It was wood, glorious wood as Czech brand RD Acoustics displayed the smaller Euphoria and larger Evolution speakers, the latter with changeable diffuser/waveguide. Both looked amazing, were extremely tactile and made great music. Stand-by, I was told, for the launch of a third model at May’s High End in Munich. Voxativ showcased its new ‘born […]
As the temperature soared audiophiles queued in the unseasonable sunshine outside the Don Giovanni hotel in Prague for the start of a two-day hi-fi fest. Among the crowd was Ear special correspondent Trevor Butler. There’s clearly no shortage of enthusiasm for high-end audio in the Czech Republic if attendance at the Audio-Video Show is anything […]
The Bristol show is always a blast, this year some of that was provided by Hurricane Doris on the night before set-up day, this tore off a piece of building which closed the main route to the hotel. But it takes more than crazy traffic to stop a show like Sound & Vision and the […]
PMC are expanding their distribution portfolio with German electronics brand AVM, the rack above has their CS 2.2 (165W, £3,870), CS 5.2 (330W, £5,750) and CS 8.2 (500W, £11,695) CD/amp/streamers. The company's owner was at Bristol to explain why this is such a good idea and demonstrated as much via PMC twenty5.21 standmounts, the smallest […]
Nestling in the Bavarian countryside, Hifi-bauernhof in Altusried is without doubt one of the most unusual audio dealers in the world. Once a thriving cattle farm, now owned by Dietmar Sutter who was born on the Allgäu estate, it boasts six studios which have eight systems on demonstration at any time. The next generation is […]
A whole weekend dedicated to analogue audio is a treat for those who flock to the annual pilgrimage near Dusseldorf. Organised by Germany’s Analogue Audio Association, the Analog Forum finds a remote hotel and conference centre filled with all manner of record players, tape machines and predominantly, but not exclusively, valve electronics.We sent intrepid reporter […]
Smyth Research raised funding through Kickstarter to build the Realiser-A16 (above and below), a headphone processor that can emulate the surround effect of up to 16 channels. Designed for home cinema and gaming it works with Dolby Atmost, DTS-X and Auro-3D and does so with astonishing accuracy according to one industry vet. Price will be […]
The first Indulgence show was also the first event that the Ear has exhibited at, and it was a blast. The Novotel West’s exterior is about as inviting as the Death Star but once inside it’s a plush space to listen to great sound systems, live musicians and seminars on all things audio. Being spread […]
In a show that had its fair share of turntables, Hi-Fi Matters played the Perpetuum Ebner PE4040, a three-phase brushless design with floating, decoupled sub-chassis. Using Haydn Grand speakers from Vienna Acoustics, the music sounded clear and crisp. The two-way stand-mount has the company’s patented 6inch S3P Spidercone midrange along with a refined version of […]
The rural setting of a former convent at Koningshof (in Veldhoven just a few miles from the Dutch city of Eindhoven – famed for the Philips research headquarters) has hosted hi-fi events for over 25 years. This time it’s the annual X-Fi AudioShow. For 2016 the show was bigger than ever and, certainly on the […]
There weren’t so many rooms resonating with the sound of great music at Whittlebury this year, but the ones that were upped both the sound quality and musical diversity to make up for it. There was a strong emphasis on turntables with two new manufacturers making their debuts alongside a selection of new models from […]
My first CanJam and TBH I didn’t know what to expect. What I got was a large ballroom under a hotel in the middle of a roundabout near to Waterloo Station. Arranged around the room were various headphone and headphone accessory purveyors whose fare included all manner of head- and earphones, amplification, tips for earbuds, […]