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Shows-Events
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- Written by: Jonathan Gorse
- Category: The Bristol Hi-Fi Show 2024
On the evening of Friday, February 23, after the first day of the Bristol Hi-Fi Show, Naim Audio took me out for a superb meal. The evening concluded with some fine single-malt courtesy of Kat Ourlian, global sales and marketing director for SME Ltd. You’ve gotta love a gal whose only poison is whisky! As a result, I slept very contentedly.
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- Written by: Jonathan Gorse
- Category: The Bristol Hi-Fi Show 2024
The 35th Bristol Hi-Fi Show was held from February 23 to 25 at its usual venue—the Delta Hotels by Marriott Bristol City Centre—and the vibe was just as I’ve always remembered it. I’ve been coming here for over 30 years, and there’s a sense of energy that is incredibly infectious and quite unique. People are often packed into the rooms and spilling out into the corridors, trying to listen to the latest and greatest from the world’s finest audio manufacturers. The bar was humming all weekend, the industry was out in force, and there were some seriously impressive systems on display.
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2024
I took a seat in one of the Playback Distribution rooms (the company had several), with the intent of listening to the flagship Krypton3X speakers from Amphion. “Anyone here seen Barbie?” asked Rob Standley, president and cofounder of Playback.
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2024
It was the kind of serendipity I couldn’t ignore. The room next to mine was hosted by American Sound of Canada, a Canadian distributor with a bricks-and-mortar presence just outside of Toronto, which is where I live.
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2024
The day before I departed for the Florida International Audio Expo, I received an email from Wynn Wong of Wynn Audio, the North American distributor of a whole bunch of tasty brands, asking me how I was making out with the Thales TTT-Compact II turntable (review forthcoming on SoundStage! Ultra). “Are you attending the Florida show?” Wynn asked as an aside.
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2024
Last November, I wrote about the Estelon Aura loudspeaker on SoundStage! Hi-Fi in my “System One” column. In that article, I described how I purchased some Tönnen Sound acoustic panels from Amazon to help tame some reflections in my living room. I also created a video on our YouTube channel about the Tönnen panels and two other panel-type products—smaller hexagonal- and square-shaped felt-type absorbers—that I’d also bought from Amazon.
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2024
Sometimes you just luck out. I’d sat for a while listening to the TAD Laboratories Reference system, and it was a packed house, as you’d expect on a Saturday afternoon at an audio show. I sighed to myself and figured I’d nip back up to my room and grab my laptop so I could come back down and sit, listen, and write, as is my wont. It works well at shows, I find, to sit still in a chair and write about the room, rather than gather details and then write it up later in my room or at the bar over a light Yankee beer.
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2024
Any room that plays Henry Mancini’s main theme from The Pink Panther soundtrack at absurdly loud levels deserves coverage in this here publication.
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2024
A speaker, by necessity, becomes a part of the room in which it’s installed. If that speaker is relegated to a listening room, and if the owner really doesn’t care about the appearance, a well-designed driver complement in a rectangular MDF box will do just fine.
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2024
I have an issue taking a ridiculously priced product seriously if there’s not a credible explanation of why it costs as much as it does—or unless it delivers sound that catapults me to Mars. There are several such components on the market that fail this test, and the Børresen Acoustics M1 two-way standmount loudspeaker is one of them.
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2024
I arrived at the Embassy Suites hotel in Tampa on Thursday night after a two-hour tarmac delay due to snow and the attendant de-icing. I barely had time to slam down a beer in the lounge before it was time for dinner hosted by the organizers of the Florida International Audio Expo. Seated next to me in the restaurant was the affable Jason Motoyama, lead preamp tech for Pass Labs, and we had a great time chatting about music. Our mutual love of Mike Patton of Mr. Bungle and Faith No More bridged the generational gap that might otherwise have loomed large between us.
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2024
While eating breakfast at the buffet in the Radisson Blu Sobieski hotel at the Audio Video Show in Warsaw, I tend to sit in roughly the same quadrant each day and from year to year. This section is usually occupied by representatives of several manufacturers—notably Kostas Metaxas and the chaps from Falcon Acoustics.
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: Florida International Audio Expo 2024
Until now, SVS’s largest and most expensive speaker has been the Ultra Tower, a three-way, five-driver design that stands 45.6″ tall and sells for $2600 per pair (all prices in USD). That model remains in SVS’s line, but the new Ultra Evolution Pinnacle is now the flagship, and it ups the game significantly. This Pinnacle is the first model of SVS’s brand-new Ultra line, with other new models to be announced soon.
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- Written by: Matt Bonaccio
- Category: Audio Video Show 2023
The Brits have a certain way of doing hi-fi. They’re quietly self-assured, and they’ve earned it, because most of the stuff they come up with is superlative. They know this. Falcon Acoustics, then, is the stereotypical British speaker brand, because it’s been known for its excellent replicas of the BBC LS3/5A monitor for years. Here at Audio Video Show 2023 in Warsaw, the company has publicly debuted its new M40 floorstanding loudspeaker.
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Audio Video Show 2023
Doug Schneider had the inside scoop. “Head up to room 608. Check out Blackwood’s speaker. It’s got some really cool tech.” Doug is a master of understatement, so I figured there was something in that room worth getting excited about. Off I went.
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Audio Video Show 2023
It only took one song.
I’d hurried over to the PGE Narodowy stadium to meet with Heinz Lichtenegger, founder of Pro-Ject and the current owner of Musical Fidelity. The plan was to discuss my upcoming review of the Musical Fidelity M8xTT turntable, but I arrived about 15 minutes early, so I puttered around in the three rooms that Pro-Ject and Musical Fidelity shared in this quadrant of the stadium. It was first thing in the morning, and the show was just opening, so the rooms were nearly empty—this was the golden hour, like right before sunset, when the light is best for photography.
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Audio Video Show 2023
It’s rare that the two Audio Note companies—Audio Note UK (from the UK, obviously) and Kondo Audio Note from Japan—end up at the same show. It’s likely not a good idea. If products from the two companies were to touch each other, they might well explode with the force of a thousand suns. They’re matter and antimatter, so to speak.
- Details
- Written by: Matt Bonaccio
- Category: Audio Video Show 2023
If you’re unfamiliar with SoundStage! Ultra senior editor Jason Thorpe, here’s the most important thing you need to know about him: he’s an elite-tier button pusher. “Hey, I’ve got an idea,” he told me as we left one of the demo rooms at the Radisson Blu Sobieski hotel. He smiled out of the corner of his mouth and rubbed his hands together. “Why don’t we do a faceoff between Audio Note UK and Kondo Audio Note, which is from Japan? I’ll write up one; you do the other. It builds tension.” He’s the audiophile press’s version of hovering your finger half an inch from your older sibling’s nose and squealing, “I’m not touching you!”
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- Written by: Matt Bonaccio
- Category: Audio Video Show 2023
I’ll admit, I was not expecting to be blown away by Polish hi-fi brands. Yes, I knew they’d be out in force for their home country’s expo, and I already knew that the likes of Fezz Audio and Lampizator produce very respectable gear. But boy howdy, was I unprepared for just how ready some of these Polish companies were to strut their stuff at AVS 2023. What can a Polish brand come up with if it has the stones to create “horrifically priced gear,” as my comrade Jason Thorpe calls it?
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Audio Video Show 2023
Matt Bonaccio has got it into his head that because I review $20,000 speaker cables, I’m a gear snob. Well, not so much. When I’m not eating venison and turtle soup, I’m always on the lookout for a smoking audio bargain.
Subcategories
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