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Written by: Jonathan Gorse

Category: The Bristol Hi-Fi Show 2023

Created: 02 March 2023

Birthdays in Bristol

Three leading audio companies were celebrating significant anniversaries at Bristol. Linn, Naim, and Rega were all founded in 1973 and hit their 50th anniversaries this year. Meanwhile, Wales-based Leema Acoustics celebrates 25 years in 2023. It’s testament to the engineering, marketing, customer focus, and passion of these companies that they have managed to prosper in such a globally competitive market.

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Written by: Jonathan Gorse

Category: The Bristol Hi-Fi Show 2023

Created: 01 March 2023

Three years after the last Bristol Hi-Fi Show, in 2020, the British audio industry returned in strength to the Delta Hotels by Marriott in Bristol City Centre, from February 24 to 26. There was a palpable sense of excitement in the air as punters, manufacturers, designers, and journos came together to celebrate the universal power of high-quality music and movies.

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Written by: Hans Wetzel

Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2023

Created: 19 February 2023

Rounding out my final day here at the Florida International Audio Expo, I cobbled together a roundup of new loudspeakers that would give you a flavor of the diversity found here at the Embassy Suites Tampa Westshore. All prices are in US dollars.

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Written by: Hans Wetzel

Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2023

Created: 19 February 2023

There are a lot of high-priced loudspeakers here at the Florida International Audio Expo, and each of the various designs can be described as ambitious, from the speaker’s architecture and driver complement to the cabinet material and build quality. But having heard Ammar Jadusingh’s dual-speaker Soundfield Audio Obelisk T710 loudspeaker system, which retails for $15,000 (in USD), I can confidently say that his new loudspeaker system is the most ambitious product at the show. Let me explain.

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Written by: Hans Wetzel

Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2023

Created: 19 February 2023

I’ll be honest: there’s some insanely priced equipment here at the Florida International Audio Expo. A lot of it, actually. And so, on the second day of the show, I went searching for equipment that most audiophiles could realistically aspire to own—gear that doesn’t cost as much as a well-optioned BMW 3-Series. Here’s what I found, with all prices in US dollars.

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Written by: Doug Schneider

Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2023

Created: 19 February 2023

My first two reports from Tampa featured new products from companies located outside of the United States, which demonstrates why this event is now called the Florida International Audio Expo. My final report has products from companies based in the United States, with all prices in US dollars.

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Written by: Hans Wetzel

Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2023

Created: 19 February 2023

A lot of loudspeakers are derived from the same basic recipe: a dome tweeter, midrange cone, and woofer cone arranged vertically in some kind of box. Obviously, there are differences in materials and the number of drivers involved, but it’s a tried-and-true recipe that’s hard to improve on—right? Maybe so, but here are two speakers that depart radically from that formula.

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Written by: Hans Wetzel

Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2023

Created: 19 February 2023

TAD, short for Technical Audio Devices, brought the newest version of its Compact Evolution One standmounted loudspeaker to the Florida International Audio Expo for its North American debut. At a quick glance, the CE1TX looks an awful lot like the original CE1, which was introduced back in 2015. As always, the devil is in the details.

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Written by: Doug Schneider

Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2023

Created: 17 February 2023

Florida Audio Expo was renamed Florida International Audio Expo for this year—but it was purely coincidental that the first new products I saw originated outside of the United States. My first report focused on products from Focal and Naim Audio, based respectively in France and the United Kingdom. This report covers products from companies located in Austria, Japan, and Germany, as well as the United Kingdom; all prices are in US dollars.

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Written by: Hans Wetzel

Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2023

Created: 17 February 2023

I’ve covered my fair share of audio shows in the past decade, and while most rooms and setups tend to congeal into a hazy memory, Avantgarde Acoustic’s rooms always stand out from the crowd. The German company’s horn loudspeakers look—and sound—different from anything else offered in the high end. Florida International Audio Expo 2023 marked the global debut of the new Duo GT loudspeaker system, presented by House of Stereo, a high-end dealer located in Jacksonville, Florida.

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Written by: Doug Schneider

Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2023

Created: 17 February 2023

The annual Florida Audio Expo began in 2019. Florida Audio Expo 2021 was canceled due to COVID-19, so the 2023 event marks the fourth time the show has been presented. It’s still a three-day event (February 17 to 19 this year), but the 2023 iteration showed a bit of a twist—instead of being called Florida Audio Expo, it’s now called Florida International Audio Expo (FIAE) to better reflect the fact that this show now has international appeal, for both attendees and exhibitors. The name change also shows that this event is firmly established and, therefore, a success.

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Written by: Doug Schneider

Category: Audio Video Show 2022

Created: 30 October 2022

Michael Corleone famously said, “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!” I now know the feeling.

It was late in the day on Sunday, October 30. I’d taken thousands of steps to and through the various Audio Video Show exhibits in all three locations and was ready to call it a day. I was about to put my camera away. Then I walked into one more room at the Radisson Blu Sobieski, and I was sucked back into show reporting.

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Written by: Jason Thorpe

Category: Audio Video Show 2022

Created: 30 October 2022

Prior to my departure from Toronto, I received an email from Adam Mokrzycki, the organizer of Audio Video Show 2022, asking if I had any interest in attending a concert featuring jazz singer Melody Gardot. Gardot happened to be playing, you see, in Warsaw on the night of Friday, October 28, which just happened to be the first day of the show.

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Written by: Doug Schneider

Category: Audio Video Show 2022

Created: 30 October 2022

In the Radisson Blu Sobieski location, I walked into the room occupied by Silent Pound—a brand name I still don’t understand—and stopped dead in my tracks. Fellow SoundStager Jason Thorpe saw me staring at a speaker ahead of me and asked, “Is it something?”

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Written by: Jason Thorpe

Category: Audio Video Show 2022

Created: 30 October 2022

We’ve seen and featured Tentogra turntables in previous Audio Video Show reports. This Polish company’s premier turntable, the Oscar, now at Mk III status, is an over-the-top monster with its own battery supply, which is configurable to provide up to 68 hours of running on a single charge. Each time I encounter the Oscar, I’m startled by how much technology and innovation the company can jam into this thing. At $33,000 (all prices USD), the Oscar’s price is certainly reasonable, but it’s hard in any light to consider that much money for a turntable as an actual bargain.

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Written by: Jason Thorpe

Category: Audio Video Show 2022

Created: 30 October 2022

What’s happened to me? I thought I knew my preferences. Jason likes well-damped boxes and drivers appropriately chosen for their intended frequencies. None of that fussy, retro stuff that inward-looking audiophiles like to champion.

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Written by: Doug Schneider

Category: Audio Video Show 2022

Created: 30 October 2022

As I mentioned in my article on the three Audio Video Show 2022 locations, the event is too big for us to cover everything, even with two of us here (Jason Thorpe joined me again this year). We’d need five of us to tackle the whole show—and even then I’m not sure we could get it all within three days. As a result, we have to pick and choose what to include in our reports.

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Written by: Jason Thorpe

Category: Audio Video Show 2022

Created: 29 October 2022

It’s worth spending good money on high-quality products. What’s better than that, though, is finding high-quality products at bargain prices. This doesn’t happen very often, but Doug Schneider and I are right now at Audio Video Show 2022 in Warsaw, Poland, and there are bargains to be had in this city, at this show.

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Written by: Jason Thorpe

Category: Audio Video Show 2022

Created: 29 October 2022

The last time I attended AVS was back in 2019. I recall that there were a number of vendors selling LPs at the PGE Narodowy stadium, but this year it seemed like they had seriously multiplied. On the main floor of the stadium, there were two separate areas, each occupied by several different vendors. While there were some CDs for sale, the vast majority of these sectors were taken up with vinyl. Lots of vinyl.

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Written by: Jason Thorpe

Category: Audio Video Show 2022

Created: 29 October 2022

I know, I know—our beat here at Audio Video Show 2022 is supposed to be new products, but over breakfast this morning, Doug and I discussed a potentially different approach for covering this event.

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