Sydney turned up the sunshine and the sound quality for a spectacular Australian Hi‑Fi Show 2026, held in the heart of the city, near Central Station and Chinatown. The boutique Sydney Central Hotel opened up four floors to the Show’s systems and sounds over three days, from official firing-up time at 2pm on Friday 1st May, until the volume pots dipped their last at 4pm on Sunday 3rd May.
Rooms and suites were filled with hi-fi systems combining sculptural speakers and high-end stacks with streaming simplicity and intuitive phone-based control. Especially welcome was a new ‘Homegrown Hi-Fi’ area for the Corridor of Sound up on the ninth floor, showcasing a serious selection of Australian-made audio – which proved to include several of the Show’s top attractions.
There was also a strong home cinema contingent this year, covering both the affordable and the aspirational, with a pair of full big-screen projection rooms offering action on Level 1, plus immersive soundbar demonstrations up in the Corridor of Sound, and a special basement theatre showcasing Leica’s award-winning projection skills. We’ll start our coverage down there at the bottom of the Sydney Central, working our way through the four floors to the top.
Lower Ground
Leica Camera Australia
Leica’s bright, colourful and comfortable lower ground cinema room was packed when we entered, with three different demonstrations running. Two of these used the ultra-short-throw Cine 1 ‘Cinema TV’, a gorgeous object in itself, while gaining from Leica’s skills in glass making to deliver edge-to-edge sharp imaging, less aberrated than rival lenses. The Cine 1 has been in the market for a few years now, but has recently been slashed in price almost by half, making it far more competitive against rivals (and prompting us to ‘renew’ a Sound+Image award originally presented at the higher original price).
Leica had one Cine 1 projecting onto the 120-inch Leica ambient-light-rejecting screen which can be purchased for an extra $1000 with the Cine 1.
To the right, projecting onto a bare white wall, was the Leica Cine Play 1 mini projector, which was deliberately set up off-axis to show how it can nevertheless use its built-in smarts to deliver a bright and colourful large-screen image.
One clever demonstration trick invoked by Leica’s Shaun McMahon was to pop on a few spotlights to mimic ambient daylight. While this caused significant wash-out on the two projectors that directly illuminated the walls, it had almost no discernable effect on the ALJ screen image – showing how valuable such a screen can be when considering these systems as replacements for TVs, including use in daytime environments.
Mcleans Smarter Home Entertainment
The distributing retailer, now based back in Long Jetty between Tuggerah Lake and the Pacific Ocean, provided another oasis of calm in the Lower Ground, with tall Magnepan MG2.7X planar-magnetic loudspeakers rolling out what are always top tunes under the control of Bill and Margaret Mclean, on this visit including Dr. John’s 2022 kick-arse I Walk On Guilded Splinters and Mary Gaultier’s Falling Out Of Love. Both served to highlight the delicious delicacy of the Magnepan full-range dipole speakers, which are a three-way design with 101cm true ribbon tweeters supported by foil bass and midrange. Yet as both the Dr John and later billie eilish’s My Strange Addiction proved, they could also grab a bassline and run tight and strong with it. Impressive stuff at $16,990 a pair.
In support of the speakers were an Innuos Pulsar music streamer streaming Qobuz and Tidal via via Roon, into Audio Research’s REF6SE preamplifier via a massive $55k LampizatOr Pacific 2 valve-based high-res DAC, and on to Pass Labs’ X350.8 stereo power amplifier, with FoilFlex cables and IsoTek power conditioning.
Ground Floor
Bowers & Wilkins / Marantz
In one of the big ground floor suites, the ex-Masimo now-Harman brands put on a grand display around the main system of Marantz 10 series electronics driving the Turbine-Headed Bowers & Wilkins 802 D4 from the current B&W 800 Series Diamond.
While Marantz’s Model 10 amplifier can operate as a standard integrated amplifier, this system had the Link 10n preamplifier driving two separate Model 10s in what the company now calls a “leader and member” arrangement, which can address up to four Model 10s switched into mono mode.
The fourth box on the Atacama rack was the system source, Marantz’s SACD 10 flagship SACD/CD player and DAC, which the company says was “designed to be the best disc player in the company’s history”. This combination was playing some right doof-doof when we entered but soon settled into a glorious delivery of Anders Gaardmand’s saxophone and Bruce Katz’s close-miked piano on Ronnie Earl’s Kansas City Monarch, sounding great in a well-treated room, with power conditioners secreted behind the system.
Around the sides of the room were some spectacular extras. To the right was a history of classic B&W speakers, featuring the DM3 (1968), DM6 (1975), the 802 Series 80 (1980s), the DM100 (1986) and the 803 D2 (2010).
To the left were two of Bowers & Wilkins’ most spectacular ever designs. First was the current ‘Abbey Road x Bowers & Wilkins 801 D4 Limited Edition’ speakers, featuring a specialised Vintage Walnut finish and red Connolly leather on top, referencing Abbey Road and their 45-year partnership with Bowers. These were limited to 140 pairs worldwide, and this single speaker comes from the last pair available in Australia, we gather (hasten to Len Wallis Audio if you’re interested).
Even more spectacular was a rare showing of the Bowers & Wilkins Nautilus, $165,000 of flagship snail curves in bright red, quite the sight!
Synergy AudioVisual – Sonus faber, McIntosh, REL, Rega, ATC
As ever, Synergy’s room was constantly packed: seats full, standing at the rear. And there was a lot going on, with multiple systems available for demonstration.
The main attraction was the central system (total value around $716,000), with Sonus faber Amati Supreme speakers in ‘Terra Rossa’ red (the only pair currently in the Southern Hemisphere, according to the team), supported by no fewer than six REL S/550 subwoofers configured as two three-high line arrays at the back of the room, receiving their signals at speaker level chained through them all, as is REL’s way: so no crossover reducing the bass to the Sonus fabers, which continue to run full-range.
Four McIntosh power amps were driving the Sonus fabers in an interesting biamping arrangement selected by Synergy guru Jack Sarkissian. Each channel had an all-valve MC3500 monoblock driving the highs and mids, while the bass drivers were driven by solid-state MC1.25KW monoblocks (1200W into any impedance, THD 0.005%). So solid-state grip for the bass, a certain valve sweetness for the ‘voice of Sonus faber’ mids and tweeter, though Sonus faber is famously pretty sweet up top anyway (and Mr Sarkissian admits his personal choice might be for solid state all over).
These four giant monoblocks, together with the McIntosh MCD1200 DAC/SACD player and C12000 preamp and controller, created a wondrous wall of McIntosh blue-teal to keep the visitors visually delighted while being audibly thrilled by the music selected by Synergy MD Philip Sawyer. Responding to audience requests, he showed the effect of the RELs by taking them out of circuit while playing Steely Dan’s I.G.Y. It was an effective dem, but we were informed later that we had visited rather too early, on the first day of the Show: the RELs were still being tuned perfectly to integrate perfectly with the Amati Supremes.
So we returned the next day to hear the RELs working with more subtlety. Without them the speakers alone sounded, well, more speaker-like, less real, less depth of soundstaging. With the RELs in circuit the room was fully excited, the delivery larger, and rather smoother-sounding and real all over. Since some of these characteristics require more than the bass spectrum, the exercise is interesting in showing how bass frequencies may affect our perception across the rest of the spectrum.
The entire demo was also a spectacular advertisement for the source, which was vinyl, being played on Rega’s range-topping $22,000 Naiad turntable; we have rarely heard vinyl so immaculately rendered through a system not exactly short on resolving power.
A second system in this room was also demonstrated, using loudspeakers by ATC, renowned in both pro and hi-fi circles for making everything from drivers to cabinets at its base in Gloucestershire, UK. Their speakers come in somewhat bewildering combinations: these were the three-way SCM50 ASLT from the company’s Tower series. ATC’s late founder Billy Woodman was always keen on perfecting piano tone, we were told, and a demonstration using a Prague Piano Duet of Chopin’s Polonaise in E Flat Major proved his success nicely.
Yamaha Music Australia
Next door Yamaha, which also had a room up on the ninth floor, was running a relaxing and well-treated room, doused in the company colours. A guitar display at the back reminded visitors of Yamaha’s musical heritage (complete with Wayne’s World signs saying ‘No Stairway to Heaven’), while Pink Floyd’s Us & Them drifted effortlessly from the NS-2000A speakers under the control of the company’s R-N2000A network hi-fi receiver. New Order’s Blue Monday later showed how the system could punch as well as roll out the relaxant.
The source here was a streaming laptop playing into the USB-B input of the R-N2000A, but you could equally stream using the amplifier’s own MusicCast platform, so that this system also represented excellence value – $9999 speakers, $5299 amplifier, plus cables, all done.
Level 1 Mezzanine
Wavetrain Cinemas / Elementi
You don’t win CEDIA Global Home Cinema of the Year just by putting a few speakers and a projector in a room, as Wavetrain’s David Moseley clearly demonstrated with his uber-powerful display in one of the First Floor Mezzanine ballroom suites.
On speaker duties was Moseley’s own Elementi Audio, with the Air series being used this year, notable for its use of ribbon tweeters. David says this design is more “relaxed” compared to some of his other systems that use compression tweeters, which are more “in your face”.
Two 18-inch and two 24-inch subs (the latter two receiving 10,000W each!) were on bass duties, although his front and rear LR speakers were also on the LFE channel.
A Christie Digital RGB laser projector served up scintillating visuals, with a full Kaleidescape system providing the source material.
And what a joy it was to admire. Iconic scenes from Sinners and Top Gun: Maverick delivered detail in spades, and a whole lot more power to boot. Meanwhile scenes from Planet Earth revealed the Elementi system could be delicate when required.
We always expect big things from the Wavetrain room, and as ever David didn’t disappoint. We heard countless exclaims of “amazing” and “wow” during our rounds at the Show.
BenQ + Oceanic
Oceanic Distribution also ran a full cinema demonstration on Level 1, leading with the projection prowess of the BenQ 5850W home cinema front projector with its usefully short-throw abilities, 2600 lumens output, and the claimed ability to deliver 100% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut for its DLP 4K images created by the CTA-approved version of DLP pixel-shifting. Its high dynamic range includes HDR10+ dynamic tone mapping alongside standard HDR10 and HLG.
The sound in the room was produced via the new AudioControl Hyperion APR-16 immersive surround processor, a 16-channel platform which incorporates ESS Sabre digital-to-analogue conversion and supports high-resolution audio formats up to 24-bit/192kHz.
Craig Hicks, manning the room, told us they are particularly excited about the imminent Dante models from AudioControl: Dante sends audio over IP cables (Cat 6 Ethernet-style), which allows signals to remain digital all the way. With no analogue stage or DACs required, the processor is expected to be more affordable, while also making great savings in cables, of course, with Cat-6 used instead of potentially pricey audio signal cables.
Also in the room was a display of Stealth speakers, installed invisibly within dry wall, and some super-comfy and colourful Manhattan cinema seating.
Meridian / Cogworks
Notably and bravely providing a buffer space between the two home cinemas on Level 1 was Cogworks, demonstrating the marvellous minimalism of Meridian’s $138,000 DSP9 Digital Active Speakers, performing in front of the rather smaller Meridian Ellipse wireless speaker. At one point we wondered if they were doing a 'Bose', ready to whip away large cardboard DSP9s to reveal that we had been listening to the little wireless speaker all along.
But no, a beautifully-rendered version of Shine on You Crazy Diamond by Christy Moore, and an impressively dynamic delivery of Phil Collins’ chestnut I Don’t Care Anymore showed the quality of the large white and very solid DSP9s. These were the second speakers to emerge from the company’s ‘Extreme Engineering Programme’, gifted ellipse-based design curves and endless proprietary technologies… such as (brace yourself) the Atlas Software Core and R1 Electronics Platform, Force-balanced bass configuration, Digital Precision, Q-Sync, True Link, True Time, E3 Bass, Image Focus… and we're just getting started.
The irony is that operation is simplicity itself, with just a Meridian 218 Zone Controller providing the streaming tunes and control over this zone of high-resolution audio playback.
beyerdynamic
The German headphonemeisters were back with a strong line of latest headwear and current classics, including the award-winning Aventho 100 wireless noise-cancellers, along with the Aventho 200 ($449).
Of particular interest were two new awareness-based wireless earbuds, the Amiron 200 Sport ($299) and the Amiron Zero ($199). The Zeros clip either side of the outer lobe and sit far off the actual ear canal (see ear picture) whereas the 200 Sport has a much larger driver and is rather closer.
Syntec’s Wayne Farran, manning the stand, promises that this is an ‘awareness’ product which sounds good – “one of the first open-earbuds that doesn’t treat 'open as a built-in excuse for mediocre sound!” as the company’s website says. We’ll tell you more in the magazine when we’ve played with a pair!
RokBox / Top Shelf Records
The racks of vinyl this year were brought by Top Shelf Records based out of Balmain; check their Facebook page for their ongoing events across the Sydney area.
Alongside the vinyl was RokBox, a brand-new offshoot of Melbourne-based groovinandgrain.com.au focusing on cardboard boxes and packaging for your precious vinyl records. Owners Lorinda and Michael talked us through the ranges which include large sturdy boxes for transporting vinyl – a key focus for these might be sellers who attend record fairs, suggests Lorinda. But they also plan a series of stylish consumer boxes to “recreate what our parents did,” says Lorinda, “visiting friends and taking not only food to share but a box of records to play.”
The greater 'Groovin' and Grain' operation also deals in furniture for vinyl records and music media, as well as vintage radiograms which have been been restored and modernised, something made possible by Michael’s dual skills as upholsterer and electronics boffin.
Secret Chord Analogue
Along with his signature product, the Record Restore cleaning system, SCA’s founder Stephen Price was showing a collection of Canadian-designed/made archival record sleeves, including handy dual-pocket and gatefold covers, as well as inner and outer sleeves in a variety of sealable, foldable or lipped options.
Our eyes were drawn to a black unit on the stand which was the Flat Duo from AFI, described as a groundbreaking innovation in the world of record care. It is a record flattener/relaxer, using heat to remove either warps or more serious disc distortions; it can treat two LPs at once, and the flattening technique uses a high temperature for a short time, while the relaxer takes longer (three hours, says Stephen) at a lower temperature.
This also has the effect of ‘tempering’ the vinyl, he says; during vinyl pressing LPs are rapidly and often unevenly cooled after high-temperature pressing, with material stresses frozen in the material – and audible. Tempering apparently allows the molecules to align themselves naturally, making the material harder, more robust and providing more accurate playback. It’s the vinyl tool you never knew you needed…
Sydney Audio Club
The Sydney Audio Club hosts monthly listening sessions and tech talks for members and guests alike; it’s a great way to keep up on new developments and to hear new equipment from around the world as well as Australia.
Talking to the SAC’s coordinator John McEvoy, he expressed a desire that in our coverage we might include a picture of their banner thanking those who have presented to the club in recent times, and we are happy to here (above) oblige.
Corridor of Sound!
Pantheone Audio
The Sydney company returned to the Show with its uniquely-crafted high-end wireless speakers – 'part sculpture, all sound!', as the company says.
Pantheon’s egg-like Pantheone I active speakers can operate alone or paired in stereo, either way aiming to create an individual room-filling 360° experience from four silk-dome tweeters in each unit, with twin 4-inch midrangers, two 6.5-inch high-excursion bass drivers, and a total of 400W of Class-D power. They can stream with AirPlay 2, Bluetooth, high-res Wi-Fi streaming or can play via a minijack input.
There are also smaller active speakers, the Obsidian (inspired by volcanic stone), also streaming via WiFi or Bluetooth with these models able to operate on battery power (15-hour life is quoted). These were playing as a pair when we visited the room.
These very different speakers continue to generate great word of mouth; we saw them last year at the UK Hi-Fi Show Live, displaying their proudly Australian philosophy of ART + FORM + SOUND.
Microphase Audio Design (M.A.D.)
Jean-Marie Lière’s speakers are “handcrafted in Australia with French flair”, their cabinets made from inert marine-grade birch plywood handcrafted in Australia and fitted with bespoke drivers, including bass units often hidden away to face sideways or rearwards, making for highly slim towers with surprising performance.
The newly award-winning 120cm-high Tower 3 Signatures present as slim frontages displaying an AMT ribbon from Mundorf, and midrange made specially for M.A.D. by Audax in France, but firing from the side of each speaker is a 31cm bass driver from SBA Acoustics.
We don’t recall ever hearing any of M.A.D’s speakers sounding as outstandingly good as the Microphase Tower 3 Signatures on demo in the room this year, powered by Holton Audio amplification and playing from WiiM sources. They sounded entirely clear, pure and balanced from top to bottom, and our listening session was only enhanced by Jean-Marie introducing us to Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin and the 2017 Melbourne Symphony Orchestra recording under Benjamin Northey for her piece Golden Kitch – Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra.
But there was more, with a static display of a new design intended for professional use, though Jean-Marie confirmed to us that he’s happy to sell to consumers also. This is an active sealed monitor, the Pro 1 (with a smaller Pro 2 also planned): the Pro 1 is a 3-way design with again an AMT tweeter, 13cm bespoke midrange and a 21cm carbon-fibre bass driver, powered by a pair of 100W MOSFET amplifier modules.
While M.A.D.’s birch plywood is the consumer finish of choice, such pro gear for studio use is necessarily black!
Lenehan Brothers
A brand-new design from a new Australian company which is building on the legacy of Mike Lenehan’s 'Lenehan Audio' operating since 1995, with the company now undergoing a rebirth as Lenehan Brothers under the auspices of brothers Russell and Martin.
Russell had long been involved with Mike’s designs, and with the brothers now taking over from Mike there is the brand-new System One (a system courtesy of their matched dedicated stands and isolation pods), which was playing at the Show. Handbuilt on the Gold Coast using local hardwood timbers including spotted gum and Merbau, these speakers were sounding excellent in this converted hotel room, all very natural up top and with some substantial bass down low.
We enjoyed a couple of quality covers: Christy Moore’s Shine On again, and a most unusual take on Hey Joe by markusphilippe, streaming from a Bluesound Node into a Gustard preamp. The power amplification in our Friday visit was a Monarchy SM 70 Pro, a highly regarded 25-year-old zero-feedback 70W Class-A amplifier, but on Saturday we gather they were switching to the Purifi Eigentakt-based power amplifiers from March Audio.
The speakers sell at $14,500 complete with the isolation stands, while the speakers only at $13,150. A great Sydney debut for this ‘new’ Australian brand.
March Audio
Always a show highlight, March Audio’s room this year presented the latest version of the Western Australian company's Kuoro floorstanding speakers, continuing the company’s line of dynamite boxes incorporating drivers from Purifi, which are becoming widely renowned for their meticulous approach to eliminating traditional distortions through patented innovations like constant Sd surround and low magnetic hysteresis motors.
March Audio shows what these can achieve in a carefully-designed system, the Kuoro (Finnish for “choir”) incorporating twin Purifi 6.5-inch aluminium cones and an aluminium dome tweeter in a 90cm-high cabinet – smaller, then, than March’s 105cm-high Ukkonen floorstanders, which uses a single 8-inch bass driver and its extra cabinet volume to push just slightly deeper., though Alan March rates the Kuoros as achieving lower distortion through the use of the dual woofers.
The Kuoros have recently amended with a new larger waveguide following collaboration between Alan March and Purifi in Denmark, improving the sound dispersion into the room and potentially slightly improving sensitivity as well. Powered by March’s stereo P482 power amp on the 9th floor, they were certainly on song when playing Doug McLeod’s Too Many Misses For Me, delivering an incredible soundstage, including remarkable depth, the drums playing from the back of a triangle extending behind the speakers. Magic stuff.
Richter
A huge moment for Richter, bringing to the show two of the Sydney-based company’s brand-new Series 7 SE range – the standmounting Aurora S7SE ($3999), and the floorstanding Richter Dragon S7SE ($7999).
The development of the new series saw Richter’s long-time acoustic engineer Dr Martin Gosnell working closely with industrial designer Adam Hobbs to create a softer, more contemporary form – Richter’s Brian Rodgers says this new Series was conceived “to bridge aesthetic sophistication and acoustic performance”. It’s a clear success visually, with less black (anthracite-grey baffles with optional mottled-grey cloth grilles), a lovely non-gloss Natural Walnut veneer finish, and cabinets which gracefully curve to the rear: “quality furniture pieces”, as Brian describes them.
But for the visitors it was the sound of the new speakers that was knocking them out: “the best speakers we’ve ever heard under $10,000” was the comment of one experienced hi-fi listener who had already heard them at a recent meeting of the Sydney Audio Club. The new Dragons in particular just did everything right, from delicacy and detail to scale and punch. We were thrilled by their rendition of Mark Knopfler’s Sailing To Philadelphia, on which he trades vocals and shares guitar with James Taylor; this was in-the-room presence with not a frequency out of place. Power was from a Musical Fidelity M6si, fed by a Bluesound Node Icon streamer.
Among the secrets of the new speakers, whispered Mr Rodgers, are far better damped cabinets, which improved performance even before the latest drivers were installed: a massively constructed 165mm high-excursion bass cone, twin 165mm midranges and perhaps the most obvious addition – the ‘teardrop’ module with a dome tweeter and dome upper midrange. Brian was sharing response charts showing how this dome mid fills the crossover gap that can occur between conventional tweeters and mids. Of course this requires a 4-way design, with commensurate complex crossovers, but the proof is in the pudding, and the Dragons certainly sounded good enough to eat.
Dana Electro Acoustics
Dana (Dan A. Digital) is a New South Wales-based manufacturer specialising in active valve loudspeakers, isolation platforms, and interconnects; last year we had enjoyed these 'act:eve' speakers , which have valve amplifiers built into the speakers.
But this year we were presented with tall thin ‘infinite baffle’ rectangles of a rigid composite material, screen-printed with Earth-from-space images, and apparently presenting a single 54mm driver. Designer Goran Velimirovic was on hand to show us around the back of the speakers, where a 12-inch driver fires up and to the rear, but again without any large enclosure to support it.
As is Dana’s preference, the Omnis are active speakers with Class-D power inside, and equally remarkable is their price: $4200, plus just $200 to have your own choice of picture on the front panel.
There will also be a Class-A power version with an external amp, raising the price to $8500. Despite their speaker design prowess, the company’s website requires attention, with no mention yet of these new speakers, so apply directly for more information.
SpectraFlora
SpectraFlora had its award-winning Celata 88 standmounts on static display in its room (among the Homegrown Hi-Fi section of the Corridor of Sound), making room for this year’s main attraction of the new ‘Pendula 8 TL’, the first of a new architectural series of in-wall/on-wall designs.
Company founder Dr Steve Van Sluyter was on hand to demonstrate the remarkably slim new towers, which are two-way models using the eight-inch graphene-coated-magnesium woofer from SpectraFlora’s Aphelia 8 model, and a compression-driver tweeter here with a new inhouse-designed constant-directivity waveguide, fitted in a slim transmission-line cabinet which is sized to fit within 450mm or greater stud spacing.
The Pendula 8s looked luscious in their customisable timber detailing with SpectraFlora’s signature floral laser etching (grilles are available), and we liked how the central equipment rack was softened by flanking bouquets of Heliconia parakeetflowers. Nice.
The Pendula were also sounding beautifully open and airy, playing Swedish saxophonist Arne Domnérus’ Antiphone Blue and Livingstone Taylor’s take on Isn’t She Lovely, being driven from a Gustard digital front-end through an Audio Research Reference One preamp and an Aurora Audio S2 power amplifier (by Damian Ware, president of the Melbourne Audio Club). Though sounding light on the very low-end, it was a slow roll-off, and the Pendula were far out into the room’s free space. As Dr Steve confirmed, wall-positioning will raise the bass response; there are also differently tuned Pendula variants for free space use, if required. They will sell at around $12k per pair.
Serhan Swift
A great reveal from Morris Swift and Brad Serhan on the ninth floor of the Show: a new active version of the universally-acclaimed mμ2 standmount.
This has been a long time coming; Morris reminded us that he had originally joined forces with Brad intending to develop active speakers, but they had decided the market preferred passive. But this latest creation was prompted by a specific request and deadline for a standalone active studio monitor; it goaded them into action.
Since it was a big call to cram all the required electronics inside the cabinet of the mμ2, the new active versions have a module clamped to the back, with only the toroidal transformer inside the cabinet – which, says Morris, conveniently took up precisely the same volume as the no-longer-required passive crossover. The module has a single XLR input, with an XLR chain out.
But there’s more to this new ‘Analogue Active mμ2’ than a two-way active standmount. The back active section actually has three Class-AB amplifiers within, one of which can power an extension cabinet (the ‘mμ2 Ex’) to go under the standmount, connected from a SpeakON output socket on the power module, thereby creating a three-way floorstander – which is then pretty much an active version of the Serhan Swift mμ3 floorstander. Were they just chopping up mu3s to make these, we asked? Not at all, replied Morris, as the mμ3 is already built as two separate enclosures.
This was a prototype, then, sometimes playing on the mμ2 Ex box (first picture), sometimes alone on stands (third picture). And we gather that they completed this only days before the Show, doubting whether they should reveal it yet.
And yet this was undeniably one of the best sounds in the Show, a presentation of outstanding realism, thrilling us with the bass line and sax on Peter Weniger’s Half-Life, among others. Production and pricing is a way off, but is expected to be between $10,000 and $12,000.
Avantgarde, Scheu, Fezz, MaxMedia
MaxMedia had two systems in one: during our visit we enjoyed the Scheu Diamond Maxi and Muarah turntable package playing through a COS Engineering D10v4 SE preamp, having its first-ever world reveal at the show; it sells at $9990 with DAC on board, with optional streaming and phono stage modules available at $1990 each.
COS Engineering’s S6 with LPS1 high‐performance HiFi Ethernet switch was also in the system for streaming but we listened analogue. The Scheu Diamond turntable is huge: there is a choice of base heights and platter heights (50mm weighing 4.5kg or 80mm weighing 7.5kg; this package version maxes out on both, at $13,000 for the package including the Polish-made Muarah 9-inch tonearm and a Benz Micro cartridge, with the turntable’s base finishes in a choice of clear, black or granite.
Receiving the signal from the preamp were the stars of the room: tall and white-horned Avantegarde Acoustic Opus 1 fully active speakers, active two-way designs priced at $23,990, and the most compact horn system Avantegarde has ever built. It uses 13.8-inch wide-band spherical horns to cover midrange and treble (700Hz–20,000Hz) backed by a low-mid 10-inch driver with an inverse natural-fibre cone, along with 250W of built-in dedicated bass amplification.
Through all this MaxMedia’s Cameron Keating played New Order and Kraftwerk on vinyl, to the general delight of room visitors.
The second system played through the award-winning Pylon Jade 10 speakers and Arylic LP100 preamp/DAC/streamer, with power through another debut: Fezz Audio’s magnificent-looking Titania Mk2 valve amplifier, a new design from the Polish company which they hope will democratise valve amplifiers by making them more robust and easier to use — we have a review coming up, so will confirm this later!
Yamaha Music Australia
Yamaha (see also Ground Floor) had a second room up on the ninth floor with a triple demonstration under way.
At the front of the room a comfy couch was the perfect position to enjoy the Atmos-capable and Sound+Image award-winning True X Surround 90A soundbar package, complete with versatile wireless rears, rolling out an immersive presentation of the final Mission: Impossible movie.
The company’s high-end headphone collection was at the rear, an opportunity to compare the YH-4000 open Orthodynamic (planar magnetic) headphones with the YH-C3000 closed-back dynamics, along with the HA-L7A headphone amplifier.
But the big news was a world-first appearance of Yamaha’s new active standmount speakers, which will make their European debut at the new Vienna High End show in June.
Although their information cards were partially redacted for secrecy (!), our spies established that these may or may not be called the NX-70A, and that they use the same Zylon-spruce-based material for their ‘Harmonious Diaphragm’ 3cm tweeter and 13cm mid-woofer as do the company’s premium and hi-fi speakers right up to the top NS-5000 speakers.
But these are active streaming standmounts, with Class-D amplification, MusicCast streaming and multiroom built in, and inputs which include HDMI from your TV, optical and 3.5mm minijack analogue. The communication between speakers is wireless, but a cable can be used for higher-resolution linking.
All this with sexy copper highlights and a small display screen at the bottom for instant feedback. Pricing? That’ll have to wait…
Krispy Audio
A late but pleasing addition to the Show was this system from Berowra-based Krispy Audio, which brought together EgglestoneWorks Kiva 2 speakers ($47,000) with Bricasti’s M25 stereo power amp ($25,000) and the Esoteric N-05XE streamer/DAC/preamp ($17,000), connected with colourful Vermouth Cables from Bali, about which Krispy’s owner Cameron Pope was quite effusive, saying he used to make his own cables before finding he couldn’t do it cheaper or better than Vermouth were already doing.
The Kiva 2 speakers are equipped with new carbon-fibre tweeters, a switch for the company from beryllium, which is notoriously toxic to work with, and so limited to a very few suppliers globally. The new Kivas also now put the tweeter at the top, more traditionally, with two 6.5-inch mid/woofers and two 7.5-inch woofers below in a three-way system.
The system delivered a finely-etched and deep soundstage with a classical music demonstration, before sowing their chops with the bouncy blues of St Paul & The Broken Bones playing Sanctify.
Vivid Audio – Avation
We visited Vivid’s room just as they had switched the standmount little Vivid Audio Kaya 12s for the larger floorstanding Kaya 90s – “I haven’t even fully positioned them,” warned Avation’s Mark Hamilton, yet the curvy South African speakers were sounding better to our ears than they had last year in a rather larger room: we loved the way they presented Bob Dylan growling through Man in the Long Black Coat.
The Kaya 90 are the top-of-the-range Kaya model, and carry much of the DNA from Vivid's higher Giya range – the tapered tube loading pioneered by Vivid’s Laurence Dickie (also on show in the Bowers Nautilus on the ground floor, an early Dickie design), as well as the company’s patented reaction-cancelling drivers, here a 26mm alloy tweeter dome, 100mm alloy midrange dome, and four side-facing force-cancelling 125mm alloy-coned woofers.
Perhaps contributing to the magic were a new pre and power amp combo from Ultrafide, a company based in Worcestershire’s Stourport, UK, with its factory down in Devon – the Class-A Ultrafide U4PRE preamplifier, and the U500DC power amplifier, offering 250W into 8 ohms (or 500W into the Kaya 90’s minimum 4 ohms). Together at $8000 a piece, these form Ultrafide’s ‘Ultra Sigma’ combo, something we think worth investigating further.
Stax - Audio Marketing
Audio Marketing went all Stax in their room this year, with a rare opportunity to hear every Stax earspeaker and every Stax driver (except the portable one), so you could hear exactly how the sound progresses and refines as you move from the SRM-D50 ($2200, the only earspeaker with non-Stax drivers, made by parent company Edifier) up to the SR-X9000 flagship ($10,750) with Stax’s own cutting-edge MILER-3 four-layer fixed electrodes, under the high-voltage excitation of the SRM-T8000 driver ($10,500).
Comparisons were easy thanks to a common source being fed to all the different models and drivers, from what must qualify as one of the most upmarket headphone source stacks seen at a show. It offered digital streaming via a Musical Fidelity MX-Stream and M8xDAC, or analogue sound from the award-winning M8xVinyl phono stage receiving its signal from the clear acrylic Musical Fidelity M8xTT turntable, itself benefitting from a new power supply, the X-Power TT, in one of MF’s gorgeous ‘X’-style tube chassis, which the company is in the process of reviving.
Also attracting attention were reference vinyl recordings from cable company inakustic, plus a range of cool Stax t-shirts!
Denon / Polk / Marantz
In the second and smaller room for the newly Harmanised ex-Masimo brands, Adam Prangell again excelled in his goal of demonstrating far more affordable systems which can deliver great entry to mid level hi-fi.
In this the Denon / Polk combination is powerful: pairing the slimline 75W-per-channel Marantz Stereo 70s (HEOS streaming onboard) with the excellent Polk R200 speakers (award-winners from back in 2022) makes a fine $3000 system. On the other side of the room a Denon Home Amp and Polk R100 speakers hits a perfect small-room system price of $2300.
The other trick under the control of Adam’s smartphone was to use HEOS to send the sound to whichever speakers you might like. A Denon Bluetooth turntable, the DP-500BT, could Bluetooth its vinyl playback to one of the new Denon Home speakers on display; Adam could then pair up two Denon Home 600s (or 400s or 200s, all playing in the room), or to either of the Polk-ended systems, or to everything at once, with no noticeable latency between all the systems. What’s more, it worked nearly every time he did it, which gets you kudos in a hotel show situation where the Wi-fi may not be 100% reliable.
A smorgasbord of kit in this small room, then, but all integrated under HEOS control, showing how a whole home could be similarly connected using the wide array of HEOS products. A great dem.
Best sound of the Show?
With pretty much every room on song this year, the decision for 'Best Sound of the Show' will not be an easy one! We had favourites among our team, with some variation of opinion but some definite common ground. Thankfully the final decision is made by the public through the voting and competition cards distributed at the Show. Counting will take place soon – watch this space!
