7th Heaven Unplugged: Where AXPONA 2025's Audio Dreams Soar!
Immersing yourself in the magic of music at a high-end audiophile event.
Audio Expo North America (AXPONA) 2025 Show Report By Rick Becker 

716  Nordost Demo Room, Holm Audio, Electrocompaniet, Triangle, Lumin, And Salamander Designs
Holm Audio, a retailer in Woodridge, Illinois, a little southwest of Chicago, teamed up with American manufacturer Nordost to host a cable demonstration. I've praised such efforts at nearly every show as a place where non-believers can come and be enlightened about the differences cables can make. Apparently, they were swapping power cords in this demo. Having compared power cords from $6k to $10k, I didn't need to stick around to be convinced, but if you're new and on the steep slope of the learning curve, I hope you stopped in.

719  Sonner Audio, Holm Audio, Audion Tube Audio, Atlas Cables, And Ayre Acoustics
Sonner Audio and Holm Audio teamed up with some others to present a moderately priced fine-sounding system. The equipment and prices are shown below.

Sonner Legato Duo floorstanding high-end audio loudspeaker ($10k).

The Audion Black Shadow 2, Mk II ($13.5k), from Sonner, puts out 25 Watts each with an 845 single-ended triode tube.

720  Source Systems Ltd., Fidata by I-O Device Japan, Leema-Acoustics, Lumin, M2Tech Audio, Soundgenic, And I.O Data Device
A Marten Parker Trio, Diamond Edition, from Sweden, was paired with a Lumin system from Hong Kong. From the top down were a T3X Streamer, Renderer, DAC ($6600), an L2 dual-drive music server with a four-port audiophile-grade network switch ($5400), and an Amp ($16,800) which puts out 160 Watts per channel (Wpc) @ 8 Ohms, 320 Wpc @ 4 Ohms, in Class AB. The amp is said to work exceedingly well driven directly by the DAC, as shown here.

The Diamond Edition upgrade of the Marten Parker 3 includes a diamond tweeter replacing the standard Accuton ceramic one, upgraded Jorma wiring inside, and upgraded components in the crossover. The gloss finish, fine veneer, and polished footers are superb. The speaker is around $40k, I believe.

Here are some other Lumin front-end digital prices from Source Systems, the importer and distributor.

The Anniversary Edition of the Tucana II integrated amp from Leema-Acoustics in Wales, United Kingdom, was on display elsewhere and had a very distinctive design. It is a dual monobloc design with an isolated preamp stage and puts out 150 Wpc into 8 Ohms. Quite unusual, it features independent input gain control in addition to a remote control. It's priced at $7740. The standard version is $6200.

The price list shows numerous interesting components, including a CD player and a Preamp/DAC, among several amps.

723  Lumin
Lumin had another room that must have featured products from this Hong Kong-based company on silent display, as I have no photo.

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