I bumped into a well-known face in the Harmony Audio room as Scott Berry, founder of CAD, was revealing just what his Ground Control devices (favoured by the Ear) can do using a Bob Dylan track through some impressive Zanden electronics comprising: model 120 phono preamplifier, model 3100 line preamplifier, model 8120 stereo amplifier from […]
Serving not just Holland but also attracting visitors from nearby Belgium, Eindhoven’s XFi is the premier audio event in Benelux. Organised by audiophiles Caspar Bunge and Ton van der Veeken it is well-known for product surprises, so we sent Trevor Butler across the Channel to investigate. Billed as the biggest and best high-end event in […]
SME announced a rather different turntable called Synergy (£14,950). This has a phono stage built into the plinth and is supplied with an arm based on the Series IV and an Ortofon Windfield PWTi moving coil cartridge. The turntable has suspension like that on the SME Model 10 while the arm and electronics are wired […]
With the main Munich High End well underway we sent Trevor Butler across the city to the breakaway Hi-Fi Deluxe event at the Marriott hotel in Berliner Strasse to see what’s happening on the other side of the tracks. This show is an eclectic mix of those who could not secure space at the High […]
The Munich High End show is a veritable tsunami of hi-fi in all its many shapes and colours, the more unusual the shapes and colours the better. This year saw a new wave of brands from the near and far east arrive in the halls and atria of the MOC exhibition centre but on the […]
Oh, look – a Garrard 301, but not as you’d know it. This is a $19,000 re-build with virtually the only part left from the original being the badge, so perhaps we can’t really call it a 301 at all? Offering 78, 45 and 33 speeds, it was used with a $9,000 Supreme Analogue Tangenta […]
Chicago’s annual audio show, now the biggest hi-fi gathering in North America, relocated to a new venue for 2018 and Trevor Butler went Stateside to find out how the move went down with audiophiles. Rather amusingly referred to by some of my BBC friends as ‘the one-ten volt show’, Axpona is an acronym for Audio […]
Technics have clearly been encouraged by the success of the new SL-1200s and have been inspired to build a new version of their top turntable from back in the day, the SP-10. The new SP-10R has a composite platter with a 10mm thick brass top layer to bring mass up to 7.9kg, a coreless direct […]
Way out west, that’s where you need to be on the penultimate weekend in February every year. Head for the Marriot Hotel in Bristol and you will find it awash with sound systems and audio enthusiasts clamouring to hear them. That at least is the impression you get on the Friday morning of the show […]
Scandinavia boasts a number of well-known audio brands as well as many more whose products are often not seen outside the territory. Trevor Butler went to Stockholm to investigate the high-end scene at the annual High-End Mässan [fair] held over a wintery weekend. With the snow falling outside the warm welcome of the region’s largest […]
International man of mystery Trevor Butler continues his tour of the Holiday Inn, Hamburg in a quest to bring you first hand info about great sound and cool hardware at Germany’s second biggest show. See also part one of this show report. I felt rather at home with the re-conditioned Otari MX55 (€2,600) reel-to-reel recorder […]
The snow fell outside but inside the Holiday Inn tower block on the outskirts of Hamburg there was a real buzz. Long before the official opening the corridors were crammed with keen audiophiles who had flocked to this dealer-organised event.Norddeutsche HiFi-Tage – or North Germany Hi-fi Days – is arranged by local retailer Hifi Studio […]