Shows-Events

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Written by: Matt Bonaccio

Category: Audio Video Show 2024

Created: 26 October 2024

Here at SoundStage!, we would never write up an audio manufacturer in exchange for favors like fancy dinners. To do so would be a serious breach of journalistic ethics, would call into question our authority on the subject, and worst of all, would place at risk the trust our readers have in us, which we’ve worked for years to build. Anyway, after a tour of its facility in Pruszków and a dinner of traditional Polish dishes, culminating with a prime cut of top sirloin, grilled to a perfect medium rare and served with a peppercorn sauce, here’s what you need to know about Ferrum Audio.

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Written by: Jason Thorpe

Category: Audio Video Show 2024

Created: 26 October 2024

Matt Bonaccio and I opted for a top-down approach to the exhibits at the Radisson Blu Sobieski location at Audio Video Show 2024. So we climbed up the stairs to the seventh floor and walked to the far end of the corridor.

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Written by: Jason Thorpe

Category: Audio Video Show 2024

Created: 26 October 2024

The Dark Side of the Moon has become a parody of itself. I’m a huge Pink Floyd fan, but I don’t tend to listen to DSOTM because it’s been so ridiculously overplayed. I originally sat down in the Homogenix room intending to bide my time until I could get some information about this brand-new company’s line of cartridges. But “Time” rocketed out of these dramatic, odd horn speakers with such authority, and at such high levels, that it made me giggle. These horn speakers and this cartridge made me sit through the entirety of side 1. That’s saying something. There was huge power here, with minimal horn colorations. Deep bass, perhaps missing the ultimate extension, but tight as a fish’s ass. These are huge speakers in a small room, but my stars, did it work as a whole.

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Written by: Matt Bonaccio

Category: Audio Video Show 2024

Created: 26 October 2024

If you want to go to Poland’s annual Audio Video Show—or any trade expo, for that matter—it’s wise to plan your trip to avoid the crowds, if at all possible. Doug Schneider, Jason Thorpe, and I judiciously chose to focus our first day on PGE Narodowy, Warsaw’s huge sporting stadium and event center. As I entered the concourse dedicated to exhibiting all things ’phones, I recalled the throngs filling this space at last year’s event, and silently thanked Doug for pushing to go here first. The hall was still nearly empty; I’d have full access to brand reps and distributors as I tested out the latest offerings. Here’s what I found. Take note of the prices, as they are presented here in both US dollars and Polish zlotys.

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Written by: Jason Thorpe

Category: Audio Video Show 2024

Created: 26 October 2024

There’s a hallway in Warsaw’s PGE Narodowy Stadium that houses several rooms designed for recording television broadcasts at sporting events. These rooms are acoustically treated, large in size, and typically locked down yearly by exhibitors showing the largest, most expensive systems.

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Written by: Jason Thorpe

Category: Audio Video Show 2024

Created: 26 October 2024

On the first day of Audio Video Show 2024, Doug Schneider, Matt Bonaccio, and I walked into the main entrance of Warsaw’s PGE stadium, and the first room we saw was the Marantz suite, which featured the new Model 10 integrated amplifier (zł63,999, all prices in Polish złotys), SACD 10 player (zł34,999), and Link 10n streamer (zł39,498). This was oddly coincidental, as just that morning, we had reached out to Marantz to request review samples of these tasty, sexy components.

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Written by: Doug Schneider

Category: Audio Video Show 2024

Created: 26 October 2024

To put Devialet’s latest product into proper perspective, I feel compelled to give my take on the company’s history. The beginnings of the French brand were straightforward enough, but over the years, the company became weirder, more confusing, and more mysterious. But let me emphasize, the following history is given from my perspective.

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Written by: Jason Thorpe

Category: Audio Video Show 2024

Created: 24 October 2024

In his 2003 novel Pattern Recognition, William Gibson postulated that jet lag is the result of the late arrival of your soul as it catches up with your body. Since your soul can’t travel as fast as a jet, you have to wait for it to arrive, like lost luggage.

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Written by: Jonathan Gorse

Category: UK Hi-Fi Show Live 2024

Created: 21 October 2024

The final day at Ascot opened with still a great deal to see and hear. Doug Schneider was staying at a Heathrow hotel with the EISA crowd, while I was ensconced in luxury at the Macdonald Berystede Hotel & Spa, very close to Royal Ascot. The short drive in each day told me all I needed to know about the area: the only automotive dealer enroute sells McLaren cars, which are, naturally, equipped with sound systems from Bowers & Wilkins.

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Written by: Jonathan Gorse

Category: UK Hi-Fi Show Live 2024

Created: 19 October 2024

The 2024 edition of UK Hi-Fi Show Live took place on the weekend of September 22–24 at its impressive customary venue, the Royal Ascot Racecourse Grandstand. As usual, there was a plethora of audio brands on display. This show has had an uneven ride in recent years. It was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID pandemic, and then cancelled again in 2022 due to the death of Her Majesty the Queen—the venue is part of the Crown estate. It ran successfully in 2023, but then, a couple of weeks before the 2024 show, part of the main roof at Ascot blew off in a freak storm. Thankfully, show organizer Paul Miller of Hi-Fi News fame was able to relocate some of the top-floor exhibitors to lower floors, and the show went ahead on schedule.

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Written by: Matt Bonaccio

Category: High End 2024

Created: 12 May 2024

You know what I like? A good deal. Call me a cheapskate if you want, but after having heard plenty of uber-cheap audio gear alongside some truly stratospheric systems, I must conclude that deep pockets are not a prerequisite for great sound. Luckily, the folks putting on High End 2024 agree, so they’ve come up with the Soundsclever initiative. Five manufacturers are participating, and the sole criterion is that they must present a complete system that costs less than €5000. I am both excited and surprised to report that the Soundsclever systems presented here are not just competent, but truly impressive—at any price.

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Written by: Jason Thorpe

Category: High End 2024

Created: 12 May 2024

As many of the best stories do, this one started over a beer. Or two. At the tail end of Saturday at the High End 2024 show in Munich, Germany, Anders Ertzeid, Hegel Music Systems’ VP of sales and marketing, mentioned that they had a fridge full of beer that they needed help with. I am always keen to assist—from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.

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Written by: Matt Bonaccio

Category: High End 2024

Created: 12 May 2024

As a first-timer here at High End 2024, I was struck by the scale of this event. The show venue is roughly the size of the state of Rhode Island (perhaps that’s a slight exaggeration), and yet is filled to capacity. What’s mind-boggling about the World of Headphones section of the show is that it takes up about one-eighth of the total floor space of the exhibition hall. When you consider that headphones are absolutely miniscule compared to, say, a pair of Vivid Audio Moya M1s, you realize that that’s a lot of space to devote to just headphones. It’s clear that High End 2024 is really serious about ’phones.

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Written by: Matt Bonaccio

Category: High End 2024

Created: 12 May 2024

Yes, it’s a stupid title, but it gets to the point. At SoundStage! we know that sensible people—especially the sort of people who are serious about headphones—appreciate it when you get to the point. Here it is: Focal brought two new pairs of wired headphones to Munich, the closed-back Azurys and open-back Hadenys. They’re quite good, and they’re affordable—€549 for the Azurys, €699 for the Hadenys. On the left side of the pond, the prices are the same in US dollars.

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Written by: Matt Bonaccio

Category: High End 2024

Created: 12 May 2024

Italian speaker manufacturer Sonus Faber has been on a tear developing impressive speakers lately, but this will not surprise you if you visit the SoundStage! Network sites regularly. I say this because publisher Doug Schneider and our video team recently paid the Sonus Faber folks two visits, first at their headquarters in Italy, and then at the House of Sound in New York. You can read about his encounter with the new Suprema loudspeaker over on SoundStage! Hi-Fi.

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Written by: Jason Thorpe

Category: High End 2024

Created: 12 May 2024

I have a recurring dream. It’s not exactly a nightmare because it’s not overtly scary. I emerge from it more perplexed than unsettled. It goes like this. I’m sitting in the corner of a dimly lit room, and right there in the middle of the room is what’s ostensibly a single Vivid Audio Kaya 45 speaker. This right here is odd, huh? A dream about a speaker?

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Written by: Jason Thorpe

Category: High End 2024

Created: 12 May 2024

I popped in to the Crystal Cable headquarters here at High End 2024 to let founder Gabi Rynveld know how much I enjoyed reviewing the company’s Art Series Monet speaker cables a while back on SoundStage! Ultra.

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Written by: Matt Bonaccio

Category: High End 2024

Created: 12 May 2024

I’ve yet to have the chance to have a proper listening session with any of Q Acoustics’ speakers, but I hope to change that soon. In recent years, the British brand has earned a reputation for high-performing speakers that are affordable enough for almost anybody, and the world has taken notice. When I learned that a new generation of the venerable 3000 line of passive speakers was being shown for the first time at High End 2024, I zipped over to Q Acoustics’ exhibit room to see what they’re all about.

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Written by: Matt Bonaccio

Category: High End 2024

Created: 12 May 2024

Okay, I exaggerated a little in that title, but I couldn’t resist. The D120 speaker from Totaldac is new indeed, but rather than being “totally” new, it’s more of an “evolution” than a “revolution.” I’d never heard of this company before the days leading up to High End 2024, but I’m glad to have been introduced.

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Written by: Jason Thorpe

Category: High End 2024

Created: 12 May 2024

After Matt’s somewhat unsatisfying “factory tour,” I decided that I should stop by Göbel’s room, which it shared with Pilium Audio and Kronos Audio, to see what’s what with its speakers.

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