Tampa Audio Expo 2025


Just attended the Tampa Audio Expo.

The standout speakers that interested me in my price range.

Axxess L1    $3850 pr. Hard to find competition at this price that match their performance. (Borresen design) 

Borresen X1 $6500 pr incl  stands. These are perfect for the 400sf size room they were in.  They sound effortless at any volume. 

GoldenEar Triton $6000 pr Really sounded excellent at this price.

Soundfield Audio Mini Monitor $1200 pr  and Soundfield Audio 12120B floor stander $7500 pr very good sound paired with Orchard audio Starkrimson products.  Another bargain at these price points.

Chesky speakers $1000 pr. sounded very good.  Very competitive with much higher cost speakers.  

If I had a bigger budget:

Audio Norwegian Loudspeakers Icon 12  $24k?  Stunning-Really impactful with a beautiful finish.  Competition for Volti.  They sounded much better to me than the Volti, but it could have been room interactions. The Voltis were in a very small room for the size of the speakers.

Soundfield Audio line array speakers.  Very beautiful.  Excellent sound-not sure what the price is but know they are not in my budget. 

Tobian Sound 12 FH  full range horn $40,000 Really stunning full range sound in a big room.  Seemed effortless and scalable to any volume you so desire.

Clarysis Audio Piccolo $20,000  ribbon speakers. Beautiful sound and very attractive. 

Clarysis Audio Atrium $750,000.  If you have a ballroom and an unlimited budget, they are magnificent.

 

 

jplunkettj

Showing 1 response by relaxasaurus

I don’t think the Borresen X3’s were there were they? I know they had three bookshelf models in the different Next Level Hifi rooms, and the flagship T5 in the big salon downstairs.

Either way I loved both the T5 ($$$?) and the T1 bookshelfs ($55k). The planar tweeter and the way it handles upper mids was near perfect to me, loved the flagship models. Would love to hear the X3 at some point.

Was most looking forward to hear Joseph Audio due to the praise it has on this forum. They had the Pearls on demo, powered by Doshi amps, and they sounded really good. I thought they were a great mix of technical ability but had a "musical" sound profile as well. I can see why they’re popular but to be quite honest I was coming in with the highest expectations and there was a lot of competition there.

What surprised me was the Fischer & Fischer 370’s powered by AGD. The 370’s made of slate really showcased what having a super inert cabinet can do. There was a sense of purity with everything I heard. Zero veil, no harshness with quality components inside. They weigh 155 freaking pounds though and they’d be going on the 2nd floor. The plot thickens with the audio journey now.

Was looking forward to finally hearing Soundfield as well. The $7500 1212OB was probably the best value, along with the mini bookshelfs. The 1212’s hit mostly all the right notes considering the price, but the lower mids sounded a bit muddy or out of focus to me. When he switched to the mini monitors it really showed the difference.

What really impressed me from Soundfield was their high end room down the hall. The black speakers with the planar mid was amazing, and that tall wooden speaker did classical extremely well. Hope to see more from them in the future.

Goldenear and Franco Serblin speakers were great for such a small footprint, as was the Acoustic Energy AE520. I really enjoyed that one as inexpensive as it was. They had the Coriniums on display downstairs but not plugged in.

I’m forgetting a ton but I did take footage of each room and plan to throw it on YT.