AXPONA 2025

The PS Audio room on the ground floor drew a full house for Paul McGowan’s much-publicized “The Great Reveal.” No music was played during the 20-minute presentation, but McGowan, PS Audio’s founder and resident raconteur, easily kept the crowd engaged.

Arturo Manzano, long a fan of Koetsu phono cartridges, has reassembled Koetsu’s original team of artisans to return the legendary brand to the international market.

At an early-morning breakfast, Michael Børresen, co-founder and chief designer of Audio Group Denmark, unveiled the Børresen M2 loudspeakers ($190,000/pair) and their companion Bass Modules (price to be announced). Also shown for the first time in North America was the Aavik R-880 phono preamplifier ($70,000), designed to work with DS Audio optical cartridges. The R-880 enables users to adjust high cut, low cut, and absolute phase on the fly.

High Water Sound’s Jeffrey Catalano could give a master class in room setup. A veteran of hundreds of audio shows, he not only presents exceptional-sounding rooms but also curates adventurous vinyl selections. I invariably leave his room with music titles scribbled in my notebook, like recipes for marvelous dishes.

Fidelity Imports’ room 1221 featured electronics from Audia Flight and loudspeakers from Perlisten. Both brands are relatively new to the US market, though Perlisten has gained wider recognition more quickly.

The system consisted of an Audia Flight FLS1 preamplifier ($9999); two FLS8 monoblocks ($23,998/pair); Perlisten S7t SE floorstanding loudspeakers ($23,990/pair); and the new D8is subwoofer (price TBD). QED cables linked it all together.