Audiophile Insights At AXPONA 2025 Sixth Floor
Exploring next-gen high-end audio technologies.
Audio Expo North America (AXPONA) 2025 Show Report By Rick Becker 

602  Alta Audio And ModWright
Alta Audio teamed up with ModWright here at the AXPONA 2025 audiophile showcase to put together this great room with more going on than first meets the eye. As I've said several times before, I really like the Alta speakers with the curved sides when finished in gloss black, and they did not disappoint here. I noticed the absence of spikes in favor of sound-absorbing pads from either Symposium Acoustic or AV Room Service, presumably.

The doublewide Solidsteel rack was filled with a confusing array of equipment here at AXPONA 2025 in Chicago. Below the blue Pure Fidelity turntable on the right was the ModWright LS 300 Reference tube balanced preamp. Below that was a ModWright power supply and a Pure Fidelity Conductor power supply for their turntable. On the bottom right was the ModWright tube Analog Bridge that fed the digital source signals up to the LS 300 preamp.

On the left side of the rack was a SOTA Nova VII ($7000 on up) turntable with an MM cartridge. Below that was the ModWright Reference PH 150 phono stage handling the signal from the blue Pure Fidelity turntable. Below that was a Lumin streamer feeding a Weiss 204 Hi-Res Audio DAC with a ModWright-modified power supply. The DAC was sitting on a couple of vibration-absorbing pads like the speakers. Below the Lumin were a couple of more power supplies.

Pure Fidelity seems to be in several rooms at almost every show I attend. This one, finished in a blue curly maple(?) top, was one I wanted to take home just for the finish alone. The turntable beside it was a SOTA Nova VII ($7000 on up), with an internal suspension system.

Here's a list of the Pure Fidelity prices with options. Premium finishes, like the one above, are $750.

ModWright's signature styling with an engraved logo is appealing, classy, and not overdone. This was the active premier of the KWA 300 stereo power amp, which delivers 300 Wpc @ 8 Ohms (550 Wpc @ 4 Ohms). I love the illuminated blue logo and the anodized blue heat sinks. Very nice.

603  True Source Audio Distribution, G.I.P. Laboratory, And Mactone
I've seen the G.I.P. Laboratory GIP 4165 speaker several times now. It's a replica of the Western Electric 4165 speaker from 1933 and uses a replica of the 4165 field coil full-range driver supplemented with a choice of G.I.P. tweeters to be suspended above and behind the woofer. The architecture is a little more complex when seen from the side. This high-efficiency speaker was originally designed to perform well in a 200-seat theater. A pair of them will work in an even larger room.

The rig here contained an AMG turntable and G.I.P. Laboratory preamp and monoblocks. They offer monoblocks based on 6L6 and 211 tubes. The rack is from Box Furniture Company and is one of a few I saw throughout the show. The lower shelves, at least, have enough clearance to store LPs vertically.

On the floor between the speakers was this DaaD, Diffusion Absorption Acoustic Devices column from Acoustica Applicata in Italy, a company specializing in such things for over 30 years.

The AMG turntable was fitted with an AMG arm and supplemented with a VIV Lab Rigid Float free-standing arm, which is available in 7", 9", and 13" lengths from Japan, both of which are distributed by Sierra Sound. The VIV arm can also be used as a primary arm mounted directly on a plinth.

612  DarTZeel America Inc.
I intentionally made this photo wide to show the diffusers and the ingenious support system to keep them vertical. Here was another room with Stenheim speakers, this one the more expensive Alumine Three. Also available in five finishes, this one was in light grey with a red horn on the tweeter and red base plate.

A Csport turntable with an air-bearing tonearm and granite base sat on top of the Massif wood rack.

The Massif rack had gloss-black round footers at the bottom—the first time I had seen that. The DarTZeel NHB 18NS preamplifier had an unusual feature. The large knob on the right was labeled "Pleasure" with "more" to the right and "less" to the left. Hmmm.

Below was the LHC-208 integrated amplifier, network player, and ultra-high-resolution DAC. On the bottom shelf was the  NHB-108 model two stereo power amp putting out 150 Wpc into 8 Ohms and 225 Wpc into 4 Ohms. Coming from Switzerland, the DarTZeel gear is exclusive.

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