The 2025 Florida International Audio Expo

[MattHooper]

Back to the Florida show…

If somebody listens to the big colourful granite Acora loudspeakers, I’d be curious of their impressions.

 

[RayDunzl]

Early Fudruckers ground their own patties from sides of beef hanging in the butcher shop area of the restaurant.

 

[truckers_atlas]

Fidelity Imports had a Perlisten 2.2 setup with their flagship S7t towers, and 2 subs - I believe they're from their new R series - as the star of their room. Last year, the towers were by themselves in a traditional 2-channel setup while the subs were in the home theater room. Having real, deep bass is refreshing at a 2-channel show, and I had a laugh at something rattling in the room itself when the subwoofers were really singing. I did overhear Lars from Perlisten proudly championing Perlisten's commitment to science and technology as part of their design and engineering process.

I asked what happened to the home theater demo Perlisten had last year in partnership with home theater integrator Dreamedia, and Audioholics. Here's a video last year for an outline:

Something was said to the effect of not being invited back. I'll also note that Audioholics's coverage of the show has been more muted so far this year despite it being a very local show for Audioholics, and they held a meetup off-site in Tampa at a local dealer instead of at the show. I think it's a shame that something couldn't be worked out for that room to come back. That demo experience was popular, unique, and attracted a new, younger audience.

 

[spiritualgroundbeef]

Axxess had three rooms all next to each other at three price points. Their amps can get super expensive. Do you recall which of their rooms you preferred? My wife like the middle range room the best.

it was the room with Axxess L1 speakers which look like borresen from first glance

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Fidelity Imports had a Perlisten 2.2 setup with their flagship S7t towers, and 2 subs - I believe they're from their new R series - as the star of their room. Last year, the towers were by themselves in a traditional 2-channel setup while the subs were in the home theater room. Having real, deep bass is refreshing at a 2-channel show, and I had a laugh at something rattling in the room itself when the subwoofers were really singing. I did overhear Lars from Perlisten proudly championing Perlisten's commitment to science and technology as part of their design and engineering process.

View attachment 431133

I asked what happened to the home theater demo Perlisten had last year in partnership with home theater integrator Dreamedia, and Audioholics. Here's a video last year for an outline:

Something was said to the effect of not being invited back. I'll also note that Audioholics's coverage of the show has been more muted so far this year despite it being a very local show for Audioholics, and they held a meetup off-site in Tampa at a local dealer instead of at the show. I think it's a shame that something couldn't be worked out for that room to come back. That demo experience was popular, unique, and attracted a new, younger audience.:

where was this room ? i totally did not see or heard of it ?! was looking to listen to it per"say but totally escaped my scope

 

[truckers_atlas]

it was the room with Axxess L1 speakers which look like borresen from first glance

where was this room ? i totally did not see or heard of it ?! was looking to listen to it per"say but totally escaped my scope

Fidelity/Perlisten were in one of the conference rooms on the ground floor, tucked in the back right corner of the hotel from the lobby.

Supreme Acoustics Systems had an analog system with Western Electric tube amplifiers, vinyl, and the YG Acoustics XV 3 speakers. There was also a streaming component, replete with audiophile network equipment to really lift those veils, but that wasn't active when I was in the room.

This was easily the best analog setup I've ever heard. There was a good collection of jazz standards, e.g. Getz/Gilberto was in their stack of records. The jazz cut playing when I walked in the room sounded good, so I decided to see if there was anything for the heathens. Thankfully, Rumours by Fleetwood Mac appeared. The speakers sounded massive, and off-axis balance was great as I moved around the room to take pictures.

Someone working the room commented that they wished they had something with "more balls" to power the speakers. I might agree. The dynamics didn't match up to the Perlisten 2.2 system also in a conference room. The older audiophiles sitting in front thought the tube amps were the blow-away part of the system.

 

[beefkabob]

The speakers look massive for sure. How can they sound massive if they don't have dynamics/can't get loud?

 

[tomelex]

Why? The two nearest ones to us closed. The food was forgettable, but they had cheap ice cream at least.

I agree, decades ago their meat was top notch, for the last 15 years or so it is hardly any better than ordinary. Too bad, another place that sacrificed quality and raised prices. They don't seem to get it, if you need to charge 25 pennies more to provide the customer with the same quality meat, then do it. Otherwise the race to the bottom is indeed a loss of customers. Thank goodness for smaller niche companies these days, who know that providing quality allows for them to keep in business, as we will pay a bit more for true quality. I pretty much hate the mass food giants, their stuff is not palatable, makes for lots more home cooking. Even there, the commodities are so bland tasting, there is no way out, except travel to Europe where food still tastes good.

 

[tomelex]

Early Fudruckers ground their own patties from sides of beef hanging in the butcher shop area of the restaurant.

Sadly they went downhill several decades ago. I loved them when they had quality beef.

 

[MKR]

Some reports starting to roll in from Soundstage …

https://www.soundstageglobal.com/index.php/shows-events/florida-international-audio-expo-2025-tampa-usa/

 

[MattHooper]

Fidelity/Perlisten were in one of the conference rooms on the ground floor, tucked in the back right corner of the hotel from the lobby.

View attachment 431228

Supreme Acoustics Systems had an analog system with Western Electric tube amplifiers, vinyl, and the YG Acoustics XV 3 speakers. There was also a streaming component, replete with audiophile network equipment to really lift those veils, but that wasn't active when I was in the room.

View attachment 431229

This was easily the best analog setup I've ever heard. There was a good collection of jazz standards, e.g. Getz/Gilberto was in their stack of records. The jazz cut playing when I walked in the room sounded good, so I decided to see if there was anything for the heathens. Thankfully, Rumours by Fleetwood Mac appeared. The speakers sounded massive, and off-axis balance was great as I moved around the room to take pictures.

View attachment 431231

Someone working the room commented that they wished they had something with "more balls" to power the speakers. I might agree. The dynamics didn't match up to the Perlisten 2.2 system also in a conference room. The older audiophiles sitting in front thought the tube amps were the blow-away part of the system.

View attachment 431230


View attachment 431232

Good photos thanks for posting!

 

[truckers_atlas]

The speakers look massive for sure. How can they sound massive if they don't have dynamics/can't get loud?

While I don't disagree that the visual cues from the big boys could have colored my impression, I'd say the height and width of the soundstage are what accounted for that impression of the speakers sounding big.

 

[deitrick]

I attended on Sunday. I didn't stop at everything, but it was interesting. I felt that appearance was much more important to a product than its performance. If I saw cables or tube amps being pushed, I walked out of the room right away.

My main interest was SVS to see the new 17" subwoofer. Quite impressive. They were pushing their new towers more than the sub. The two gentleman there are the ones in their online videos. They were a fun bunch to talk with. Obviously very bass centric sound in that room. They took many requests from the audience so we got to hear lots of different types of music.

I stopped by to hear a set of Magnapan speakers. They sounded a bit better than I expected, but not as good as I had hoped.

Focal had a set of all-in-one speakers for about $40,000. They were, IMHO, the best speakers I had heard all day in clarity and detail reproduction. They had built-in DAC, amps, and streamer. They could be wireless, but that limited them to 24/96. Network cable upped it to 24/192.

 

[truckers_atlas]

I was curious about the Chesky Audio room, since a speaker that normal people can afford is a novelty in and of itself at an audio show. Chesky in this case is Lucca Chesky, the teenage son of audiophile luminary David Chesky. The speakers are $1,000 a pair, and are hand-built by Lucca himself in New York. Lucca came up with the design while interning with Edgar Choueiri, the designer of BACCH, at Princeton. The speakers were powered by Cambridge Audio electronics for a total cost of $3,300 all-in.

I was impressed by the speaker. Timbre and tonal balance was solid, and I didn't notice any colorations outside the stereo money seat. Imaging was really impressive on the drum fills for "Burning Down The House" by Talking Heads, which was loaded on the hard drive in addition to the selection of classical and jazz recordings. Maybe it's a bit light in the bass, but that could be a room problem, and hey, you can always add a subwoofer even if the current target market of 2-channel traditionalists won't do so.

Lucca was passionate and engaging to talk to, speaking about how good sound should be for everyone, not just for the rich. He was also the only person at the show to recognize the Vampire Weekend shirt I was wearing. I wish him the best in his future endeavors.

 

[orchardaudio]

Did anybody from here stop by my room (431)? I'd like some feedback. Thanks.

Here is what it looked like.

 

[JRR]

I recommend Synergistic Research for the full experience of what this industry has to offer.

 

[jeffbook]

I recommend Synergistic Research for the full experience of what this industry has to offer.

Interesting website. Lots of items that look like pure snake oil. Reviews by all the fabulous subjective reviewers. You can't get to see prices unless you supply them with all sorts of your personal information. However , I did find a dealer for them that will sell you:

Synergistic Research PURPLE Quantum Fuses.​

Only $199.95 ! Caveat Emptor.......

 

[JRR]

Wait until you meet the fabulous gentleman who runs/owns it. Ask him some questions about how it all works. It’s quite the experience.

 

[jeffbook]

Wait until you meet the fabulous gentleman who runs/owns it. Ask him some questions about how it all works. It’s quite the experience.

I am sure it is a real trip into La-La Land.

 

[Pabloaguas]

Back to the Florida show…

If somebody listens to the big colourful granite Acora loudspeakers, I’d be curious of their impressions.

Thanks for keeping us on point Matt.

Me and a friend flew in for just one day at the show. We only had 8 hours but we ended up in the Acora room twice. Once for their bookshelves, and once for the large towers. The host did let us pick a couple songs that we actually know that were not classic rock and I think I can speak for both us us in saying that there was big sound both from the little ones and big ones. Although we spent more time listening to the big ones. And the million dollars or so of the components pushing them. They were absolutely rock-solid and musical. There were no flaws that jumped out, other than they could have more sub bass 20-40hz range for the bass heads. They also had a slight lower treble upper mid glare- which could be noticed as this slight glare could be heard on every KT88 puch pull amplified room (except Gershman). It was nice that VAC was amplifying nearly every large room, then it really took the guesswork out of the amplification and let the speakers show their colors. I would say that Acora was probably the best of the million-dollar club rooms. Many were talking about it outside of the room was well. So, yeah lots of positive impressions. I think the only speakers that bested them were the much more affordable Gershmans. They just seemed to do everything right including sub bass and no glare whatsoever (also powered by the VACs.) The Acoras were just gorgeous tho.

If you are in the million-dollar club you might want to check out the top Vivids, but they were not at all at the show.

The other stand out from the show were the Popori electristatics they seemed to do everything well. We felt that the Clarisys were monumental and smooth, but lacked bass.

I was also really enjoying the Tobian room- probably because it was powered by SET 300b Western Electric Tubes. It made me want to sit and listen to the muic. But ultimately did not sound good with all music (as one would expect from 300b). The YG room with the massive Western electric amps boasted 32x 300B in push-pull configuration and those amps probably bested VAC, but ultimately the Gershman, Acora, Popori and Tobian rooms sounded best to me.

Audio note was the most disappointing. Not at all wanting to start another attack on them here at ASR. I have their speakers at my house and I love them and they always best any speakers that my friends can bring over. That bing said, the audio note amps/preamps/dacs are extremely outdated. With all the other rooms boasting massive banks of large output tubes, the smaller old-school tube amps that they make just are out dated EL34, EL84, - no one else is using them anymore (at the show). Same with the dacs. And also very tacky that their salesman stalked us from room to room and tried to befriend us and start a sales conversation. Super tacky tactics. Kind of embarrassing actually, as I consider my self an Audio Note ally. Anyways, my audio note speakers at home are fantastic and have stood the test of time, (unlike their other components.) I was expecting more from them. *Please don't start roasting them on this thread lets keep it to our reviews of the audio show.

I also thought that the Estelons were weak. There seemed to be no coherance from the bottom end to top. No smoothness and no soundstage. Flabby bass. Change my mind.

Really after all of that, at the end of the day, we spent our last hour with the Gershmans and VAC. -- Zero flaws with this system. Just top to bottom musicality and soundstage. (except the beautiful MDF grilles that must be removed while listening lol) Otherwise, Gershmans were flawless. Unless you consider MDF/HDF a flaw. The sound was best tho.

Back to the Acoras. They are solid countertop material. Which can crack and break. They appear to be glued together. Maybe they have internal structure/bracing. But it would seem like one household move and the movers could easily break them.

 

[Kblade]

All the people under 40 at this show are in the headphone rooms. There's a comfort people that younger people have with headphones that they don't have with speakers. See all the people who chase soundstage and dynamics in headphones when they'd be better served by a 2.1 setup that costs less than their kilobuck headphones.

Most importantly, it's a lot easier to listen to the music that one knows and likes in the headphone rooms instead of being forced to listen to Audiophile Music. I can imagine some younger people feeling intimidated trying to ask the person for requests. It's comparably trivial to use the provided devices which are hooked up to streaming services, or just connect your phone to the DAC with a USB-C cable.

The new venue this year is better for the show. The elevators actually work, and using the stairs is feasible instead of waiting for an elevator since it's only 4 floors instead of the 13-14 of the old venue. The wifi was up to the task of everyone streaming hi-res Qobuz. I didn't notice tracks cutting out or brutal waits for buffering like in the old venue. There's more space at the venue, which some attendees noted as feeling like there were less people but I had heard that they broke their attendance record on both Friday, and Saturday. Parking wasn't an issue on the weekends since the show was able to use Citi's parking lot next door. The bigger parking lot at the hotel allowed for the car audio section, which I found to be genuinely interesting. There's a lot of real engineering that goes into making these spaces sound great.

The one downgrade about the new venue is that since it's in deep suburban Florida, you're stuck in chain restaurant and fast-food hell. All the good restaurants are a 40-50 minute round-trip drive away in Tampa proper. Every vendor noted the food situation as the one thing they didn't like about the new venue. Getting some food trucks in would be nice if the hotel would allow for it for some variety in food.

More write-ups to come of what I saw and heard as I process the pictures I took. In the meantime, here's a dog who's as weary as I am of Synergistic Research.

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