AUDIO VIDEO SHOW WARSAW 2023 REPORT FROM THE SOBIESKI HOTEL

Stu and Lin report from the Sobieski Hotel in this third part of their Audio Video Show Warsaw 2023 report.

Warsaw Audio Video Show is undoubtedly a favourite on the HiFi Audio Show Calendar and we have been coming to the event for a good number of years now. Held over three days (well, Friday has a very relaxed noon starting time, but does go on til 8) it takes over three venues; The Radisson Blu Sobieski Hotel, The Golden Tulip and the National Stadium. It’s huge and the people that attend it are wonderfully enthusiastic about their audio. Press come from all over the HiFi globe to attend the Warsaw Audio Video Show and it’s brilliant to see that it is held in such high regard with some of the great and the good from the audio press; where else can you be sat at breakfast with Ken Kessler, Michael Fremer, and Alan Sircom being at the next table. 

Shout out to Adam and his team that do such a brilliant job of organising the Warsaw Audio video Show and also to the staff at the Sobieski who looked after us so well, especially Katarzyna on the breakfast reception who was so pleased to see us again. We’ve been chatting to her for years and were delighted to find out last year that she’d had a daughter over lockdown. Needless to say the photographs came out and it’s really a wonderful thing to visit all these places year after year and see how the show and the supporting cast grow and develop over the years.

The plan of attack for this show is to start at the top and I’m reminded of the late Marja and Henk of Mono and Stereo who used to deal with this show in the same way we do – start at the top of the Sobieski and work down. We’d often find ourselves amused at following each other around at this event and both are sadly missed.

Anyway, with a great deal of excitement, it’s up to the seventh floor where the weekend’s manoeuvres begin.

AUDIO VIDEO SHOW WARSAW 2023 REPORT – THE SOBIESKI

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.

CLOSER, TENTORGA, ELINS AUDIO

So, the first room of the day was our friends at Closer and Tentorga and the new to me amplifier company Elins Audio. 

Tentorga’s new turntable (WOWO) is the smallest of the Tentorga record players with the principle being that it was simple and with access to all the adjustments available. It will accommodate 9 to 14 inch tonearms and has 330, 45 and 78 RPM speeds that you can change with a knob on the front. Weight without the tonearm is 35KG. They were using a Kuzma tonearm on the turntable.

The Closer OGY speakers which we reviewed and loved are a small standpoint but at the show were the BOB (Bass Open Baffle) that adds bottom end to the OGY and are 2168 euros a pair which seems a bit of a bargain to me. BOB is an open baffle unit and I think OB is going to be a bit of a thing in the next year or so.

The Elins Mille amp is a stereo unit made up of two mono amps and was being used with the Cello phono preamplifier. 

This is a nice sounding room that feels chilled and relaxed and the speakers (though this is a fairly small room) sounded room-filling without being boomy or too much. 

Cool room!

AUDIO NOTE UK

Apparently, the most expensive system at the show using level 5 and 6 Audio Note UK kit. Price? 8 Million Polish zloty or around a million eight hundred thousand euros. We have spoken about these speakers in the past and so won’t go into them again, but overall the sound in this room really was rather exceptional and effortless playing some Leanard Cohen. Yep, not really my cup of tea musically as I’ve recently become accustomed to ANUK playing metal and dub, but I could have stayed and listened much longer than the stresses of a show allow for. 

FALCON ACOUSTICS

MOfi turntable with the new MoFi phono stage and a BAT valve amplifier. However, the reason for this room was to listen to the Falcon M40 speakers. These are a three-way vented design using the Falcon B300 bass unit, B110 mid unit, and a custom 1” tweeter unit. 23Hz to 30kHz is the claimed frequency response at 87dB sensitive. The speakers are £12995 including VAT. I was told where the next step for Falcon is likely to be and whilst I’m sworn to secrecy, the future looks very rosy for this well-loved British brand.

Good to see the SlatFusor Traps from GIK in the room too. 

STUDIO 999

A little oasis was this room. Nicely lit (or darked) and with a very nice system. The speakers were the Stenheim Alumine Three, a passive three-way with 2 eight inch woofers, a five-inch mid-driver and a one-inch soft dome tweeter. The cabinets have a thin-walled aluminium billet design.

The amp was from Karan. 

ART LOUDSPEAKERS 

A new range based around new cabinets the Scottish brand are making in-house. They are birch ply and all the cabinets are made from this and they use Richlite for the front baffle. This is a paper-based product that is also fairly green in its make-up. 

We got to hear the Diamond Emotion 6 a standmount monitor with this being the most expensive and uses a SEAS unit and a Dark Diamond tweeter. Price is around £6500 for just the tweeter and the speakers are a tad under 16K. A chunk for a standmount, but you do seem to get a good deal of engineering for your dosh. 

Also in the range is the floor stander with a 5” driver with there being three different levels depending on the tweeter and drive units and wiring inside. 

There are a pair of BIG three-ways in the Impression range – the biggest is the Diamond 15 – a two-box design with a 15” woofer and an inch midrange and the diamond tweeter again. 

All are bass reflex designs and they did sound rather pleasant playing some jazz at the show.

CLOSER ACOUSTICS

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been playing with some CLOSER ACOUSTICS kit, the Provocateur 300B amplifier and their FORLANE floor standers. However, I have also been following this Polish brand on YouTube whilst they have been creating an Open Baffle bass unit for their OGY speakers that I loved (I mentioned this earlier) when I reviewed them. It’s a cool thing to follow the creation of a product on social media right from inception, through testing and all the hassles and whatnot along the way. It’s also rather satisfying to get to sit in front of a product that you have seen born and being nurtured. However, the FORALNE were playing when we were in the room and playing tunes that weren’t really my usual fodder but sounded fabulous. 

We then got to listen to the OGY and the OGY BASS playing the same tune. The BASS units obviously flesh out the OGY’s sound and you do get very close to the FORLANE sound. The Bass units add to 2800 euros onto the price of the OGY which is around the 1500 euro mark. 

Closer Acoustics used only one coil with 1,6 mm wire cutting the signal from 125 down by 6dm per octave. The coils are soldered directly to the pole terminal. All connections are cut to a minimum. With the open baffle this small they went for an H-frame solution, and after a few iterations of woodworking the final result was created.

The EMS B12 is a 12″ or 31 cm diameter paper cone driver with a very stiff suspension. It is mounted from behind and only touches the baffle with a felt seal.

Its efficiency of 94 dB makes it possible to match acoustically with OGY without any additional crossover parts.

The connection to the amplifier is very simple: either you can use bi-wiring, two separate cables form the amplifier to the OGY and its Bass or you can use one cable and a jumper that connects pole terminals of both.

These are going to appeal to enthusiasts but I also urge folks that just love music to get themselves in front of this Polish brand’s products. Their slogan is “Take Live Music Home” and I kind of get that! We got to hear some violin piece that I had no idea what it was but it was very live sounding. 

AUDIO ANATOMY

AA Is the new KR Audio importer in Poland and we got to have a quick natter with the lovely Eunice Kron. 

The amp is the VA950 with the KR KT150 tubes playing through a pair of GERMAN PHYSIK LOUDSPEAKERS. 

We got to listen to a Daft Punk track and very good it was too. 

AUDIO ANATOMY 2

So the Carbon Single Shot from JAVA HIFI (12995 US dollars) was making its world debut in this room and for me, this was a bit of a cool thing as we have been following Martin at JAVA HiFi for a long while now and have reviewed his amplifiers that come from New Zealand. In addition to sporting 9mm thick carbon fibre outer casework, well-known for its damping qualities and superior noise shielding properties, particular focus has been paid to using unique materials inside the casework to mitigate the influence of radio frequency interference (RFI) and electromagnetic interference (EMI) on the circuitry, with the ultimate aim of lowering the noise floor even further. Great to see that Martin had come over from New Zealand to support the distributor, though I know the 28-hour flight took its toll.

I can’t really comment critically on the sound as this is a show, but it did sound very nice indeed playing through a pair of Audio Solutions Figaro BL2 stand mounters. 

So that was floor Seven of the Warsaw Audio Show and I can’t help but think that the standard of the rooms is very high so far. I also think that the organisation of this has been top notch and the support given from manufacturers to their distributors is encouraging to see.

NAUTILUS AUDIO

Amplifier of Polish construction from the company Audio Reveal. The model playing was the Junior,  a single-ended Class A affair using 6550 output tubes. The amp comes with an impedance switch to match 4 or 8 ohms depending on your speakers. Driver tubes are the 12AT7s and you get a total of 10W a channel. 

Sounded to be a very sweet-sounding amp plying Kari Bremnes The Copenhagen Tavern – a new tune to me but a good one you ought to check out. 

NAUTILUS AUDIO 2

The next room from Nautilus had the big Dynaudio Confidence 50, preamps and power amps by a Polish company called Circle Labs – new to me. The DP750 from Accuphase SACD player and the wires were from Siltech and the room treatment was from HEX. The table and speaker stands were from BASE AUDIO. The power strip was also from BASE AUDIO. 

Circle Labs amplifiers are interesting as the power amps are hybrid with a tube. You get 150 W a channel 8 and this doubles into 4. In bridged you 600 into 8 and 900 into 4. The company is owned by two people. One deals with the design and one with the electronics. The front panel on the pre is glass and it does look very nice indeed. 

CYRUS AUDIO

Audio Physic Avant speakers were being powered by the first showing of the new turntable which is machined from a solid piece of aluminium. Price is £4295 with RB330 arm but without a cartridge. Comes with a dust cover which is an extra. The turntable is a very nice looking bit of kit and its weight sort of says “yeh, this is worth the dosh” when you compare it to some of the competition. 

Electronics were the PreXR Power XR and the Stream XR all with PSU XR attached to them. The turntable had the Phono Signature with the PSXR power supply. 

This room did sound very nice indeed and great to see the British end being kept very much up. Cyrus also distribute the Audio Physics speakers in the UK. 

The rack was by Italian brand SolidSteel. 

AUDIO PHONIQUE

We got to listen to the Audio Phonique (INT 150D) integrated amplifier from the Classic Line into a pair of their two-way standmounts. The amplifier has an onboard DAC and an MM phono stage. It also has a wireless receiver for streaming. It gives out 2 x 180W through Class D modules. Price is 9000 euros.  Speakers are a tad lower than 3K. 

And in the next room we had their BIG system that was (we were told) for wealthy Asian people. The mono amps are the PSE 1605 (40K each), PRE DHT (40K), DAC (40K) and the PC01 power conditioner – all from the statement series of the brand. The speakers are the STATEMENT ONE at a price of 60K. 

8MM AUDIO LAB

8MM Audiolab were showing off the latest generation of their PIU Loudspeaker model MK3. This features an upgraded bass section with 12″ and 10″ woofers, an upgraded midrange cabinet, and an upgraded crossover. 

8MM Audiolab’s electronics partner for the event was RADA Tube Electronics, showcasing their Silver Precious Tube amplifier lineup. J. Sikora Turntables and AIDAS Cartridges are also part of the system.

This was a really nicely put together room that had nice lighting and a good amount of room treatment – why more folk aren’t using room treatment at hotel shows, I don’t know. 

This was a nicely dynamic system playing some horny jazz. I’d also add that the system looked really cool and the speakers are a real statement their wood finish which the amps and electronics sort of matched too. 

BLACKWOOD AUDIO

There’s a story to this brand and I’m going to tell it…quickly.  We met Croatian Mario Pavetic in the beer garden in 2016 at Munich where he grabbed us to tell us all about his project. He had great ideas and a whole load of enthusiasm, but no investors. Well now he does and he’s building the Blackwood Artanis speakers. 

These have a Beryllium dome tweeter, and hard paper cone bass drivers in a downward-firing ported cabinet. Each driver has a Class D amplifier powering it and the speakers have a digital crossover with DSP. The cabinet is a CNC machined beechwood affair and they have a frequency response down to a claimed 26Hz. 

First of all, it’s so wonderful to see Mario’s passion and belief in his idea finally see the light of day. This is no mean feat. What’s even better is that the project and the speakers sound very good in this room. I get this whole concept and they are for people that don’t want a million and one boxes. You can add a source and you are sorted. The price for these is 40K plus tax. 

AUDIO NOTE UK

As I said in my last report from wherever we were, I am really rather warming to the ANUK sound and something has definitely clicked with me and the brand’s sound. The system here at the Warsaw Audio Video show was based around the Meishu amp, CD-21x CD player and the AN-E loudspeakers. Not playing in the room when we were in there was the TT-2 record spinner. The Elvis version of Fever sounded fab! Now, I’m more used to ANUK playing metal or dub (as mentioned earlier) but this was a really nice tune to hear. 

POPORI AUDIO AND 72 AUDIO WITH WAY CABLES

The turntable was a refurbished DUAL, the tonearm is by 72 Audio who also refurbed the turntable, and made the SUTs. The speakers are fully electrostatic and being run by an old Kenwood amp. The speakers have no crossover but do have a ribbon tweeter. The speakers are 25K euros plus tax but this is likely to rise next year. Popori is a Hungarian manufacturer and Popori is the name of the chief designer behind the loudspeakers which represent thirty years of development. The speakers go down to 32Hz which the company say is the lowest in the world for an electrostatic loudspeaker. The speakers never fall below 3.5Ohm and so will not fry your amplifier…not the case for all electrostatics. 

This was a very clean-sounding room! 

AUDIO GROUP DENMARK

Playing Lyn Stanley’s version of Route 66 was an interesting experience, I think, Oddly enough we’d just been in the bar chatting with Michael Borreseen. Who made the comment about bass being the thing that speaker makers find difficult…and I get this. I know folk think that I’m obsessed with bass and I am to a degree. However, it’s fairly easy to get the mids and whatnot sorted. More difficult is the bass, and it is the bass that underpins everything. Yes, Michael, I get this 100%. Oh. I almost forgot…awesome!!! This was the much more affordable end of AGD universe with the Borresen X2 and AXXESS Forte doing the honours.

FLOW AUDIO 

This brand are fabulous and were playing some opera when I went in. I don’t like opera BUT then I sat and listened on this kit and I sort of get it. Not sure I’m going to be any kind of aficionado but It was like looking down on the singer from the balcony. Brill!!! The most emotional connection of the show so far!!! I wept quietly but uncontrollably and without really knowing why!

NEAT ACOUSTICS

Lovely people and lovely products.
Got to listen to the Petite and for me these are a very accomplished speaker. Bass like you wouldn’t believe. The new Mystique Classic was also out in its finished version. Enjoyed the pairing of Neat and AVM together, wired with Tellurium Q.

ARETAI

I like Aretai but have only ever heard their speakers at shows. Now, that is a good thing because I WANT to hear their speakers in our system! Both the standmount and the floorstanders sounded impressive, with Electrocompaniet.

SUNDAY

We need to rethink how we cover this whole show and so a new plan of attack is hatched. Linette will cover the National Stadium and I will cover the last of the floors at the Sobieski….well that was the plan but owing to the hugeness of the show, we regroup and spend the latter part of Sunday scooting around the final floors of the Sobieski, catching what we can, though a few exhibitors have packed up early.

TONSIL

Not sure I’ve actually come across this brand before other than at this show, and it is a bit of weird news, it has to be said. 

SISOUND

Another new name to me but rather beautiful looking kit with its wooden finish to the electronics and speakers. 

MASTERSOUND, GOLDNOTE & KLIPSCH 

Dian Krall’s Stop This World was playing in this room through a massive pair of Klipsch horns with Mastersounds amps and a Goldnote turntable. I note the time and it’s five past ten, the show has been open for five minutes and it’s already getting somewhat packed with folk. This was a very good-sounding system with a musical scale to match the scale of the speakers. 

KONDO & AVANTGARDE ACOUSTICS

My love for Avantgarde isn’t really a secret but I think this is the first time I’ve had the pleasure to hear them with what is for many the holy grail of audio electronics, KONDO. 

MYTEK AND FOCAL

I’ve a lot of time for Mytek and we danced in this room on Friday night. 

PYLON, FEZZ & MUAHRA

We’ve been followers of these three Polish brands for a long time and whilst they may not be household names just yet, there’s no doubting that they all make great kit. There’s also a good bit of upping their game going in since we last saw these brands and the new electronics from FEZZ certainly look the part. Playing Joan Armatrading what I thought was interesting was that they played the whole record rather than flipping through tracks – a good move, I thought. 

They have also been busy collaborating with Lampizator and have launched the new FEZZ Equinox DAC, powered by Lampizator, a very cool collab and a great looking and very affordable DAC.

EPOSOUND

Another new name to me but what beautiful loudspeakers with wood and resin working really nicely together to create a very different and interesting aesthetic. 

DNA AUDIO

The REVIVAL AUDIO speakers we reviewed a while back were making very nice sounds in this room being driven by Pier Audio electronics. Thus latter brand is a new one to me too, but they look somehow queue familiar. Also on the room but not playing were DAVIS ACOUSTICS loudspeakers. 

So that was the ground floor pretty much done and I do note that the show seems a little quieter today than I’m used to.

That said, it’s not even eleven a.m. yet. 

NCS AUDIO

GIGAWATT, FONICA INTERNATIONAL & MARTON

ENERR, AURALIC, HEED & EQUILIBRIUM

AUDIOFORTE

STRUSS

AUDIOPUNKT

FORUM DIY AUDIO

KULTURA DZWEKU

AUDIOTITE, ZENSATI & IMPEX

CIARRY AUDIO LOUDSPEAKERS

SOUND SOURCE

MUGZAUDIO & NXLT

SOUND SOURCE

CUBE AUDIO, TENTOGRA, SPINOR AUDIO & IDHOS

MANRON

KII

The fantastic Kii Sevens had their Polish debut at the show.

AUDIO ATELIER

Lumin, Thoress, Merason, Luna Cables.

AUDIO ATELIER

Grandinote with Luna Cables.

AUDIO ATELIER

Bladelius, Xavian, Reimyo and Hijiri.

AUDIO ATELIER

Silent Angel, Aurorasound, Falcon Acoustics, Merason, Hijiri and Luna Cables.

110HZ & AUDIO ATELIER

Westminster Labs, Lumin and Gradient.

AUDIO SOURCE & AUDIO ATELIER

Norma, Lumin and Mark Levinson.

FORUM AUDIOSTEREO.PL

WILE & SOUNDART

SKALA AUDIO

WK AUDIO

GMG POWER & SILENT LABORATORIES

BONAWATT

TONPROJEKT

REMTON AUDIO, FONOLAB & HOLBO

MOON RIVER AUDIO, OEPHI, REVIVAL AUDIO

KASOTO & TR AUDIO

ANCIENT AUDIO & FRAM

The new Fram Arte speakers, pretty bonkers, in a good way!

LUCARTO AUDIO

QUALIO AUDIO & HTAUDIO

A new and more compact Qualio floorstander from Greg and his team (also the man behind Cube Audio). They were immediatley toe tappingly good to listen to.

BARE BAFFLE & WESTERN ELECTRIC

SOUNDRITE

MWSYSTEM

CUBE AUDIO

More new speakers from Cube, this time with the addition of side firing bass drivers, fantastic!

METAXAS & SINS

The fabulous Kostas and his latest creation, the Metaxas & Sins Ethereal Electrostatic Headphone System….it’s proper crazy High End HiFi from a creative genius….oh, and it has a tourbillion clock in it too…read more here.

MOZZAIK AUDIO & EUPHONY AUDIO

PHONIA

PROJECT

Nope, not turntable Pro-Ject. This was a great sounding system built around the mother of all pre amplifiers, the Pre One…;I mean look at it, it’s nuts!

QUALITY AUDIO

Peak loudspeakers and Extraudio electronics, the finish on these amps was incredible, big slabs of solid copper….very nice indeed.

PREMIUM SOUND

And keeping the copper theme, another AudioSolutions and Java room. Again this sounded excellent and I am sure we will hear these two brands together at more shows down the line…they work so well together.

AUDIO MIX

A super cool room with MBL and French high end cable brand Esprit. Worked very nicely together.

SULEK & VINIUS

MORE AUDIO, SOYATON & AUDIOFORM

STACCATO AUDIO

ELECTRO-LAB

SILENT POUND

We missed out on hearing the production model of the Silent Pound Challenger speakers…by the time we got down to their room people were starting to pack up, however here are some images and we should have a pair at HiFi PiG Towers early next year.

We hope you enjoyed our coverage of the Sobieski Hotel, now check out the Golden Tulip and The Stadium...see you next year Warsaw!

Stuart and Linette Smith

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