AXPONA 2025

Welcome welcome welcome to Part 3 of my AXPONA: First Impressions series. Considering how odd and wonky the weather has been ’round here these past few post-show days, it seemed only fitting that today’s as-I-write-it listening companion was yet another great vinyl acquisition of mine in Expo Hall — the Analogue Productions 2LP 45rpm edition of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble’s 1984 Epic perma-sizzler, Couldn’t Stand the Weather (APB 097-45). I could spend an entire post on the overall performance aesthetic and dynamic-range brilliance of LP1, Side 2’s opening gambit that is “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” and my personal experiences having seen SRV&DT absolutely destroy this Jimi Hendrix classic live more than a few times back in the day — but we’ll get into all that another time. For now, it’s more AXPONA-rama!!

TEAC
After finally making my way up to the 12th floor for a 9:30am appointment on Saturday, April 12, 2025, with TEAC (see my hack-tips parenthetical in Part 1 regarding the never-ending elevator delay situation), I took to the front row, middle seat for a great system-wide demo featuring the company’s TN-5BB turntable ($1,799) and new AP-507 power amp ($2,799).

Handling the playback and explanation honors were TEAC’s Vice Manager of International Sales and Marketing Hiroyuki Machida, and International Business Manager Tsuyoshi Sugiura. To give us a sense of the system’s mettle, Machida-san first cued up “Polarity,” an instantly grabbing track by Hoff Ensemble — more specifically, it happens to be the title track of their 2018 release of the same name on the 2L label.

Norwegian pianist/composer Jan Gunnar Hoff’s piano work was crystal-clear on “Polarity.” His notes and chord choices continued to resonate naturally after they were struck, all throughout the piece. The brush drum and snare work by Audun Kleive, along with the select, supportive bass accompaniment by Anders Jormin, matched Hoff’s lead lines perfectly. The crescendo of the volume swell about a minute-plus into the track never distorted — a testament to the TN-5BB table, AP-507 power amp, and accompanying gear doing what they’re supposed to do. (Full gear list coming up a bit later on.)

Recording producer and balance engineer Morten Lindberg deserves much credit for capturing such sublime sounds as they were revealed on “Polarity” — and further attention shall indeed be warranted.

Next, Machida-san cued up an instantly affecting and decidedly atmospheric cut from English ambient artist SOHN — “Veto,” a track from the second side of his 2014 Tremors LP on 4AD. “If you want to lee-eeve this lonely ho-ome / Well, I won’t play-ay your game no mo-ore,” emoted Sohn — and I’ve deliberately typed out the vowel extension on the words “leave,” “home,” “play,” and “more” in the prior lyric-lines to emphasize how deftly Sohn enunciated them here. The electronic swatch/stabs that are interspersed throughout the ensuing vocals added a proper modern electro-touch — never too distorted, nor too jarring. The back-half a capella section of “Veto,” featuring SOHN’s falsetto counters, brought chills. SOHN’s vocals seemingly lingered in the air once the listening session was done — or at least they were staying with me and my inner monologue/soundtrack. Bravo, TEAC!

Incidentally, if you want to hear some brief swatches of this listening session, you can find them in the YouTube Short that I posted back on Monday on the AP YouTube channel right here.

Besides the table and amp, the TEAC system included Vienna Acoustics Mozart SE Signature loudspeakers ($9,395/pr, with the premium rosewood finish), TEAC PE-505 phono preamp ($2,299), CG-10X master clock ($1,199), and UD-701N USB DAC/network player ($4,299), in addition to various power conditioning and cabling courtesy of Esprit (ranging from $999 to $3,399), with the core system gear being housed via a Quadraspire SVTL component rack ($650).

After all that, I wanted to see what else the AP-507 amp could do on my own terms, so TEAC will be sending me one to test in my own system in the near future, alongside another intriguing piece of gear of theirs that I’ll name at a later date. All in all, the early(ish) morning Hoff/SOHN/TEAC listening session was a great way to commence what turned out to be another quite lengthy day of floor-hopping and system-sessioning.

And thus, we come to the end of my third first impressions AXPONA 2025 installment. From here, I’m going to turn over the remainder of our show-report postings to the other top-tier members of the AP edit team, so keep yer eyes and ears peeled for all of that. Viva la AXPONA, tres bon!

For Part 1 of our AXPONA: First Impressions series, go here.

For Part 2 of our AXPONA: First Impressions series, go here.