Tampa Audio Expo 2025

I went to the Tampa Audio Fest/Expo on Friday.   Lots of rooms and moderately crowded, but no overcrowded.   I was mostly able to get right into any room and get a good listening seat.

Like any event like this, it's overwhelming and marginally comparative.   Too much variation of rooms, equipment, cables, speakers, source material, etc.   With that caveat in mind, I was really impressed with the following:

Clarysis planar speakers.   They look really interesting and sounded extraordinarily clear, detailed, impactful, and musical.   The big ones, Atriums, are very large and very expensive at $785,000.   But the smaller ones, Piccolo, are about $20,000 and quite impressive.

Popori Acoustics electrostatic WR-1 speakers.   Again, good looking and reasonably sized.   I had a center front row seat; the imagining was tall, broad, rock stable, and the speaker locations were unidentifiable in the soundstage.   Great tight bass, smooth midrange, and extended crisp highs.   Very impressive at $85,000.

OAudio Icon horn speakers.   Very impressive in an otherwise unimpressive room.   Powerful, dynamic, punchy, and smooth, very lifelike presentation.   No typical horn-honkiness/shoutiness.  Also, very impressive at about $20,000.

There were a few other components I found interesting, but so difficult to compare...   The Block amplifiers were powerful and detailed.   What's not to like about VAC, other than their price.   I liked the Acora and Gershwin speakers too, but I wasn't blown-away by them.

I'm looking forward to going again next year.

So, I was really impressed at the YG Acoustics room with them being powered by the biggest 300B amps I have ever seen. Those 4 Western Electric amps were special, and the speakers outstanding.

I ended up purchasing Soundfield speakers after attending the 2024 show and still blown away every time I listen to my rig.
This year I dug the the Borrsesn’s, esp for the price point, but their top of the line floorstanders they were showing were absolutely amazing, but at $55k a pair I wouldn’t expect anything less.
The Aretai Horn Bookshelves were a favorite, looks and soundwise. Loved the Gershman Black Swans they ALWAYS impress($95k a pair), Joseph Audio is always incredibly as well. I thought the New Vienna Acoustics 2.5 Floorsatanders sounded fantastic. Most of the rooms sounded great but there were a few I just had to turn around and walk out of, not many but a few. This year I saw a lot of great amps and noticed the industry’s shift away from separates with the many cool integrated 2ch all in ones on display.
Just so you know, Soundfield Audio’s speakers are not as much as you think and sounded better than many that were on display at significantly higher price points. I highly recommend anyone looking for speakers give them a serious consideration. I made it a point to stop by Soundfield’s Room to let AJ the owner know I’m still ecstatic owning a pair of his speakers, also let him know his room was without a doubt one of if not the best sounding room at the show and his response to me was he was being told that all day… I’m happy for him 👍

@skiznfliz @soundfield 

Thanks for the added info.  I really thought the Soundfields were unobtanium speakers and am afraid didn't even ask what they cost!  I really was impressed by his system especially now that I know his price for those line arrays were significantly less than I thought. 

Also, Soundfield's speakers were being used in the Orchard Audio room and were very impressive as well at the very low price points of $1200/pr for bookshelves and $7500/pr for his 12120B floor standers.

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.