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Category: Audio Video Show 2024

As the boys and I—and by “boys,” I mean SoundStage! founder Doug Schneider and Ultra editor Jason Thorpe—finished our survey of PGE Narodowy, we wandered into Polish distributor SoundClub’s room. Though it wasn’t a part of the Super-System Alley we’d just checked out, the EgglestonWorks loudspeakers displayed were brain-meltingly good. They are also wallet-meltingly expensive. As the distributor is based in Poland, all the prices that follow are in zlotys.

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Category: Audio Video Show 2024

If you’ve read some of my output on SoundStage! Hi-Fi, you’ve probably picked up that I’m quite fond of DIY audio. I’ll cop to regularly visiting the DIY Audio Forum, North America’s premier message board for building amps, DACs, speakers, and more. Imagine my surprise when I learned that Poland has a DIY forum of its own, and then multiply that by about a billion when I found that the moderators of the site had ponied up for a room at this year’s Audio Video Show.

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Category: Audio Video Show 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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Category: Audio Video Show 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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Category: Audio Video Show 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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Category: Audio Video Show 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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Category: Audio Video Show 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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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.

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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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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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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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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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Category: Aron Garrecht

In the first part of this series, I outlined the key design considerations for my new media room, explained my design process, and described the more exciting aspects of the room’s construction. Once the walls were ready for millwork, I proceeded to install the lighting, followed by the carpet and chairs, and, finally, the woodwork details on the wainscoting and coffered ceiling. With all of that in place, the room was starting to resemble the bones of a theater, and I was excited to begin building and installing the cabinetry destined to conceal the subwoofers, stereo components, and home-theater electronics.

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Category: Jason Thorpe

As I’ve mentioned before in this space, I live in a community of townhouses in east-end Toronto. My friend Rob lives at the end of a block of four units, so he’s essentially semidetached. My other audiophile neighbor, Ron, is two doors down. For the first installment of this saga, we’d placed two SB-2000 Pro subs in Ron’s place, backing up his LS3/5a monitors. A pair of SVS 3000 Micros went to Rob’s house, where they augmented his Focus Audio FP60 BEs. Everyone involved was having a ton of fun, with the possible exception of the unfortunate neighbor sandwiched between them. That said, Ron and Rob are well-liked in this group of nine homes, so I doubt there are any problems.

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Category: Aron Garrecht

Around 15 years ago, my wife and I upgraded from a condo to a large duplex. During our search for our next home, I had but three criteria: a two-car garage, space for a wine cellar, and a decent-sized spare room that I could convert into a modest home theater. At the time, I never would have called myself an audiophile, and I knew diddly-squat about room acoustics or how to treat them. All I knew was I wanted a big screen, a high-quality projector, and a half-decent 7.2 surround-sound system.

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Category: Jason Thorpe

It began right after the YG Acoustics Peaks Ascent speakers went back to Colorado. The speakers had spent their final weeks in Canada over at Rob’s place, and Rob had been loving the experience. He’s had three different sets of speakers in his system over the past while, including my own Aurelia Cerica XLs and, after the YGs went back, my Focus Audio FP60 BEs.

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Category: Roger Kanno

When I was first approached about reviewing NAD Electronics’ new Masters M66 preamplifier, the Canadian company’s PR rep proposed sending along one of NAD’s M23 power amplifiers to complement the new flagship preamplifier. Sure, no problem, I thought, but what about using the M66 with two M23s, operating in bridged mode? According to the company’s specifications, this setup should deliver a pulse-pounding 700Wpc into 8 ohms, making for an absolutely killer state-of-the-art system. Lenbrook Industries, NAD’s parent company, must think similarly, because this same setup was used at the AXPONA show in Chicago, back in May, to drive the $60,000-per-pair (all prices in USD) DALI Epikore 11s. Lenbrook distributes DALI in North America. So, it wasn’t long before a big stack of boxes arrived on my doorstep from NAD.

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Category: Jason Thorpe

At 7200 feet above sea level, Santa Fe, New Mexico, is the highest state capital in the US. I’ve experienced higher altitudes, but nothing approaching this in the last 40 years. A couple of hours after arriving in Santa Fe for the launch of Siltech’s new Master Crown series of cables, I ran across the road from my hotel to the gas station to buy a few bottles of water. As I stepped up on the curb, I felt a touch lightheaded and way more out of breath than I expected. That ain’t right, I thought to myself.

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Category: Jonathan Gorse

A couple of years ago while reporting from High End in Munich, I was enjoying the superb million-dollar system in Nagra’s room, when they introduced a presentation by a recording engineer named Mike Valentine. With so much to report on, I wasn’t sure I could spare the time to stay, but thanks to my fascination with the recording process, I couldn’t resist. What followed was one of the most engaging presentations I have ever heard—on any subject.

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Category: Jason Thorpe

So, I got a panicked call from my buddy Marc. It was a veritable audio emergency.

I’ve known Marc for about 14 years—he was originally (and still is) my wife’s friend. They’d gone to the same high school in her small town, and were part of the same still-close friend group. Marc works in the movie industry, and for a number of years he stayed at our house during the week to avoid the two-hour commute back home.

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