T.H.E. Show SoCal 2025: Best Hi-Fi Audio Gear Part I

I got to see and hear a variety of exciting audio gear during my weekend at T.H.E. Show SoCal 2025. According to Emiko E. Carlin, CEO of T.H.E. Enterprises and President of T.H.E. Show, there were over 225 brands exhibiting at T.H.E. Show SoCal this year, making it bigger than it was in 2019, and officially marking the end of COVID-induced audio show shrinkage, once and for all. The vibe at the show was convivial and optimistic. If there is a downside to this friendly atmosphere, it is that there were often loud conversations taking place in the listening rooms. There were, therefore, some promising rooms that I simply wasn’t able to report on, even though I did my best to return to said rooms for a second chance at listening. With such a big turnout of exhibitors, there was simply too much for one person to cover, so inevitably there were rooms I missed. I had hoped to spend time in the headphone section, and to attend some of the seminars, but I quickly realized that neither would be possible. Nevertheless, I heard some some great music on some spectacular systems, and learned about new products from brands both familiar and new to me. It’s important to point out that an audition at an audio show is not a review. With so many moving parts, there’s no way to determine the sound quality of any given loudspeaker or component from a short listen in a hotel room with poor room acoustics and a jumble of unfamiliar recordings played back on systems comprising multiple pieces of unfamiliar gear. In the past, I have even heard objectively excellent systems sound dreadful during shows, and we learn nothing from dwelling on such instances. When exhibitors manage to overcome these challenges, it’s something worth celebrating. All of the systems I will report on here are ones that I enjoyed for one reason or another. With all that said, let’s dive in.

Heaven 11 and MC Audiotech

This system featured the new, modular Heaven 11 Billie Amp MK3 integrated amp (about $3K) driving the stout MC Audiotech TL-12 Loudspeaker ($30,000/pair), which features wideband line-source drivers coupled to a 12-inch transmission line woofer. This full-range speaker operates as a dipole from 300Hz and up. The very attractive Billie Amp MK3 is a modular design — you can choose a fully-loaded version with one of two DAC options and a phono stage, or a stripped-down version with only line-level analog inputs. You can also choose between the ICEpower 200AS2 and Hypex NC252 “Power Core” options. Further customization options include two different headphone amps, a variety of tubes for the preamp section, and even different knob materials. The amp at the show had the upgraded dual-chip DAC, which uses a pair of ESS Sabre ES9039 DAC chips. I believe it featured the Hypex Power Core, but don’t hold me to that.

From the exhibitor’s iPad loaded with lossless files, I selected “Dreams” by the Cranberries. The first thing I noticed was the holographic imaging, and the way Dolores O’Riordan’s voice floated in the room with an etherial, diaphanous quality that accentuated her signature yodel-like vocal flips. I also appreciated the immediacy of the percussion instruments and, especially, the full-bodied tone of the tom-toms. We then listened to “Véritables Préludes flasques (pour un chien),” a piano piece performed by Alexandre Tharaud. Overall the sound was smooth and inviting, but there was definitely some room-induced bass bloat lower down, which continued into the next musical selection. Unfortunately I didn’t catch the name of the last track, which featured gorgeous harmonies in a Boyz II Men style. The silky midrange was not at all veiled by the somewhat muddy lows, and I would be very interested to hear these speakers in a better room. The Heaven 11 Billie Amp MK3 integrated amp seems promising, is reasonably priced, and has a great industrial design.

Innovo Audio Designs

This room featured the Innovo Audio Designs Luxe T1 ($24,000/pair), a fully active speaker to which you need only add a source. In this case, the source was a Cambridge Audio Edge NQ preamp/streamer. Each 3-way, phase-aligned speaker contains a 6.5-inch Textreme mid-woofer driver powered by a Pascal 500W Class-D power amplifier, a 26 mm next generation TPCD Tweeter powered by a Pascal 150W Class-D power amplifier, and eight(!) proprietary long throw 3-inch x 6-inch carbon subwoofer drivers (side-firing) powered by a Pascal 500W Class-D power amplifier. All amplifiers are managed by a sophisticated active crossover using a SHARC DSP and AKM VELVET SOUND converters (ADC/DAC) running at 192KHz sample rate.

“Differently” by the electronic duo Marian Hill had a very tight and potent low end. It’s a catchy track. Before I realized that the speakers had 8 built-in side-firing woofers apiece, I couldn’t figure out how all that bass could be coming from the single 6.5-inch Textreme mid-woofer. Definitely one of those classic “where are the hidden subwoofers?” moments. We got only a tantalizing glimpse of vocal clarity from Paul Simon’s “Diamonds on the Souls of her Shoes” before network issues caused the song to stutter. The presenter then switched to some locally-stored video demos served from a Kaleidescape player. We started with the scene from The Greatest Showman when Rebecca Ferguson’s character performs “Never Enough” (which is actually sung by Loren Allred.) There was a huge soundstage, and although this was not a surround system, the “wall-of-sound” presentation made for a compelling two-channel home theater experience. A scene from Alita: Battle Angel confirmed that these speakers deliver surprising dynamics for their size.

Zesto Audio with YG

Why bury the lede? Of everything I heard at T.H.E. Show, this system is the one I’d want to take home. It was easily in the top three for overall sound quality, despite being nowhere near the top in price. (That doesn’t mean it was cheap, however.) The Zesto Audio room was showing off the California-based company’s new Athena tube DAC ($15,000). It reportedly decodes files up to 32-bit/384kHz and DSD256, and includes AES, USB, I²S, optical, and coaxial inputs, plus a ground-lift switch, and both balanced and single-ended outputs. At its core is a state-of-the-art ROHM chip, which feeds a tube analog output circuit. Zesto’s George Counnas explained that because the Athena’s tube circuits don’t need filtering, this DAC can eschew the digital filters required by solid-state DACs. All filtering is done through the tube output circuitry with minimal phase shift, creating a better stereo image and black levels, according to Zesto. The superb YG Acoustics Summit loudspeakers ($29K/pair) were being driven by Zesto’s Eros 500 Select Monoblocks ($35K/pair), which dish out 250 watts of Class A power. The preamp was a Zesto Leto Ultra II ($11,900), and the pricey cabling was provided by Cardas. Isolation and room treatment products were provided by Stillpoints.

“Babylon Sisters” by Steely Dan was a popular choice at the show, and on this system it sounded simply awesome, with loads of detail but no exaggeration to the top end. This was a system that I believe would be easy to listen to without fatigue. “Temptation” by Diana Krall was painted across the room with a rare combination of locked-down image placement specificity and free-flowing musical information. Krall’s voice was forward of the drummer in the center of the soundstage, with the guitarist placed slightly to the left, clear as day. The upright bass was tonally rich but presented with zero time smear. “Take Five” by Dave Brubeck (converted to DSD from the original analog recording) presented the saxophone with “reach out and touch it” corporeal realism, and the cymbals sounded like real metal objects vibrating in the room. The bite and decay of the snare drum defined the recording space so well that if you closed your eyes, you could easily picture the recording studio where it was captured in 1959.

There was not a great deal of acoustical treatment in the room, but it only took a few seconds of listening to know that the few Stillpoints panels and foam absorbers placed around the space were very skillfully applied. And while it’s true that all of the tracks described above are typical audiophile fare guaranteed to sound pretty good, playing them at a show can come back to bite you if your setup doesn’t sound as good as the dozen others playing the same stuff. In that context, the Zesto system was the standard against which many others were compared, and most fell well short of achieving this level of performance.

ATC Loudspeakers

The ATC room featured the company’s Classic Series SCM20ASL Active Loudspeakers in a lovely Burr Magnolia finish ($10,999/pair, or $9,999/pair in standard finish). These active 2-way stand-mounts look and sound reassuringly solid, with the detail and clarity you’d expect from a studio monitor, without sounding so neutral as to be lifeless, as monitors sometimes can. The preamp was ATC’s own SCA2 Preamplifier ($11,499, plus $1,249 for the SPH2 phono section). The digital front end included the Innuos ZENith NextGen Mk3 Server ($18,900 plus $1,350 for the PhoenixUSB Lite feature, and $450 for 2TB of internal storage). The very impressive Playback Designs MPD8AI-DAC w/Analog Inputs ($29,500) handled digital conversion. But the ATC speakers sounded their best when fed a healthy diet of analog, by way of a Sonorus Audio reel-to-reel tape player. I believe it was the $35K Sonorus Audio ATR10 mkII, which is based on the Revox PR99 chassis and uses original Studer/Revox parts for the mechanical transport.

I was sitting front-and-center, and I initially thought that my seat looked too far forward, or that the speakers were placed too far apart relative to where I was sitting. But as soon as “Psycho Killer” by the Talking Heads started playing on the tape deck, I was treated to a phantom center that was rock-solid and crystal-clear. The speakers had a very pleasing and natural tonal balance, though no deep bass. The extension was certainly respectable for a compact 2-way; I would estimate that the SCM20ASL started to roll off at around 50Hz. While tape reels were being switched out, we listened to the digital front end. “As the Years Go Passing By (Live)” by Boz Scaggs was turned up a bit too loud, so although the vocals sounded admirably clear and detailed, they were also a bit strident. But the guitar sounded spot-on, with a good balance of bite and honey-sweet tone. Back on tape, we listened to “Blackbird” by the Beatles, a song I know intimately. I was struck by how easy it was to pick apart the slight differences between the two takes of the lead vocal, which is doubled so that one take plays in the left channel and another plays in the right. On many systems, this vocal doubling technique yields what sounds more like a single voice. Sir Paul’s acoustic guitar had a microphone-feed immediacy to its sound, as if we were listening to the performance in real time.

Stay tuned for more T.H.E. Show SoCal 2025 coverage, coming soon!