AXPONA 2025: Inside the 4th-Floor Sonic Playground
Gear, great grooves, and perhaps some juicy gossip too!
Audio Expo North America (AXPONA) 2025 Show Report By Rick Becker 

488  IsoAcoustics
IsoAcoustics has been an aggressive marketer and educator at every show I've covered in recent years. They typically set up identical pairs of speakers, one of which is equipped with their hugely successful vibration-absorbing GAIA footers. The other is typically equipped with conventional spike feet. While I have personally found it quicker to pick up on the enhancement the GAIA provides when controlling the remote switch myself, I was lucky to catch the owner, Dave Morrison, at a slow moment on a Sunday when he handed me the remote. But, apparently, many others have found this demonstration convincing.

That they have developed an OEM division to work directly with other speaker and electronics manufacturers to supply them with custom footers is testimony to the success of their products. Marten and Gershman readily come to mind, and I've made an effort to point out other speaker manufacturers in my show reports who have taken this direction. It's been a significant trend in the industry, moving away from spikes toward adopting vibration-absorbing designs.

The big news from IsoAcoustics is the introduction of a new generation of footers, the GAIA Neo and GAIA Titan, that were announced at the High End Show in Munich, following Axpona. Like the originals, they will come in multiple sizes for different weights of speakers. They are expected to become available in late summer or early fall. This is something to keep an eye out for.

494  Antal Audio Group, Electrocompaniet, Soulines, And Triangle
I've seen Triangle speakers from France twice a year at the Canadian shows, but in the US, they are distributed by Antal Audio Group in Glens Falls, NY, north of Albany. In addition to Triangle loudspeakers, Antal distributes Electrocompaniet electronics from Norway, and Soulines turntables from Belgrade, Serbia.

The floorstanding speaker was the Magellan 40^th Anniversary model ($15k) in a rich wood veneer with a flawless piano gloss finish. The matching stand-mounted monitor was the Magellan Duetto 40th Anniversary model ($7,000).

The Electrocompaniet components in the rack are only available in the black finish.

Holm Audio in Woodridge, a western suburb of Chicago, carries both Triangle and Electrocompaniet.

The TT9 turntable with arm, without cartridge, was $5,300. It features the architecture of larger, more expensive turntables without the huge price tag.

The TT23 turntable with arm, without cartridge, was $6,850 and features a thicker platter. Both tables have complex footers that seem to be designed to absorb vibrations.

The Dynavector TeKaitora low-output MC cartridge is two down from the top of their line. It features a boron cantilever with the Pathfinder (PF) line contact stylus as used with the higher-end Dynavector XV-1s and XX-2 moving coil cartridges.

This gives you a look at the models and prices of the Electrocompaniet gear.

Fourth Floor Done, Next Up...
That's it for the 4th Floor. The 3rd Floor will circle the Atrium again, and the 1st and 2nd Floors will feature the large exhibition rooms as well as the Ear Gear headphone room and the Expo Hall. I'll also stick my head into the Car Audio Showcase.

We have the Rochester International Jazz Festival starting Friday, June 20th (2025), if you're anywhere in the area. (I've seen people come in from as far away as Cleveland on motorcycles in the past.) I'll be racing from one venue to another, criss-crossing Jazz Street all nine days. And I'm looking forward to the Rickie Lee Jones concert, but I'll keep plugging away on this AXPONA 2025 report in the afternoons. So, keep coming back.

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