On July 2, major US audio distributor AXISS Audio filed a federal lawsuit against Michael Bovaird and his businesses (Suncoast Audio, Luxury Hi-Fi Distribution, and Clarisys Audio), Michael Gefteas, aka The Greek Audio Geek, and his business (Bespoke Audio), and Florian Wiegand, part owner of Clarisys Audio.
In a legal notice to the Hi-Fi Community, posted on its website, AXISS owner Cliff Duffey writes, "After very careful consideration over the past several months, we made the difficult decision to file a federal lawsuit." AXISS maintains that several claims made by the defendants are false; it denies that it "chose to not provide a refund to a certain Soulution customer who had asked for a refund. This customer had purchased their products from Michael Bovaird at Suncoast Audio and not AXISS. It was Bovaird's Suncoast Audio business who decided when and how much to refund to their customer, not AXISS Audio."
AXISS also rejects statements that "a Soulution 717 blew up and caused physical injuries to this customer, and that "this customer’s Soulution 717 destroyed his Rockport Lyra speakers. … Although this customer's speakers did have tweeter damage, AXISS Audio and Soulution extensively tested this customer's 727 preamp and 717 power amp. This testing included over 50 consecutive hours of play on AXISS's own pair of Rockport Lyra speakers, during which no faults could be found.
"These defamatory statements and more have unfortunately caused significant damages to AXISS Audio, Soulution, and to our other brands, which is why we felt we had no other option but to pursue legal action. We hope everyone can understand that AXISS Audio and our brands cannot speak further about the details in our case and that we must let the legal process play out. When we can provide updates, we will post them here. We appreciate all of your understanding for why we are now pursuing this legal process in order to restore our reputation and make sure that these damaging attacks do not continue to happen."
The full text of the "very detailed" 48-page public filing, which includes a large number of exhibits, may be found here. Among the exhibits are AXISS Audio's distribution agreement with Soulution, their dealer agreement with Suncoast Audio, and related social media and forum postings and exchanges by the "The Greek Audio Geek – Audiophile Adventures," AXISS Audio, and numerous audiophiles.
AXISS Audio distributes Accuphase, Soulution, Absolare, Gauder Akustik, Franco Serblin, Reed, Transrotor, Koetsu, Shelter, Tara Labs, Nihon Onkyo Engineering, TAOC, Yuki, Phasemation, Glanz, and Telos. For more information, see axissaudio.com.
