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Audio Video Show 2022: Aretai’s Arm-Twisting Contra 100S Loudspeaker Snags the Runner-up Spot
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Parent Category: Shows-Events
Michael Corleone famously said, “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!” I now know the feeling.
It was late in the day on Sunday, October 30. I’d taken thousands of steps to and through the various Audio Video Show exhibits in all three locations and was ready to call it a day. I was about to put my camera away. Then I walked into one more room at the Radisson Blu Sobieski, and I was sucked back into show reporting.
Audio Video Show 2022: Melody Gardot in (an Offsite) Concert
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Parent Category: Shows-Events
Prior to my departure from Toronto, I received an email from Adam Mokrzycki, the organizer of Audio Video Show 2022, asking if I had any interest in attending a concert featuring jazz singer Melody Gardot. Gardot happened to be playing, you see, in Warsaw on the night of Friday, October 28, which just happened to be the first day of the show.
Audio Video Show 2022: Silent Pound’s Challenger Speaker Is Something Special or Shite
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Parent Category: Shows-Events
In the Radisson Blu Sobieski location, I walked into the room occupied by Silent Pound—a brand name I still don’t understand—and stopped dead in my tracks. Fellow SoundStager Jason Thorpe saw me staring at a speaker ahead of me and asked, “Is it something?”
Audio Video Show 2022: Tentogra’s New WoWo Turntable Is a Bargain
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Parent Category: Shows-Events
We’ve seen and featured Tentogra turntables in previous Audio Video Show reports. This Polish company’s premier turntable, the Oscar, now at Mk III status, is an over-the-top monster with its own battery supply, which is configurable to provide up to 68 hours of running on a single charge. Each time I encounter the Oscar, I’m startled by how much technology and innovation the company can jam into this thing. At $33,000 (all prices USD), the Oscar’s price is certainly reasonable, but it’s hard in any light to consider that much money for a turntable as an actual bargain.
Audio Video Show 2022: Jason Falls for Retro with Audio Note, Shubi, and Falcon Acoustics
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Parent Category: Shows-Events
What’s happened to me? I thought I knew my preferences. Jason likes well-damped boxes and drivers appropriately chosen for their intended frequencies. None of that fussy, retro stuff that inward-looking audiophiles like to champion.
Audio Video Show 2022: Special Speakers at PGE Narodowy Stadium
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Parent Category: Shows-Events
As I mentioned in my article on the three Audio Video Show 2022 locations, the event is too big for us to cover everything, even with two of us here (Jason Thorpe joined me again this year). We’d need five of us to tackle the whole show—and even then I’m not sure we could get it all within three days. As a result, we have to pick and choose what to include in our reports.
Audio Video Show 2022: The Bargain of the Show So Far
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Parent Category: Shows-Events
It’s worth spending good money on high-quality products. What’s better than that, though, is finding high-quality products at bargain prices. This doesn’t happen very often, but Doug Schneider and I are right now at Audio Video Show 2022 in Warsaw, Poland, and there are bargains to be had in this city, at this show.
Audio Video Show 2022: Records! Lots of Records!
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Parent Category: Shows-Events
The last time I attended AVS was back in 2019. I recall that there were a number of vendors selling LPs at the PGE Narodowy stadium, but this year it seemed like they had seriously multiplied. On the main floor of the stadium, there were two separate areas, each occupied by several different vendors. While there were some CDs for sale, the vast majority of these sectors were taken up with vinyl. Lots of vinyl.
Audio Video Show 2022: The Most Beautiful Speakers in the World
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Parent Category: Shows-Events
I know, I know—our beat here at Audio Video Show 2022 is supposed to be new products, but over breakfast this morning, Doug and I discussed a potentially different approach for covering this event.
Audio Video Show 2022: My Modest Hotel-Room System
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Parent Category: Shows-Events
I need to listen to music while I write. I guess it’s a Pavlovian response that I’ve drilled into myself over the last two decades of contributing to the SoundStage! Network. So by necessity I have to bring something along with me to shows and on essentially any expedition where I’m going to have to generate copy.
Audio Video Show 2022: Pre-Show Warsaw Quickie—Ferrum Audio Factory Tour
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Parent Category: Shows-Events
With a focus squarely on headphone amplifiers and linear power supplies, Ferrum Audio is one of those companies that’s flown under my radar up to this point. The headquarters of Ferrum Audio is here in Warsaw, though, and the offer of a tour of its facilities on Thursday, one day before Audio Video Show 2022 started, had me Googling the brand right quick.
Audio Video Show 2022: Understanding the Three Locations to Better Understand the Show
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Parent Category: Shows-Events
Since I travel to so many hi-fi shows around the world, I often get asked for my opinion about each one. In fact, right now I’m in Warsaw, Poland, getting ready to cover Audio Video Show 2022, which will run from October 28 to 30.
New Noise #6: A Fall Arriving
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- Written by: Jason Davis
- Parent Category: BloggingOnAudio
Our new-to-us forever home is a mid-century modern designed by architect Carter Sparks for builders Jim and Bill Streng, Sacramento’s mid-century modern specialists. Sparks studied under Joseph Eichler’s architects, the former designing more than 3000 homes in the Golden State’s capital. Ours features a post-and-beam aesthetic, east-facing sliders and windows, and a large internal atrium skylight with exposed aggregate walkways and three internal garden beds.
One Day at Toronto Audiofest 2022
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Parent Category: Shows-Events
Opinion
Here’s the thing about Toronto, Canada: I don’t think it’s all that pleasant or pretty once you get too far from the downtown core. That comment might piss off some people I know, but I also know many others who will agree with me. Toronto, like any large city, has its pros and cons. But what can’t be disputed is that it’s the Canadian city that the world knows well, probably because of its professional sports teams (the Blue Jays, Raptors, and Maple Leafs), finance sector, film industry, and population.
Hans's New Digs: Living Room System—Focal, NAD, and KEF
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- Written by: Hans Wetzel
- Parent Category: BloggingOnAudio
Since I began writing for SoundStage! back in 2011, I’ve written from—erm—compromised listening spaces. My grad school apartment building was full of senior citizens whom I respected too much to play music too loudly. My first apartment with my now-wife was a 750-square-foot concrete studio in Center City Philadelphia that was an acoustic nightmare. And our century-old, 1020-square-foot first home together, in South Philadelphia, was a long, narrow row house that left my stereo most of the way down the long wall of its open-floor-plan first floor, resulting in horrendous room modes. I vowed that if we ever lived that suburban life, I would have two things: (1) a proper listening room that was truly my own, with as few compromises as possible, and (2) a big family room with a nice television and an audio system that was both inconspicuous and super user friendly.
Michi On a Budget?: Celebrating 60 Years of Rotel With the Diamond Series RA-6000 Integrated Amplifier-DAC and DT-6000 DAC/CD Transport
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- Written by: Roger Kanno
- Parent Category: BloggingOnAudio
When I spoke with Rotel’s CTO, Daren Orth, last year about the company’s decidedly high-end Michi X5 integrated amplifier-DAC I was reviewing at the time, he emphasized how the Michi products weren’t just intended to be one-off designs to show off what Rotel engineers could create at higher price points. Instead, they were designed as scalable platforms that could be used as a basis for other Rotel products. Some of that Michi technology went into very affordable models like the MKII versions of the brand’s A and RA series of integrated amplifiers, but to celebrate its 60th anniversary, Rotel has gone all out by introducing two top-of-the-line components in its new Diamond series, the DT-6000 DAC/CD transport ($2299, all prices in USD) and the RA-6000 integrated amplifier-DAC ($4499). While products in the new Diamond series have the same general appearance as other Rotel products with traditional black and silver finishes and slightly updated cosmetics, they are described as having “Michi-inspired” circuit designs.
The UK in SoCal for the Bowers & Wilkins 700 Series 3 Launch—Looking and Listening
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
Traveling
If you regularly read my articles, watch my videos, and/or follow me on social media, you’ll probably already know that I like to travel to hi-fi companies around the world. In fact, I think I’ve already visited more companies than any hi-fi writer ever has—and I don’t plan on stopping any time soon.
CanJam SoCal 2022: Headphones, Part 2
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- Written by: Brent Butterworth
- Parent Category: Shows-Events
Herewith please find my third and concluding installment from the 2022 Southern California CanJam headphone show, which ran September 17 and 18 at the Irvine Marriott in Irvine, California, south of Los Angeles. We’ve already covered earphones in our first segment and some headphones in our second segment, and now we’ll wrap up with more headphones. Companies are listed in alphabetical order, and all prices are in USD.
CanJam SoCal 2022: Headphones, Part 1
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- Written by: Brent Butterworth
- Parent Category: Shows-Events
Here’s my second installment from the 2022 Southern California CanJam headphone show, which filled a large ballroom and a couple of hallways at the Irvine Marriott in Irvine, California, south of Los Angeles. Our first installment focused on earphones; this one will focus on headphones, and I’ll follow up soon with a second one on headphones. Companies are listed in alphabetical order, and all prices are in USD.
The Joys of DIY Audio
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- Written by: Matt Bonaccio
- Parent Category: BloggingOnAudio
Though they were less numerous than today, a plethora of hi-fi companies in the postwar era developed and sold the products that laid the groundwork for stereo both as a hobby and as ubiquitous home entertainment. Some of their names are recognizable to us still: loudspeakers by Klipsch and Tannoy; electronics from McIntosh Laboratory and Harman/Kardon; turntables by Thorens and, later on, Technics. Today, these companies are regarded as hi-fi royalty, with reputations built on their accomplishments more than half a century ago. However, off-the-shelf speakers and electronics weren’t an early hi-fi enthusiast’s only option: in the days of stereo’s infancy, it was not uncommon for one to assemble or even fabricate the components of the system oneself.
CanJam SoCal 2022: Earphones
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- Written by: Brent Butterworth
- Parent Category: Shows-Events
The annual Southern California CanJam show took place September 17 and 18 at the Irvine Marriott in Irvine, California, south of Los Angeles. The show seemed to be fully in post-pandemic mode. The large ballroom at the Marriott that held most of the displays was packed, and some of the companies—Audeze, Focal, and ZMF, to name a few—were so swamped with visitors that it was difficult to get a listen.
Mobile Fidelity and Walking Through the Vinyl Jungle
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- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Parent Category: BloggingOnAudio
It’s rare for something that would normally be of interest to a few audiophiles—a small slice of an already small pie—to get attention from the outside world. I was among the many vinyl lovers who were following what became known as the Mobile Fidelity scandal for a few weeks when the Washington Post published a story about it on August 5th. Two days earlier, SoundStage! Global had posted a piece by Matt Bonaccio that gave an overview of how the story unfolded, so I’ll direct you to those links for the details.
Denmark’s DALI Expands Its Global Hi-Fi Reach—Factory Tour and Observations
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Parent Category: Company Tours
Quick! What’s the second-largest hi-fi speaker manufacturer in the world? I’d say that you’ll never guess, but since this article is gonna tell you about my recent tour of the DALI factory in Nørager, Denmark, I think I may have given it away.
The DALI Kore Loudspeaker Experience: To Copenhagen and Beyond
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Parent Category: Company Tours
“On your left you can see the Queen of Denmark’s residence, and if you look over to the right, you can see shipping containers converted into university students’ residences,” said our guide as we putted through Copenhagen’s harbor on a tour boat.
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