THE HiFi PiG AXPONA 2025 REPORT PART 1

This year, Oscar and Kelly headed over to Chicago, USA for North America’s largest HiFi Show, AXPONA 2025, here is part 1 of their report.

Well, here goes my first ever AXPONA – and after a slight airline setback we made it to the Renaissance Schaumburg convention centre hotel on the Friday night to catch the two main days of the show. With over 200 rooms, we covered as much as humanly possible to bring you this report – a huge thank you to all the organisers and exhibitors for putting on a brilliant show.

A big thank you to the show sponsor Electrocompaniet who were featured in two excellent rooms. As you can imagine there is a whole lot to cover at this show so this report mostly features a description of the kit in the rooms with photos and a couple of words on the sound of some of the stand out rooms.

Please note, all content and photos are the copyright of HiFi PiG Magazine/Big Pig Media LLP and must not be copied or reproduced in any way without the prior, written consent of the editor.

FLOOR 1

Quintessence

Quintessence distribution had a few rooms on the ground floor, they had some static displays outside the rooms with kit from Dynaudio, Fyne, Dan D’Agostino, Clearaudio, Sonus Faber and Boulder.

In their first room they had the Wilson Audio WATT/Puppy speakers, Boulder 1110 pre-amp, 1108 phono pre-amp, brand new 1151 power amps, a Clearaudio Referent Jubilee turntable with HANA Umami red cartridge, DCS Rossini Apex streaming DAC, Innuos Zen NG with Phoenix Net server and Transparent Reference cabling.

In their second room they had the Sonus Faber Stradivari speakers paired with Audio Research Ref 330 mono blocks, Ref 10 phono pre-amp and Ref 10 pre-amp, a Clearaudio Master Jubilee turntable with Unity tonearm (which is new) with Goldfinger statement cartridge as well as a universal 9” tonearm with DS Audio Grand Master EX Cartridge with TB-100 tube equalizer, DCS Vivaldi Apex streaming DAC, Vivaldi Clock and Vivaldi up-sampler, Innuos Zenith and Phoenix formed part of the system too and Kubala Sosna cabling was used throughout along with Critical Mass isolation products.

In their third room they had the Wilson Audio Chronosonic XVX speakers, Dan D’Agostino Relentless pre-amp, Momentum HD phono and Relentless M800 mono bocks, a Clearaudio Statement turntable with Diamond Jubilee MC cartridge (which is new), DCS Vivaldi Apex DAC, Vivaldi Clock and Vivaldi up-sampler, Innuos Statement NG with PhoenixNet and Transparent Opus and XL cabling.

Axiss

Axiss had a few rooms throughout the show, outside of their suite on the ground floor they had an Accuphase setup on display alongside a few pairs of speakers from the likes of Franco Serblin, Gauder Akustik and more. Inside the suite you had a few world debut products, including the Yuliseimitsu AP-01EM turntable, Accuphase C-57 phono stage and Accuphase E3000. They were using Gauder Elargo loudspeakers in this room with a full Accuphase complement including 2 x A-300 mono blocks, C-3900 pre-amp, DG-68 digital room correction, DP-770 SACD/CD/DAC/Streamer, they were using a Glans MH-1000S tonearm on the turntable with a Shelter Harmony Panzerholz MC cartridge and cabling was TARA Labs throughout.

Saturday Audio

Saturday Audio had a range of Monitor Audio products with them, they had two main demo systems, one with the Studio 89 speakers, the other with the Hyphn. The Studio 89 speakers were paired with a Monitor Audio Anthra sub, McIntosh MA352 integrated amplifier, BlueSound Node Icon streamer and AudioQuest 707 mains conditioner. The Hyphn system had a McIntosh C55 pre-amp, MC1.25KW mono blocks, MDA200 DAC, a BlueSound Node Icon streamer was being used and they had the AudioQuest Niagara 5000 mains conditioner too.

They also had a couple of tables with products they were selling from various brands and another room which had the new GoldenEar T44 speakers, new McIntosh MSA5500 streaming amplifier, new MCD350 SACD/CD player, Lumin U2 transport/streamer and Niagara 5000 power conditioner.

PS Audio

PS Audio are a well-known US audio company with a huge following for the brand and founder and CEO Paul McGowan. At AXPONA 2025 they had quite a large space with a demo system alongside multiple products on static display around the edges of the suite. The big news was the launch of their new PMG Signature series of electronics. The demo setup consisted of the AirLens streamer, PMG signature transport, PMG signature PureStream DAC, PMG signature Preamplifier, BHK signature 600 mono amplifiers, P20 PowerPlant, AudioQuest Suite cabling and the Aspen range of speakers including the FR30, FR20, FR10 and FR5.

Mofi

MoFi had a suite on the floor for their distribution side of the business, they had a load of components and accessories around the room including the Little Fwend tonearm lifters, Quad 33/303 combo, Pass amplifiers, HiFi Rose streamers and DAC, MoFi speakers, plenty of vinyl on the wall, Piega speakers, Thales turntables and much, much more.

Rutherford Audio

In this room Rutherford Audio had Vertere, Acoustic Solutions and Stratton Acoustics products. Mike from Vertere was showing off their latest turntable – the Vertere DG X, with a pair of the brand-new Stratton Acoustics Element 8 speakers. Vertere also had their Calon phono stage and a table showing some cartridges and tonearms. There were some Acoustic solutions turntables in this room with the Stratton Acoustics Element 12 speakers. The focus though, for Stratton Acoustics, was their new Element 8 and Element 6 models, these have 8” and 6” mid-bass drivers respectively and are incredibly well made with solid aluminium front panels and a dense cabinet. More details on these here and let me just say that they sounded incredible from the short demo I heard.

Luxury Audio Group

Luxury Audio Group had a huge room with an impressive kit list, totalling more than $1.4m worth of audio equipment. They had the huge Estelon Extreme MKII speakers, Vitus Audio Signature Line Stage SL-103, Vitus Signature Amp SM-103 (bi-amped), Vitus Signature DAC SD-025, Taiko Olympus Music streamer/server, Sonorus reel-to-reel, Audio Realignment EMI absorbing devices, NEOHighend Audio rack / amp stands / CeraDisc isolation feet, Ekustik Bass Traps and diffusers and finally Crystal Cable Art Series DaVinci Audio and Infinity power cables to finish off this mad setup. As you might expect, this system had huge scale, effortless sound and brilliant realism.

Dali / Bluesound

Dali and BlueSound had a room together, with a small “café” outside the room showing off the BlueSound range with the Dali range of headphones. In the room you had two setups, one with a Roksan streaming amplier and a pair of PSB speakers with sub, the other had the Dali Epikore 9 on display with the Kore speakers playing with a full McIntosh complement and BlueSound Node. This included the DS200 streaming DAC, MPC1500 power controller, MC2.1KW output modules.

Car audio

There was a car-audio section on the ground floor which had some very impressive looking systems.

Stenheim / Nordost

In this room you had the impressive Stenhiem Reference Ultime Two SX speakers, bi-amped with 2 x VTL amplifiers per speaker. There were Nordost cables throughout the system with a Kuzma turntable, VTL phono-preamp, pre-amp and power supply, and DCS streaming/DAC/up-scaler.

T+A

German HiFi brand T+A had a huge range of products on display around their room, the demo system consisted of their Solitaire S 540 speakers powered by a pair of M 40 HV mono blocks.

Upscale Audio

Upscale audio had a big space with plenty of interesting products around their room, from Fyne audio, Technics, T&A, PrimaLuna, VPI, Pathos and more. Their demo system had a pair of the new Fyne Audio F704SP speakers paired with a pair of Pathos Adrenaline mono blocks, Pathos pre-amp, Grimm MU2 streamer, AudioQuest Niagara mains conditioner, Reed Muse 3C turntable and a SolidSteel rack.

Expo Hall

Lots of bits in the expo hall, from records to isolation products, speakers, and cables. You could spend a morning browsing around in here alone!

Audio Technica

Audio Technica had a couple of rooms next to each other, the first one had a range of their headphones, the next three had their cartridge line-ups – allowing people to hear the steps up between the ranges.

FLOOR 2

CAT AND ACORA

CAT electronics had a multichannel system playing in their room. They had their SL1 Legend aSC pre-amp, The Statement HPA, a pair of JL7HPA mono blocks and a pair JL5HPA amplifiers, the main speakers were Acora VRC, with SRC 2’s as the rear, SRC 2 as the centre and a Bedrock sub. They were using an ESP power distribution block and power cables, alongside Black Path audio cables. Source wise they had an Audio Arrow Capitol Classic CD player, Lapizator Atlantic DAC, VPI HW40 turntable and Van Den Hul Crimson cartridge.

AudioShield

AudioShield had quite a few brands in their room including Kimber Kable, Credo, EMMLabs and Meitner. They had some static display models and a demo system using the Credo Cinema LTM speakers, Kuzma turntable with DS Audio cartridge, EMMLabs DS-EQ1 DS Audio phono stage, PRE pre-amp, DA2i streaming DAC, MTRX2 mono blocks and full Kimber Kabling throughout.

Joseph Audio, Doshi and J.Sikora

J.Sikora had their new Aspire turntable on display in this room, the main system consisted of the Joseph Audio Pearl Graphene Ultra speakers, Doshi EVOLUTION mono blocks, EVOLUTION pre-amp, EVOLUTION phono stage, J.Sikora Reference SE turntable with KV 12 MAX tonearm and Aidas Tru-Stone Violet limited edition cartridge, Berkeley Audio Design Alpha DAC Reference 3P and lastly the Berkeley Audio Design Alpha USB Reference – they were using Cardas cabling throughout. J.Sikora turntables are a true work of art and the Doshi kit sounds absolutely lovely, this was a very well put together room.

Rhythm

Luxman are celebrating their 100th anniversary, not many companies make it this far and they have released a limited edition 4-piece stack in Black for the occasion. This was on demo in the Prosperity room, it includes the Centennial editions of their L-509Z amplifier, PD-151 MKII turntable, NT-07 Streamer and D-07X SACD/DAC. These were running into a pair of Marten Parket Quintet Diamond speakers with Jorma Unity cabling.

Next Level HiFi

In this room from Next Level HiFi were Audio Group Denmark, and they had three brand new products to show off. This was the world premier of their new Borresen M2 speakers coming in at $190k per pair, much like their bigger siblings, these sounded superb with a detailed and punchy presentation. This sound was enhanced by the new Borresen “Bass Modules”, these are so new that they don’t have an official name yet. These feature 4 x opposing 8” drivers in each module and the modules are not called subwoofers by the company on purpose. These elevate the listening experience much more than by just adding sub-bass, and expect to see more on these very soon. Lastly, they had their new phono stage which I was lucky enough to see at the Oslo HiFi Show a few weeks back. The Aavik R-880 features a DS Audio optical input alongside your conventional MC and MM inputs, it also has a ton of built in features for tuning the cartridge to get the best out of whichever cartridge you have mounted on your turntable. Complementing the new products were the Aavik SD-880, C-880, P-880, a Linn LP12-50 with DS Master 3 optical cartridge, Ansuz D-TC3 gold signature ethernet switch, power distributor and Mainz power cables, Speakz speaker cable, Digitalz LAN ethernet cables, Signalz interconnects and phono cable, and Ansuz Z2 Darkz isolation feet.

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Acora And VAC

In the Euphoria room there was a static display just outside room with VAC electronics and Acora speakers on matching stands. Inside the suite they had more kit around the edges of the room on display, with a main system consisting of a SAT XD1 turntable with CF1-09 tonearm and Lyra Atlas Lambda cartridge, VAC Statement phono stage, Statement pre-amp and Statement 455 iQ amplifiers (world debut at the show). They were running the Acora VRC speakers and they also had an Aurender N 30 SA server and Esoteric N-01XD streaming DAC for digital playback – they were using Cardas Clear cables throughout with a Cardas Nautilus mains distribution block.

Legacy Audio

Legacy Audio have a new Premium White Pearl finish for select models of speakers, the Focus SE/XD and Signature SE/XD – this includes a high gloss finish with subtle pearl and metallic flake. They had a lot of models around the room, with a main demo system comprising of their flagship Valor speakers (which are part-active and include 2750w of power per side), a Legacy Audio i-V2 for the upper range (mid-high amplification), Wavelet 2 DAC / pre-amp / crossover with room correction, Ayon CD-07, Lumin streamer, and WireWorld cables throughout.

Next Level HiFi

In this demo room Next Level HiFi had an immersive home theatre system (7.4.4 setup) including the Utopia Cinema speakers (5 x LCR, 4 x subs), Focal 1000 IWLCR x 2, 1000 IWSUB x 2 , 1000 ICLR5 x 4 (atmos) Naim CI-NAP 101 amplifiers x 4, Focal Astral 16, Vicoustic room treatment and Apple TV / Blu-Ray as the source.

Headphone wise they had their brand new Bathys Mg alongside the regular Bathys, Azurys, Hadenys, Clear Mg, Stellia, Utopia 2022 and of course the Naim Uniti Atom Headphone edition.

They also had multiple Focal / Naim systems in this room on display, one consisted of the Sopra N1 speakers paired with the Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista Pre and Nu-Vista Pas. You had the Kanta N2, Naim NSC 222 pre-amp/streamer, NAP 250 power amp and NPX 300 power supply. Then there was the Focal Theva No3 with the Naim CI-Uniti 102. Lastly you had the Focal Littora bundle 4.1 paired with the Naim CI-Uniti 102.

Wynn Audio

Wynn Audio had some lovely products on static display from Thiele, Metronome, Fono Acustica, Kalista, Entreq and Karan. The main system used a Thiele TT-01 turntable, Vimberg Mino speakers, Metronome T/AQWO2 CD transport, C/AQWO2 DAC, Karan LINEa pre-amp, PHONOb phono stage, POWERa Mono blocks, Entreq Olympus Hero and cables from Fono Acustica.

Fidelity Imports

In this suite Fidelity Imports had a pair of Wilson Benesch Omnium speakers, with a pair of IGx infrasonic generators to complement them, these were paired with the Audiaflight Strumento No8 mono blocks, Strumento No1 Evo pre-amplifier and Wilson Benesch Prime Meridian system (Prime Meridian TT, OMEGA drive, ALPHA drive, GRAVITON Ti tonearm, TESSELLATE Ti cartridge and R1 carbon rack). Wilson Benesch kit sound brilliant, and this setup was no different, deep bass, clear mids and airy treble easily filled this large space.

Rhythm

In the Utopia Lounge you had the Goldmund Rhea active wireless speakers and Eidos streamer. This system had cabling from Swedish brand Jorma.

Supreme Acoustic Systems

Essentially part of the lobby, YG Acoustics / Soul Note had a huge setup consisting of the YG Acoustics XV 3 Signature speakers (a huge 4-tower system), 4 x Soul Note M3 mono blocks, Z-3 streamer, D-3 DAC, X-3 external clock, P-3 pre-amplifier and Bergman Modi turntable with Thor tonearm and Hana Umami Red cartridge. They were using Synergistic Research cabling and mains conditioning in this setup. Towards the end of the show on the Sunday, this system was playing at a higher volume and you could easily hear it throughout the whole lobby – hugely expensive and hugely impressive sound.

Audio Research

Audio Research also had a space in the main lobby with a pair of the Acora speakers, Aurender streamer, Audio Research LS-2 DAC and I/70 integrated amplifier.

Please note, all content and photos are the copyright of HiFi PiG Magazine/Big Pig Media LLP and must not be copied or reproduced in any way without the prior, written consent of the editor.

Stay tuned for our AXPONA 2025 Report Part 2, coming soon to HiFi PiG!

Oscar Stewart

Additional photography by Kelly Bowden