Audio Video Show, Warsaw
This year’s international Audio Video Show in Warsaw marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the extremely popular Polish hi-fi event which is clearly back in full swing post-pandemic. It started in three central hotels before the loss of one in favour of the hospitality suites and TV studios at the city’s sporting stadium.
We were treated to no fewer than 600 brands shown by 150 exhibitors in 160 rooms spread across the Golden Tulip and Radisson Sobieski hotels plus dem rooms and an enormous open exhibition space over at the PGE Narodowy stadium a twenty-minute shuttle bus away through the city traffic.
Børresen Acoustics
Possibly the most lavish system at the entire event was a €2,000,000 example from Audio Group Denmark who launched the flagship Børresen Acoustics M6 loudspeaker (the largest they have even created) alongside the company’s Aavik electronics: P880 amplifiers, C880 preamplifier and SD880 reference streamer. The system drew crowds and long queues at one of the stadium’s TV studios which provided wonderful acoustics for such a high-end creation. The cabling alone was an eye-watering figure. Over at the Radisson they presented entry-level alternatives from their catalogue which were also very well received. For more information visit Børresen.
Art Loudspeakers
Long-time industry figure Derek Dunlop was proudly showing the latest from Art Loudspeakers, a firm he began in Troon with brother Ramsay in 1998. These are high-quality units, relying clearly on only the best components. The standmount two-way Emotion Diamond 6 was producing a lively sound with fast transient response from a Chris Isaak track and luxuriously clear midrange. The brand makes their own birch-ply cabinets and this £16,000 top-of-the-range design sports diamond dome tweeters which alone sell for £7,000 a pair. The baffles are cut from sheets of Richlite compressed paper/resin which is completely inert. These are partnered with a Nextel-treated paper-coned mid/bass unit from SEAS. Resolution, detail and transparency were superb.
Closer Acoustics
Of news value from Closer Acoustics was the Forlane floorstanding loudspeaker column unveiled to mark the Polish brand’s tenth anniversary, and its smallest tower. The oak/birch-ply cabinet was finished in American walnut veneer and houses the French 170mm EMS LB7 full range driver in an enclosure with unique diffuse resonance technology, common across Closer models. Frequency response of the €7,000 (net) Forlane is quoted at 40Hz-18kHz, which is intended to work well with low-power tube amps. Also new here was the OGY Bass module-cum-stand intended to partner the OGY bookshelf monitor, a full-range transmission line with smiley face vent on the front baffle. Interesting electronics here were the Closer 300B Provocateur tube integrated amplifier and Flō phono-stage/preamp.
8mm Audiolab
With the Italian word for ‘more’, the Piu floorstander (€20,000) from Lithuanian 8mm Audiolab promises more accuracy, more clarity, more expression and more life. It did not disappoint as founder/chief engineer Donatas Tamošiūnas demonstrated what he described as a chunk of oak, 90mm at the front and 40mm to the back and with a 40mm six-layer sandwich to the sides. We have four drive units: a 10-inch woofer, 12-inch woofer and 6.5-inch midrange unit along with a horn tweeter. For more information contact 8mm Audiolab.
Audio Phonique Statement One
Showcasing its Statement line, Polish valve specialist Audio Phonique entertained with the DHT DAC, PSE1605 tube amps and music server from their Classic range. The Statement One loudspeaker (€60,000 per pair) are encased in simply gorgeous cabinets. The three-way design boasts a pair of midrange drivers with tweeter between. The 400mm bass unit could certainly produce some thunderous LF in a clean, controlled fashion.
Cyrus/Audio Physic
Apart from their recently announced made-in-Germany £4,295 TTP turntable (due to enter production imminently), British brand Cyrus had the Avanti floorstanding speakers from Audio Physics. In a new distribution partnership with the German speaker firm, managing director Nicholas Clarke hoped it would be “a good fit” with his electronics which are made in Cambridgeshire The £8,495 slimline speakers (£9,095 in gloss finish) certainly partnered well.
Leema/Magneplanar
I am always impressed by the Magneplanar LRS+ panels and Warsaw was no exception where they were partnered with Welsh electronics courtesy of Leema Acoustics. The new Neutron preamp was used alongside the Graviton Class A/B power amp with its mighty 13kg toroidal transformer with separate windings for left and right channels. What’s staggering is that the electronics are just £1,500 each. The preamp has a DAC with three optical plus three coaxial inputs, USB and a phono stage
EPO
On the ground floor, amid a large vinyl exchange area which was busy the entire time, were EPO sound and a variety of bookshelf loudspeakers in colourful resin cabinets. It’s where art meets innovation, I was told by a very proud Polish producer. I was torn between transparent blue, metallic sapphire and the translucent turquoise. A larger, floorstanding option is also offered in equally stunning finishes.
Silent Pound Challenger
At the event last year with an exciting prototype concept, Silent Pound returned from Lithuania with a production-ready version of Challenger, their directional acoustics loudspeaker. Boasting three-times less room resonance than a conventional design, but without any extra room treatment, the floorstanding panel is likely to be €15,000 a pair. The patent-pending midrange chamber is the result of much R&D, as has the bass housing and the crossover which is now virtually finished along with horn optimization. The key feature is a constant directionality across the full audio spectrum (30Hz to 18kHz) from the 60kg units which will be offered in a range of gorgeous finishes. This is a developer we are going to hear a lot more from in the years ahead. A replay of Madonna’s Vogue was the most holographic, 3D presentation that I heard; simply phenomenal.
Electro Lab
A newly formed company down from Warsaw is Electro-lab who used the show to launch their first products. With an emphasis on valve-design, there is a 14,000PLN (£2,750) phono stage, power supply and a single-ended Class A integrated amp offering 10W/ch at 11,000PLN (£2,150). To accompany the electronics is a visually matching three-way infinite baffle (with integrated stand) for 16,000PLN (£3,140). The sound was inviting, detailed and attracting a lot of attention from showgoers.
Gold Note/Klipsch Jubilee
One of the larger, ground floor conference rooms saw the launch of Jubilee, the new Klipsch flagship loudspeaker and the last project that the company’s founder, Paul Klipsch, worked on. Originally, this model was planned as a successor to the iconic Klipschorns, but ultimately a much larger column was created, weighing as much as 185 kg and 175 cm high. Two 12-inch woofers and a 7-inch mid-tweeter provide an extremely high sensitivity of 107dB. The output was, shall we say, sensational. The room shared systems and electronics from Italian specialists Gold Note.
Mytek
In final form now, the Empire streamer from Mytek was drawing the crowds. Designed in Brooklyn by Michał Jurewicz and his R&D team, the 115,000PLN (£22,500) unit boasts no moving parts; there are no fans and no spinning drives. Cooling is by custom aluminium heat pipes while the DAC is shielded in a Faraday cage. The I7 processor boards can be easily upgraded as technology advances. This is launched the best DAC Mytek has ever built; using two 8-channel ES9038PRO chipsets, one per channel in a fully-balanced dual mono configuration.
GMI
Last year GMI brought us their incredible capacitor-drive preamp, with a phenomenal power reservoir; this year it was joined by the model 2B 200W monoblocks as an extension of their ‘extreme construction’ project which I was told is ‘just for fun and unlikely to come to market’, in a similar way to their somewhat JBL-looking loudspeakers which they admitted were “fractionally too large for the room!”. For next year I am told we can expect the amplifiers to be in gold.
Audio Solutions
Lithuania’s Audio Solutions continue to delight with show sounds, and the new iridescent copper finish on their Virtuoso B stand-mounts gave added enjoyment. The sound was so delightfully detailed, so transparent and yet full-bodied. All this for £9,000 plus stands.
Arya Airblade
The Airblade Hype add-on augmentation tweeter from Arya was an interesting addition to a Hungarian loudspeaker, the Pathway from manufacturer Schetl. A/B comparisons were offered with and without the €32,000 British add-on which promises 180-degree HF output and selectable crossover. The difference was clearcut enough, but worth the extra?
J.Sikora
Over the road at the Golden Tulip hotel, the event makes use of the first-floor conference rooms. In one of these an all-Polish line up saw the world premiere of the latest Poseidon DAC model from unmistakable Polish brand Lampizator famous for tube transducers. New active loudspeakers from Sveda Audio were also in use, in the form of Neons seeing their European debut, as was a J. Sikora company Reference turntable with Kevlar KV12 Zirconium arm (from Lublin) and Aidas Mammoth Gold cartridge. The total system cost was estimated at €212,500.
Audio Video Show 2023 stadium
Heading over to the stadium where there are more opportunities to buy vinyl and an enormous headphone area for a market segment which seems buoyant. This included the dCS Lina 2.0 and Lina file player with headphone amplifier in the latest 2. 0 version. Costing over 150,000 PLN (£29,399), it was probably the most expensive system dedicated to headphones at the show. The queue to even look at it, never mind listen, was immense.
CH Precision/Vivid Audio
One of the stadium rooms to make the most of the incredible view into the stadium (whereas most decided to obliterate it), was distributor Sound Source. They assembled a complete CH Precision system, using the D1.5 CD/SACD player/transport, C1.2 DAC/controller, L1 line-stage and A1.5 amplifier with the Vivid Giya G2 loudspeakers. They hosted some special musical events such as rock band Bruklin who played their debut album, while Kasia Klich presented her latest album, singing the works of the Polish Nobel laureate, Wisława Szymborska. All rather special.
Best Audio
While most of the stadium space was occupied by the ‘big names’ in audio, the giant corporations and conglomerates, I was excited to find Polish loudspeaker designer Konrad Ośmiałowski from Best Audio with his new two-way infinite baffle design. The 5,500PLN (£1,100) Archer One model is rated at 86dB sensitivity and is his first creation. It has a simply gorgeous cabinet housing a 7-inch Usher 8836AC Kevlar mid/bass driver and their T9930-20 dome tweeter. The quality was delightful: lively, dynamic with speed and agility.
Electrocompaniet
From Norway came electronic masters Electrocompaniet for the unveiling of the AW 800 M, their latest power amplifier. The new top-of-the-range monoblock replace the well-known AW 600 Nemo model and produces 300W into 8 Ohms. It is certainly a beast. Director Lasse Danielsen and technical director Volker Hunger were doing a sterling job explaining their virtues to a very receptive Warsaw audience.
Gato
Rather cleverly, seeing others struggle with the room acoustics, Gato from Denmark decided to play across the diagonal in their space, and it worked rather well. The sound was fresh, clean, crisp and fast. They used their new fully-balanced Pre-1 preamp with DAC module, the Pwr-222 power amp (20,000PLN/£4,000), SRV-1 Roon server (20,000PLN/£4,000) as the source, and FM-50 three-way, floorstanding speakers (27,295PLN/£5,350). These have two woofers with ring-radiator tweeter.
Innuos/Nagra
In the Innuos room they were using a Statement server/streamer with Nagra electronics; the HD DAC X with an HD preamp and HD monoblocks driving Rockport Technology Avior II loudspeaker. The sound was certainly impressive and proved popular with visitors. Meanwhile, down the corridor the Nagra Reference Anniversary Turntable turntable, costing PLN 800,000 (£145,000) and produced in a limited quantity of 70 pieces was on show but only via a rather long queue when I was there. The turntable features a precision dual-motor drive system, a belt-drive inspired by the Nagra IV tape machine, a floating hydraulic suspension, a unipivot arm with a unique geometric bearing shape, magnetic anti-skating, and a transparent methacrylate top plate that reveals the operation of the drive system and watchmaking details.
Marton
So many rooms were used in almost complete darkness and, with black boxes, it was hard to see any equipment detail. One such was Marton who had a massive solid-state dual-monoblock Opusculum 3 running Class-A, weighing 90kg and warm enough to cook sausages. The €70,000 Polish design is a sister of the Gigawatt brand.
Sound Culture
Another new, local company launching at the show was Sound Culture founded by Rafał Radziszewski and Krzystof Stefański. Their Jazz 1 Pro is a 9,000PLN (£1,760) two-way stand-mount reflex design (38Hz – 18kHz) with an HF adjustment on the rear panel. Featuring an Italian horn tweeter it provided real presence, involvement and an immersive sound when fed a jazz ensemble with female vocalist. Finish options are natural veneer oak or walnut. There are matching stands and other versions are in the pipeline, I was told, including a two-way compact bookshelf.
Zensati
Cables are not often my thing, but to see €380,000 of them on the floor of a single room was rather spectacular. Looking more like fire hoses the Zensati range, by Mark Johansen were used with rather lovely sounding Vivid Kaya K45 floorstanders.
WK Audio
It was cables again across the corridor when I met Witold Kamiński the founder and chief engineer of WK Audio. His cables are all hand-made in Poland and, after success with a range of power cords, he’s just launched loudspeaker cables, in red and only red. They have taken a year to perfect and now sell for €12,000 a set. The power leads are €5,000.
Tonprojeky
Warsaw-made valve amplifiers and loudspeakers were presented in a room complete with company dog mascot/security guard. Bringing the R&D test bench, to show just how they develop products, Grzegorz Kowalski of Tonprojeky presented a 6W/ch single-ended L60 output amplifier in a development box alongside a 4.8W EL84 amp presented as a dummy head. The design philosophy, I am told, is always ‘shortest signal path’ and always ‘power supply outside the enclosure’. And, they only ever use one vacuum tube per channel. Pair-matching is something of a black art and best avoided, I learn. Everything is lovingly hand-made in Warsaw.
Peak Consult
The new high-end Peak Consult Sonora loudspeakers, costing €25,000 were premiered. The least substantial model by Per Kristoffersen, Sonora floorstanders were partnered with the latest version of the Dutch brand Extraudio XP5 MKII tube preamplifier and XP-A2000 mono amplifiers, with the new Extraudio DAC2 converter as the source.
HiSoQ
High Sound Quality, or HiSoQ as they trade, are a Polish electronics brand that attracted huge support at the event. They specialise in tailor-made high-end systems to meet users’ specific requirements. The amplifier in use had enormous VU meters which proved something of a draw. Alas my polish, not to mention the background noise of the packed room, made it hard to find out exactly what products Karel Piepiérka could assist with or how the service worked.
Lumin
The Lumin L2 music library/network switch was doing sterling service in the 110Hz room which used Gradient R5 loudspeakers from Finland to great effect. With a live jazz track playing there was tremendous presence, a vibrancy and the acoustics of the recording venue clearly coming through. Westminster Labs electronics (Quest and Rei) were well partnered in a cohesive system
Lucarto Audio
Łukasz Kisiel has founded Lucarto Audio and creates a range of handmade tube amplifiers in Poland. Apart from a more standard black finish there are also options in a rather attractive light-wood detail. His brochure has superb photography and this is clearly a very professional operation. Handcrafted loudspeakers are also being produced along with the Ferro tube DAC and Ferro DSD player/streamer. The sound quality was stunning, even under hotel conditions.
Trevor Butler
Part 2 of our coverage from Audio Video Show 2023 is here