Have You Seen?
Shows-Events
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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.
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- Written by: Matt Bonaccio
- Category: High End 2024
Doug Schneider, the SoundStage! Network’s publisher and head honcho, basically dragged me by the ear into International Audio Group’s room in one of the upper atria of the Munich Order Center. We had to drop off a Product of the Year award for Mission, which is one of IAG’s brands. I don’t normally enjoy chores like this, but I’m glad Doug pulled me into the room.
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: High End 2024
At High End 2022, DALI (Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries) debuted its Kore loudspeaker, which, today, is priced at Є90,000 per pair in Europe (including Europe’s VAT, also reflected in the prices below). The company’s main goal with the Kore was to show the world everything this Danish brand had learned about loudspeaker design during its 40-year history (DALI was founded in 1983). Also, I’m pretty sure DALI’s accountants hoped the company would sell quite a few pairs.
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: High End 2024
Earlier this year, Hans Wetzel reviewed the Audionet Humboldt integrated amplifier and found it to be good. That’s the biggest understatement I’ve cranked out today—it’s a biblical understatement. The $59k (USD) Humboldt (all prices in euros except that one) impressed Hans with its insane build quality, huuuuge power, and neutral, resolving sound quality. “It’s a statement-level integrated amplifier,” he testified.
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- Written by: Matt Bonaccio
- Category: High End 2024
The S 230 loudspeaker, which T+A Elektroakustik recently added to its Criterion line, is still pretty much brand spankin’ new. It only began shipping last month, at a price of €9500 (VAT included) in Europe, or $11,990 per pair in the US. Naturally, I was excited to get my eyes and ears on a pair of S 230s here in Munich. Imagine my surprise when I visited T+A’s exhibition room and was greeted with a newer-still Criterion loudspeaker, the S 240.
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: High End 2024
During High End 2023, I spent a fun hour or so in the AudioSolutions room checking out the company’s Figaro M2 speaker. We listened to a bunch of cool music that was right out of my forever playlist. And it was all on vinyl. In my report on the room, I mentioned that the source was the Immersion II turntable from Poland’s BennyAudio, but I didn’t go into much detail other than to throw in a photo.
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- Written by: Matt Bonaccio
- Category: High End 2024
There’s something inherently gonzo about trying to report on one of these massive hi-fi shows. It’s nigh impossible to strip oneself of the sensory overload one experiences at the show so that one can write about it in a sensible way.
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- Written by: Matt Bonaccio
- Category: High End 2024
Wenn schon, denn schon is an idiomatic phrase in German with no direct translation to English. Even to a native German, it’s one of those things that sounds like weird nonsense once you get thinking about it. In use, however, it’s very much akin to the English phrase, “If you’re gonna do something, you better go all the way.”
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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.
Subcategories
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