Audio Thrills And Music Chills On AXPONA 2025's Second Floor
Let's continue the audiophile coverage with AXPONA part 10.
Audio Expo North America (AXPONA) 2025 Show Report By Rick Becker 

Utopia C  Wynn Audio, Critical Mass Systems, Entreq, Fono Acustica, Kalista, Karan Acoustics, Metronome, Thiele, And Vimberg
I had just seen Wynn Wong at the Montreal show two weeks earlier and praised his room highly. He is one of the few North American exhibitors who strive to reach the high standards of presentation at the High End show in Munich and shows in the Far East. His room here was no less impressive, although with less competition in Canada, he typically displays two distinct systems in his room. At AXPONA 2025, companies like Audio Group Denmark and Vinnie Rossi, which he sells in Canada, have their own rooms.

The Metronome line from France has been very highly regarded for its digital products, and they have evolved even higher with its Kalista brand, which stands at the pinnacle of industrial design. Seen here were the top Metronome series, Digital Sharing.

Behind the kiosks was a large space devoted to a single rig displaying the typical outstanding sound quality heard in Wynn rooms.Vimberg speakers, the more affordable brand from Tidal in Germany, in formal piano gloss black, were driven by Karan amplifiers. Karan is a relatively new brand in North America, but the Serbian company is now 39 years old with global distribution in Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific. Wynn frequently shows it at the Montreal and Canadian shows, where it typically receives Best Rooms recognition.

Digital sourcing was from Metronome, and the piece on the top right tall rack was sitting on a new vibration, RFI, and grounding platform from Entreq in their customary wood chassis. Entreq is the Swedish company that was among the first to develop products specifically for grounding audio components and systems.

The purple Critical Mass Systems racks and amp stands Wynn has used for several years now have become one of his signature products.

On the left-hand tall rack was a Thiele turntable from Germany with their unique Zero tracking error tonearm with a carbon fiber arm. The two round knobs at the front corners combine with a third knob at the back center to form a triangle of adjustable feet. The cartridge was an Ortofon MC Verismo ($7k). The Thiele DW01 record weight also looks highly engineered.

In the photo of the entire rig, you can see that the TT01 turntable is sitting on the new ADB01 active damping base, also from Thiele. It was developed in conjunction with Seismion, another German company that specializes in vibration-absorbing platforms. Priced in the neighborhood of 16.5k Euros, it is destined for analog rigs with a relatively modest footprint that use expensive cartridges. An early review of the prototype was very positive. Stylistically, it matches the TT01 turntable as was seen at the show. I sense that it will likely take an expensive turntable to the level of a much larger and much more expensive turntable, so the cost may actually represent a very high value.

fonoartistica is an esoteric cable company that will appeal to people in the ultra-luxury category. The interconnects feature intricately cast housings, and the Grandioso speaker cables used here feature conductors with an alloy of gold and silver in addition to whatever is concealed inside the gorgeous wood block. The cable riser is also nicely done.

Utopia D  Fidelity Imports, Wilson Benesch, And Audia Flight
Fidelity Imports hosted nine rooms up on the 12th Floor of the hotel, but they brought out the big guns in Utopia D with a rig full of Audia Flight gear from Italy supplemented with a digital front end from Esoteric to drive Wilson Benesch Omnium speakers. Wilson Benesch, from the UK, was a pioneer in developing speakers with carbon fiber cabinets and using drivers mounted in reverse.

Wilson Benesch developed the uniquely designed Full Circle turntable with a carbon fiber tonearm back in the 1990s, and it was reviewed as recently as 2015, but it has faded away. They were back at Axpona with the GMT One turntable, with a very sophisticated, state-of-the-art design to quell vibrations. A window in the front lets you peer into the inner workings, and the GMT Alpha Drive sits beneath the table within the dedicated stand.

The platter was a two-level design with the clear portion being about 12” in diameter and the lower portion, loaded with cylindrical metal weights, being substantially wider and incorporating elements of the drive system. The technology involved here is all cutting-edge, coming out of a consortium in a high-tech zone in Sheffield, England, that is also home to McLaren Automotive and Rolls-Royce. If you are interested, prepare to spend some time on their website. I hesitate to even think about what this might cost or its relevance to the survival of our species. A product review would likely require the equivalent of a university graduate school course.

I've seen one of these dressed with polished brass covers on the exposed motors that made it a little more elegant, but they also have some models with a more conventional design. Wilson Benesch is a company that seems solely focused on developing new technologies, and much of their support comes from public funding.

It would have been interesting if Fidelity Imports had brought in the Wilson Benesch IGx Infrasonic Generator from Wilson Benesch, a subwoofer that develops ultra-low vibrations down to 12Hz, at -3dB. Maybe next year.

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