AUDIO VIDEO SHOW WARSAW 2023 REPORT FROM THE STADIUM, PGE NARODOWY

Lin visits the National Stadium of Poland, PGE Narodowy, a HiFi Show in itself, this is where you find the huge Headphone Zone and large rooms and Sky Boxes packed with some really incredible HiFi.

Inhabiting the rooms and Sky Boxes of the east and west wings on floor 1 of the PGE Narodowy and the west wing of level 2, the backdrop to many of these rooms was the pitch of the National Stadium of Poland….giving a very dramatic view from the listening position.

AUDIO VIDEO SHOW WARSAW 2023 REPORT – THE STADIUM

This really is a HiFi Show in itself and from previous experience we know it gets absolutely rammed with visitors. I popped over in an Uber (though there is also a free shuttle bus from the Sobieski Hotel) first thing on Sunday morning to hopefully get there at the quietest time, which worked, though I noticed that by around 11am the place was filling rapidly with HiFi fans but also couples, families with kids and a lot of young people.

Owing to the sheer scale of the stadium venue with over 60 listening rooms, the huge Headphone Zone and loads of stands including many vinyl and CD sellers, this is mostly a photo report. Whilst this can be a challenging venue sound-wise, there is a lot of glass in these sky boxes, the exhibitors had gone to great pains and, for the most part, achieved some very impressive sounding and looking systems.

There was some serious crazy High End gear on offer and the impact of walking into some of the rooms was absolutely jaw-dropping. This is where you found some of the biggest Polish and international names in HiFi and the public obviously were lapping it up very happily. If you have been to High End Munich then you will appreciate that the Stadium is very much on that kind of scale.

The venue is also fantastic, designe to accomodate thousands of people, with wide walkways, plenty of loos, lots of places to get food and drink, leave your coat etc, it works really well for a HiFi Show.

So join me on my tour around Poland’s National Stadium, PGE Narodowy…

Please note, all content and photos are the copyright of HiFi PiG Magazine/Big Pig Media LLP and must not be copied or reproduced in any way without the prior, written consent of HiFi PiG/Big Pig Media.

MCINTOSH & ROCKPORT TECHNOLOGIES/HIFI CLUB

Full on muscle-HiFi in this room, McIntosh, Rockport speakers and Lyra, Transparent and HRS in supporting roles. I snuck in here before opening, which was a good move as when I passed again later you couldn’t even get in the door.

GOEBEL, WADAX, BRINKMAN & BOULDER/SOUNDCLUB

Next door was a SoundClub room with Goebel Divin Marquis speakers and sub, huuuge Boulder 2160 amp, Wadax Atlantic Reference DAC and the accompanying server and Brinkmann Audio turntable. I didn’t dare ask Brandon from Wadax the prices, this was pure lottery winner territory, and as an early bird to the show I got a private listen.

BOWERS & WILKINS WITH LUXMAN

B&W had the big 801 D4 signature speakers playing while I was in here, with the 805 standmounts waiting in the wings. Electronics were Luxman including the M-10X amp. A very expensive, refined system but it hadn’t really had a chance to warm up when I was in there.

AUDIO GROUP DENMARK/AUDIOEMOTIONS

Well, things had definitely got properly warmed up in this next room. Back on the lottery winner theme, AGD and their Polish Distributor had really brought the serious gear. Half a million quids worth of Borresen M6 flagship speakers for starters. With them we had Aavik 880 range flagship electronics, Ansuz Gold Signature level wiring, switches etc…and even ‘Lar’s magic balls’ and all the accompanying resonance control gear that Ansuz specialise in. Nagra was also well represented on the analogue side with reel to reel and turntable from them completing the system.

Aavik, Ansuz and Borresen were doing their best high end thing in this room, dynamic, controlled power with a real mix of music, from techno to classical, and a captive audience…another room that you just could not get into later in the day. But of course, for balance they also brought the more affordable AXXESS range and Borresen X range of speakers…but more on those later at the Sobieski.

Throughout the show you would come across record and CD sales…

AUDIOFAST

Wilson Audio, Dan D’agostino and dCS in this room.

DALI/HORN DISTRIBUTION

The new DALI Epikore 11 in this room were sounding very good indeed with Unison Research 845 SE amps and UPHONO+ along with Marantz SA10 CD, Marantz TT15S1 turntable and Sumiko Amethyst cart.

SENNHEISER

Sennheiser had both a headphone area, which looked very cool, and then rooms with things like their soundbars…all very popular through the show.

AUDIO CONNECT/ALBEDO

A very nice room this, with Diptyque and JMR loudspeakers, both from France, Riviera Labs and Aqua Acoustic Quality electronics from Italy and Albedo cables. Very elegant.

INDIANA LINE/YAMAHA

Indiana Line make very reasonably priced speakers that we have enjoyed at Munich. Their Diva 5 model here with Audioquest, Yamaha, Real cable and IsoTek.

NAD/PSB/BLUESOUND

HEGEL/ELAC

The Hegel H600 amp and Viking CD player were continuing their world tour…sounded fantastic with the Elac Concentro S509 floorstanders.

TAGA HARMONY

Great to see Taga Harmony, a Polish HiFi brand who produce well made gear that doesn’t cost a fortune….keep an eye out for more about the new loudspeakers, the standmount Diamond B-60v3 which will be released soon.

HORNS/DAVID LABOGA CABLES/LUCAS AUDIO LAB

Always great to see these guys, as usual they had a very well presented and great sounding room, very enjoyable!

BAT/MOFI/KIMBER KABLE

Great sound in here, they were cranking out rock music when I was in there.

SYNTHESIS/FYNE AUDIO/KIMBER KABLE

Always good to see and hear Fyne Audio, they have been embraced around the world. Hear they were very well paired with Italian HiFi brand Synthesis.

Synthesis Metropolis NYC 500 amps with the Fyne F704 were a great combo.

ANTHEM & PARADIGM

MARTIN LOGAN

ORTOFON/DUAL/MUSICALFIDELITY & FYNEAUDIO

Rage Against The Machine was being played to an enthusiastic audience that were really getting into it.

MUSICAL FIDELITY & PMC

A room full of crowd pleasers, PMC’s new prodigy1 was proving very popular, the British HiFi brand are very much giving fans what they asked for, much in the way that AGD are doing with their X range speakers. It seems that the high end brands know that they need to do a range that is high quality at an affordable price.

Quite a few of the rooms as you went further round this section were more consumer audio than HiFi, with big displays involving quite a few screens and soundbars and Bluetooth speakers etc, from brands such as JBL/Harman, Technics/Panasonic, JVC etc… There was a lot of engagement with visitors and they were very popular, really this show has something for everyone, whether they are die hard HiFi fans or more into Home Cinema and lifestyle audio.

Here are a few pics from those rooms.

WEST WING HALL

Out in front of the rooms on this side of the exhibition was a large and wide coridoor/display area packed with stands including GIK Acoustics, with their new SlatFusor panels, and giving room treatment advice (and pens) to visitors. Technics had a DJ Academy workshop going on, ProJect had a big display including the new DSOTM turntable. Thorens had the new 140th Anniversary turntable and a load of others on display. There was HiFi Rose, B&W and lots more for visitors to browse.

HEADPHONE ZONE

This huge Headphone Zone was packed right from the off, with so many brands, from all around the world. Headfi is obviously massive amongst all age groups in Poland and there was a real mix of people trying the wares here.

EAST WING

After heading through the Headphone Zone it was into the East Wing of the Stadium, with a selection of rooms and stands.

TELLURIUM Q

Tellurium Q were everywhere at this show, thanks in no small part to their brilliant Polish distributor, (and resident rock star) Bartek of Szymański Audio. As you look through the report you will see a lot of the red neon Tellurium Q signs in the rooms…I think there were at the final count 13 rooms using Tellurium Q cables, so well done to Geoff, Pam and all the team, and thanks again for sponsoring our Warsaw Show coverage again this year.

As well as being in loads of system, TQ had a display of their awards and a selfie wall in this area of the show.

MARANTZ/HORN DISTRIBUTION

UNISON RESEARCH & OPERA

SONUS FABER/HORN DISTRIBUTION

The recently launched Sonus faber Duetto were wowing the public…along with, at the oposite end of the price spectrum, the Stradivari. Great to see them doing so well, we did know they would be popular.

Classé electronics were also being used in this room, which actually made a nice change from the McIntosh that we usually hear Sf with these days.

IFI AUDIO

IFi had moved out of the headphone area and into the their own room this year and it was full of people trying out all of their gear from the portable to the desktop ranges they have. Also great to hear the very knowledgeable team helping visitors with technical advice and on what headphones to pair with different products. Keep up the good work guys!

FOCAL & NAIM

FERRUM

Ferrum are doing very well for themselves which is good to see, and interesting to see there very affordable gear paired with amplification from one of the most High End brands, Gryphon. They were also, of course, in the headphone zone too.

PREMIUM SOUND

This was one of my favourite rooms both looks and sound wise and I was really enjoying the music. Arek who was running the room also gave me a couple of records by Tomek Pauszek when I said how much I enjoyed it. It was a pleasure to hear something very different, Tomek Pauszek is a Polish composer of experimental and electronic music, check him out of you like that kind of thing.

The room featured the new Benny Audio Odyssey turntable. The final production version of Odyssey will be available in the second quarter of next year from this Polish company, it had a Hana Umami Red and the electronics were an Audia Flight Phono preamplifier, Audia Flight Strumento No.1 preamplifier
and Audia Flight Strumento no.4 amplifier. Speakers were the excellent AudioSolutions Figaro L2. An Ansuz D3 Power Distributor was used and cables were a mix of Ansuz, Tellurium Q Statement, Hijiri and Vermouth Audio. The panels are from Form At Wood, a Polish company.

There was a film being recorded of the turntable while I was there so I didn’t catch close ups of it, but watch this space for more soon about the Benny Audio Odyssey.

LEMMY

No, not that Lemmy, though Lemmy in a glass cabinet at a HiFi Show would have been a pretty surprising thing. I was heading into the Harbeth room and Alan from Harbeth grabbed and said he had promised to introduce the team from Lemmy to me. The young Polish brand has designed a fully customiseable modern jukebox, with a unique mechanism, the prototype of which was a static demo at the show but it looked really interesting. It is app controlled and will go into production soon…yes, those two young pople in the photo below are responsible for the project.

Expect to hear more about Lemmy very soon on HiFi PiG.

HARBETH & 432 EVO/SOUND CLUB

British loudspeaker legend Harbeth were introducing the Nelson stand/subwoofer, that they mentioned to us at the Hong Kong show. The Harbeth Nelson has been designed to add intense bass performance to mini monitors, including all Harbeth P3ESR and BBC LS3/5A models, without compromising space. Its innovative design incorporates a Harbeth 5-inch drive unit and 50 watts of digital amplifier power, the driver is in the shaft of the stand and the amp and DSP gubbins are in the bass.

I have to say it sounded really excellent with the dinky P3ESR monitors at the show, and the system also featured the 432 EVO Master server which we reviewed last month…a fantastic combination that I was really pleased I got a chance to hear.

SOUND CLUB

The next couple of rooms were also from Sound Club, with a more Home Cinema theme going on.

BEST AUDIO

Upstairs next to the Skyboxes on floor 2…more Home Cinema vibes from Best Audio.

INTRADA

As we heard at the very recent Dutch Audio Event 2023, the B.audio Alpha One streaming amplifier was playing on Intrada Josquin loudspeakers.

This is a lovely combination of brands and one that I was very happy to hear again.

SOUNDSOURCE

CH Precision with ATC.

AUDIO SYSTEM

Legacy Audio speakers with Vincent Audio.

PS AUDIO

A full PS Audio system including the Aspen FR20 loudspeakers, sounded great and I liked this kind of dark grey colour for the speakers…very classy.

T+A

This full T+A system sounded lovely, the speakers were the middle of the flagship range Solitaire S530. There really is something about a brand doing a full system and doing it really well, much like PS Audio above.

J.SIKORA

J.Sikora are a Polish HiFi brand become extremely popular in High End circles around the world. There room is always a pleasure and this year was no exception, with the centerpiece being the J.Sikora Reference turntable in Rosso Corsa. It had both KV12 Max and KV9 Max tonearms both with Aidas Mammoth Gold cartridges.

Electronics were Doshi Audio including their Evolution Line’s Phono Preamplifier, Line Preamplifier and Monoblock Amps. Loudspeakers were Soundspace Systems’ top model Aidoni and the complete cabling system was from Soyaton High End Cables.

ROCKPORT TECHNOLOGIES & VTL

Rockport speakers, VTL electronics and VPI turntable.

ELECTROCOMPANIET

Finally, I made it to Electrocompaniet! I had seen Lasse a couple of times at the show and he lknew I was keen to hear the brand new AV 300M monoblocks that were making their debut at the show. These are the smaller siblings to the HiFi PiG Editor’s Choice Award-winning AV 800M.

With a full Electrocompaniet system and Rockport Cygnus speakers, these sounded very impressive, with the qualities that we loved in the 800, but in a more room friendly (and back friendly) package. You would not be disappointed if you went for this amp option.

ARCAM & SPENDOR

Another chance for us to hear the new Arcam Radia range…it having debuted at the DAE 2023. A fantastic sounding and accessible system with Arcam Radia CD5, ST5 and A25 with Cardas cables and Spendor Classic 3/1 speakers. The design details on the Radia models are so well done…even down to the screws!

CAMBRIDGE AUDIO & ACOUSTIC ENERGY

Acoustic Energy 520 speakers with Cambridge Audio EVO 150 and EVO CD plus Wireworld cables.

CHORD ELECTRONICS, CHORD COMPANY & MONITOR AUDIO

A mostly British system with Chord bringing DAVE DAC and the Ultima 2, Pre 2 M Scaler, 2GO, 2YU and Huei. Chord Cables supplied the wires. I’ve heard the Ultima range several times over this year and have very much enjoyed them in combinations with different loudspeakers. Here they were with the Monitor Audio Hyphn.

AUDIOVECTOR & MOON

Almost like being at home with the Audiovector R6 Arrete (except we currently run ours on Electrocompaniet) with Moon North Series electronics and REL subs and Nordost cables. The Audiovectors proved why they have remained one of our reference speakers for so long.

KLIPSCH/JAMO/ONKYO

A big room with lots of static displays.

CANOR & TRIANGLE

A nice sounding system with Triangle Magellan 40th standmounts.

PERLISTEN & NUPRIME

DWA KANALY

A Polish distributor with some very high end brands and their rooms are always very nicely done. Good to see Frank from Very Fine Solutions representing MSB in this room. Just like at the DAE he had had a hand in creating a lovely system, which was as follows.

Magico S3, MSB S500 amp, MSB Reference DAC and Digital Director. Pink Faun streamer, Metronome AQWO 2 CD, Meitner Audio EQ, Acoustic Signature Hurrican Signature NEO turntable with DS Audio cartridge. Cables were Tellurium Q Statement 2 and Silver Diamond.

AUDIOFAST

A fine combination of Gryphon, Wilson Audio, Grimm, Aurender, Grand Prix Audio and Shunyata.

GATO AUDIO

DWA KANALY

There are certain brands that always make me smile when I walk into a room, the highly distinctive Fink Team speakers are just such a brand. The FinkTeam Borg Episode 2 were sounding fabulous in a system featuring several of DWA Kanaly’s brands including Metronome, Meitner, SOtM, EMM Labs Circle Labs, Tellurium Q and Acoustic Signature. And as always, great to see Karl-Heinz Fink.

INNUOS

A visually and sonically stunning system from Innuos. Innuos PhoenixNET was connected to the Innuos STATEMENT with Next-Gen PSU alternating with the PULSAR as sources. Music streamed from Qobuz, TIDAL or played from the STATEMENT’s local storage was presented through a system featuring Rockport Avior II speakers, Nagra HD pre-amp, amp and DAC, XL and Reference series Transparent cables, Intrada Power Strip, Artesania Exoteryc Rack and Artnovion Acoustic Panels.

HORN ACOUSTIC

There is much more to come from both the Sobieski and the Golden Tulip Hotels, stay tuned for the rest of the HiFi PiG Audio Video Show Warsaw 2023 coverage!

Read the second report from the Golden Tulip here!

Please note, all content and photos are the copyright of HiFi PiG Magazine/Big Pig Media LLP and must not be copied or reproduced in any way without the prior, written consent of HiFi PiG/Big Pig Media.

Linette Smith

Follow HiFi PiG’s Warsaw show coverage, news and reports here.