Welcome back to my coverage of AXPONA 2026

I would like to take a quick moment to thank VERA-FI AUDIO LLC, manufacturer of some of the finest audio products and accessories, including the Vera-Fi Audio LLC Main Stream – Master Class Dynamic Parallel AC Line Conditioner a truly amazing noise suppression device, for sponsoring our coverage of AXPONA 2026 in a gesture of goodwill for the audio community at large, as they do not even show at AXPONA.

Lockwood Loudspeakers

By sheer accident, I discovered one of my favorite new finds at AXPONA, making their US debut was Lockwood Loudspeakers. While waiting in line to see the Jones & Cerreta room, which I completely failed to do after making five attempts, they either had a line down the hall with 30 minute waits between demonstrations, or they weren’t there, and their room was locked, but their loss was my gain as I noticed the crome plated version of what I assume is the Lockwood Loudspeakers Universal Stanley 2 Loudspeaker (£4899.99 in wood finishes) in the hallway outside of the Lockwood Loudspeakers room. As a fan of point source speakers, I was very excited to check them out. The main system consisted of a Luxman NT-07 Streamer ($6,795), Luxman DA-07X DAC ($8,995), and Luxman L-509Z Integrated Amplifier ($8,999) with a pair of Lockwood Loudspeakers Universal Stanley 1 Loudspeakers (£3799.99).

Legacy Audio

Definitely offering the most colorful and artistic display was Legacy Audio, who adorned their entryway with a selection of custom one-of-a-kind named-artist-designed Legacy Audio Aeris XD Loudspeakers ($50,000/pr). For your listening pleasure, they were debuting their Legacy Audio TALOS Amplified Loudspeaker ($65,000 – $75,000/pr includes Legacy Audio Wavelet II DSP) with 3,000 Watts internal power.

dCS/VTL/VPI/Stenheim/Nordost

Nordost once again teamed up with VTL and Stenheim to fill one of the ballrooms with sound. For source they made the obvious choice of a dCS Vivaldi APEX DAC ($48,800), dCS Vivaldi Upsampler ($32,000), and dCS Vivaldi Master Clock ($24,100), as well as a VPI Avenger Direct Turntable ($40,000) running through a VTL TP-6.5 Series II Signature Phono Stage ($17,000), VTL TL-7.5 Series III Reference Linestage ($40,000), and VTL Lohengrin 400Watt Reference Monoblocks ($100,000/pr) to drive Stenheim Reference Ultime Two SX Loudspeakers ($199,800/pr) with Nordost providing all cabling and power. Something I found of particular interest was a Nordost cable conditioning block, making burn-in quick and easy for show environments.

Quintessence Audio Ltd/Ø Audio/Boulder/ Clearaudio/dCS/innuos/Kubala-Sosna

One of the highlights of AXPONA for me is to visit my favorite turntable, the $300,000 Clearaudio Statement Turntable, sporting a Clearaudio Diamond Jubilee MC Cartridge ($35,000). Thanks to Quintessence Audio Ltd. this magnificent piece of art was performing its magic alongside of a dCS Vivaldi APEX DAC ($48,800), dCS Vivaldi Upsampler ($32,000), and dCS Vivaldi Master Clock ($24,100) fed by an innuos Zenith NG ($21,700) and innuos PhoenixNet ($4,800) into a Boulder 2160 Phono Preamp ($62,000), Boulder 2110 Preamp ($78,000), and Boulder 2108 Power Amp ($71,000) to drive a pair of Ø Audio Ymir Loudspeakers ($65,000/pr) using Kubala-Sosna Ovation Cables ($150,800).

Quintessence Audio Ltd/Wilson Audio/Clearaudio/LINN

In the vestibule, Quintessence Audio Ltd featured an eye-catching Clearaudio Celebrity “Al Di Meola” Edition Turntable ($6,000) with a LINN Selekt DSM Network Music Player ($8,020) driving a pair of Wilson Audio Sabrina V Loudspeakers ($28,500/pr).

grell

grell were premiering their grell OAE2 Headphone ($599), an upgrade to their popular grell OAE1 Headphone, both of which offer a unique driver placement designed to improve imaging.

Dark Matter Audio Labs

DARK MATTER AUDIO LABS, a new Custom IEM manufacturer created by Dave Friesema, who was previously Technical Director for Etymotic/Westone Audio, offers a range of CIEMs beginning at $699.99 and ranging up to $1,699.99.

GAIT/GlaXfi

GAIT is a speaker manufacturer who has developed glass diaphragm drivers and are offering a series of personal audio products employing that driver under the brand GlaXfi. Among the selection are the GlaXfi-HH22 Immersive Bluetooth Speaker ($118), the GlaXfi NO1 Neckband Speaker ($138), and the GlaXfi eOne Duo ($128), which comes in two different tunings with two different drivers.

That concludes Part 10 of my coverage of AXPONA 2026, I would once again like to thank VERA-FI AUDIO LLC for sponsoring this coverage. Stay tuned for the conclusion.