PARIS AUDIO VIDEO SHOW 2021 – BIRD’S EYE VIEW

Linette gives you a Bird’s Eye View of her favourite rooms and things that caught her eye (and ear) at the Paris Audio Video Show 2021, which took place over the weekend of the 23^rd and 24^th of October.

Let me just kick this off by saying how wonderful it is to be attending a HiFi Show again. I must admit to being a little nervous, it has been twenty months since we went to a HiFi Show, the last one being the Bristol HiFi Show in February 2019.

It has also been twenty months since we mixed with society in general, or even left our quiet little backwater of France, the excitement about going to Paris was balanced by feeling, as I said, a little nervous about being around so many people again. In France you currently can’t travel long distances on public transport or visit any events or even sit outside a bar or café without having the French Pass Sanitaire, you also have to wear a face mask in public spaces and observe distancing rules. This helps put you more at ease and, as we have both had Covid early on in the pandemic and are fully vaccinated, we kind of felt that now was the time just to get on with getting on with life.

Paris is just over three hours on the train for us, we got up at stupid-early-o’clock (4am) on the Saturday morning and were at our apartment hotel by just before 10am…handily next door to the show hotel. The show takes place between the New CAP Event Centre and the Novotel Paris Tour Eiffel, both of which are on the banks of the Seine on the Quai de Grenelle.

PARIS AUDIO VIDEO SHOW 2021 NEW CAP CENTRE

The show was slightly smaller than the 2019 edition, most notably at the New CAP Centre. Here there were two main exhibition areas, one for AV Industry’s French brands including Elipson, and one for Klipsch.

ELIPSON – HISTORIC DESIGN INFLUENCE

The flagship of the Elipson Legacy Series of speakers, the 3230 draws influence from the brand’s historic designs such as the La Religieuse speaker designed for the French ORTF in 1962 and the 4050 model which formed the sound system of the Grenoble Olympic games in 1968. There is more than a nod to the past in the design which lends it a quirky look, maybe not to everyone’s taste, but I really do like a bold speaker design and they have caught my eye with their swinging sixties looks when I saw them a couple of years ago. The good news is that they also sound great too, very enjoyable with Elipson’s own electronic components.

KLIPSCH – AND THAT’S HOW YOU DO BRANDING

We have said this for a few years now, but it is worth saying again. Klipsch does branding and they do it right. They have created such a cool image that they draw people in whether they are audiophiles or not. They had a musical duo who really got the Klipsch Live stage rocking, we didn’t get to hear the systems they had set up but we thoroughly enjoyed the live performance. The Klipsch Barbershop was also in action again, keeping show visitors trim and there was Klipsch branded everything, from hats to directors’ chairs.

ESPACE CASQUES

Downstairs at the CAP Centre Focal was drawing crowds wanting to try out their flax coned car audio systems and there was also the Headphone Zone (Espace Casques). This is always a busy area, there were some empty spaces (perhaps last-minute exhibitor cancellations due to covid?) but there were plenty of people mobbing the exhibitors that were there to try out the latest in Headphones and Headfi gear.

It was great to see Viva Audio’s distinctive Egoista valve headphone amplifiers, which were getting a lot of attention paired with HiFi Man’s headphones. It was also great to see Giampietro Schembri from the brand.

That was one of the fabulous things about this show, getting to see friends from all over the world who we haven’t seen for ages. Everyone in the industry that you would usually see at this size of show isn’t travelling yet, there are still quite a few restrictions in place, but it is starting to feel a lot more normal and it makes you realise how much this industry is about the people behind the brands.

PARIS AUDIO VIDEO SHOW 2021 NOVOTEL TOUR EIFFEL

A quick stroll back up the road and we were into the hotel part of the show, again this was very busy on the Saturday that we were there. The show here is spread over two floors, up from the main entrance. It is laid out in a way that keeps the show separate from the rest of the hotel and that steers you around the rooms and the areas of exhibition stands so that it follows a natural flow. This seemed to work well though there were some bottlenecks at points, but generally, there was a good feeling of space even though it was very busy.

DIPTYQUE – FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION SPEAKERS

This French brand was showing their DP107 isodynamic loudspeakers, which were launched this April. We bought a pair of their smaller DP77 speakers after reviewing them, and really like the way that they deliver music, to be fair, to look at them they look more like they should be heating the space rather than filling it with sound, but that is what they do and very well indeed. As mentioned before, I do like a bold loudspeaker design and Diptyque have fully embraced the whole ‘form follows function ethos with their products. Gilles and Eric had an extremely popular room with Ana Mighty Sound and DarTZeel.

BORRESEN, AAVIK AND ANSUZ – THE SOUND OF DENMARK

Borresen, Aavik and Ansuz are sister brands with Borresen being the loudspeakers, Aavik the electronics and Ansuz dealing with cables and power components. Denmark really does have more than its fair share of rather excellent HiFi brands, with Gryphon, Audiovector and Raidho to name just three. I don’t know what it is about Danish HiFi but I like a lot of it, they seem to be on to something!

Morten Thyrrestrup and Emil Kristensen had flown in from Denmark to support their French distributor, Audio Focus, and it was clear that the system had been very well set up. The Borresen Z3 loudspeakers, which feature a planar ribbon tweeter, are by no means the biggest or most expensive of the brand’s ranges but they did the business, backed up with the Aavik 180 electronics and Ansuz cabling. The sound was controlled but expansive and room-filling, a natural sound that made you want to listen, it was the kind of system that you go to HiFi Shows hoping to hear. We currently have the Aavik I-280 integrated amplifier here for review, it actually arrived the day before we left for the show so we haven’t had a chance to play with it yet, but safe to say we are very much looking forwards to hearing it in our system.

JEAN MARIE REYNAUD – I DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY WERE PLAYING BUT I LIKED IT (I THINK)

It’s a weird one isn’t it, when you go into a room at a show and you like what you see and your brain is telling you that you like what you hear, but you don’t have a clue what you are hearing, and it isn’t something that you would ever choose to listen to. That was the case in the Jean Marie Reynaud room, with electronics by 3D Labs. I think it was some kind of obscure jazz, it was definitely eccentric, but it sounded brilliant. I would love to hear the combination of the brand new JMR Orfeo Grande loudspeakers and 3D Labs with some music that I know…and like, I imagine it would be a spectacular listen.

MARTIN LOGAN – IT’S WHAT YOU DO WITH YOUR SPEAKERS, NOT HOW BIG THEY ARE

Martin Logan’s Neolith loudspeakers are pretty huge, well OK, they are VERY huge and the pre-show publicity was saying that this was the first time that they were being demonstrated in France. which I was not wholly sure about as they were launched a few years ago and we have heard them at other shows. Anyway, this was probably one of those instances where the reality didn’t live up to the expectation, the sound was a little muffled and muddled sounding and the bass didn’t have the dynamic power I was expecting. I would expect to find these being driven by big, powerful monoblock amplifiers, like when we heard them at High End Munich 2016 with Constellation, where they were using the Constellation Hercules II monos which have over a kilowatt of power output. But the electronics were not proudly on display front and centre but tucked around the corner…and though you were looking at very good equipment (including the Roksan Blak amplifier), it was just mismatched with the Neoliths and they were never going to achieve their full potential. I’m guessing someone at France Marketing had forgotten to bring the Krell Solo 575 XD Mono Amplifiers that had been promised in the pre-show publicity, or perhaps something really terrible happened to them on the way to the show and they had to improvise with what was to hand. Whatever, the distributor kind of got away with it anyway by playing a great tune, when we were in there we got ‘Changes’ by Tupac, a fabulous rap tune with the catchy ‘That’s just the way it is’ hook from Bruce Hornsby and The Range.

DAVIS ACOUSTICS AND JADIS – WRAP AROUND SOUND

Davis Acoustics are a French brand that has impressed us at several shows, not as well known a name as perhaps Cabasse, Focal and Triangle, this brand really does deserve more recognition outside of France like those more familiar names.

We had reviewed the N° 4 from the Davis Courbet series a while ago, one of their higher-end ranges, and were really enjoyed them, and the brand has built a solid reputation of delivering well made and excellent loudspeakers that are really, really good value for money.  At the show we listened to the bigger Davis Courbet N°8 which cost 5,700€ and boy, do they deliver!. They were paired with French valve amplifier brand Jadis and the sound was as near perfect as I have heard at a HiFi Show. After a blast of ‘Keith Don’t Go’ (you know it wouldn’t be a HiFi Show without it) we got a piece of music I didn’t know but that some glockenspiel or xylophone in it, which wrapped around the listener and almost appeared to be coming at you from the side, it was pretty mad and very engaging, I could have sat there all day. The good news is Thomas from Davis is sending us a pair of the N°8’s over so we will see what they do at HiFi Pig Towers.

Cables were by Absolue creations and the Jadis gear playing while we were in the room was the Jadis DA88 integrated amp

GAUTIER AUDIO – THE CUTEST LITTLE SPEAKERS I EVER DID SEE

Did I mention that I like loudspeakers that look a bit different? Yes, I guess that you probably got that by now. Who could fail to raise a smile when walking in to the Gautier Audio room at the show, there small room featured a selection of their standmount speakers, including the ‘sorting hat’ from Harry Potter, which is really called the Gautier Audio Evasion, which features beryllium tweeters and Kevlar Davis Acoustics woofers. The original shaped means that there are no parallel sides to the cabinet and they cost from 13,500€ for the speakers and 4,700€ for the dedicated stands. The little alien head centre speaker in the middle is, I think, called Nono, but I have no further info on it. The room was great sounding with small speakers working well in a small room, and well, I haven’t seen speakers this cute and quirky since the Vario’s Junior.

GOLDENEAR – STANDOUT SOUND FROM STANDMOUNT SPEAKERS

American brand GoldenEar had a room that we just could not get in on the Saturday of the show, so we popped back on Monday when it was much quieter…and we were very pleased that we did. Stuart was very taken with the larger speakers in the room, but for me, it was the standmounts that stole the show. The GoldenEar BRX have a 6” bass/mid driver and reference HVFR ribbon tweeter and two passive low-frequency radiators. They are priced at 1,599€.

They had a wonderful quality to their sound with precise and detailed tops and mids that gave a beautiful clarity to vocals and a toe-tapping funkiness to electronic music. Being in France we go some Daft Punk and the compact little speakers filled the room. Lab12 and Octave were in the system driving the speakers. It is worth noting that GoldenEar paid a lot of attention to the room treatment. What looked, at first glance, like promotional prints on the walls, were actually acoustic panels from Rivasono who are based in the Netherlands, which I am sure helped contribute to the excellent sound in the room.

WATERFALL AND TRINNOV – PUTTING THE HOME IN HOME CINEMA

Home Cinema really isn’t my thing and I would never profess to be an expert in it, but I know what I like when I hear it. French brand Waterfall Audio is well known for their stunningly beautiful glass speakers and they have in recent years added wall and ceiling mounted Home Cinema speakers to their range. They were partnered with fellow French brand Trinnov, who are a big player in home cinema sound and Sony and Extrem Screen for the projector/TV/screen side of things. The other partner in their large space was Roche Bobois, who is a high-end French furniture shop. This is where it got clever because between them they created some very attractive living spaces with the highly architectural Waterfall loudspeakers complemented by funky and modern furniture from Roche Bobois.

There were, quite literally, queues out the door for folk to get into the home cinema room in this part of the exhibition so we came back on Monday (the day for just press and trade) to have a listen. The ‘cinema’ had a 9.2.4 Waterfall Audio speaker set up along with the brand new Trinnov Amplitude16 power amplifier and Altitude16 preamplifier.

We watched a dem of the surround sound capabilities from Trinnov and then various movie excepts including the Live Aid concert scene from Bohemian Rhapsody. Wow, that was propper hairs on the back of your arms standing up time! If home cinema is meant to make you feel like you are there then this delivered, we felt the sheer power of the sound and it was just as if we were in the audience at Wembley. Fantastic, I could have happily got the popcorn in and watched the full film again.

CABASSE – IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS THAT COUNT

Cabasse are celebrating their 70^th anniversary at the moment, and we brought you the news recently of the Cabasse Pearl Pelegrina, which combines the incredible looks and sound of their huge flagship speaker system, La Sphere, with the connected technologies of their Pearl range of speakers.

We heard the Pearl Pelegrina in the entrance area to the show’s level 3 but didn’t manage to get into the actual Cabasse room until the quieter day on Monday, such was the demand from the brand’s dedicated fans. We were very surprised by what we did find on the Monday as the other new launch from Cabasse was a very interesting and compact addition to the Pearl family. The new 2.1 system has been named The Pearl Keshi in reference to small natural pearls from Tahiti and the South Seas. It combines all the qualities of Cabasse’s high-end connected solutions into a miniature size. It consists of a connected subwoofer and two satellites that look like mini Cabasse Pearl’s and as all three are installed suspended, this limits the transmission of vibrations to the floor. The Keshi satellites feature a brand new driver and each is powered by 300 Watts RMS. The full 7kg system is capable of delivering 1050 Watts RMS of total power, features a whole load of technology packed into the tiny system and integrates with Cabasse SteamCONTROLL to be used for both high definition music and Home Cinema.

We were blown away, and so was everyone else in the room as people had to walk over to check which speakers were playing…those tiny little ones, seriously? (I will admit now that I thought that the teeny-tiny speakers on the table were actually some kind of Cabasse promotional gizmo and I very nearly picked one up!) The Cabasse Pearl Keshi will be available at the end of this month and will cost 2490€ in France, tech specs below.

Cabasse Pearl Keshi Technical Specifications

• Sound Level: 115 dB peak
• Bandwith: 30 – 23 000 Hz
• Medium-tweeter : Dom55
• Woofer 17 cm HELD
• Power: Left channel: 300 W RMS / 600 W Right channel: 300 W RMS / 600 W Bass: 450 W RMS / 900 W
• Ethernet – Wi-Fi – Bluetooth
• Micro USB – SPDIF Optical – 3.5 mm Jack
• Formats: WAV – MP3 – AAC -WMA – AIFF – FLAC – ALAC – Ogg – vorbis – DSD 64/128 – WMA lossless
• Automatic Calibration
• DAC 768 kHz / 32 bits
• High-resolution Multi-room

So there you have it, the Mrs HiFi Pig Bird’s Eye View of the Audio Video Show 2021. I realise on reading this back that I have focussed a lot on loudspeakers, but they are the component that really does excite me in the world of HiFi and my absolute favourite to check out at shows.

It has been a fantastic show and it was just wonderful to be able to get back out into society, catch up with industry friends and hear what everyone has been working on over the last twenty months. It was also great to see so many enthusiasts visiting the show, the need to have the Pass Sanitaire and wear a mask did not seem to put people off at all, if anything I think it will have made people feel safer about venturing out.

We hope that you enjoy our coverage, you can read the main report from Stuart here, along with loads more photos.

You can also read about the fabulous ‘side event’ where Totaldac launched their latest gear on a river yacht in front of the show hotel.

We would like to thank the organisers, hotel staff and all of the exhibitors and of course the visitors for making it such a great show with a brilliant atmosphere, along with Totaldac for sponsoring our coverage of the show.

Linette Smith

You can get information and dates for HiFi Shows globally here, on our HiFi Diary page.