Show Reports

I’m back with Part 6 of my Florida International Audio Expo 2025 show report, where I head into the Brandon 2 Room to experience a Bergmann turntable, Air Tight MC cartridge, Western Electric phono preamp, YG Acoustics XV 3 Signature speakers, and more.

BERGMANN / YG ACOUSTICS
YG Acoustics speakers have always had a distinct look, and in the Brandon 2 Room, there was plenty to see, starting with a special edition of the Colorado-based company’s XV3 Signature speakers marked with discreet gold logos at the bottom of the cabinets. (More on them in a bit.)

The Brandon 2 demo also deployed a Bergmann Galder & Odin Gold Edition turntable with vacuum technology working on both sides of the platter. It uses an air bearing with a linear-tracking tonearm, along with vacuum forces to suction the vinyl evenly — i.e., more flatly — onto the platter for smoother, more accurate playback. It has positions for other arm boards as well, offering some flexibility in tonearm choices. The Bergmann G&O table, in addition to supplying solid sound (based on a brief listen), is also fine to look at with its elegant, streamlined Danish design with that striking gold plating.

At the end of the Bergmann table’s linear tracking arm was an Air Tight Opus-1 MC cartridge, whose low-output signals (45mV) entered a Western Electric 116C phono preamp (said to be a late-stage prototype) ahead of a Western Electric 95A tube amp. AudioQuest cables connected the system, and they supplied a Niagara power conditioner.

Duncan Taylor of YG Acoustics was kind enough to put on “Push and Pull,” the first track on Side D of my copy of Tony Allen’s 2017 2LP set on Blue Note, The Source, which evidenced doses of both Afrobeat and New Orleans influences.

Taylor also happened to be an Allen fan and expressed enthusiasm about what he heard here, making some deductions about the recording approach and miking. This live-in-studio recording came to life in three dimensions, with images of the players and their instruments seemingly quite true to scale. The bursts of horns and saxes sounded spot-on in tone and timbre — from the microdynamic detail of the sax reeds and the forces of air vibrating them.

The Western Electric tube amplification didn’t soften drummer Allen’s hard hits or dampen his driving rhythms one bit. Also unexpected was how those four towers of YG XV 3 speakers managed to sound so refined, nearly disappearing in action. Full of energy, expanse, and air — and excitement — this was one of the top-tier systems at the show.

Speaking of those YG XV 3 Signature speakers, one of only eight pairs made were on demo at FLAX. YG’s Taylor told me these speakers were made in Cambridge by the R&D team rather than in Colorado, as per usual. The XV in their name commemorates YG Acoustics’ 15th anniversary at the time the speakers’ predecessors were originally developed. They are moderately efficient at 88dB, but offer a relatively stable load with an impedance curve not dipping below 3ohms.

It's not a small system either (as you can readily see, a few grafs above) — six pieces per side assembled as two towers per side. A suite of large monoblock amps powered those YG Acoustics XV3 Signatures — namely, Western Electric 97A monoblocks per side that use Western Electrics’ 300B tubes. The system also featured some state-of-the-art tech for digital sources — a Taiko Audio Olympus and Olympus IO component stack comprising a DAC, streamer, and network server with storage, plus outboard power supplies (including battery power) and a network router and switch, made in the Netherlands and making their U.S. debut.

Part 7 is coming soon!

Author bio: Julie Mullins, a lifelong music lover and audiophile by osmosis who grew up listening to her father’s hi-fi gear, is also a contributing editor and reviewer on our sister site, Stereophile, for whom she also writes the monthly Re-Tales column. A former fulltime staffer at Cincinnati’s long-running alt-weekly CityBeat, she hosts a weekly radio show on WAIF called On the Pulse.

For Part 1 of Julie’s FLAX 2025 show report, go here.

For Part 2 of Julie’s FLAX 2025 show report, go here.

For Part 3 of Julie’s FLAX 2025 show report, go here.

For Part 4 of Julie’s FLAX 2025 show report, go here.

For Part 5 of Julie’s FLAX 2025 show report, go here.

For Ken Micallef’s 15-minute video showing all sorts of great turntables and other cool analog gear at FLAX 2025, go here.

For even more FLAX 2025 coverage, go here on our sister site Stereophile.