lovely sound. Weiss Helios DAC is also new.

CREATIVE SOUND SOLUTIONS

Nice Orchard Audio system in this room.

WOLF VON LANGA

Wolf Von Langa London speakers ($65k) with Zeiler Audio and TW Akustik turntable.

VPE ELECTRODYNAMICS, SCHIIT, MAGNA RISERS

Floor 4

VANATOO

FIDELIS DISTRIBUTION

Harbeth paired with LAB 12 Electronics, Pure Fidelity Turntable, and ArgentPur cables. A very nice system, but then we have been fans of Greek brand Lab 12 for years.

FIDELIS DISTRIBUTION

JMF Audio electronics with Stenheim speakers (becoming a very popular speaker to use at shows here) and Ideon Audio. The Stenheim Alunine ($34K) speakers are exceptional in our opinion and having spoken to their US distributor (Walter at Nexus) it seems they are proving popular with music lovers in the States.

INFIGO AUDIO AND ALTA AUDIO

Both distributed by Nexus, Alta and Infigo pair together very nicely. At AXPONA 2024 they were presenting the Infigo Method 7 Pre-amplifier, Method 3 Mono-blocks, and Method 4 DAC, alongside the new Alta Audio Aphrodite speakers ….a very easy to listen to system that I would have loved to have stopped for longer.

ELECTROCOMPANIET & TRIANGLE

Electrocompaniet electronics with the Anniversary Magellan line of speakers from French brand Triangle is a really nice match, both sonically and visually. The full Electrocompaniet system featured the new and more compact Electrocompaniet mono block option, the AW 300M…read more about them here.

A really enjoyable sound, Lasse from Electrocompaniet gave a listen to both the standmount Triangles and the floorstanders.

MSB TECHNOLOGY

A whole lot of MSB 500 series electronics, worked well with Magico speakers.

BEL CANTO

A fab sounding system with Bel Canto Black System ($60,000 for the full set) and YG Acoustics Ascent from their Peaks series, plus that Pure Fidelity turntable again. Cardas cables and power products.

ARETAI

A lovely comb in here of the Aretai speakers with C.A.T. amps, worked with the room.

AUDIO BY VAN ALSTINE & PHILHARMONIC AUDIO

ODYSSEY, GRAHAM ENGINEERING

There was some optical cartridge wrangling going on in here and no music….candles were a bit sneeze inducing too.

MONARCH SYSTEMS

A very cool racetrack theme from the Monarch Team, made the room super fun and welcoming. The Monarch brands were well represented with Audio Physic, B.audio, Siltech, and Franc Audio Accessories. Sounded really good and a strong contender for the best-dressed room of the show!

PRO AUDIO LTD

Nice system featuring the AAD Tape Machine playing the latest Horch House tapes.

ZESTO AUDIO

Tubetastic system from Zesto with Tidal speakers.

AMPED

YG ACOUSTICS

This was lovely, YG Acoustics Carmel 3 with Ayre Acoustics electronics, including the Ayr MX-R 20 monoblocks.

Floor 3

MAGNEPAN & ROGUE AUDIO

TOTEM

Great little speakers from Totem, the new Loon, with Vince proudly showing them off. Read more about them here.

HANIWA

SOTA TURNTABLES

KEF Reference 3, Doshi amps, Cardas cables, REL and fantastic to see the new Alphason tonearm over in the states!

DANVILLE SIGNAL PROCESSING

MOFI

Nice system with the new Andrew Jones MoFi Source¨Point 888 floorstanders.

ATOHM & ATOLL

French loudspeaker and electronics brands who are often found together at shows.

ELITE AV DISTRIBUTION

Kuzma, L’Art du Son, Plinius and Manley Labs.

FALCON ACOUSTICS

Always fab to see Jerry and Graeme of the UK’s Falon. Of particular note were the lovely special edition LS3/5a monitors, with a stunning finish and their own Italian leather suitcase.

STEINWAY LYNGDORF

The fabulous Lyngdorf CUE 100 speakers, always sound fantastic.

GLENN POOR AUDIO

And that’s a wrap, hope you enjoyed our AXPONA 2024 coverage!

If you haven’t read the rest of our coverage then you can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here…

Linette and Stuart Smith

AXPONA 2025

AXPONA 2025 will take place at the same location, April 11th to 13th 2025…see you at the show!

Click here for all of our AXPONA 2024 Coverage!