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Shows-Events
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Audio Video Show 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.
Audio Video Show 2024: Devialet: From Weird, Confusing, and Mysterious to a Kick-in-the-Astra Reboot
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: Audio Video Show 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: High End 2024
Upon entering Gryphon Audio Designs’ room, I encountered Anthony Chiarella, the company’s North American director of sales and marketing. The room was jammed full—standing-room only—but there was no music playing. Chiarella explained that I’d have to wait about ten minutes before they could play music, as they play it really loud, and so does the room next door. The two exhibitors had agreed to alternate demos so as not to bother each other.
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: High End 2024
SoundStage! began publishing in 1995, which makes us quite young compared to many of the brands we cover. For example, PSB and NAD recently celebrated their 50th anniversaries. KEF was founded in 1961, so it’s over a decade older than those two brands. Klipsch was founded in 1946, and Luxman was founded in 1925!
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: High End 2024
I am sad. It’s true that I wear my heart on my sleeve, and that’s why I never play poker. So I walked into the Estelon room and saw the brand new Estelon X Diamond Signature Edition speakers. From a distance, they immediately evoked the XB Mk II speakers that spent several months in my listening room. That’s what made me sad, because I’ve never been so unhappy when a product left my house.
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- Written by: Matt Bonaccio
- Category: High End 2024
About 44 miles outside of Munich, just down the River Isar into Lower Bavaria, lies the small town of Landshut. Landshut is known mostly for its medieval architecture and reenactment of the Landshut Wedding. Held every four years, this festival is based on the 1475 celebration of the marriage of a Bavarian duke to the daughter of the king of Poland. It’s a cute, quaint little town in the Bavarian countryside, but it is also home to Göbel High End, a manufacturer of extreme audiophile speakers and cables.
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- Written by: Matt Bonaccio
- Category: High End 2024
Many believe that there exists a sort of knowledge that cannot be found in the observable universe, and that the quest for Truth (with a capital “T”) necessarily involves the pursuit of such knowledge. Studies of spirituality, magic and the dark arts, and religious esoterica exemplify this search, but for the humble electronic engineer, a deep understanding of electromagnetics is just as profound. Polish manufacturer Fezz Audio is here in Munich displaying its mastery of the subject with two new analog hi-fi products, each of which relies on seriously audiophile-grade transformers.
Subcategories
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